There's a fun story about the first money the company raised.
Marcos Galperin was a student at Stanford GSB at the time. One day, the famous investor John Muse came to give a lecture...
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To make sure he had a chance to pitch him on his idea for an "eBay in Latin America" Galperin asked if he could drive him back to his private plane after the lecture.
Then he got lost on purpose.
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During the ride, Galperin told Muse all about the opportunity. When they finally reached the airport he agreed to invest.
That's how Meli got its first cash.
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Later that year, Meli launched in Argentina.
Galperin would use that seed $$ to scale across Latam into Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, and other geos.
Eventually Meli would grow to operate in 18 countries.
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Many entrepreneurs might have stopped at building an awesome e-commerce company.
But Galperin wasn't satisfied.
From the start, he knew he wanted to bring payments online.
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This was a huge challenge.
When Galperin launched "Pago" in 2003, most of the region's population was unbanked. Though some people bought and sold goods online, they often paid with cash or cheque.
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Bit by bit, Pago became a market leader in payments.
More than one person I spoke to called it the "PayPal of Latam." Today, it includes a ton of financial services, including:
- Point of sale
- QR checkout
- Savings/investing
- Business credit
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But Galperin *still* wasn't done.
So, he had the marketplace and the payments infrastructure.
What was missing?
Logistics.
"Mercado Envios" was born.
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Starting in 2013, Meli invested *heavily* in building out its own logistics network.
This was no small feat and was a big risk. It came at a time when the company was under financial pressure, but Galperin persevered.
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This has proven the right move.
Meli now has the best infrastructure in the region and can over fast, free delivery.
They're continuing to build out capabilities with fulfillment centers and even a fleet of planes.
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When you look at Meli today, it's essentially 6 core businesses.
What's so absurd about Meli is that you can play this game almost infinitely, taking one product and imagining how it (viably) could spin out into 10 others.
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There's a ton more in the piece, particularly on Meli's amazing management, and competition from companies like Shopee.
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Why: I think I captured some of what makes this such a special firm. I also got to talk with a lot of those familiar with the origins which made for a rich story.
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As outsiders in Silicon Valley, Coatue won competitive deals by conducting extensive research *before* meeting founders.
Arriving prepared changes everything, making for better conversations and connections.
@coatue If you want to jump straight into the piece (with lots more context), click the link below. And, of course, make sure to subscribe to The Generalist :)
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