What makes Mercado Libre transform itself again after having already achieved almost everything? In this episode of Climbers & Scalers, Marcos looks back on key stages in Mercado Libre’s history and explains why he believes a new one is just beginning. He talks about the moment they rewrote their tech architecture, the impact of smartphones and apps, and why today he feels the same energy as in the early days. He also shares his vision on education, technology, and the role that both Mercado Libre — and he himself — can still play in the region. An episode about the future and all that has yet to be built.

Holding your ground is sometimes a strategy. But other times, it’s a message. In this episode of scalers & climbers, Marcos recalls the toughest years against Amazon, the decisions made when the numbers didn’t add up, and why they chose to invest where others would have walked away. He also talks about the Chinese e-commerce giants, about how they compete in a market that blends shopping, entertainment, and social networks, and why in a world of artificial intelligence and invisible platforms, growth is not about imitation but about choosing which game to play. A conversation about culture, focus, and long-term vision.

On May 21, 2025, Marcos surprised everyone by announcing that he was stepping down as CEO of Mercado Libre. He did it with a short letter, written in fifteen minutes with the help of artificial intelligence. In this episode, he tells for the first time how that process unfolded: what personal, family, and strategic factors led him to the decision, what role the Board played, and why stepping aside sometimes requires as much commitment as staying in charge. An intimate conversation about letting go, leaving a legacy, and knowing when to change roles. To keep scaling, from a different place.

Linda Rottenberg is the founder and CEO of Endeavor, the leading global community of high-impact entrepreneurs. In the late 1990s, Linda flew down to South America and settled in Argentina. She began working in the social sector, until she concluded that what the region needed was not more microcredits, but more Microsofts being launched locally. She secured the first funding and the first entrepreneurs. Her story — and that of Endeavor — changed forever when she met Marcos and Hernán, the co-founders of Mercado Libre.

They have a genuine calling to change the lives of millions of users. They look ahead. They love to compete and are far from being intimidated. They constantly re-prioritize. Because the context shifts so much, every year they redesign the org chart. They’d rather not hire than lower the bar. They sit side by side, argue fiercely, and from that clash come better ideas. Ari and Juan Martín share all of this in this episode. And it’s from this culture — one you can understand and embrace — that you realize the best is yet to come.

For any logistics department, having demand double overnight is a nightmare. It’s impossible to scale warehouse and transportation capacity at that pace. Unthinkable — until a pandemic hits and it happens. Mercado Envíos not only managed to meet that demand, but grew 5X. In this episode, Ari and Juan Martín tell you how they pulled it off.

Ari Szarfsztejn went from presenting recommendations to making things happen. Juan Martín went from helping with the family’s real estate business to diving straight into the garage with Marcos from day one. Today, both of them have led the odyssey of making sure that the things we buy with just a few clicks on Mercado Libre arrive at our doorstep in just a few hours — using a logistics network that includes everything from their own airplanes to smart warehouses.

Everyone gets a complaint, a rant, or a request for help every week. Everyone — from the first to the last. In many places, people assume the user experience team will take care of it. At Mercado Libre, Sean says, you take care of it yourself. You might have a million things going on in your day-to-day, but the first thing Sean wants to understand is why the user had that problem.

Sean Summers trained at PepsiCo through three different cycles. But when he arrived at Mercado Libre, he sensed a founder’s mentality infused throughout the organization — something he hadn’t found anywhere else with professional managers. From his position as the top leader of marketing and the advertising business, Sean shares some of the elements of that founder’s mentality that make them unique.

To compete with Amazon, they needed to bring in talent with deep knowledge of how it operated. One of them was Germán Spataro, who had worked at Amazon UK, Amazon Spain, and Amazon Brazil. From his encounter with Jeff Bezos to the differences in culture, Germán shares why Mercado Libre beats Amazon. But Stelleo is clear about one thing: today, everyone takes for granted that Mercado Libre is one of the world’s most important companies. But that’s how Yahoo looked just a few years ago — and today it has been displaced by Mercado Libre from the list of the 100 most important companies on the Nasdaq index. How do you make sure not to meet the same fate?

Stelleo knew that one day Amazon would arrive, and sure enough, in 2012 they finally came to Brazil. Stelleo and the team had prepared. They studied every case of Amazon’s market entries around the world and learned that to really be competitive, they would have to deeply localize their business model for Brazil. And that’s where Mercado Libre had its advantage, because their internal mantra was: Brazil First.

Two passions live within Stelleo: math and the humanities. It’s no coincidence that he’s a mechanical engineer and the son of a music store owner. With his logical, mathematical mindset, he decided to shift the course of his career toward the financial world. But his intuition would take him somewhere very different.

From earning less than the corner pizza shop to having a giant like eBay want to be your partner. From having that giant as your partner and wanting to buy you out, to becoming much bigger than that giant through the independence of your IPO. From helping change the way people buy and sell, and the way they pay and get paid, to helping create the next generation of Mercado Libres in Latin America.

Nico Szekasy left his corporate life to become an entrepreneur in a start-up that earned less than the corner pizza shop. And the minute he stepped in, he helped change Mercado Libre’s course so it could survive the nuclear winter.

Mercado Libre transformed the way we buy and sell. Mercado Pago transformed the way we pay, get paid, and invest our money. Many believe that such a colossal transformation can’t be repeated. Ozzie and Paula don’t think so. On the contrary, they believe the transformation is only just beginning.

Mercado Libre wasn’t going to survive if it couldn’t solve online payments. And solving online payments meant nothing less than solving fraud. When there are only a few transactions, it’s simple. But when there are millions, you have to think beyond common sense—until you get to neural networks.

Buying groceries, getting a haircut, a book, a cooking class, or shopping on Mercado Libre. Whatever you want can be paid for with nothing but your phone. Mercado Pago is a revolution in simplicity. But getting here was anything but easy. And Ozzie Giménez and Paula Arregui tell us how they made it possible.

Nico Berman had a position at a major company, where he was earning an excellent salary. But one day he decided to quit that job to join a company whose offices were in a basement, with no windows and no bathrooms. The salary? Seventy percent less. Why did he go? Because he saw a billboard on the street. One of the first things he did? Call Google during a break at university.

Nico Berman was the eighth person to join Mercado Libre. He didn’t study at Stanford, but at the University of Buenos Aires. There’s a saying that it doesn’t matter where you come from, but where you want to go. And where did Nico come from? From being one of the best salespeople at Mercado Libre. And how far did he get? All the way to vice president, in charge of all marketing and advertising. Today, he is a partner at Kaszek Ventures with Hernán Kazah and Nico Szekasy.

Karen Bruck shares how she managed to convince Mercado Libre that she could lead a team of more than three hundred people when she had only been managing a team of two. Something that still amazes her is the extraordinary talent of the Mercado Libre team. Pedro adds to her story, sharing the challenges that lie ahead.