How $100B Mercado Libre got started—& why it almost went bankrupt after 9 months. | Hernan Kazah, Co-Founder Mercado Libre

How do you build a $100B business without hypergrowth or endless funding rounds? Hernan Kazah co-founded Mercado Libre, the Latin American ecommerce giant, at the peak of the dot-com bubble. But when the market crashed, funding disappeared, and competitors doubled down on spending, Mercado Libre focused relentlessly on building a rock-solid, profitable core product—ignoring pressure to chase faster growth. Hernan shares how they turned extreme constraints into a secret weapon, why getting profitable early was a game-changer, and why the biggest businesses are built by doing fewer things, better.Why You Should ListenHow Mercado Libre survived going bankrupt by pivoting overnight.Why most startups die chasing growth—and what to do instead.How to build unstoppable momentum by nailing one thing first.The simple test to know if your startup has real product-market fit.The one thing all $100B companies do differently.KeywordsMercado Libre, product market fit, Hernan Kazah, startup advice, ecommerce growth, marketplace strategy, profitability, venture capital, early-stage startups, Latin America startups00:00:00 Intro00:04:07 Why We Chose the eBay Model00:08:56 The Early Hack That Got Us Our First Users00:14:23 Raising Money at the Worst Possible Time00:21:37 Becoming Profitable and Going Public00:26:34 How Mercado Libre Stayed Patient While Competitors Chased Growth00:34:05 Why We Expanded Across Latin America From Day One00:45:11 Our Secret to Winning Against Better-Funded Competitors00:50:04 The Most Important Advice for Early-Stage Founders00:52:16 Why AI is Different From the Internet and Mobile RevolutionsSend me a message to let me know what you think!