Sebastian Barrios was the longtime head of product and engineering at Mercado Libre, the largest company in Latin America—valued at over $100 billion and home to more than 100,000 employees. There, he led a team of more than 18,000 engineers across 18 countries and oversaw an astonishing 30,000 code deployments a day. Before Mercado Libre, he founded multiple startups, including a ridesharing company that competed directly with Uber in Latin America. And at just 17, he got a personal phone call from Steve Jobs asking him to take his app off the App Store. Today, Sebastian is the SVP of Engineering at Roblox.
*What you’ll learn:*
1. Why Mercado Libre operates with 95% fewer PMs than typical tech companies (and how it actually works)
2. How to maintain product quality with 30,000 daily deployments and distributed ownership
3. The weekly email system Sebastian uses to maintain alignment with leadership
4. How to build a culture of radical candor and direct feedback in a traditionally hierarchical region
5. The counterintuitive approach to product reviews that keeps 18,000 engineers aligned
6. How to evaluate hype cycles (crypto, AI) pragmatically while staying innovative
*Transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-mercado-libre-sebastian-barrios
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*Where to find Sebastian Barrios:*
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zebas/
*Where to find Lenny:*
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
*In this episode, we cover:*
(00:00) Introduction to Sebastian Barrios and Mercado Libre
(05:03) Mercado Libre’s scale and unique ways of operating
(14:48) AI’s impact on operations
(19:19) Empowering teams and reducing fear of failure
(34:20) The importance of radical candor
(38:26) Weekly updates
(41:03) Avoiding hype cycles
(44:24) When Steve Jobs personally called 17-year-old Sebastian
(49:00) Building successful app businesses
(55:33) Unique personal habits
(01:04:00) Raising independent children
(01:07:15) Lightning round and final thoughts
*Referenced:*
• Mercado Libre: https://www.mercadolibre.com/
• Claude: https://claude.ai/
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
• Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/
• Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/
• Uber: https://www.uber.com/
• OpenAI: https://openai.com/
• Marcos Galperin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcosgalperin/
• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/
• Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/
• Which companies produce the best product managers: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-produce-the-best
• Which companies accelerate PM careers most: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-accelerate-your-pm
• How Revolut trains world-class product managers: The “local CEO” model, raw intellect over experience, and a cultural obsession with building wow products | Dmitry Zlokazov (Head of Product): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-revolut-trains-world-class-product-managers
• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/
• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/
• Radical Candor: From theory to practice with author Kim Scott: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/radical-candor-from-theory-to-practice
• Managing up: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/managing-up
• Steve Jobs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
• Tobi Lütke’s leadership playbook: Playing infinite games, operating from first principles, and maximizing human potential (founder and CEO of Shopify): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/tobi-lutkes-leadership-playbook
• Everything Everywhere All at Once: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6710474/
• Dune on Max: https://www.max.com/movies/dune/e7dc7b3a-a494-4ef1-8107-f4308aa6bbf7
• Bluey on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-fa6973b9-e7cf-49fb-81a2-d4908e4bf694
• Mentava: https://www.mentava.com/
• Matt Bateman’s website: https://mattbateman.xyz/
• Beast Academy: https://beastacademy.com/
• David protein bars: https://davidprotein.com/
• Marc Andreessen on X: https://x.com/pmarca
*Recommended books:*
• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kick-Ass-Without-Humanity/dp/1250103509
• High Output Management: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884/
• The Odyssey: https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Homer/dp/0140268863
…References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-mercado-libre-sebastian-barrios
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
