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:
• Why Mercado Libre operates with 95% fewer PMs than typical tech companies (and how it actually works)
• How to maintain product quality with 30,000 daily deployments and distributed ownership
• The weekly email system Sebastian uses to maintain alignment with leadership
• How to build a culture of radical candor and direct feedback in a traditionally hierarchical region
• The counterintuitive approach to product reviews that keeps 18,000 engineers aligned
• How to evaluate hype cycles (crypto, AI) pragmatically while staying innovative
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Where to find Sebastian Barrios:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zebas/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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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
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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
• Tatami mats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami
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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
• The Dream Machine: https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-M-Mitchell-Waldrop/dp/1732265119/
• Dune: https://www.amazon.com/Dune-Chronicles-Book-1/dp/0441013597/
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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