AI in Engineering and Innovation Strategies

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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