The J Curve with Olga Maslikhova Geraldo Thomaz, founder and co-CEO at NYSE-traded e-commerce platform VTEX: Key decisions that built a $1.3B+ e-commerce empire
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Geraldo Thomaz, founder and co-CEO at NYSE-traded enterprise e-commerce platform VTEX. VTEX is an incredible example of Brazilian company that grew to become a global player in a digital commerce with Walmart, Coca-Cola and L'Oreal among customers. Prior tp going public in 2021 VTEX raised over $360m in capital from the likes of Softbank, Riverwood Capital, Tiger Global and Endeavor Catalyst.
In our conversation, we dive into the importance of intentionally targeting your customer segment, the transformative journey of a CEO leading a publicly traded company, and the critical need to maintain core fundamentals, even in the toughest times.
In today's episode we discuss:
1. From zero to Walmart: key strategies for landing enterprise customers
2. Optimize for scalability: key trade-offs VTEX made for global growth
3. Building a high-performing partnership: trust, complementary skills, and a divide-and-conquer management approach
4. From founder to public company CEO: main lessons on leadership transformation
5. Take LatAm to the World: how to inspire global entrepreneurial ambitions in the region?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).