Outsider Inc. Founder, Operator, Investor: Building Latin America's Tech Ecosystem from Scratch w/ Hernan Kazah, Co-Founder, Mercado Libre & Managing Partner, Kaszek
In this episode of Outsider Inc., host Ian Hathaway sits down with Hernán Kazah, co-founder of Mercado Libre and Managing Partner at Kaszek, to trace the outsider journey that helped put Latin America on the global tech map. Hernan reflects on growing up in Buenos Aires, the early lessons that shaped his resilience, and how his time at Procter & Gamble sharpened his appreciation for process and execution. After arriving at Stanford as an English learner, he caught the wave of the internet boom, met Marcos Galperin, and helped launch Mercado Libre in 1999. A moment when internet adoption in the region was near zero, capital was scarce, and there was no startup ecosystem to lean on.
Hernan walks through raising money in the dot-com window, surviving the crash by cutting marketing, doubling down on product and organic growth, reaching profitability in 2006, and ultimately taking Mercado Libre public in 2007. He then shares why he stepped away in 2011 to co-found Kaszek with a clear mission: bring early, high-conviction capital and real operator support to the next generation of Latin American founders. Along the way, he breaks down what he looks for in entrepreneurs and why building in emerging ecosystems often requires solving more than one problem at a time. We also dig into Kaszek's track record backing category-defining companies like Nubank, Creditas, QuintoAndar, and Kavak, and why Hernan remains bullish on the region's potential. His guiding principle is simple: move with conviction … or don't move at all.
Show Notes:
(06:55) P&G Lessons On Process
(11:10) Stanford Culture Shock
(16:34) Saying Yes To Mercado Libre
(20:08) Building In A No-Ecosystem Market
(23:55) Dotcom Crash And Capital Discipline
(29:05) IPO Validation And Profitability
(32:40) Leaving Mercado Libre
(33:47) Founding Kaszek
(42:07) What Kaszek Looks For
(46:18) Outsider Playbook in LatAm
(54:43) Legacy and Ecosystem Hopes
(57:21) Beyond the Bio with Hernan Kazah
✅ Host: Ian Hathway - Co-Founder & Managing Partner, FOVC
✅ Guest: Hernan Kazah, Co-Founder, Mercado Libre & Managing Partner, Kaszek
Produced by Spellbinder Media. Executive Produced by Bridge Five Ventures. Copyright ©️2025, Bridge Five Ventures, LLC, All rights reserved.
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