E690 | Sacha Michaud, Glovo: Scaling a Hyper-Competitive Marketplace (and knowing when to exit)

This episode starts with a surprising origin story: before building one of Europe’s most iconic on-demand companies, Sacha Michaud left home at 16 to become a professional racehorse jockey.

From there, we go deep into the operator playbook behind Glovo’s rise: launching fast, expanding internationally with limited capital, choosing battles ruthlessly, and pulling out of markets quickly when the data says the flywheel won’t spin.

This is a conversation about discipline, focus, and survival in one of the most brutal categories in venture—where network effects are real, fundraising can consume the CEO, and consolidation is always lurking.

Less theory. More real-world execution.

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What’s covered:

• 01:10 From racehorse jockey to startup founder: discipline, sacrifice, and the founder mindset

• 02:20 How Glovo started: meeting Oscar, shipping in 2.5 months, and rebuilding the MVP later

• 05:05 International scaling principles: why Europe isn’t enough and why speed mattered

• 06:25 Fundraising reality: the “lead investor” trap and why multi-stage funds can matter

• 08:05 Split-scaling and the growth-at-all-costs era: what the ecosystem learned (and didn’t)

• 10:15 Expansion playbooks: the launch team model and copying what Uber did right

• 13:25 Competition strategy: when to enter, when to avoid, and why capital constraints shape everything

• 15:25 Exiting markets fast: Brazil, iFood, and the moment you realize the playbook won’t work

• 17:35 Network effects in delivery: why the flywheel is more extreme than most marketplaces

• 19:05 Exclusivity vs multi-homing: how restaurants evolved from “threat” to “channel”

• 25:55 Emerging markets: Latin America → Eastern Europe → Africa and what changes operationally

• 33:00 Glovo Cares: why executives still deliver orders and what it teaches the org

• 34:30 Acquisition mindset: what founders get wrong about selling (and not selling)

• 43:20 YELLOW VC: building a disciplined pre-seed fund without losing operator sharpness