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Having been a key player in the growth and expansion of the Cabify mobility unicorn in Latin America left many lessons for Ricardo Weder -who was global president of the firm-, but above all the assurance that Mexico has the talent to create startups that solve real problems, change market paradigms and generate business models that compete with some of the largest companies in the world.
This passionate and promoter of the technology and innovation ecosystem in Latin America is an Endeavor mentor and part of the network of experts of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He left his position at the top of the Cabify corporate structure pursuing his dream of undertaking a solution that, with high-impact technology, seeks to solve one of the great challenges that humanity will face in the future: how to feed the 8,500 millions of people that we will be in 2030, producing and distributing food where and when it is needed?
With this conviction and armed with a team of young entrepreneurs with an appetite to change the world, such as Ricardo Martínez, who led the growth of B2W, Groupon and NetShoes; Weder launched in 2019 the Jüsto platform, the first 100% online supermarket where customers can place an order (from more than 2,000 products) through a website or mobile application and receive it at home the same day under the promise to obtain “fresher fresh” and of quality.
In an interview for Entrepreneur en Español, this entrepreneur shares with us how to lay the foundations to build a unicorn in Latin America.
Revolutionize an industry
Jüsto’s bet is to enter an industry where there are very big players and suspicious of the competition. But that is precisely why they have so many areas of opportunity. “While technology has helped supermarkets make processes much more efficient and get to know users better, the supply chain hasn’t changed in decades. It is an industry with super high volumes but very low margins, with high fixed assets. “
On the other hand, in recent years deliveries or home delivery services have grown a lot, but whose business model is focused on the upper class and speed of delivery, leaving in the background the quality and freshness of the products. products.
Restructure the game
The name of the supermarket without physical stores refers to its philosophy. “We believe in fair trade and we want prices to be fair for everyone, not only for company shareholders, but for producers, users, and the margins allow us to do so.”
What is the strategy? “Disintermediate the value chain through the sale in bulk of local producers, reducing the 35% waste that today is had in traditional supermarkets to 3% by automating the processes to deliver 100% of their order to the end user and not 80%, as happens with some deliveries. “
The platform also seeks a fair treatment for local producers, who find it very difficult to enter a large retail chain due to the volume of production they demand and the 180-day payments, which can kill them.
Data is everything
Ricardo’s vision is to use technology applied to a retail retail. “Our core is data, how we magnify and use data to optimize the customer journey experience (all the phases the customer goes through, from identifying a need to purchasing a product) and our operating processes,” he explains.
Although there is currently a lot of talk about artificial intelligence and machine learning, “the great revolution we are experiencing is the issue of data because it is capable of making anything more efficient and automating any process. In fact, the true competitive advantage of any company in the future is going to be the quality of its data: the better it is, the more powerful the output of your AI system will be ”.
One problem at a time
Ricardo spent more than a decade in the corporate world and climbing the ranks. You have had enough failures and successes to know the importance of staying focused today. “I know many people who want to stop being ‘godin’, but I tell them that statistically the best age to undertake is 45 years” because working in traditional companies allows you to learn a lot. Knowledge, learning and experience, he says, are very valuable to reduce the number of errors and increase the opportunity to be successful when you finally launch yourself.
Ricardo Weder went from the frenzy of young people that leads you to make untimely decisions, to be more patient and analytical. Remember how the change happened: “I am quite fanatical, hyperactive, had dyslexia, and when you are in a large company with potential to scale, the idea of growing and expanding is super sexy. You are excited because you think that is what success is all about, but I have learned to be more cautious, go step by step and solve problem by problem. “
Tagged with: entrepreneur • MAKE MONEY • side hustle
