He grew up in a family dedicated to a traditional business. He studied at an Ivy League university. He launched his own company in a garage. It grew, was about to close, tried to buy it, suffered crisis and now commands the most valuable company in the country.
This looks like the story of a typical billionaire who heads the Bloomberg ranking, but it is one raised in the very province of Buenos Aires.
Almost 20 years have passed since Marcos Galperín founded Mercado Libre - his original idea was to call it Libre Mercado - and his speech went from wanting to "be the largest online auction company" to raising the banner of the democratization of money and commerce.Born in the image and likeness of eBay, the firm was mutating and now it is more similar to the Alibaba model, although many describe it as the "Creole Amazon".
From a well-rounded "Argentine" in an airport to achieve its pitch, to be the cool local entrepreneurial model without its own office, Galperín stands as the great Argentine self-made millionaire of the new millennium.
In August 2019, Mercado Libre turned 20. During that time he had to adapt to the circumstances and change. It was transformed from a simple online auction company to one that also processes payments - through Mercado Pago -, grants loans, finances ventures and even allows investment in common investment funds.
Of 5,000 registered users during its first month, it reported a total of 267 million in its last annual balance. In addition, its own core changed, since the leg of sale of items ceded the throne to that of payments, which in 2018 processed $ 18,450 million, 35% more than in the previous year.
The emergence of MeLi - the one that has been listed on Nasdaq since 2007 and with which the employees themselves refer to it - was conceived in the bowels of Stanford University, where that boy raised in San Isidro did his MBA.Although at that time he was going through times of economic bonanza thanks to Sadesa, the tannery founded by his maternal grandfather in 1941, his family was not wealthy. Galperín arrived without money from Russia before the Second World War, as did the Lebachs, the family from their mother, who were from Germany.
Before going through the Californian university, he had already become the first of his clan to study outside the country. He did not do his undergraduate training in Argentina but, motivated by the chaos of the public university and without private ones to satisfy him, he managed to enter the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
The nerd boy who was programming in Basic language and reading chess books had transformed into a young rugby before making the leap to the United States. Upon returning to Argentina, he began his first work experience within the financial area of YPF.
Before going through the Californian university, he had already become the first of his clan to study outside the country. He did not do his undergraduate training in Argentina but, motivated by the chaos of the public university and without private ones to satisfy him, he managed to enter the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
The nerd boy who was programming in Basic language and reading chess books had transformed into a young rugby before making the leap to the United States. Upon returning to Argentina, he began his first work experience within the financial area of YPF.
During the MBA, Galperín adopted as one guru one of his finance professors, Jack McDonald - who died in January 2018 - who was in the habit of taking celebrities from the business world to his classes.
Even, on one occasion, he sat (unknowingly) about ten minutes in the classroom next to Warren Buffett himself, a situation he considered almost unforgivable, so he asked McDonald to put him in touch with some heavyweight in the world of investments to be able to tell you your idea.This is how the famous "airport pitch" was created that gave the first large injection of money to your project.
In November 1999, Mercado Libre, with only three months to live, managed to raise $ 7.6 million for financing. One of those who opted for the young venture by HM Capital Partners, whose founding partner was John Muse.
Galperín had convinced him a few months earlier, when the investor visited Stanford to tell his experience. During that day, McDonald arranged for the Argentine to take Muse to the San José airport, but he did not expect that two friends of the student, quite outgoing, would get into the car.
Then, Galperín used his "Creole vivacity": he pretended to make a mistake at a road exit to gain 20 minutes of travel and be able to make his speech. Finally, Muse said the three words that the entrepreneur so much wanted to hear: "I'm going to invest." In May 2000, the disbursement of HM Capital was added by other interested parties who injected US $ 46.5 million in the firm's second round of investment.First stepsBut, as in any company, the first waves were not easy to suffer. There were only about thirty sites that sold items on the Internet being eBay, founded in 1995, its main exponent.
Soon local competitors emerged, with De Remate as his great nemesis - even copying each other visibility strategies such as paying for publicity during football matches - but the great cimbronazo faced him with the dotcom bubble.
That was the first moment when Galperín saw the end of "MeLi" very closely. He even admits that it was the first time he cried for the company. Although it managed to cope with the crisis, thanks to an aggressive strategy of adjusting both expenses and income, making the company profitable became almost an odyssey, something that it just achieved in 2005.To this was added a purchase offer for US $ 200 million of the same eBay, with which they would become strategic partners in 2001, in exchange for 19.5% of the company. Thus, the first Argentine unicorn was born.
At the same time that the local economy was going through one of the most critical stages in its history, Galperín's company began to take flight. "In 2002, it was a record for growth due to the recessive context that prompted people to sell all those things they didn't need," ML's boss said.
The regional expansion was not long in coming, first with Uruguay - country in which he settled from 2002 to 2016 and from which he traveled to Buenos Aires every week to work -, Mexico and Brazil, and then with Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia, until reaching the 19 countries in which it currently operates.
Despite being born in the national territory, Argentina is the second market for the company, since it contributes 26% of the net billing share. Brazil is in the first place with 60%, that is, about US $ 1,213 millionFrom entrepreneur to entrepreneur
Galperín may not be a self made man if this concept is taken under his strict definition of "man who was made from scratch", but he did manage to make his own fortune outside the family business.It was the fourth of five male brothers and their relationship with the family's tannery was limited to help during the summers. Although the ‘myth’ that "MeLi" started in a garage is flying over, this concept has more to do with a romantic than literal vision.
Unlike Apple, which took its first steps in the garage of Steve Jobs' house, Galperín and the "Stanford boys" occupied two lots in the parking lot of a building located in Saavedra that belonged to his family. First they closed with durlock a couple of plots and, as they grew, they added spaces. Until they had to move.
In these two decades, several achievements were added. He was named by Forbes magazine as one of the 40 most successful entrepreneurs under 40. In 2017, already 46 years old, he entered the ranking of the richest in the world with a fortune of US $ 1 billion, being the 7th Argentine on that list.
In 2007, Meli became the first Argentine firm to trade on Nasdaq and a decade later replaced nothing less than Yahoo! in the Nasdaq 100, an index that brings together hundreds of major technology companies.
Two years after that achievement, Mercado Libre almost doubled its market capitalization - US $ 24.4 billion - and even recently managed to successfully place $ 1 billion on the US stock market.
In spite of the exposed thing that is his company, always he was cultivator of the low profile. A diver and jeans businessman, without an office of his own, who is driving with his laptop in tow to piacere through the corridors of the three floors he occupies in the Torre Al Río, located in Vicente López. "We are all waiting for another Mercado Libre to come out, I am the first one that wants it to happen, "he confesses. Meanwhile, he continues to engineer the continuous transformation of his company, which is increasingly turning to the financial business. It ensures that banks do not worry: "I don't see them as competitors, since they target different audiences."
Galperín is convinced that "luck is important to undertake, but when you are at the right time and in the right way. If you did everything to be where you want, you will be lucky."
Despite the empire that I believe and how much he has left to do with "Meli", his restless soul makes him look beyond: "At some point I want to say that it is time to do something else. I don't want my whole life to have it was only Mercado Libre ".