De idea a IPO | Miguel McAllister CEO de Merqueo | Fundadores Podcast Ep 39

Episode Overview

• Traces the entrepreneurial journey of Miguel Mc Allister, from his first e-commerce venture to co-founding major Latin American startups Domicilios.com and Merqueo.
• Details the story of Domicilios.com's survival and market dominance, achieved by making a bold, unconventional bet on television advertising to outmaneuver heavily-funded international competitors.
• Explores the critical strategic pivot of Merqueo from a popular asset-light marketplace model to a vertically-integrated system with its own warehouses to gain control over unit economics and pricing.
• Discusses the mindset of building companies in nascent ecosystems, the importance of long-term structural thinking, and the leveling of the playing field for Latin American entrepreneurs.

Key Concepts

• "Wizard of Oz" MVP: Validating a business model using manual processes behind the scenes (like a call center placing phone orders) before investing in full automation, as Domicilios.com did initially.
• Asymmetric Competition: When facing larger, better-funded rivals, the key to survival is not to compete on the same terms but to find an unconventional strategy (like TV advertising vs. digital ads) that they are unable or unwilling to replicate.
• Fundraising in a Nascent Ecosystem: The extreme difficulty of raising capital in a market without an established venture capital or angel investor network, requiring persistence and pitching a vast number of individuals.
• The Limits of the Aggregator Model: In low-margin, high-frequency sectors like groceries, an asset-light marketplace model can struggle with long-term unit economics and lacks defensibility against vertically-integrated players.
• Vertical Integration as a Strategic Pivot: The decision to own the entire value chain—from warehouses to inventory—to gain control over service quality, build barriers to entry, and, most critically, control pricing.
• Price as the Ultimate Lever: In mass-market retail like groceries, the ability to offer lower prices is the single most powerful tool for acquiring and retaining customers, making control over this lever essential.
• The Pandemic as an Accelerator: External events like the COVID-19 pandemic can serve as a massive catalyst, validating a business model and dramatically accelerating growth and progress towards long-term economic goals.

Quotes

• At 2:26 - "En Colombia no había ninguna forma de comprar por internet en páginas de Estados Unidos." - Explaining the market gap that his first university venture, loconsigue.com, was created to fill in the mid-2000s.
• At 9:18 - "¿Cómo alguien de 24 años levanta un millón de dólares? Eso a mí no me podía caber en la cabeza." - On his experience in Spain, realizing the scale of the startup ecosystem and venture capital, which inspired him to pursue a much larger vision.
• At 16:01 - "Uno pedía y la gente llamaba al restaurante... y el restaurante tomaba la orden." - Describing the initial manual process behind Domicilios.com, where a call center bridged the gap between the online platform and restaurants that lacked internet access.
• At 20:31 - "Nosotros éramos unos niños, no teníamos experiencia, no teníamos absolutamente nada, y se nos vinieron encima los dos monstruos más grandes del mundo en ese momento." - Conveying the feeling of being outmatched when large, well-funded international competitors entered the Colombian market.
• At 22:20 - "Dijimos, 'Oiga, la única forma de nosotros competir es si hacemos algo que ellos no pueden hacer'." - On the strategic realization that they couldn't win by playing the same game as their competitors, which led them to pivot to an unconventional marketing channel.
• At 24:41 - "En ese momento pues no existía absolutamente nada, no habían fondos, no habían ángeles, no había nada." - The guest explains the complete lack of a venture capital or angel investor ecosystem in Colombia when they were first trying to raise money.
• At 26:37 - "Dijeron, pues esto es Seamless, pero en Colombia... y nos encanta usarlo, de una." - Recalling the moment their first investor immediately understood their business's potential by comparing it to the successful US platform Seamless.
• At 30:00 - "Llegábamos a las reuniones... y nos decían, 'pero no entiendo, si tu competencia me acaba de decir que me da lo mismo por cero, gratis'." - Describing the immense difficulty of competing against rivals who offered their services to restaurants for free.
• At 31:38 - "Terminamos comprando a los dos y terminamos haciéndonos como con el 90% del mercado... en Colombia, Perú y Ecuador." - Explaining how their aggressive growth strategy ultimately led to market consolidation by acquiring their former competitors.
• At 53:10 - "Pues la verdad es que los números no nos daban por ningún lado." - Explaining why Merqueo's initial business model, similar to Instacart and Rappi, was not viable for long-term success.
• At 53:40 - "Si nos vamos a meter en esto 20 años, pues hagámoslo de una forma más más estructural." - On the long-term mindset that led them to pivot their business model to something more defensible and controllable.
• At 57:22 - "Tú cómo te vas a meter en la categoría más grande de retail si no puedes mover la palanca que más mueve al usuario que es el precio." - Emphasizing that to compete in the massive grocery sector, a company must have control over its pricing strategy.
• At 76:55 - "El emprendedor siempre se encuentra como en un mundo irreal y es lo que leo es lo que el mundo ideal debería ser, pero lo que es mi mundo es totalmente diferente." - Explaining his appreciation for the book The Hard Thing About Hard Things because it reflects the true, difficult reality of entrepreneurship.
• At 82:27 - "Y lo que me di cuenta es que somos exactamente iguales... el cerebro que tenemos es el mismo, las oportunidades son las mismas, el acceso a información es el mismo. Entonces ya hoy no hay muchas barreras." - On the realization that Latin American founders have the same capabilities as entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley or Europe.

Takeaways

• Validate your business idea with manual processes first to prove the concept before sinking capital into complex automation.
• When faced with overpowering competition, don't try to outspend them; instead, identify and exploit an unconventional channel or strategy they are not built to use.
• In underdeveloped venture markets, be prepared for a non-traditional and potentially grueling fundraising process that relies on persistence and individual outreach.
• Don't be afraid to risk your remaining capital on a single, bold, all-or-nothing bet if conventional strategies are leading to certain failure.
• In low-margin industries, prioritize business models that give you direct control over the most critical customer-facing lever, which is often price.
• Reject asset-light models if they prevent long-term profitability and defensibility; pivot to a more structurally sound, albeit capital-intensive, model if necessary.
• Seek out business literature that honestly portrays the struggles and harsh realities of entrepreneurship, as it provides more practical value than purely theoretical texts.
• Discard any sense of regional or cultural inferiority, as global access to information and tools has leveled the playing field for ambitious founders everywhere.