Mariano Gomide de Faria, co-founder and co-CEO, VTEX
Season 2, Episode 24, Aug 06, 2021, 02:37 PM
Mariano Gomide de Faria, co-founder and co-CEO of VTEX, talks about the future of digital commerce and shares how chaos crafts very creative and productive environments as well as why companies need to transfer knowledge, not sell it.
In this episode of the Without Borders podcast as part of our series speaking to unicorn leaders, we are joined by the co-founder and co-CEO of VTEX, Mariano Gomide de Faria.
VTEX, a provider of fully integrated end-to-end omnichannel commerce platforms to major global brands, reached unicorn status in September 2020 at a $1.7 billion valuation, becoming one of the few existing Brazilian unicorns. Mariano speaks about how the Brazilian tech ecosystem compares to Europe and North America and how he believes there will be far more Brazilian unicorns in the short term as the country is transitioning “from being the country of the iron and the mill to the country of the digital commerce.”
Mariano is also very vocal about the need to transfer knowledge, not sell it, and has a real laser focus on education and the development and nurturing of the next generation of talent.
One key lesson from Mariano is that chaos crafts a very creative and productive environment and that companies should not try to control chaos, but instead try and put structures around it and harness it in order to drive the greatest benefit for the company.
Mariano shares the secret to long-lasting success and suggests that clients do not want support, they want guidance. He also talks about the trends that retailers need to look out for and how diversity is one of the biggest communications challenges in any business.
The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast.