How Prosus CEO Builds Winning Tech Culture | Fabricio Bloisi
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Brazilian entrepreneur Fabricio Bloisi shares his extraordinary journey from founding a mobile content startup in 2000 to becoming CEO of Prosus, one of the world's largest tech investment groups. The conversation explores how he built a portfolio of 120+ companies, including iFood which now captures 90% of Brazil's food delivery market with $20 billion in annual GMV. (01:42)
- Main Theme: Building ambidextrous companies that balance Silicon Valley innovation with AB InBev-style operational discipline to create global tech leaders outside the US.
Speakers
Fabricio Bloisi
CEO of Prosus, founder of Movile, and Chairman of iFood, Fabricio is Brazil's 2025 Person of the Year who has helped shape companies reaching billions across continents. He started programming at age 8 and founded his first company straight out of computer science studies, building it into a portfolio of 120+ businesses including Latin America's most valuable food delivery platform.
Henrique Dubugras
Co-founder and CEO of Brex, a leading financial technology company serving over 30,000 businesses including Anthropic, DoorDash, and Scale AI. He hosts the HD in HD podcast, interviewing exceptional founders and entrepreneurs about their journeys building transformative companies.
Key Takeaways
Master the Art of Ambidextrous Leadership
Bloisi emphasizes the power of building "ambidextrous companies" that simultaneously operate like innovative startups and disciplined mature businesses. This requires balancing creative, disruptive thinking with precise execution and financial accountability. (07:31) The challenge lies in getting naturally different personality types - creative innovators and results-driven operators - to work together effectively. Bloisi addresses this by constantly reinforcing that creative teams without discipline will be outcompeted by bigger companies with better execution, while disciplined teams without innovation will be disrupted within 2-3 years. Example: At iFood, they maintain startup-like "jet ski" teams of 3-4 people to test new ideas rapidly, while running the core business with machine-like precision and accountability.
Implement Systematic "Brutal Facts" Culture
Successful scaling requires confronting uncomfortable truths head-on rather than avoiding difficult conversations. Bloisi credits this approach, inspired by Jim Collins' work, as fundamental to their competitive advantage. (10:34) This means directly addressing what's not working, giving difficult feedback, cutting products that aren't performing, and changing leadership when necessary. The key is creating an environment where people understand that avoiding brutal facts leads to bigger problems later. Brazilian culture tends toward politeness, but Bloisi intentionally built a culture that prioritizes honest, direct communication about performance gaps. This systematic approach to reality-checking prevents small problems from becoming catastrophic failures.
Use Capital as a Competitive Advantage Outside the US
In emerging markets, having access to significant capital ($100+ million) creates disproportionate competitive advantages compared to the US market. (42:36) While Silicon Valley companies can easily raise large rounds, most businesses in Brazil, Europe, Africa, and Asia operate under severe capital constraints. Bloisi leverages this by being able to make $100 million bets globally while providing ecosystem support through initiatives like their Amsterdam AI House, where they bring together 60 people from around the world for intensive AI model development. This creates opportunities for rapid scaling and learning that local competitors simply cannot match due to capital limitations.
Build Global Learning Networks for Local Execution
Rather than imposing top-down processes, create compelling visions that make local teams want to participate in global knowledge sharing. (36:37) Prosus runs weekly sessions where leaders from all countries share what's working, creating a global learning network without bureaucratic overhead. The key insight is that exceptional founders and managers naturally want access to best-in-class knowledge and tools. By providing this through their ecosystem, they attract talent and companies that want to be part of a winning team. For minority investments where they can't enforce compliance, they simply sell stakes in companies that don't want to participate in knowledge sharing - maintaining portfolio quality while respecting entrepreneurial autonomy.
Focus on High-Frequency, Low-Cost Experimentation
Before scaling any business, run hundreds of small experiments to identify what actually works in the market. (26:04) Bloisi's "jet ski" methodology involves creating small teams of 2-4 people who can test hypotheses quickly and cheaply without dependencies on main systems. These teams get access to data but cannot modify core products, ensuring they can move fast while protecting operational stability. The goal is learning rather than immediate revenue - teams should expect to fail 20 times before finding something that works. Only after proving product-market fit through these small experiments should companies shift to scaling mode with different people, processes, and metrics focused on growth and market capture.
Statistics & Facts
- iFood processes 160 million orders per month and has $20 billion in annual GMV, representing approximately 0.7-0.8% of Brazil's entire GDP. (22:22) This scale makes it comparable to a $300 billion GMV business in the US economy.
- Prosus employs 40,000 people globally and generates nearly $15 billion in annual revenue across its portfolio of companies. (34:39) The company has grown from Bloisi's original 10-business portfolio to over 120 companies worldwide.
- European mobile carriers historically took 80% of revenue from mobile content partnerships, leaving content creators with only 20%. (06:19) This punitive revenue split forced Bloisi to pivot away from carrier-dependent business models toward direct-to-consumer approaches.
