Juan Pablo PereiraFounder

Uruguay - ND

Mario Colla founded Tiendamia.com in 2015. I joined him a few months later, initially as COO and later as CEO. Since then, the company grew to become one of the largest eCommerce platforms in Latin America and the absolute leader in cross-border eCommerce.

Even though we managed to raise $20 million dollars in 2021 from Cartesian Capital, our path was not an easy one. For most of our journey since the company was funded, VCs regarded "eCommerce" as a bad industry. They feared the Amazon factor, and believed eCommerce was a winner-takes-all industry with a pre-defined winner.

We relied mostly on bootstrapping for growth, and learned to be resourceful and work hard to achieve our goals. More than anything, we believed that if we built the best cross-border ecommerce team in the world, we would succeed.

Today, Tiendamia is one of the few Latin America tech startups that reached critical mass while remaining profitable.

I stepped down as CEO in July 2022 and now serve as a Board Member and Advisor for the company. Tiendamia currently operates 10 markets in Central and South America. I am now starting a new company in the AI sector (currently in stealth mode).

As a leader, my three pillars are:

- Building with purpose
- Putting the customer at the center of every decision
- Hiring people who are better than myself