How Mercado Libre built Latin America's most valuable company: 18k engineers, 30k deploys a day, and their own fleet of planes | Sebastian Barrios

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, Lenny interviews Sebastian Barrios, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Roblox and long-time head of product and engineering at Mercado Libre. Sebastian shares insights into Mercado Libre's unique operational strategies, including its emphasis on integrating engineering and product teams, its approach to risk-taking and innovation, and its user-centric philosophy. He also discusses how AI is transforming their development processes, enabling engineers to create new features by leveraging existing microservices. Sebastian recounts personal stories, including a call from Steve Jobs about an app he created as a teenager and his entrepreneurial journey building mobile apps. He also touches upon his lifestyle choices, such as abstaining from alcohol, coffee, and social media, and shares his mother's influence on his independent and problem-solving mindset.