Episode 31: How Rentbrella is making it rain $$$ in global markets
In this episode, we are excited to welcome Freddy Marcos, Founder of Rentbrella, the world’s largest and most successful umbrella-sharing company. Today, Rentbrella has 800 stations with hubs present in the biggest urban centers of the world such as Sao Paolo, New York, and London.
Freddy began his career as Finance Director and Consultant, then as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Before he launched Rentbrella in 2018, he lead the operations and developed business strategy as the Chief Operating Officer of Ezconet.
Here, we discuss why it’s important to start with a global mindset from day one, how to build feedback loops and two-way innovation across teams, tips for building a successful career in international business, and strategies for localizing the business to fit the local market while staying true to company principles.
This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets at https://www.zedra.com
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SHOW NOTES:
01:55 - The start of Freddy’s career, beginning with his education
4:21 - How Freddy’s Lebanese father has inspired him to become an entrepreneur
8:45 - Rentbrella’s founding story
24:11 - Why Rentbrella had to hire and hire the New York team several times until they found the right culture and people
32: 46 - How Freddy thinks about localizing for new markets through the lens of government regulation and culture
37:00 - The “people” culture of Rentbrella and why they hire English teachers to make English the main language in their Brazil HQ
47:11 - Building and managing distributed teams
47:44 - Why effective communication and two-way feedback loops between local teams and HQ are important
54:14 - Rentbrella’s approach to hiring and how they find, hire and manage interpreneurial talent
1:00:57 - Freddy’s thoughts on closing the gap between company knowledge and local knowledge which are important in getting traction in new markets
1:03:26 - Freddy’s answer to the “3 pieces of advice” section: Advice to someone interested in building a career around an international business, to an executive expanding a business to new markets, and to his younger self