00:53:20 · Micky Malka, David Senra
[00:53:20] S1: Yes. [00:53:20] S0: And your idea at the time is to set these little, like, kiosks? What are [00:53:25] S1: what would you call them? There were there were there were three models. We had we had inside existing stores at checkout. We had kiosk inside stores, which was a hybrid model. And we had franchisee, little stores that only did our payment systems. Because this is before the smartphone, right? But it was mobile or a lot of... So we had to... It was a hybrid of 2003 to 2007 era. So we had to build all of this and run all of this. We had, at peak, had 7,000 of these physical spaces all over Brazil. We were serving 15,000,000 customers. Half of Brazil back then was unbanked. Unbanked? Unbanked. [00:54:05] S0: So that was the opportunity. [00:54:06] S1: That was the opportunity to bank them. We were the first to bank them to 50,000,000 people. [00:54:09] S0: So essentially, you did like the legwork for the largest bank. Now we've attacked this customer segment that you haven't succeeded with. We succeeded. You essentially rounded up a bunch of now customers for them. Correct. They wanna buy you. That's exactly Right? So you sell in what year? [00:54:24] S1: 2008. [00:54:25] S0: So 2008, that insight then comes into play, what is that, twelve years later? [00:54:29] S1: Twelve years later. [00:54:30] S0: You're starting to talk to Walmart Yes. In '20
00:54:30 · David Senra, Micky Malka
[00:54:30] S0: You're starting to talk to Walmart Yes. In '20 [00:54:33] S1: And that's the long game. That's the infinite game. And by the way, you can tie every single one of our decisions that we've made, like were big decisions like that in the Ribbit life, to something that happened to me twenty years before. [00:54:47] S0: This is really important for, especially for younger entrepreneurs, because you said earlier, like, there's just something wrong about, you know, like we're optimizing for just like start scale sell, right? Correct. Where it's like, you know, some of your partners, you've been partners with for twenty years. Yes. Some of the people you've backed. You met Vlad at Robinhood when, I don't even think they had a product yet. There was not an app. Right? [00:55:07] S1: No. There was... They they were... [00:55:08] S0: It's a public facing app. It was not No. [00:55:11] S1: No customers. [00:55:11] S0: So your relationship with them was for, like, fifteen years? [00:55:13] S1: Yes. [00:55:14] S0: It's like... I always say it's like when I when I've read, you know, all these biographies for the the other podcast I have, it's like, just stay in the game long enough to get lucky. It's like so much of this stuff is not predictable. And I think that maxim is just like stay in the game long enough to get lucky. So you built a massive business twelve years after you built a very successful business in South America. Now, think about the scale of Walmart. This is like not comparable to anything else.
00:55:14 · David Senra, Micky Malka
[00:55:14] S0: It's like... I always say it's like when I when I've read, you know, all these biographies for the the other podcast I have, it's like, just stay in the game long enough to get lucky. It's like so much of this stuff is not predictable. And I think that maxim is just like stay in the game long enough to get lucky. So you built a massive business twelve years after you built a very successful business in South America. Now, think about the scale of Walmart. This is like not comparable to anything else. [00:55:37] S1: And that's the power of compounding. Yes. And it's compounding relationships and ethics and work and principles and love and passion and time. And just don't care about the winning or losing. Just let it be because the power of compounding is the most important equation in society. And everything on friendships, on family, just be consistent, work every day. Yeah.
00:55:37 · Micky Malka, David Senra
[00:55:37] S1: And that's the power of compounding. Yes. And it's compounding relationships and ethics and work and principles and love and passion and time. And just don't care about the winning or losing. Just let it be because the power of compounding is the most important equation in society. And everything on friendships, on family, just be consistent, work every day. Yeah. [00:56:00] S0: This is like a very Buffett Munger kind of thing. Like Munger has that that line where he's like, you know, you need to learn the big... The few big ideas in each discipline. They carry most of the freight, think is the way he describes that. And through all this reading, I was like, my version of that is like, time carries most of the weight. Like, if you're in a good business, like, just stay there and time will actually carry most of the weight to what you want to do. And so that leads, if you're going play the infinite game, and you want to do things over a long term, you have to protect your reputation, which is another thing that Buffett would repeat in his shareholders. Like, hey, we can lose money. We can lose a lot of money, actually. We can't lose a shred of reputation. I wanna know how you think about reputation, and then I wanna know... And then I'll talk about why it's so important, how it led me to you.
00:56:00 · David Senra, Micky Malka
[00:56:00] S0: This is like a very Buffett Munger kind of thing. Like Munger has that that line where he's like, you know, you need to learn the big... The few big ideas in each discipline. They carry most of the freight, think is the way he describes that. And through all this reading, I was like, my version of that is like, time carries most of the weight. Like, if you're in a good business, like, just stay there and time will actually carry most of the weight to what you want to do. And so that leads, if you're going play the infinite game, and you want to do things over a long term, you have to protect your reputation, which is another thing that Buffett would repeat in his shareholders. Like, hey, we can lose money. We can lose a lot of money, actually. We can't lose a shred of reputation. I wanna know how you think about reputation, and then I wanna know... And then I'll talk about why it's so important, how it led me to you. [00:56:41] S1: I started to go to the Berkshire Annual Meetings when I was 18. And back then, they were much smaller. They were on Friday afternoon and a Holiday Inn, a couple 100 people. And as soon as they moved to the to the bigger convention center a few years later, they had this movie clip playing in in the beginning of the annual meeting with a bunch of TV commercials commercials or or Buffett interviews over the years. And every time since I was a kid... Young that age, they were playing the Buffett getting deposed when he was the chairman of Salomon Brothers saying that line that you just said. It got sticky in my in my brain.
00:56:41 · Micky Malka, David Senra
[00:56:41] S1: I started to go to the Berkshire Annual Meetings when I was 18. And back then, they were much smaller. They were on Friday afternoon and a Holiday Inn, a couple 100 people. And as soon as they moved to the to the bigger convention center a few years later, they had this movie clip playing in in the beginning of the annual meeting with a bunch of TV commercials commercials or or Buffett interviews over the years. And every time since I was a kid... Young that age, they were playing the Buffett getting deposed when he was the chairman of Salomon Brothers saying that line that you just said. It got sticky in my in my brain. [00:57:17] S0: So wait. They replayed it at every annual meeting? [00:57:19] S1: The annual meeting. It was there that deposition... That was... That he said that line on a deposition at congress for something that Salomon Brothers was doing with the treasuries, arbitraging the... Or taking advantage of the treasury issuing market. Yeah. They played it every single year. And I remember it every single year. And part of the reasons why I wanted to live that life is because it was natural to me. It was the way you wanted to live life. So yes, reputation matters more than anything.