We spoke to Country Manager for Brazil, Stefano Mazzaferro about what’s ahead for inDrive in the country, and learned more about the man at the helm. Here's what we learned (among other things, why he doesn't like the term "work/life balance" and why he gave up on the 2016 Rio Olympics...)

Why I took this role: The culture of the company and its human, positive aspect. I felt right away connected to the supermission of fighting injustice as I believe in building a better world with technology. Also a deep passion for Mobility, especially the complexity and scale of impact of your decisions. I am also a LATAM enthusiast; it simply fulfills me to contribute to the development of the region.

Brazil is a massive, multibillion dollar mature market with good ride-hailing penetration and skilled competitors. As the third player, we need to play hard to gain market share and relevance. So the top needs are:

  • Affordability: affordable price is the single most important reason why people choose one ride-hailing app vs another in Brazil.
  • Awareness: Aggressive and bold marketing campaigns that connect to the local audience are key to increasing awareness
  • Safety: Brazil has high levels of crime and violence, we need to constantly invest in safety features and perception.
  • Product: The Brazilian consumer is digital-first and accustomed to high levels of service and great customer experience. We need to invest in our product, especially in seamless payment solutions such as cashless and credit cards.

Some big news this semester is that inDrive has become the official sponsor of Flamengo, the largest football club in Brazil, with 45 million fans. The partnership will extend to all categories, including social projects, youth divisions and both the men's and women's football teams of the club. Partnering with a club with such a rich history and engaged fan base will greatly expand the reach of our brand and the connection with our audience. It also echoes our value proposition of fair prices for passengers, fair earnings for drivers and fair play on the football field.

My impressions so far: inDrive is a great company made by talented and passionate people. After six months here, I can confidently say that we have a real raw gem in our hands. Growth has slowed down recently, but I am confident that we are equipped to turn this trend around.

In the past 6 months I’ve been extremely focused on getting a deep understanding of the business and hiring a stellar local team, implementing efficient processes and fixing the basics of the marketplace to unlock high performance. With all that in place, Brazil has started to display some growth. After 8 months of plateau with 0% growth, we delivered 7% YoY growth in August/September and will most likely repeat this growth trend in October.

In the short term my priority is to ensure excellence in execution, to stabilize this growth trend and finalize the 2025 strategy.

In the long term my key focus is to sustainably grow all business verticals.

  • Ride-hailing: the focus will be to achieve density as fast as possible in key cities such as São Paulo, Recife and Manaus. For this to happen we have 4 main levers. Effective marketing campaigns to increase awareness and trial, precise pricing to ensure affordability, targeted driver incentives to improve supply and finally a great deal of product features and improvements.
  • Delivery Hub: the focus will be to scale the B2B enterprise delivery, specifically within e-commerce where competition is less intense and our product fits.

I believe inVision will play a big role in the country. Brazil is riddled with injustices and social issues such as poverty, access to education, safety and gender inequality. We need to scale inVision initiatives to help fight these injustices! For now, we are launching the fourth edition of the Aurora Tech Award in Brazil; this project has the direct involvement of the inVision global teams with the support of the local team. We’ve also had one edition of YourPace here.

In five years I envision Brazil being top 2 in the world for inDrive, only behind India.

Brazil in three words: Huge, dynamic, multicultural

Myself in three words: Loyal, energetic and disciplined

A surprising fact: I was once a world-level professional sailor, competing to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. I gave up the dream to finish my studies and I have no regrets! I would not be where I am now otherwise :)

The sea and the mountains are my place. I love to challenge myself by running ultra marathons, climbing high mountains, and sailing at sea. Always accompanied by my wife who is the best adventure and life partner. I am also an avid reader.

Outside of work, I’m most proud of having finished a 60 km ultramarathon in the Pyrenees and having won multiple sailing races, including being top 3 in the world in 2010.

The skills I would most like to learn next are rock climbing and French.

My absolute favorite books are by Irvin D. Yalom: When Nietzsche Wept and The Spinoza Problem, in particular.

I do not like the term “work/life balance” because it implies that to focus more on work you need to remove something else from your day. I prefer to call it work-life integration. Take sports for example, I make it a priority in my life, I treat it like a basic need such as sleeping or eating. It’s the moment in which I am in a complete flow state, no music, no podcasts, no distractions, just the sound of my breathing. It gives rhythm to my life, regulating my bed and wake up times as well as my eating habits, making me more productive in general, especially at work!