Solving Last-Mile Logistics in Brazil, One Spreadsheet at a Time

In this episode of Brazil (is not) for Beginners, Isaac Matzner sits down with Stefan Rehm, co-founder and CEO of Intelipost. German by birth, Brazilian by choice, Stefan arrived in São Paulo in 2012 with a one-year visa, no Portuguese, and a mandate to scout e-commerce investments for a Berlin-based VC fund. Fourteen years later, he's still here and running one of Brazil's oldest and most enduring tech startups.

The story of Intelipost starts with a wine company, a warehouse, and a Friday night Excel spreadsheet. Embedded at Evino as his fund's forward-deployed logistics expert - a title he gave himself - Stefan discovered that nobody in Brazilian e-commerce could tell you, with any precision, the actual cost of shipping or where a package was during the delivery. Stefan built a workaround . The market came to him. And when his boss asked whether they should invest in logistics or just solve it themselves, they chose to invest in him to solve it.

What followed was two years of product-building with three early customers - Evino, Amaro, and Petlove - before a competitive scramble between two emerging ecommerce giants handed Intelipost its first enterprise contract and its first real inflection point.

The conversation covers the full arc: How Stefan ended up in Brazil, the early startup scene with its focus on ecommerce and the gap between German and Brazilian logistics in 2012, the foreign founder advantage in a market that rewards fresh eyes and forgives naivety, and what it actually means to build a company for 14 years when you thought you were signing up for two. Stefan also reflects on the laws that didn't "take off," the hallway conversations where deals are really made, and his advice for anyone thinking about starting something.

Other key topics include:

• Why Brazil in 2012 looked like a once-in-a-generation bet - and how that wave felt from the inside

• The foreign founder advantage: how arriving unbiased, and being forgiven for not knowing the rules, created real opportunity

• A logistics 101 - from Roman generals to Correios, and why e-commerce changed everything

• The two problems Intelipost was built to solve: 55% cart abandonment and 70% of customer complaints about tracking

• How a Friday night Excel spreadsheet became a company - and why the market came looking for the spreadsheet

• Building with early customers iteratively: Evino, Amaro, Petlove, and what signing a contract before you have a product actually means

• The impact and challenges of success across enterprise breakthroughs and rising customer expectations

• How the pandemic took logistics strategy from cost center to strategic boardroom agenda item

• The law that didn't take off - and what that story reveals about doing business in Brazil

• The cafezinho, the hallway, and why the real decisions in Brazilian business happen between the meeting and the elevator

• Advice for founders: start with a problem you've felt, not a sector you've researched

• And lots more!