40 Minute Mentor

October 18, 2023

The Rollercoaster Ride to Scaling a Unicorn, with Nicolas Brusson, Co-Founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar

Today’s 40 Minute Mentor is Nicolas Brusson, Co-Founder & CEO of BlaBlaCar – the world’s leading community-based travel app enabling 26 million active members a year to share a ride in 21 countries.

BlaBlaCar’s environmentally and human-friendly mobility network saves 1.6M tons of CO2 and enables 120M human connections every year.

On top of leading BlaBlaCar, Nicolas is also an investor in many mission-driven brands, such as Ankorstore, Home Exchange and Dust, to name a few, so there is plenty to unpack in today’s episode.

“You’ll make mistakes but that doesn’t matter – it’s all about speed and growth, but at some point you’ll have to go and clean up the room.”

Nicolas Brusson

Tune in to discover

Becoming a father and closing a $10 million fundraising round [4:41]

Missed opportunities and keeping up with competition [06:42]

Bringing entrepreneurship into schools [09:55]

From Physics to VC and Entrepreneurship [12:32]

Rebuilding after mass layoffs [14:55]

The main lesson from the ups and downs of startup life [17:03]

Advert: More about Kitt [25:29]

The origin and evolution of BlaBlaCar [26:39]

The shift in the sharing economy and building the ‘Airbnb for cars’ [29:00]

Recognising and surviving different phases of the business [32:35]

The danger in doing too many things, a turning point for BlaBlaCar [34:47]

Becoming a multi-model platform, expanding the carpool idea [36:46]

Navigating Covid without layoffs [37:39]

Reshaping and evolving your company culture [40:30]

Questioning company values and when they’re more than just a word on a wall [42:26]

Creating a culture of mentorship [43:50]

Audience question: The future of BlaBlaCar [46:54]

Listen on

Helpful links

➡️ Connect with Nicolas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasbrusson/

➡️ Find out more about BlaBlaCar: https://www.blablacar.co.uk/

➡️ More about our sponsors, Kitt: https://www.kittoffices.com/en/

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