Panel SA: Rappi says he has an eye on talent fired by startups

Faced with the wave of layoffs in the innovation sector in recent months, Tijana Jankovic, CEO of Rappi Brasil, says that she does not foresee cuts and is still keeping an eye on talents that became available in the market for engineering, commercial, operations and customer service positions. client.

At the end of the delivery workforce, the executive says she does not fear the signs of Lula’s campaign to change the protection of app workers. According to her, every technological revolution lacks regulation, which is a normal path.

How are you following this movement of layoffs in startups?It drastically changed the capital market and pushed decisions of several companies in this direction. We were already expecting a fix.

The timing and speed could not be predicted, but it was clear that things were a little inflated, that capital was abundant and that, therefore, several companies even at very early stages were able to overinvest.

On our side, we didn’t make any corrections. We have been consciously managing our investments and teams. We were not carried away by this wave. As a result, we do not need to make any corrections in this regard nor are we planning to.

What we are looking at closely is how to take advantage of the talent that is now available in the market, unfortunately, because of all the layoffs that have been happening at various technology companies.

We have several open positions in the engineering and product teams. But also, in Brazil specifically, with several positions in commercial, operations, customer service.

When was the last big cut you made?We are already adjusting the operation according to the areas that are growing, the ones that we are investing more, the ones that we automate. So, we didn’t make any relevant changes, at least, in the last 9 or 10 months. They were segmented into things that we have been optimizing. Having said that, we welcomed this new market movement with a structure that suited our level of operation.

There’s a debate going on about dark kitchens [conglomerados de restaurantes e lanchonetes], which are bothering residents of neighborhoods where they are installed because of smell and noise. How to solve the location dilemma to make food arrive hot, fast and cheap?The concept of dark kitchens is one of the consequences of the change in consumer behavior that accelerated with the pandemic, but then stayed. I don’t see a reversal in this case, but I think the dark kitchens enter a somewhat gray area that is not 100% regularized. Is it a restaurant space or is it a commercial space, which would compare with a company?

I think the sanitary issue is advanced, but there are a number of other rules that need to be established to guarantee comfort to the resident and an efficient space for the kitchen to operate. I think it’s an initial moment. The type of space, machinery, isolation and noise will be balanced, which are the technological solutions that will be implemented to ensure healthy coexistence.

And the signs that Lula’s campaign is giving that it intends to change legislation, increase protection for app workers? Are you afraid of this disrupting the business?Any technological revolution in the medium and long term needs to be regulated in some way. It is a normal path and it is not a path that we are against. On the contrary, a regulation that adapts to the business model, which is not the traditional one for restaurants or e-commerce, but which understands how the operation works and adapts to a regulation that makes sense, is welcome. We are collaborative in this sense. We understand that, not just us, but all companies in the sector and in similar sectors. It has an association.

We have a proactive agenda in proposing our point of view, what kind of regulation would meet the expectations of our delivery partners, retailers, restaurants. It’s something that we hope to build together with any government.

As a whole, it’s not scary because it’s not something that we see as avoidable. It is part and we hope to be a fundamental part in structuring a modernization of legislation that guarantees protection for this type of professional.

And what’s new in your subscription program?We understand RappiPrime as a digital signature for everything you consume in the digital world. This is our ideal, in which you have, through the app, access to all the services you like to consume on digital.

In addition to free shipping, unlimited with Prime Plus, all services in the app, restaurant, store, pharmacy, supermarket, there are also benefits in the offline service with our partners, a free dessert, a drink, for example. And there are partnerships that we are looking for in the market, such as free HBO Max streaming for the subscriber. The idea is to always have a new benefit.

Now they are related to books, courses, tolls. And we see a behavior, with inflationary pressure, of people looking for opportunities to save on products such as house cleaning, which can be rewarded with offers in loyalty.

X-ray

Rappi Brasil’s CEO since August 2021, the executive joined the company in 2020. Born in Serbia, she graduated in international economics from Università Bocconi, holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics from the London School of Economics and has worked in companies such as Google, Uber and BNP Paribas.