Federico Vega (Frete.com) on Cracking Network Effects in a $100B Legacy Freight Market

Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova.

This week, I sit down with Federico Vega, founder and CEO of Frete.com—the largest freight matching platform in Latin America.

Federico’s story is anything but conventional: he grew up in a small town in Patagonia, left a career in investment banking at JP Morgan in London, and moved—without speaking the language—to Brazil to reinvent an entire industry. What started as a Facebook group for truck drivers has evolved into a logistics giant, processing nearly $18 billion in freight transactions annually and serving ~900,000 active drivers—roughly 80% of Brazil’s entire trucking fleet.

In this episode, Federico shares how Frete.comsolved the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma, scaled a fragmented industry from the ground up, and transformed Brazilian complexity into a competitive moat. It’s a masterclass in grit, product obsession, and doing things that don’t scale.

Here’s what we cover:

• How to break network effects open in traditional industries
• Why doing unscalable things early creates lasting strategic edge
• What Brazilian truck stops taught Federico about product design
• How to use AI and data to combat fraud and drive operational leverage
• The culture-building playbook behind Frete.com’s growth

For founders building in complex markets—and investors betting on logistics and fintech as the future—this episode is a must-listen.

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