When Ricardo Villarreal started MongoDB’s LatAm corporate sales team in May 2020, he had an inkling that it could be the start of something big. He just didn’t know how big.
Fast-forward 18 months to today, and Villarreal has spearheaded the growth of his team, playing a key role in hiring 15 sales executives and regional directors, two solutions architects, four customer success managers, four professionals in sales development and one partner account manager — not to mention overseeing the promotions of three regional directors.
“Having a team focused on this region that speaks the language and understands the cultural differences allows us to build strong relationships with our customers,” Villarreal, MongoDB’s regional director for Latin America corporate sales, said. “It’s exciting. This translates directly to faster adoption and operational efficiencies, which leads to clients trusting us with more critical pieces of their business.”
That’s not the only aspect of Villarreal’s job that excites him. A native of Mexico, Villarreal knows that the work he’s doing at the big data and cloud company has a direct impact on assisting Latin American companies in modernizing and achieving their goals.
“Leveraging MongoDB’s platform allows them to spend less time maintaining their database infrastructure and more time gaining market share,” Villarreal said.
Built In Austin sat down with Villarreal to learn more about the work he does at MongoDB, and what it takes to lead a quick-scaling outfit.
WHAT THEY DO
Why is the LatAm team growing so fast at MongoDB?
Latin America runs at a different pace. We are now experiencing the growth that our North American team started seeing 2-3 years ago. COVID-19 accelerated the digital transformation strategy that most companies had in place, but had been slow at executing.
Also, there is a large group of developers based in Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. Our developer focused-approach has helped us influence projects from the bottom up.
What are some of the challenges that come with growth?
One of the biggest challenges is finding the right talent that fluently speaks Spanish or Portuguese, understands the business culture and has experience working in these markets. Our focus is to continue to grow the team in Austin, but we are also looking to hire sales executives in different territories to scale even quicker.
Also, as we add regional customers, they bring us new challenges, some of them related to language barriers and others related to local requirements and requests. This means that we need to continue to evolve as a company in order to properly serve and grow the region.
MongoDB has continued to invest in our region after seeing tremendous success and continued growth of both new accounts and existing customers.’’
How has the company been impacted by the growth of the LatAm team?
A year ago, the Americas had a total of six sales teams in our corporate and cloud segments in Austin. Today, this same organization has 12 teams, with four of these teams focused in LatAm. MongoDB has continued to invest in our region after seeing tremendous success and continued growth of both new accounts and existing customers.
What is your leadership style? What are the best practices for managing a growing team?
One of the things I value most about MongoDB is that I learn something new every day. As a result, my leadership style is evolving constantly. I have learned one size does not fit all. I tailor the career development plans for each of my reps to their personal and professional goals and passions. This maximizes their potential, and they feel supported in all aspects of the process.
I tailor the career development plans for each of my reps to their personal and professional goals and passions.’’
What’s your favorite part about spearheading and growing a team?
One aspect of this role I am most passionate about is helping Latin American companies modernize, innovate and ultimately achieve their goals and objectives. I grew up in Mexico and have been fortunate to work in this region for the last nine years, and it’s amazing seeing fellow companies thrive. Every year, more Latin American startups reach unicorn status, and I’d like to think that building a team that knows the cultural differences of doing business in Latin America makes a difference.
