Mudango Interview – Covid Drives a 400% Increment in Logistic Tech in Latin America

Andres Ossa tells us how they have made moving easier with Mudango by digitizing and revolutionizing logistics in Latin America.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Andres Ossa: We are thankfully doing OK, safe and healthy. 

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Mudango.

Andres Ossa: I’m an engineer by training and currently work as a co-founder and CTO at Mudango.com. 

We started Mudango about 4 years ago as a way to digitize and revolutionize logistics in Latin America. Initially, we served in the moving services industry. After achieving product-market fit in this vertical, we have expanded into other logistics-related sectors like self-storage, international moves, and last-mile delivery. 

How does Mudango innovate? 

Andres Ossa: Mudango operates as an end-to-end marketplace that combines an array of user-friendly tech products (charming bots + really cool algorithms), with a network of logistic partners like truck owners, moving companies, storage companies and freight services operators. This interconnection allows users to seamlessly book, coordinate and execute a complex move in an easy, 100% online and stress-free way. We are currently operating in Mexico, Colombia and Chile, and will expand soon to Brazil, Spain and the US. 

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Andres Ossa: Covid affected logistics in many ways due to the highly in-person type of business this is – there’s so much you just can’t do remotely. However, many parts of the process, including getting a quote, coordinating things, and so on, can be done digitally in a safer way. In our case, particularly for moving and storage services, the adoption of digital solutions like Mudango increased massively this year. 

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

Andres Ossa: We debated a lot about downsizing in anticipation of lower demand due to the pandemic and expected recession. In the end, we decided against it, and it was a great decision because demand actually increased 3x due to higher adoption of digital services all over. We were very lucky that we were able to keep all the good and talented people we currently have and actually increased the size of the team.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Andres Ossa: We use internal tools, and a CRM called Pipedrive. We also introduced WhatsApp Business this year to increase the efficiency of our sales team due to the increase in demand. It has been great. 

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Andres Ossa: There were a few benefits for companies that needed to fire people, like grants to avoid downsizing. It wasn’t our case, so we did not apply to any government grants. 

Your final thoughts?

Andres Ossa: 2020 was a transformational year, and in Latin America, we saw a tremendous increment in the adoption of digital solutions. This means we moved forward 3 to 4 years in terms of demand for these services. Now the challenge is to keep the good service level with high quality so that this growth is sustainable. So far, we’ve been able to do so, and 2021 is looking very promising in that sense. We hope that with the vaccines rolling out over the next months we can go back to normal in many ways, but also that what we learned last year will help us make better decisions for our customers, employees, families and society as a whole. 

Your website?

www.mudango.com