10 Things You Didn’t Know About Frederic Mazzella
Frederic Mazzella is a French businessman and entrepreneur who occupies the current position of CEO for the sharing startup BlaBlaCar. He is a multi-talented professional with an interesting personal life and career history. We wanted to know more about him so we looked into his history and made some interesting discoveries about him. To help you become more familiar with BlaBlaCar’s CEO, here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about Frederic Mazzella.
1. He is 45 years old
Mr. Mazella was born on March 9, 1976. The city of his birth was Nantes, France. as of March 2021, he turned 45 years old. He is an accomplished entrepreneur who not only leads BlaBlaCar, he is the founder of a successful company, according to Wikipedia.
2. Mazzella didn’t own a car in 2003
Interestingly, Frederic Mazzella didn’t own a car in 2003. In December of that year, he wanted to return to the home of his family to visit them over the Christmas holidays. No trains were available and he didn’t own a car. He was in Pari and had to find a way to get to the French countryside. He hitched a ride with his sister, but on the trip notices that most people going in his direction only had a driver on the inside with no passengers. This gave him an idea for a carpooling business to help solve problems like the one he had just experienced. He started a website called Covoiturage.fr which is translated as “carpooling” in 2006. The site was a precursor to his now famous and successful business.
3. Frederic is highly educated
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mazzella has a strong educational foundation. In 1994 he was accepted into the Lycee Henri IV school where he studied Maths, Physics, and Chemistry. He graduated from the program with his Math Sup/Spe degree in 1997. He continued his education in 1997 enrolling at the Ecole Normal Superieure in the field of physics. He earned his master’s degree in the discipline in 2001. From 1999 to 2001 he attended Stanford University where he earned a master’s degree in Computer Science. He also enrolled at INSEAD and earned an MBA degree in business and entrepreneurship in 2007.
4. Mazzella has held multiple career positions
In 1999, Frederic was hired by Blue Pumpkin as a consultant. He stayed at the firm for 1 year, but simultaneously, he worked as a research assistant at NASA. He also worked for NTT for three months in 2000 as a research assistant in Atsugi, Japan. He was with the American aerospace company for three years. He left in 2002 and became a project manager for a company called Kabira, staying at the post for lost 5 years, leaving in November of 2006.
5. He took time out to be a professor
Mr. Mazzella accepted a position as a special teacher at the Sciences Po University. He began teaching at the prestigious school in September of 2009 and remained there for nearly 4 years in its Paris locale. He left in June of 2013.
6. He’s an honored public speaker
According to Techcrunch, Frederic Mazzella is an entrepreneur who is in high demand as a guest speaker on business. He spoke at Disrupt London and receives constant requests to come and share his expertise and wisdom with other entrepreneurs who want to know the secret of his success.
7. He’s good at fundraising
We also learned that BlaBlaCar has recently received a round of venture capital funding. A round led by Index Ventures brought in $100 million in funding. This is a sizeable amount for the startup. The details of the agreement have not yet been disclosed. This will help Mazella in his quest to expand the global ride-sharing marketplace to include long-distance rides. This tells us that Frederic Mazzella knows how to negotiate with potential investors.
8. His company is expanding quickly
We also learned that BlaBlaCar reported last July that it has expanded its services into a total of 12 countries throughout the world. It had amassed a total of 2 million more members within 2 months of opening its marketplace in the country of Turkey. The company boasts having 8 million members currently and it’s still adding more with each new expansion into new countries and cities.
9. He is the owner of a unicorn
According to Forbes, Frederic Mazzella’s company BlaBlaCar reached unicorn status in 2015. This was an eventful year for him as his startup reached a valuation of $1.6 billion. He joins an elite group of business owners who have achieved this level of remarkable success. As of the last statistics shared for the company, the number of registered members has exceeded 45 million in its ride-sharing community, In the company’s home country of France, it boasts 12 million of those members.
10. He is a man of many talents
It’s been perseverance that has helped Frederic Mazzella to get where he is today in life. He’s a brilliant entrepreneur who knows how to take a good idea and turn it into a billion-dollar business. According to FT.com, he secured enrollment in the toughest school to get into in France and earned a masters in physics at Ecoles. He is also a trained classical pianist. He admits that he gets emotional when he listens to Chopin and to this day it still makes him cry. He also worked part-time at NASA to help pay his way through his college studies. He also served as a professor at a college for a while. At the age of 45, he has ridden the ups and downs of the issues all businessmen face in light of the current pandemic and he has come out on top.