In this Startup Vision interview, Frédéric Mazzella, founder and chairman of BlaBlaCar, discusses his philosophy of giving back to the startup ecosystem through angel investing and mentorship, emphasizing that solving future challenges—especially climate change—requires innovative entrepreneurs. He highlights BlaBlaCar’s environmental impact, noting that the platform’s high vehicle occupancy has saved 1.6 million tonnes of CO₂ in a single year, comparable to the total road‑traffic emissions of a city like Paris, while acknowledging this is only a small part of the needed solution. Mazzella calls for a stronger, pan‑European tech ecosystem, stressing the importance of European values such as sustainability, democracy, and inclusion, and argues that success in Europe’s complex regulatory landscape proves scalability to global markets. He reflects on his personal journey, describing entrepreneurship as a path of continuous learning, problem‑solving, and collaboration, and notes that disciplines like mathematics and music have taught him both rigor and creativity, which he sees as essential traits for founders. The conversation ends with a light‑hearted note about future projects.
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TranscriptAuto-generated · 10 min
Hello Startup Vision, I'm Fred Mazzella, founder of BlaBlaCar.
Hello Fred, thank you so much for being here on Startup Vision today. So BlaBlaCar, the famous carpool marketplace, is a European unicorn developed around strong company values. You have over 90 million users in 22 countries, you raised more than €400 million, and you are also an angel investor and very, very involved in the startup ecosystem. In fact, it's a sort of giving back to make a difference. What is your vision, Fred?
Well, yeah, it's a sort of give back. It's a manner for me to help projects which I think are worth it for the future. I love interacting with entrepreneurs, so it's also a way for me to always be in contact with fresh minds. My vision on this is that in order to solve the challenges ahead, like climate change and its consequences, we will need innovation and we need entrepreneurs. We need to change usages, change behaviors, and in order to achieve this, we need entrepreneurs to have the means of their ambition. And former entrepreneurs are here to help them both in terms of coaching and money. when we can. So this is roughly what I do.
Frederic, you mentioned the planet and what we have to do to make it better. I mean, we hear climate change is here to stay, or maybe we can do something about it. What do you think? What can the startup ecosystem do about it? What can you do about
it? I think it's possibly the biggest challenge, the biggest problem that humanity has faced. in its history. And so for sure, in 2020, entrepreneurs need to tackle this and make anything we can to reduce the impact. And this creates new activity, by the way, for humans, but it's a lot better for environment. So we see a lot of this happening, upcycling, recycling, but this has to be the mindset of entrepreneurs today.
You're absolutely right. It's time to act.
Yeah, what we've done with BlaBlaCar is really in that direction. That's what has motivated me for years as well, when it was super, super hard at the beginning. It was the possibility to reduce the impact of our mobility with cars because the occupation rate we have in cars on BlaBlaCar is a lot higher, of course, than the occupation rate of cars normally, which is close to 1, because most of the time only 1 driver on board, which is ultra damaging, of course, in terms of the emissions of greenhouse gases. So last year alone, we've saved 1.6 million tons of CO2 thanks to BlaBlaCar. So you see, it's more than the entire CO2 emissions from road traffic from a city like Paris. So in total, with our community of nearly 100 million members, we reduced the CO2 consumption by 1.6 million. But it's still— it's good, but it's still a drop in the ocean. So lots of entrepreneurs and companies need to tackle this issue.
That's great. So in this ecosystem, we see a lot of dynamic countries like France, the UK, Germany in front of giants. Don't you think it would be time to create a European ecosystem like we did the successful French tech? And do you think it's possible?
So absolutely, we need European tech to be stronger. We've not been focused enough on tech over the past 2 decades, I think, in Europe, but we're catching up and we have domains in which we can really play a role in the future. I think about AI, artificial intelligence, of course, but also about bringing our European values into the tech equation, especially regarding sustainable development, democracy, and inclusion. I think we have a lot to share, which is why we need to be stronger for sure, and we are working on it.
But how do we achieve this? Because when we see, you know, that it's so difficult to be united in Europe, and when we see so many cultural differences, legal systems, and everything, do you think there is a way of doing something, I mean, on the European level to be competitive in front of the United States or China, let's say?
Well, I would say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Meaning, if you can make it in Europe, given the complexities that you mentioned, the fact that there are different legislations and sometimes different money systems and different VATs and different everything. If you can make it here in Europe with the company which is pan-European, then you can, you can make it elsewhere. The thing is, we need to focus more effort and energy on building those tech companies in Europe and scale them to the point where they can really become global.
Yeah, you're right. That's the point. That's the problem. So you are an engineer with, among others, a master's degree from Stanford. And even as a little boy, you were very very creative and proactive. I heard that you were sending your discoveries to a youth science magazine called Science& Vie, and you also— That is true. I love that because Science& Vie was one of my favorites, so, you know, I admire that. Great. And you also did an internship in robotics at Stanford working with NASA, so you had a clear path. I mean, why did you go into something so, so different? Hard, so difficult, you know. We had Romain Serment from BPI France and he was saying, I admire entrepreneurs because they are sort of crazy people, you know, climbing the Himalaya alone in flip-flops and t-shirts. Frederic, what made you become an entrepreneur and climb the Himalaya, in fact?
Well, I think I became an entrepreneur because I love to learn. I love to learn new things, and it's actually the only way I found to pursue my personal development, the only way I found to learn continuously, to learn new things, to act in total freedom and be in close contact with the real world. So it's true, we go climbing in flip-flops and t-shirts, but with creativity and learning, we create our own equipment along the way. With what we find on the road. So we don't, we don't arrive at the top usually totally naked. So we build everything in the way. So what's very important is to always keep a fresh eye on our discovery and to keep our common sense for solving problems. You also need to actually love problems because you'll have a lot of them to solve. And this is actually your added value to the venture. You're here to solve problems that others haven't solved before, and I think that's what I like.
And it could be very lonely at times also. You have to be, you know, tough and ready for—
Well, yeah, well, you can be lonely, but you always have people you can ask questions to, and you should never stop or refrain yourself from asking questions to I mean, the way I function is I have a lot of people I can call and ask questions to, and this really helps me in, in thinking forward. So when, when you have a phone, you're never alone. I mean, you always can discuss with someone.
That's great, that's great. So both mathematics and music at a high level made you what you became. Both disciplines brought you rigor and precision, and it's, it's so It's a lot of work, so maybe it's the solution, it's the right combination to lead to a disruptive mind. What do you think about that?
I think, well, in order to succeed, entrepreneurs need to be both creative and rigorous, for sure. Both are necessary, and they may actually reflect what we sometimes call the left brain and the right brain. So studying those disciplines clearly helps future entrepreneurs. Regarding music, I'd say that it's an incredible teacher for both creativity and rigor, because when you create and play a piece of music, the feedback loop is instantaneous, and this helps you in quickly reaching a better level and improving yourself through rigor. So it's a very good school. Music is a very good school to, to learn both creativity and rigor.
And so you're a man of many passions and many talents. What's next for you?
Stay tuned.
Aha, nothing to say, it's a mystery?
No.
So, uh, let's say that we'll see you in a few months. You will come back on Startup Vision to share with us the next level. That's an invitation, by the way.
I don't know, we'll see. Oh yeah, thank you for the invitation. We'll see if I have something to say.
Okay, definitely. Anyway, thank you so much for participating. Thank you for your thoughts and sharing with us. Bye-bye, Frederic.
