Frédéric Mazzella (born March 9, 1976) is a French entrepreneur and the founder of

BlaBlaCar BlaBlaCar is an online marketplace for carpooling headquartered in Paris. Its website and mobile apps connect driving, drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the journey, in exchange for a Commiss ...

, an

online marketplace An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a wa ...

for

carpool Carpooling is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) serv ...

Early life and education

Mazzella underwent classical piano training and received education at some of the best schools in France. After majoring in maths, physics and chemistry at the

Lycée Henri IV In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

, he received a

Master of Physics A Master of Physics honours (or MPhys (Hons)) degree is a specific master's degree for courses in the field of physics. United Kingdom In England and Wales, the MPhys is an undergraduate award available after pursuing a four-year course of study a ...

at the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

(Normale Sup). While studying at Normale Sup, he received an internship in the

robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

department of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, where he worked on designing a virtual tool to allow surgeons on NASA

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such ...

s practice procedures before performing them on

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s. In 1999, he enrolled at Stanford in a master's program in computer science. Mazzella also obtained an MBA from

INSEAD INSEAD ( ; French: ''Institut européen d'administration des affaires'') is a non-profit business school with locations in Europe (Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE) and North America (San Francisco, USA ...

which he credits for helping him learn how to manage the then young venture of BlaBlacar.

Career

After completing his degree, he returned to Paris and began working for Kabira. At Kabira, Frédéric quickly demonstrated a high level of ability to perform in any role assigned, quickly moving from Support to Project Management and Pre-Sales. He even composed the music for the on-hold tone on the in-house phone system, demonstrating his multi-faceted talents. It was obvious that he was quickly outgrowing the organisation. In 1999, he also worked as a consultant for Blue Pumpkin, and in 2000, he worked as a

research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, research institute, or privately held organization to provide assistance in academic or private research endeavors. Research assistants work under ...

for

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) is a Japanese telecommunications holding company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked 55th in ''Fortune'' Global 500, NTT is the fourth largest telecommunications company in the world in terms of revenue, as well as the third largest pu ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. In September 2015, Mazzella was ranked 49th on the

WIRED Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

list of top 100 digital influencers.

BlaBlaCar

In December 2003, Mazzella wanted to travel from Paris to visit his family in the French countryside for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

but he did not own a car and the trains were fully booked. After his sister made a 150-kilometer detour to collect him, he noticed that most cars going in his direction did not have any passengers. During nights and weekends, he began working on creating a concept to address the issue. By 2006, he bought a website called Covoiturage.fr, French for "carpooling", probably inspired from what is running in one big neighbour country for years. In 2007, Mazzella enrolled at the

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

program at

. In 2008, along with Francis Nappez and Nicolas Brusson, he launched BlaBlaCar. In 2015, BlaBlaCar raised $200m bringing total funding to over $300m and valuing the company at $1.6bn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzella, Frederic 1976 births École Normale Supérieure alumni French business executives INSEAD alumni Living people Lycée Henri-IV alumni Stanford University alumni Technology company founders