From Monza to Sydney, Spain, Nigeria, and now Dubai. What do you learn when you’ve built from scratch in some of the world’s most unforgiving markets?

In this episode of Retail Re:Mix Stories, Dharmendra sits down with Massimiliano Spalazzi, CEO of Mumzworld, the GCC’s trusted platform for mothers and young parents. Massi’s story starts in Africa, where he helped build Jumia from a Lagos launch into 17 markets in four years, six business models running in parallel, and the first African internet company to list on the NYSE. Then he moved to Dubai, became a customer of a startup called Mumzworld, and eventually became its CEO.

This conversation gets into all of it. How challenging markets produce better operators. Why Massi became a Mumzworld customer before he ever joined the company, and what that taught him about what parents in the GCC actually need. Why convenience is no longer a differentiator, and why trust and support are the moat worth building. How Mumzworld is thinking about community commerce and word-of-mouth as a growth engine. And where product discovery is headed

Massi also breaks down why he thinks AI is a real enabler of speed, but only when your direction is already clear. Why a milestone is never the finish line, it’s just the next starting point. And his one rule for winning: focus on the customer, and everything else follows. Jeff Bezos said the same thing, he says. Almost nobody actually does it.

Plus, he’s been a global citizen by force, still searching for free time, and thinks the whole strategy fits in one sentence – wake up, be the customer.

If you’re building in the GCC, scaling a vertical marketplace, or trying to figure out what comes after convenience, this one’s for you.

About Massimiliano Spalazzi

Massimiliano Spalazzi is the Group CEO of Mumzworld, the Middle East’s leading e-commerce platform for mothers, babies, and children. He spent nine years at Jumia, one of the most ambitious bets in African tech, working his way from CEO of Emerging Countries across seven markets to CEO of Jumia Nigeria, before the company became the first African internet business to list on the NYSE. He then moved to Dubai, became a Mumzworld customer, and eventually became its CEO. oday, he is leading Mumzworld’s evolution from an e-commerce platform into a trusted parenting ecosystem that supports families through products, services, content, and community.

About Mumzworld

Founded in 2011, Mumzworld is the region’s most trusted parenting platform, supporting families at every stage of their parenting journey. Built by entrepreneurial parents, Mumzworld was created to make parenting simpler through a seamless, reliable, and expertly curated experience designed for families across the region, Today, Mumzworld continues to evolve beyond shopping, bringing together trusted products, services, expert support, and community experiences designed around the real needs of families.

About your host, Dharmendra Mehta

Dharmendra is the Managing Director, MEA at Fynd and a retail-tech veteran with 20+ years. From startups to global giants, he’s all about bold moves, smarter tech, and building brands that mean business

Retail Re:Mix Stories is part of Retail Re:Mix, a community of innovators transforming the retail landscape. This podcast is powered by Fynd, an AI-first unified commerce platform that has transformed retail experiences for 300+ brands.