The Free Lunch

Two principals, one school. Eddie sits down with Chris Broman, outgoing principal of ICS Madrid after six years at the helm, and Sean O'Neill, who takes over the top job this September.ICS is unlike any other school in Madrid: 1,200 students, 70 nationalities, the only school in the city teaching the full International Baccalaureate in English from age 3 to 18 — and part of Nord Anglia, a global education group spanning 90+ schools across 37 countries.Chris and Sean open up about the founding of ICS in 1980 as a haven for Iranian refugees, what the IB really teaches that other curricula don't, and why a school with no uniform and constant student turnover produces unusually resilient kids. They get candid on the tension between profit and education, how to balance parents, teachers, students and shareholders, and the question keeping every educator awake in 2026: what is school for when AI knows more than any of us?Plus: Chris's advice as he hands over the keys, why "there are no right answers" in school leadership, and what Sean plans to protect — and change — over the next five years.In this episode:01:22 — The refugee-school origin story of ICS10:20 — What makes the IB different (and who it's not for)15:17 — 70 nationalities: the power and challenge of difference23:19 — Leading a school like a business: stakeholders, parents, profit45:10 — AI, social media bans, and the future of education59:13 — Legacy, stewardship, and passing the baton

Welcome back to the Free Lunch podcast! In this episode, we are joined by Leandro Meneses, the visionary founder of Mandioca. Mandioca is an innovative payment solution that uses stablecoins to completely transform how international business transfers are executed.
If you have ever been confused by cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, or how blockchain is actually used in the real world, this episode is a must-listen. Leandro breaks down complex financial technologies into simple terms and shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey from a secure corporate finance career in New York to leading a fast-growing fintech startup.
The Problem with Traditional Banking: Why the outdated SWIFT network creates unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks and delays for cross-border transactions.

Stablecoins Explained: How digital currencies like USDt act as "digital dollars" to protect against local currency devaluation and facilitate instant global trade.

Empowering Latin America: How Mandioca serves as a vital bridge for businesses in Latin American countries (like Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela) needing to pay international suppliers in regions like Asia.

Strict Compliance & Security: Why Mandioca exclusively processes product-based transactions (using invoices and bills of lading) and partners with Utila to ensure maximum security and regulatory compliance across jurisdictions like El Salvador and Hong Kong.

The Future of Blockchain: Why blockchain technology is the ultimate tool for redefining trust and efficiency in global trade flows.

Startup Leadership & Culture: Leandro’s personal insights on taking calculated risks, bootstrapping a business, transitioning from corporate life, and building a relentless, winning team culture.

About Our Guest:Leandro Meneses grew up in Colombia before moving to New York to study finance. After a successful corporate career assessing geopolitical and economic risk in Latin America for Standard and Poor's, he spotted a massive opportunity to use digital assets to solve real-world logistical nightmares for importers and exporters.
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#Stablecoins #BlockchainTechnology #Fintech #CrossBorderPayments #LatAmBusiness #Entrepreneurship #FreeLunchPodcast #BusinessLeadership #CryptoForBusiness
In This Episode, We Cover:

Most leaders think they're good at making decisions. The data says almost none of us are — and we can't even explain how we do it. In this episode of The Free Lunch, Eddie Ross sits down with Ernesto Weissmann, founding partner and Managing Partner for Europe at Tandem, one of the world's few consulting firms built entirely around decision-making, decision analysis and decision intelligence.
A former decision theory professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Ernesto has spent his whole career on one deceptively simple question: if decision-making determines our results, our companies and even our happiness, why does no one teach us how to do it well? We get into why companies are really just "factories that make decisions," why you should judge the process and never the outcome, and how the smartest organizations are already handing parts of that process over to AI.
A masterclass for any founder or leader who wants to stop deciding on gut feel and start deciding on purpose.
Chapters
00:00 – Cold open: is AI a friend or a foe?
04:30 – Welcome back: meet Ernesto & Tandem
06:50 – From decision theory to quitting his job to build a firm
10:30 – Why so many people make poor decisions
11:40 – Quality vs. quantity: the case for decision agility
13:00 – Decision architecture: why most companies aren't built to decide well
17:17 – Designing organizations by capability
18:00 – Decisions are power: change, politics & the "better-than-average" bias
21:00 – Judge the process, not the outcome
22:33 – High-impact decisions (and what oil & gas taught Tandem)
28:25 – The hidden cost of the decisions you don't make
30:19 – Why behavior follows objectives and compensation
31:17 – The "everything's green" culture problem
32:51 – Quick, good, or cheap — and the trap of paralysis by analysis
39:59 – The one-page brief: a lesson from Saatchi & Saatchi
41:48 – The Decision Leaders series: how CEOs, musicians and athletes decide
44:58 – From gripping the wheel to letting the machine drive
46:32 – Automated, augmented & assisted decisions (Unilever & Waze)
50:11 – Will AI quietly erode the power of the boss?
53:10 – Game theory when every competitor uses AI
55:43 – The human element machines can't replicate
56:53 – 1,000 AI agents and the future of scenario planning
1:01:08 – Ernesto's advice for founders in the growth phase
1:03:06 – "If you're not using AI, you're leaving money on the table"
1:04:00 – Friend or foe? Ernesto's final verdict
About the guest
Ernesto Weissmann is a founding partner of Tandem, a strategic consulting firm specializing in decision management that has worked with leading companies across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Argentine-born and now based in Madrid, he's a former professor of decision theory at the University of Buenos Aires.
About The Free Lunch
The Free Lunch is a podcast about leadership and the people who do it well — hosted by Eddie Ross. New conversations with founders, operators and experts who've learned how to lead.
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In two years, Leandro MeneSes has moved over $1.5 billion in international payments — without using a single bank wire.
In this episode, Leandro shares how he went from analysing country risk at S&P in New York to founding Mandioca Payments, a stablecoin-powered platform now processing $200M every month for clients across Latin America and beyond.
We get into why SWIFT — the system behind every international bank transfer — is, in Leandro's words, "WhatsApp from the 70s," why a $1M wire from New York to London still takes three business days in 2026, and how stablecoins like USDT are quietly replacing decades-old payment infrastructure.
This conversation is for anyone curious about where finance, technology, and global trade are heading next — and for any founder thinking about leaving the security of a big corporate role to build something of their own.
What you'll learn in this episode:
– Why SWIFT is the bottleneck nobody talks about, and how stablecoins solve it
– How Mandioca moved $1.5B+ in two years without competing with banks
– Why Wall Street giants like JPMorgan, Goldman, and Vanguard now hold Bitcoin
– The "we're always one day from going broke" mindset every founder needs
– How blockchain in 2026 mirrors the internet in the 1990s — and what that means for the next decade
– What Leandro looks for when hiring, and the leadership principle behind Mandioca's culture

Manuel Zamudio arrived in Spain in 2011, in the middle of a brutal financial crisis, with a plan that almost everyone called crazy: relaunch KFC in a country obsessed with its own food culture. A decade later, KFC has surpassed Telepizza to become the third-largest QSR brand in Spain — and Manuel went on to do something even bigger. He brought Krispy Kreme to Madrid.
In this conversation — recorded live at the flagship Krispy Kreme in Madrid, the first outside broadcast for The Free Lunch — Eddie sits down with Manuel to unpack the journey from mechanical engineer in Mexico City, to running brands at P&G, to leading KFC across Spain and Portugal at Yum Brands, to becoming a franchisee, to closing the joint venture that finally brought Krispy Kreme to Spain in 2024.
The launch broke records. 26,000 free half-dozens given away across Madrid. People queuing 20 hours before the doors opened. Golden tickets handing out free boxes for a year. And one detail that makes Krispy Kreme Spain unique in the world: it's the only Krispy Kreme on the planet without the word "DONUTS" on the logo. There's a legal reason — and it's a great story.
But the deeper conversation is about how you actually build something that lasts. Manuel shares why he believes "companies are not a family," the four values he runs every business by, why he uses the medieval wall of Ávila as a metaphor for company culture, and the rule that keeps his marriage healthy while he and his wife both work in the business.
In this episode:
— Why he bet on Spain during one of its worst economic crises
— The real reason Krispy Kreme can't say "donut" in Spain
— How they engineered the most-talked-about brand launch in Madrid
— Why companies should never call themselves "a family"
— The four values: integrity, determination, positivity, generosity
— What it takes to work alongside your spouse (and why she doesn't report to him)
— Why brands outlast people — and the responsibility that comes with that
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — Intro
02:00 — Cold open: companies aren't families
04:00 — Live from Krispy Kreme Madrid
05:00 — From mechanical engineer to brand manager
06:20 — The P&G years: marketing as a business school
14:00 — Moving to Yum Brands and arriving in Spain
28:30 — Launching KFC during Spain's financial crisis
31:40 — How KFC overtook Telepizza
34:00 — Becoming a franchisee and the road to Krispy Kreme
36:30 — Why you can't say "donuts" in Spain
40:00 — Fresh every day: the Krispy Kreme promise
42:00 — Inside the launch that broke records
57:00 — Building culture: the Ávila wall metaphor
1:01:30 — The four values
1:05:20 — Why companies are NOT a family
1:09:00 — Working with your spouse: the rules
1:14:30 — Brands outlast people
ABOUT THE GUEST
Manuel Zamudio is the CEO of Krispy Kreme Spain and co-founder of Cárdenas Investment, the operating group behind KFC Spain (where he served as Regional General Manager for Spain & Portugal before becoming a franchisee in 2017), Sano, and Krispy Kreme Spain (launched 2024 as a joint venture with the brand). Born in Ecuador, Mexican by nationality, based in Madrid since 2011.