I'm moving on from Redpoint

TL:DR: I'm moving on from Redpoint.? I’m truly excited about what comes next but first I need to take the opportunity to thank you all for the amazing things you taught me.? I couldn't help myself and decided to provide my take on the evolution of the ecosystem over the last 10 years. What we built together is pretty amazing and we should be proud and excited of what is to come.

Most of you know that I’m a rather blunt and objective person. I was going to write a short note informing you all that I'm moving on from Redpoint, with the traditional thank you to the firm that I’ve been a part of for the past 7 years. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that after 11 years in venture capital, it was time to look back and assess what I had achieved. Here are my thoughts.?

First I must thank my partners and friends, Anderson Thees, Manoel Lemos and Romero Rodrigues for putting up with me ;-) and being great mentors. Jeff Brody and Mathias Schilling for teaching me more about this business I love, Venture capital.? It was an honor to work with you all, in so many ways.? I also want to thank the team that over this period made life fun and enjoyable. Flavio Pripas, Carolina Strobel, Fabio Frascino, Paula Dainese, Vanessa Mattos, Barbara Inaba, Joyce Sotter, e Gabriel Araujo.? But I will not forget those that have also moved on, Camila Key, Camila Fibe , Marco Camhaji, Nicholas Reise, Fernanda Antunes, Talita Chagas, Fernanda Girotto e Eduarda Silva.?

I also want to thank all the founders. At Redpoint we pride ourselves on investing in founders we like, admire, respect. And this couldn't be more true. I really like and admire each and every one of you but I have to thank especially those that gave me honor to try to help them on their journey. Tiago Dalvi at Olist, Sergio Furio at Creditas,? Eric Santos, Bruno Ghisi, Guilherme Lopes, Andre Siqueira e Pedro Bachiega at RD, Alessio Alionco at Pipefy, Leonardo Rangel and Daniel Pires at Cortex,? Fernando Canuto at Bogue, Ricardo Josua, Daniel Binatti, Juliana Binatti, Marcelo Parise at Pismo, Marcos Vinicius Gimenes and Rafael Morgado at Consulta do Bem, Donisete Gomes and Edson Maestri at Movidesk, Goldwasser and Joao at Accountfy,? Vitor Asseituno and Guilherme Berardo at Sami,? Bruno Oliveira and Andre Borsoi at Letz, Camilo Telles at Antecipa, Roberto Nascimento, Eduardo Muskat and Rodrigo Costa at Kzas and Vilash and Gabriel at Oyster. It was a pleasure and privilege. Count on me to continue helping in any way I can.?

I also do not want to forget amazing co-investors that I had the pleasure of working with such as Paulo Veras, Michael, Antoine, Marcelo Lima, Caio Bolognesi, Edson Rigonatti, Paulo Passoni, Santiago Fossati, Patrick Aripol Marcelo Hoffman, Geraldo Melzer, Bedy, Joaquim Lima e Alex Porto

But as I mentioned, I want to take a hard look at what the last 10 years have been. This is a personal reflection and heavily biased by my experience but I think it is some of you might like to read.

When Pedro Sirotsky, Moises Herszenhorn and I raised Warehouse investimentos, in 2010, we were the second fund in the market and we got luck early, doing the Series A in Ifood (Patrick Sigrist, Felipe Fioravante, Guilherme Bonifacio, Eduardo Baer e Renato Mota), Thank you for allowing us to be part of this amazing history).? Then, there was very limited Series B funding.. It was a tough beginning.? Only 2-3 tech companies had ever broken the? $300M mark in Brazil.?

The whole ecosystem fit in the BRnewtech meetings that Bedy Yang, Flavio Pripas and Marco Fishben organized for years.

In 2014, when Anderson invited me to join Redpoint,? the $130M fund was the largest ever raised. Soon after, corporations started, albeit timidly, exploring innovation. Together with Erica Janini, I had the pleasure of pitching? a crazy ideia: Tech temple, soon to be known as Cubo Itau.

The idea was simple, it made no sense for the place for the ecosystem to meet to be Octavio Cafe. We needed to have a place designed for the ecosystem. We recruited Flavio Pripas, who led the initiative for 4 years. He was everything from a real estate broker, to janitor and preacher: a true entrepreneur. He became the reference for open innovation.

I recall our intrepid sponsor, Ricardo Guerra, looking at our small building at the launch party and asking if we thought we could fill it up in 2 years. In 6 months the building was full, and within 1 year, we took the gutsy decision to move to a 5x larger building.? We built one of the world's largest Startup Hubs, to the awe of Silicon Valley and created a unique corporate-startup cooperation model.?

From the bottom of my heart, I thank all those corporations that embarked on our pipe-dream and helped build it. Specially, I thank Paulo Costa e Guilherme Horn, partners since the very beginning. And Thiago Julio, who built a health ecosystem. I have also to mention the team at Cubo. The whole team. But some people were closer to me and led what my wife calls my “third kid” . They are: Reynaldo Gama, Renata Zanuto, Pedro prates, Marcos Vinicius Pereiras, Lucas Mendes e Manuela Barreiros, Rodolfo Zouhri, Flavia Bicalho.? Thank you for taking care of it and ensuring its constant evolution.?

I recall Endeavor, still at that time, campaigning to get the word “entrepreneurship” out of the dictionary ( they were the ones to put it there in 2004) and into the peoples’ mind. Today everyone knows what it means and the amount of young people want to take entrepreneurship on as their career/ life choice is enormous. Startups have become the 90’s rock band.? Well done Juliano Seabra and Camila Junqueira

In 2017/2018 the first few unicorns appeared. Finally, our ecosystem started to seem to have a chance of working out. Now, we already have 20, including 1 Decacorn (3x ;-) (Nice one Cristina Junqueira and David Velez!)., 4 of which I had the pleasure of supporting. More will come. I’m sure of it.?

Besides the seal of maturity for the ecosystem, these unicorns have a much broader impact. For the ecosystem, it brings international attention to what we are building under the equator. It also creates role models and, more importantly, masses of talented people that have already scaled a company and that will come back to do it again, now seated in the driver seat. It also fosters very qualified angel investors that can support the companies as they are starting.

But to the country, the impact is also enormous. We are showing that being successful is possible with hard work and ingenuity. Not everything needs to be inherited and handed to you.?

We are solving problems in new and more efficient ways, bringing competition and a better level of service to industries that were poorly served by incumbents. We are creating new and exciting careers and jobs that didn't previously exist.? We are showing people the value of education and forging new paths forward.?

In turn, we have seen society embrace innovation. Despite political preferences, we see the reflection of societal support in the government. The Central Bank went from a major hurdle to innovation to a ferocious promoter. CVM, Susep and ANS are all following suit, a few years behind. The congress, for the first time, is discussing startups. Not perfect but at least we are on the map.

Now the challenge will be to prove that more founders and startups can follow the steps of Cesar Carvalho at Gympass,? Alessio Alionco at Pipefy and become global players.? We see great indication that this will be the case - don't you agree Ricardo Josua?-. This will help the country go beyond an agricultural powerhouse and also play in the tech space. We have a fairly different set of problems from rich countries, solving those problems can also be done on a global scale.? Right Federico Vega @ Cargo X? ;-)

All that said, we are not a perfect ecosystem. Far from it.? For one problem: Carol Strobel and Anita Fiori always remind me of how little diversity we have.… and they are dead right. We need to do better.? Yet, I’m very proud to see that the vast majority of my peers is committed to bettering themselves and the ecosystem constantly. We will be better every day.? We are, as a group, set on doing the right thing. Thank you also to the IDB crowd for being such a great? support to the ecosystem, for so long. Thomas Teixeira, Felipe Cresciolo, Irene Arias!

Looking back at what I wrote, I realize how much I LOVE this job and everything that we have built. I cannot help but feel proud and excited abou what is yet to come. It is truly an honor and privilege to do what I do.?

And I have to thank my wife, Juliana Abreu, for supporting me in the ups and downs during all these years.

Venture capital is a people business and all these deserve my praise and more importantly, my sincere thank you.

Thank you all! And on to new adventures. ;-)