What do these numbers mean?

On July 4th, I turned 33. Two weeks later, on July 18th, I was landing in New York for my first international business trip to the USA. As I flew over where my grandfather was born, I realized that he would have turned 99 that very day. That's triple my age… and three years before my mother was born, he got his degree in Engineering, just like I would 64 years later. He was also about 6 feet tall and a better listener than a talker. So we share our birth month, career path, physical and behavioral traits, even though I didn't get to grow up living close to him. Coincidence?

My grandfather was born in Long Island, within 50 mi of the JFK Airport

I joined VTEX two years ago, so it has been a part of my life for roughly 6% of my time on Earth. As a 21-year old company, I have been a part of its life for roughly 10% of its own existence. When I joined there were roughly 400 of us. Now we more than tripled in size, to over 1200 employees worldwide. In this period, the company raised $365 million in funding over two investment rounds, becoming the 12th tech unicorn in Brazil.

On July 21st we became a NYSE-listed company, after an IPO with a public offering price of US$19.00 per share, currently trading at a 25% high from the initial stock price. But is there any meaning to all these numbers? Do they paint the full picture of this team that is positioning Latin America among the protagonists of the global technology landscape?

As humans, we are always searching for meaning, using our creativity to connect the dots with stories that help us sustain the belief that there is something more to life than the random chaos of the void. The thing is, these stories are always written looking back and often filtering the facts. It's the art of forgetting, we do that to survive.

While that is part of what makes living exciting, it's also the kind of thing that makes us believe in prophecies even when there isn't solid evidence to back them up. In doing so, we may start believing what happened was "meant to be", that we were all "destined for success" and, surprisingly, that getting this far has been an easy ride.

The unicorn in this comic is pink. COINCIDENCE?

Looking at things now, it might seem like we were destined for it. That no matter what, this would happen. In some ways, I agree… But things like this only happen when a highly talented and lucky group of people become extraordinarily committed to something greater than themselves. And it doesn't come overnight – it took VTEX two decades to become the tech phenomenon that we see now.

Spending a week with roughly 100 VTEX employees that got to represent their teams and experience the IPO firsthand, I heard dozens of stories about the long and winding road to what some might consider our success. Sleepless nights, setbacks, projects that failed... So many times things didn't go as planned and uncertainty loomed over our team.

If you joined VTEX recently you might not even believe we were talking about the same company, when you hear about the time our CEO slept on the office floor, or when we only had enough cash to keep going for another couple months if we didn't get a contract signed with a major customer. It was definitely not a straight line to success, whatever that means.

At the same time, and perhaps surprisingly to some, a contagious cloud of optimism surrounded us. Or was it the fireworks?

I don't know, all I know is that this optimism was not based on the belief that smooth sailing lies ahead. We were all just really excited about the new challenges we will face in this new chapter. They won't be easy – in fact, they might be the hardest we've ever faced in our lifetimes. But we know that we're all in this together, and we are here for the long run. We know there is a transformative future ahead, and we are here to accelerate it.

Celebrating is awesome, we all deserve it after so much hard work. But when the party's over and we're back to the office (as virtual as it may be in these pandemic times) we're back to square one, in a whole new league. And what got us this far won't be enough for us to keep evolving.?

Celebrating the new challenges ahead. The future is rebel pink!

It took me 33 years to become who I am now. I lived through many versions of who I am and what I thought my unique contribution to the world would be. I am proud of all of them and how far I've come, but who I was or what I wanted matters less than my journey of self-discovery and pursuit of knowledge. I feel this applies to VTEX as well.

So what do all these numbers mean, after all? Not much. We leveled up, but we still have a long way to the top if we want rock and roll. And for as long as we are fueled by outstanding talent and an unwavering desire to shake the world, we will keep on climbing.

If you liked this post, you might also like:?The patience of a gardener, where I talk about the time it takes for truly amazing things to flourish. And if you are a non-conformist who wants to move the world with us, check out our careers page.