Welcome to Tech Talents! In this newsletter, I share real-time key talent movements in the LatAm tech ecosystem, including founders entering and exiting stealth mode, executive-level movements in unicorns, and partner-level changes in local VC firms.
Here’s a quick look at what you’ll find in this week’s edition:
🎊 Startup Launches: Norma, Shorta & more
🤫 Talents Entering Stealth: Ex-Senior Director, Global Head of Public Policy at Nubank, ex-Head of Payments at Celcoin, ex-Design Director at Inventa & more
📖 Recent Reads: Billion-Dollar Founder Study, Market Update from Redpoint
👋 Tech Talents Match: Find your co-founder, expand your network, and discover job opportunities. Register your profile or submit a role
Let’s dive in…
🎊 Startup Launches
Founders who have just publicly announced what they are working on.
Norma
Overview
Startup Description: AI platform for Brazilian tax compliance: automates product catalog updates, e-invoice validation, XML/SPED analysis, and ERP integrations.
Industry: Legal Tech, AI, SaaS
Team Size: 6
Time in Stealth: 2 years, 7 months
Founder Profile
Renato Sanabria - Co-Founder & CEO at Norma
Featured as a Stealth Founder in Tech Talents #19
Founder Highlights: Scaleup Experience, Ex-Consultant, Top University
Previous Experience: Ex-Founding Team at Tino Product, ex-Analytics Manager at Quero Educação, ex-Data Scientist at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), ex-Co-founder and CEO at TerraMagna.
Headquarters: Brazil
Co-Founder: Bruno da Silva Assis
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Shorta
Overview
Startup Description: Shorta is a mobile-native series platform offering vertical, creator-led fiction for Gen Z.
Industry: Mobile, B2C
Team Size: 17
Time in Stealth: 4 months
Founder Profile
Ariel Arrieta - Cofounder & Chairman at Shorta
Featured as a Stealth Founder in Tech Talents #42
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Previous Exit, Top University, Ex-Corporate, Investor
Previous Experience: Co-Founder & Managing Partner at NXTP Ventures, ex-Genesis Member at VC3 DAO, ex-Board Member at Arquivei, ex-Board Member at Securitize, ex-Managing Director & SVP Technology at Fox Networks Group, OPM 41 in Management at Harvard Business School, Kauffman Fellow.
Headquarters: Argentina
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Reefo
Overview
Startup Description: Reefo helps hospitals test AI vendors against real data before their purchase decision and monitor them after.
Industry: HealthTech, AI
Team Size: 2
Time in Stealth: 5 months
Founder Profile
Iago Maciel – Founder and CEO at Reefo
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Top University, Ex-Corporate
Previous Experience: ex-Product & Design Director at EXA, ex-Head of Product | Banking at BEES, ex-Group Product Manager (Tribe Lead) at AB InBev, Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from Universidade Federal de Pernambuco.
Headquarters: United States
Time in Current Position: 5 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Fronte
Overview
Startup Description: Fronte is building the financial operating system for transnational remittance households, underwriting entire households and organizing everyday cross-border finances so recipients can access credit and a full suite of neobanking products.
Industry: FinTech
Team Size: 5
Time in Stealth: 5 months
Founder Profile
Mateo Bermeo Motta - Co-Founder at Fronte
Featured as a Stealth Founder in Tech Talents #41
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Previous Exit, Top University
Previous Experience: ex-Co-founder & General Manager at Pago ASAP, ex-Lead Operations Manager at DolarApp, ex-Business Operations Manager - Colombia at Reserve, Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in Law from Universidad de Los Andes.
Headquarters: Colombia
Ask for an Intro: Click here
+3 other recently announced startups over the past two weeks with Tech Talents Pro
🤫 Talents Entering Stealth
Talents with relevant experiences who have just entered stealth mode.
Bruno Magrani – Cofundador at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Masters, Top University, Ex-Big Tech, Ex-Corporate, Investor, Ex-Consultant, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: ex-CEO at Zetta, ex-Senior Director, Global Head of Public Policy at Nubank, ex-Public Policy Director at Facebook, ex-Assistant Professor of Law at Fundação Getulio Vargas, Master of Laws (LLM) in Internet, Innovation and Intellectual Property from Harvard Law School, Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in Law from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Camilo Andrés Rojas Salazar – Stealth at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Ex-Corporate, Unicorn Experience, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: ex-Product Design Director at Habi, ex-Design Director at Inventa, ex-Design Director at Rappi.
Headquarters: Bogotá, Colombia
Time in Current Position: 2 years, 2 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Emmanuel Longa – Fundador at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Masters, Top University, Ex-Big Tech, Ex-Corporate, Ex-Consultant, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: ex-Head of Solutions at idwall, ex-CEO / Founder at Compensa, ex-Associate at BCG, ex-Junior Product Manager at Celonis, Master’s degree in Development, Production and Management in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University Munich, Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from USP.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 3 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Leandro Evangelista Dias – Construindo algo novo para educação brasileira at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Ex-Corporate, Investor, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: ex-Investidor & Board Member at Kinology, ex-Business Development Specialist at Kinology, ex-Head of Payments at Celcoin.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Ariel Levy – Founder (Building something new in B2B industrial markets) at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Masters, Top University, Ex-Corporate, Ex-Consultant, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: ex-Revenue - Growth, Marketing and Operations @ArcoPlus at isaac, ex-Head of Pricing (Latam) at Rappi, ex-Sr. Associate at BCG, Master of Science (MSc) in Economics from LSE, Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Insper.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Pedro Amoroso Lima – Founder at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Masters, Top University, Ex-Corporate, Ex-Consultant
Previous Experience: ex-Co-founder, Board Member at Consorciei, ex-Co-founder at O2 Fund, ex-Executive Manager (B2C China, Innovation) at BRF, ex-Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company, MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Bachelor’s from FGV.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Suelen Carvalho – Founder at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Technical Founder, Masters, Top University, Ex-Corporate, Ex-Consultant, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: ex-Engineering Manager at Nubank, ex-Game Engineering Manager at Wildlife Studios, ex-Engineering Tech Lead at Gympass, ex-CTO at Jeitto, MSc. in Computer Science from IME-USP, Graduation in Analysis and Systems Development from FATED.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
+5 other Talents to Watch (likely to move) over the past two weeks with Tech Talents Pro
📖 Recent Reads
My quick takes on interesting articles, news and data that I’ve come across recently.
There are several popular beliefs about what successful founders look like: young college dropouts, best friends or former co-workers starting a company together, Ivy League graduates, among many others. However, data from a recent study by Outcast Ventures challenges many of these assumptions.
The study analyzed the founding teams of every US tech company that either went public or was acquired for more than $1 billion over the past 20 years. Here are some of the key takeaways:
Co-founders who previously worked or studied together don’t produce larger exits.
CEOs with prior startup experience and prior exits are associated with significantly larger outcomes.
The median founder age of billion dollar+ companies is 35 at founding.
It’s worth noting that these findings show correlation with exit size, not causality. The study also focuses exclusively on companies that achieved $1B+ outcomes and compares within that group. It does not include the universe of companies that failed, so it can’t speak to the likelihood of success or failure, only to what characterizes the largest outcomes among winners.
This Market Update from Redpoint gives a compelling overview of the current technology landscape and makes a strong case for why bubble comparisons to the dotcom era are probably overblown. Unlike 2000, when fiber utilization was below 3% and revenue was essentially zero, today’s AI leaders are generating $20B+ in ARR each, and over 90% of new data center capacity is pre-committed before breaking ground. Demand is pulling the infrastructure forward.
We are just now moving past the “copilot” phase of AI and entering the early stages of agentic AI. Agents are starting to access labor spend, not just software spend, expanding the addressable market from roughly $0.5T to $1.2T in the US alone.
It’s true that the broader software market is under pressure, with public SaaS down 20% YTD and multiples at decade lows. But Vertical SaaS and infrastructure companies are largely holding, while Horizontal SaaS is down 35%. When AI can natively solve the coordination problems your product was built around, the threat is existential, not incremental.
And perhaps most interesting insight: across the internet, cloud, and mobile eras, the companies that became long-term winners were predominantly founded in years 4 and 5 of each platform shift. ChatGPT launched almost 4 years ago.
👋 Tech Talents Match
Find your co-founder, expand your network, and discover job opportunities that match your preferences.
Tech Talents Match now connects you to job opportunities
Tech Talents Match, the platform that connects potential co-founders in the Brazilian tech ecosystem, is now expanding to also cover job opportunities.
This isn’t a generic job board. Opportunities are sourced through startup and recruiting partners and matching is based on your profile, experience, and where you are in your career.
The first roles are already live. If you know someone exploring the market, forward this edition their way.
It takes less than 2 minutes. More than 100 professionals already on the platform.
Hiring for your team?
We’re working with a select group of tech companies and recruiting partners to fill roles through curated matching. If you have an open role and want access to this talent pool, reach out or submit a form via the link below.
If you have any feedback or suggestions about Tech Talents LatAm, please share them with me through my LinkedIn.