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: Primero AI, Autoconn & more
🦄 Unicorn Movements: New Software Engineering Director at Unico ID
📖 Recent Reads: Non-AI vs AI-native organizations, Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI & more
🤫 Talents Entering Stealth: Ex-Head of Product and Design at Inventa, ex-CFO at a YC S24 fintech & more
🤝 Tech Talents Match: Receba vagas em startups brasileiras que se encaixam no seu perfil, direto no seu WhatsApp. Acesse aqui.
Let’s dive in…
🎊 Startup Launches
Founders who have just publicly announced what they are working on.
Primero AI
Overview
Startup Description: AI platform unifying enterprise data and deploying agents to detect, recommend, and execute, optimizing inventory, credit, and margins.
Industry: AI
Team Size: 15
Time in Stealth: 1 year
Founder Profile
Santiago Buenahora – Co-Founder, CTO at Primero AI
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top University, Ex-Big Tech, Ex-Corporate, Investor, Y Combinator Alumni
Previous Experience: ex-Accelerator Founder at Neo, ex-Founder at MarcoPolo (YC W21), ex-Software Engineer at Robinhood, ex-Software Engineering at Affirm, Inc., ex-Software Engineering at Microsoft, Computer Science at University of Pennsylvania.
Headquarters: Mexico City, Mexico
Co-Founder: Jose Antonio Murillo
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Cast Insights
Overview
Startup Description: Real-time intelligence platform turning spoken content into structured, searchable data and predictive signals.
Industry: AI
Team Size: 5
Time in Stealth: 1 year, 4 months
Founder Profile
Otávio Costa Miranda – Founder & CEO at Cast Insights
Founder Highlights: Top University, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: Co-Founder & Board Member at Gabriel, ex-Entrepreneur In Residence at Canary, ex-Latin America Expansion and Business Development at Mobike, ex-International Expansion at Kuaishou Technology, Bachelor’s in Political Science and Government from Renmin University of China, Insper | HBS Owners and Presidents Program at Harvard Business School.
Headquarters: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Autoconn
Overview
Startup Description: Automation and governance platform for dealership commission management, fixing payout errors and streamlining processes.
Industry: SaaS, HR Tech, Retail
Team Size: 4
Time in Stealth: 2 years
Founder Profile
Rafael Haber – Co-Founder at Autoconn
Founder Highlights: Technical Founder, Scaleup Experience, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: ex-Data Engineering & Analytics at Inventa, ex-Data at Latú Seguros, ex-Associate Data Scientist at Wildlife Studios, Bachelor’s in Economics and Quantitative Methods from Babson College.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Ask for an Intro: Click here
OneGC
Overview
Startup Description: End-to-end startup legal platform with built-in top-tier attorneys for contracts, board consents, and fundraising.
Industry: Legal Tech, SaaS
Team Size: 3
Time in Stealth: 10 months
Founder Profile
Gabe Azevedo – Co-Founder & CTO at OneGC
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top University, Ex-Corporate, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: ex-Co-founder & VP of Engineering at Dibbs, ex-Software Engineer at QuintoAndar, Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering from FIAP.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Ask for an Intro: Click here
+4 other Announced Startups over the past two weeks with Tech Talents Pro
🦄 Unicorn Movements
Promotions, new hires, and other movements in local unicorns’ executive-level.
Rafael Pina – Software Engineering Director at Unico ID
Previous Role: R&D Software Development Director at Cognyte
Previous Experience: Ex-Engineering Director – CTO at Dígitro Tecnologia, MBA in Business Administration and Management from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
Headquarters: Florianópolis, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
📖 Recent Reads
My quick takes on interesting articles, news and data that I’ve come across recently.
This HBS research analyzed Y Combinator startups from the Winter 2020 to Fall 2024 batches to evaluate whether AI-native firms are organized differently from non-AI startups. Aside from offering a solid definition of what AI-native startups actually are (something hard to find nowadays), the main findings are: AI startups have approximately 25% fewer employees than non-AI firms in the same industry and cohort. The share of engineers is 5 percentage points higher. Their workforces skew senior, with the share of senior workers about 20% higher and entry-level workers roughly 15% lower. Lastly, their hierarchies are flatter: half a seniority level less depth and 15% fewer managers, even controlling for firm size. Despite the smaller teams, valuations are comparable to non-AI peers, implying meaningfully more value created per employee.
While the study has limitations (YC and PitchBook companies only, workforce data measured as of January 2025, and reliance on startups’ self-applied AI tags), it offers an early look into how these organizations are and will be structured.
Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last week, alleging trade secret theft and breach of contract. Notably, Apple claims the misconduct was directed by OpenAI's senior leadership, including its Chief Hardware Officer, a 24-year Apple veteran, whom it accuses of asking job candidates to bring Apple hardware components to interviews, coaching departing Apple employees on how to evade the company's security procedures, and asking for details about unannounced products. Interestingly, the lawsuit comes just as OpenAI is rumored to be developing its first hardware product, which would rival Apple's flagship product, the iPhone. OpenAI has denied the allegations, saying it has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets." Whichever way the case goes, it is a clear example of the threat Apple sees from AI labs to its hardware leadership.
To no one’s surprise, people are reading less and less. Fewer than half of American adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022, and the proportion who read for pleasure on any given day fell from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023. And yet, we are probably reading more words than ever, given the surge of information we consume on our smartphones, from short messages, to e-mails, and Instagram captions. But these are short bursts of text, not the rich and complicated information found in a book. The article’s argument is that we aren’t becoming illiterate, we’re becoming postliterate — losing not the ability to read words, but the ability to think deeply about them. There is no denying this shift is changing how our brains work, and the early effects are already visible.
🤫 Talents Entering Stealth
Talents with relevant experiences who have just entered stealth mode.
Guilherme Viebig – Founder at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters, Top University, Ex-Corporate, Unicorn Experience, Scaleup Experience
Signals: Global VP of Product @ Rappi (Jul 2021–Apr 2024); Head of Product & Design @ Inventa (Sep 2024–Jun 2026); prior founder (Bitloom, 2009–2020); FGV + MIT Sloan.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Guthyerrz Silva – Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Technical Founder, Top University, Unicorn Experience
Signals: 11 years at Wildlife Studios ending May 2026, exiting as Principal Software Engineer (previously Sr Eng Manager); UC Berkeley.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 2 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
+6 more Stealth Founders this week with Pro, including:
Ex-CTO at an edtech who scaled its engineering team from scratch to 110+ engineers through its acquisition.
Ex-CFO at a YC S24 fintech and repeat founder.
Ex-Sr. ML Engineer at a Big Tech EV maker until March 2026, immediately before going stealth.
Pro subscribers also get Talents to Watch every Monday (profiles flagged as likely to move, before any public signal).