Who is Rafael Santos ?
Summary
- Passionate about Culture/Talent Building and driven by Lean Startup Movement as well as Product Management Culture (Hypothesis/Experimentation);
- Always learning, curious and trying to improve cause I believe that continuous improvement is the key factor for building an infinite business;
- Obsessed about Playbooks, Cerimonies and Squads;
- Hands-on when it comes do Software Design and Architecture. Motivated by the need to overcome Challenges of Scale;
- Well versed in Web Technologies, Scaling Techniques, Data Engineering, Infrastructure and Data Science
Experience in Global Companies
- MC1 Global - Chief Product Officer (since 2021)
"Helping CPGs deliver products to consumers efficiently"
Leading a team organized in 2 tribes with around 80 people between Product Managers, Product Designers and Engineers. MC1 is leading the digital transformation of CPG Industry worldwide (30+ countries) with SaaS solutions for sales automation and sales execution, including cutting-edge technologies such as AI/ML for Shelf Image Recognition and Smart Routing (in partnership with Google). Award-winning products according to Promotion Optimization Institute (POI). - Creditas - Product Leader (2019/2021)
"Helping people achieve their goals by leveraging their assets"
Working with teams in Brazil and Spain, I lead the Digital Product development, from scratch, of a new business vertical (Consumer Solutions) and 2 business units (Creditas Auto and Creditas Home) leading a team of 6 Squads. Also lead the Product and Tech merger between Creditas Auto and Volanty.
Experience as Entrepreneur (16y)
Founded 4 different Brazilian technology startups starting in 2003.-
Decision6 - CTO and founder (2014/2019) - Exit: Sold shares in 2019
"Empowering brick-and-mortar stores with Consumer Behavior Insights"
(see more details)
- Product: In-Store Customer Behavior Analytics Platform using cutting-edge Data Science / ML to track consumers via wifi.
- Numbers: MRR of US$100.000 (R$250.000), 700 Stores, 1.200 sensors, 4 Countries
- Locations: Operating in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Portugal.
- Awards: An award-winning Brazilian Technology Startup founded in 2015, considered Top 100 Startups to Watch in Brazil and Top 13 Marketing focused Startup in 2018 as well as best IoT solution for Retailers in 2019 by RetailTech Mining Report.
- Raised: $1.5 million (R$4 millions) in funding (Seed and Series A) from INSEED Investimentos in 2017 and HBS Angels in 2015.
- MetaCerta.com - CEO and founder (2013/2015) - Exit: Sold product
An award-winning SaaS Finance Management Brazilian Technology Startup founded in 2008, considered one of the best Startups in Brazil in 2012 (Desafio Brasil - FGV) and 2013 (DEMO Brasil), also considered a Social Technology by Tech4Good (CDI) and Projeto Visão de Sucesso (Endeavor/Itaú/BID). - Specta - CEO and founder (2008/2015)
Outsourcing high-performance product teams we developed more than 10 SaaS Digital Products for big Brazilian companies (leaders on their segment) using cutting-edge technologies at the time (including Data Science models). We built products to: Contax/Liq (leader in BPO and Contact Center), Tivit (leader in Digital Solutions), IE Intercâmbio (leader in Exchange Student Programs), Multicargo Group (leader in Logistics Engineering for heavy loads), MedRio Checkup (leader in medical checkup), MRO Logistics (leader in stock intelligence and replacement for big companies) and Odebrecht (leader in infrastructure engineering and construction services). - ThinkFreak - Founder (2003/2004)
Built the first 2 Brazilian VoIP carriers (Televoz and Redevoz). Responsible for developing VoIP gatekeeper and billing SaaS solutions. Also built the first VoIP Research Lab at PUC-Rio University.
Personal and Curiosities
- Family: A family man with great love for his wife, so cute daughter and all my 3 dogs
- Started coding at 10 (1992) and never stopped Basic, C ANSI, C++, Assembly, Java, PHP, Flex, Javascript, GoLang, Shell Script
- Switched to Linux at 14 (1996) when ordered a Slackware 3.0 that took 1 month to arrive from US (yes it was impossible to download such a thing in a 28K or 56K modem connection. By the way at that time Linux Kernel took hour to compile
- Switched to MacOS around 2012
- Learning: A preference for effective learning through books and courses versus daily saviours Google and Stack Overflow
- eSports: Second on The CLQ World Ranking for Quake Team Fortress (1990s)
- Sports and Outdoors: Used to be an avid sportsman with Snowboarding, Roller Skating, Basketball, Trekking and Rock Climbing among the favourites
- Disney and Rollercoasters in general are a guilty pleasure