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Guilherme Benchimol

Founder and Chairman of the Board, XP Inc.

Search every verified Guilherme Benchimol interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Guilherme Benchimol, founder and chairman of XP, appeared in two recent public conversations about entrepreneurship and Brazil's business environment. In an October 2026 episode of The Business of Life, he discussed his early career, including the exhaustion that led him to consider selling XP in the early 2010s and the company's receipt of a R$100 million investment from the British fund Actis in 2010 for 20% of its capital. He reflected on his personal philosophy, stating that he does not consider himself brilliant but attributes his success to discipline and resilience, and argued that people should pursue what they do well rather than what they like. In an August 2026 conversation with João Adibe, hosted by the B55 Institute, Benchimol discussed entrepreneurship, digital transformation, and challenges facing Brazilian business leaders. He commented on the importance of distinguishing committed employees from competent ones, noted that entrepreneurs control only expenses and should avoid debt in Brazil's high-interest-rate environment, and said that while Brazil faces macro challenges, the biggest opportunities are in the micro rather than the macro. He also encouraged entrepreneurs to make decisions promptly, stating that "27 has already started" and that if a decision needs to be made, it should be made now.

Recent appearances

  • Benchimol: “You shouldn't do what you like, but what you do well” | THE BUSINESS OF LIFE

    October 16, 2026 · 📺 Brazil Journal

    “I don’t want to be an entrepreneur anymore. This life is hell.” In the early 2010s, XP was already the largest independent brokerage firm in the country—but its founder and then CEO, Guilherme Benchimol, was exhausted. “I worked for ten years and had very few weekends off,” he told Nilton Bonder in this episode of The Business of Life. With his second daughter on the way and an unsustainable work routine, Benchimol even considered selling the company. In 2010, XP received an investment of R$100 million from the British fund Actis, for 20% of its capital. But the businessman received advice…

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  • Faria Lima no agro: GAFFFF com Guilherme Benchimol, Rafael Furlanetti e mais | Assessor 360

    October 12, 2026 · 📺 Além da Carteira and Pablo Spyer

    Terceiro ano da XP no GAFFFF, mais de 90 horas de conteúdo, 394 palestrantes e produtores rurais de todo o Brasil no Lounge XP. Um evento como esse vai muito além do que acontece no palco: é onde clientes, empresários e assessores se conhecem, trocam experiências e criam relações que continuam depois que o evento termina. Neste episódio do Assessor 360, você acompanha os bastidores do segundo dia do Global Agribusiness Festival 2026 pelo ecossistema XP e ouve: — Guilherme Benchimol, fundador da XP, sobre os valores que sustentam a cultura da empresa e por que o Brasil precisa de mais empreen…

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  • I discussed Brazil in 2027 with Guilherme Benchimol | João Adibe Out and About

    August 27, 2026 · 📺 João Adibe Marques

    In this episode, João Adibe participates in an event hosted by the B55 Institute and shares a special conversation with Guilherme Benchimol. During the live stream, they discuss entrepreneurship, digital transformation, building companies, the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in Brazil, and the opportunities that could define the coming years. A meeting between two Brazilian entrepreneurs to exchange experiences, visions for the future, and lessons learned from those who live the business world in practice. More than just talking about companies, the conversation touches on a fundamental t…

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  • Guilherme Benchimol: The Mindset Behind Building XP

    August 09, 2026 · 📺 Arthurito Faria Lima and B3

    Being fired at 24 could be a career-starting trauma. For Guilherme Benchimol, the event became the starting point of a story that transformed the Brazilian financial market. In the premiere of the second season of Humans of Faria Lima, Arthurito talks with the founder and chairman of the board of XP about the decisions, crises, and principles that shaped his 25 years as an entrepreneur, from a small office in Porto Alegre to building one of the most relevant companies in the Brazilian financial market with R$2 trillion under management and custody. Benchimol discusses XP's early years, the i…

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  • GUILHERME BENCHIMOL | The News

    August 02, 2026 · 📺 the news cc

    At the last edition of Expert, XP's investment event in São Paulo, there were booths from Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Itaú, BTG, and Safra. The same banks that XP was created to challenge were present at the competitor's event—and this has been the case for several years. More than 80,000 people attended over three days at the 16th edition of an event that began 25 years ago with 200 guests, 150 of whom were XP employees. Guilherme Benchimol, founder and current chairman of the company's board, has a theory to explain how a brokerage firm becomes a leading force in the entire industry: doing…

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  • The MINDSET Shift That Made Me a Billionaire (Guilherme Benchimol) | Jota Jota Podcast #284

    June 30, 2026 · 📺 Joel Jota and Guilherme Benchimol

    📝 Subscribe to Guilherme Benchimol's newsletter: https://bit.ly/benchimol-jotajota “If everything depends on you, you don't have a business. You have a turbocharged job.” In this episode of the Jota Jota Podcast, Joel Jota hosts Guilherme Benchimol, founder of XP, for a lesson on how to stop being the bottleneck in your own life and business. If you work too much, centralize all decisions, and feel that growth has stalled, this video is for you. Benchimol reveals how he went from being laid off to building one of the largest financial institutions in Brazil, focusing on culture, continuity,…

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  • How He Went From Being Fired to Owning a Billion-Dollar Business - with Guilherme Benchimol

    June 11, 2026 · 📺 O Diário de um Fundador

    Join us in Brazil's most valuable room with Guilherme Benchimol and other great entrepreneurs: https://b55.org.br/conference-v2/?utm... In today's episode, we delve into the story of Guilherme Benchimol, the visionary entrepreneur behind XP Inc. He was fired and told he didn't have the right profile for the financial market. Against all odds, he created XP and revolutionized the market, achieving impressive milestones, such as going public on Nasdaq. But what does nobody know about the challenges of building a company that today has approximately 2 trillion reais under custody, 5 million c…

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  • Fundador da XP foi demitido e ouviu do pai: GENTE BOA NÃO É DEMITIDA | Guilherme Benchimol

    May 18, 2026 · 📺 Deep Story | FilmCast

    Episódio em parceria com Oriz Partners - Uma gestora independente que une a exclusividade do Family Office com a variedade de serviços do Private Banking. Um hub de negócios completo para famílias e investidores que buscam soluções feitas sob medida. https://www.orizpartners.com.br 📺 Histórias que inspiram gerações. Inscreva-se no Deep Story:    / @deepstorycast   ———— 🎬 Conheça Rafa Miranda, o criador por trás do maior FilmCast do Brasil:    / @sourafamiranda   ———— ✂️ Os melhores momentos de cada episódio estão no Deep Story Cuts:    / @deepstorycuts   — Guilherme Benchimol é o fundador da…

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  • Entrepreneurship Talk - Guilherme Benchimol, XP Inc.

    May 15, 2026 · 📺 Valor Econômico

    Guilherme Benchimol, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of XP Inc. Moderation: Maria Fernanda Delmas, Editor-in-Chief of Valor Econômico 00:00 - Sponsors 16:56 - Entrepreneurship Talk - Guilherme Benchimol, XP Inc.

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  • Brazil is the next big thing for investors, says Benchimol to CNN | ABERTURA DE MERCADO

    May 13, 2026 · 📺 CNN Brasil Money

    During Brazil Week in New York, CNN Brasil international correspondent Priscila Yazbek exclusively interviewed Guilherme Benchimol, founder and executive chairman of XP Inc.’s board of directors. For him, foreign investors see Brazil as the next big thing. But despite the optimism, problems related to the country’s fiscal sector could drive foreigners away. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to @cnnbrmoney here on YouTube and follow the news on all platforms: WEBSITE:     &nbsp…

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  • Guilherme Benchimol: discipline, health, and the habits that made a difference.

    May 12, 2026 · 📺 SouLongevo

    Guilherme Benchimol built XP from scratch — from a 25m² room in Porto Alegre to the Nasdaq. But in this episode, he talks about something that rarely appears in success stories: the physical and emotional cost of hyperfocus at work, and what changed when he began to treat his own health as a strategic asset. Founder and Chairman of the Board of XP Inc., Benchimol opens up about self-awareness, health routines, genetic testing, the balance between intuition and structure in leadership — and why, for him, discipline trumps talent in any scenario. Hosts: 🎙️ Renata Vichi — entrepreneur, investor…

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  • Guilherme Benchimol: 25 Years of Lessons Building XP

    May 05, 2026 · 📺 Rafael Furla

    Guilherme Benchimol, founder of XP Investimentos, shares the lessons learned from 25 years building one of the largest financial companies in Brazil. Throughout the conversation, he talks about entrepreneurship, leadership, difficult decisions, culture building, partnership, artificial intelligence, and the future of business. A practical view on success, money, and continuous evolution. Direct content for those who are building for the long term. Subscribe to the channel to follow new episodes of Furlacast.

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“I think Brazil is a wonderful country, but it lacks good stories. I think that in Brazil, evil is much noisier than good, you know? I think that as you have more success as a businessman, you see that it's evidently very good to help the country you were born in; you have to help, and your company won't grow if Brazil doesn't succeed, right? So, I think we need to have good stories from Brazil; we need to have good e”

“The GAF is fantastic. This ability to bring Faria Lima together with agribusiness is impressive, right? Because in the end, we bring capital together with the field. It's important to have the field, but the field without money doesn't work, right? And vice versa, right? You have money and don't have anything to eat, it doesn't work, right? So this combination is very nice. I'm sure we're just getting started.”

“I think the only thing an entrepreneur controls is expenses, right? So he has to try to work with the lowest possible expense. It's a binary year from Brazil's point of view. We are a country with very high interest rates, and perhaps we don't manage public accounts in the best possible way. This makes money in Brazil expensive. So you can't be in debt. It's possible this current environment will last longer. We neve”

“Look, at that time we were heading toward going public on the B3 in 2017. Right. We were growing quite a bit and we thought it was the moment to go public in Brazil. We had already applied for a banking license in the country, right? So, we wanted to, it was necessary to have a bit more capital. And then Martin Escobari from General Atlantic, a great partner of ours, a great friend, our partner to this day, actually,”

“We are convinced that the more capitalism we have in Brazil, the more entrepreneurs taking risks and believing in the country, the more innovation, jobs, income, and everything else we get. My father, a doctor, had no experience in the business world, and he said: 'Guilherme, look, rest assured that competent, hardworking people like you will never get fired,' you know? So, I think it was that sentence that ultimatel”

“Our future is that we only have 10% market share at XP. We have an ambitious goal which is by 2033 to be the largest investment company in Brazil. The whole company today is focused on delivering a comprehensive quality agenda. The goal of our CEO and our entire team is quality — that we delight all our clients. And we understand that this formula will make us more and more successful in a country where banking conce”

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