A group of entrepreneurs announced the creation of a non-profit institute with the purpose of fostering entrepreneurial education in Brazil. The trio is formed by founders of Nubank, XP, and Stone, who are seeking a space to connect leaders, startups, and educational institutions. The competitors are now united by a common cause and shared every detail of this hub with the CNN anchor, Rafael Fulanete.
David Velez, founder of Nubank, Guilherme Benchimol from XP, André Street from Stone. You created billion-dollar companies from scratch that impact the lives of thousands of people and learned a lot from it. But what I'm most curious about here, before talking about this institute, is that these companies at some point compete with each other. And I wanted to hear from you, André Street, what motivated you to do this together?
Well, I think first there's an important message here that despite there being some competition between the companies, we are friends, we get along very well with each other and learn from each other. So, we thought that bringing these founders together in this initiative would be a good message so that we can focus the institute and have all the energy in one place, and we can transfer a little of the knowledge, the method, and the support network that we created with our companies.
Picking up on that point, André, about the support network, Guilherme, I wanted to ask you how much you believe entrepreneurship can change the country, can make people more engaged, even politically? And I wanted to add to that question, we are in the era of the internet, of Instagram, there are a lot of social media entrepreneurs, but you can see the history of the guy, founded nothing, did nothing, but is giving courses, lectures, super successful. I think they also do a good job. And I wanted you to give me an observation on this. You are doing this a bit to put real entrepreneurs in front of people and not PowerPoint or stage entrepreneurs.
Yeah, there's a super interesting statistic, right? Brazil 15 years ago had 6 million entrepreneurs, today there are 25 million entrepreneurs. So Brazil is more entrepreneurial. In practice, 80% of people in Brazil dream of becoming entrepreneurs.
80%. So that's a super relevant statistic and there is a demand, right? So us building a non-profit institute that can help this entrepreneur have more and more success, where the teachers are entrepreneurs who have already had successful stories. I think we bring a lot of practicality, right? Because precisely entrepreneurs who, like us, started from scratch, went through crises, went public, learned to talk with investors, we can bring advice that is very practical, where often one insight transforms the trajectory of that entrepreneur who wants to learn from us. So, it's an institute that will help through people who have actually made concrete stories.
You've been on social media for a long time, I follow you. Did it bother you sometimes to see people teaching entrepreneurship without authority? Because we are in an era where people teach that you have to spend money to progress in life. Did that bother you?
It's like this, I think there are many entrepreneurs who teach who maybe don't have that much experience, but who teach cool things. And I think that's positive anyway, right? You having more people talking about entrepreneurship, more people transmitting best practices and helping to transmit important knowledge from books, important authors. But here it's different. I think we will bring not just the three of us, but other entrepreneurs who will help ensure we have scale and that the institute's message is more robust. You talked about spending money, etc. I think again, I think there's no right or wrong. I think the entrepreneur who is focused on their business is always more cautious with money, right? Because they know they never made it. So it's important to be reserved, it's important to be careful, because entrepreneurship is always... you're always on a razor's edge, right? If you start to think you made it, I think that's the beginning of the end, right? So, always being cautious and always having a lot of respect for money, I think is something super important.
David, you weren't born in Brazil, but you made your life here in Brazil and Nubank is expanding outside of Brazil, entering the American market, which is perhaps one of the most complex and competitive markets in the world. What message does this leave for the Brazilian entrepreneur who sometimes doesn't believe they can create a big business, that can even expand and break borders?
Well, I think Brazil is a country with a lot of opportunity and is very big. I think it has even brought many entrepreneurs from other Latin American countries and even the United States, because entrepreneurship is about solving big problems and Brazil has big problems. And this type of opportunity, one of the things we learned in Brazil is that there is the possibility of creating big companies in the country, even in highly regulated sectors like financial services that were so concentrated for so long. And the size of the market is a great opportunity for any entrepreneur. I think one of the biggest opportunities for us to look at is that it's impossible to build big companies in small markets. And Brazil is very big. So, first, there is the possibility of building a big company solving a big problem in Brazil. And if it works out, if that possibility exists, then there is a possibility to grow even more outside of Brazil in Latin America and eventually think or have ambitions to go beyond, which is the case of the bank we are trying to build. Brazil in some areas is ahead of developed financial countries. Brazil is 5 years ahead of the United States. So, the Brazilian entrepreneur can see the future today, right? Look at what's happening with Pix.
Isn't it the other way around, because Martin da D used to say that in Brazil you can read the next day's newspaper, that things happen outside first and then happen here. But in financial services, no. We are very advanced.
Yes. It is. I think in some areas Brazil is behind and or historically we have the feeling that we Latin Americans, Brazil is 5 years behind in some areas, right? I think in financial services, specifically, we are ahead. The United States is still using checks, right? Physical money exists there. So there is an opportunity for the problems that have already been solved well in Brazil to be solved in other countries of the world.
Before throwing it to everyone, is it easier to be an entrepreneur outside of Brazil or inside Brazil?
It's easier. I think in comparison with Latin American countries, it's easier to be an entrepreneur in Brazil than in many Latin American countries.
