Day 3.5 - Moving Day

Day 3.5 you may ask? Well, it’s the second half of my first day at work, which involved meeting the team I’ll be working with over the next couple months. Just as a background as to why I am here – my firm, Ernst & Young (E&Y), typically dedicates about ten to fifteen of its employees each year to a limited number of promising entrepreneurs in emerging economies in South America, in an effort to create scalable, sustainable economic value. Each of the selected employees, which I am fortunate to be one of this year; leverages their particular skills on projects for these young but promising companies. Some refer to it as skilled-based volunteering; our services are provided at zero cost to the entrepreneur. Also, E&Y considers this an investment in our personal and professional development and has agreed to incur the additional cost to transport, accommodate, and feed us during our time here. What’s even more impressive is that although there are only twelve employees participating in South America this year, we bring the full capability of our firm with us – a network of 167,000 people in 140+ countries with deep industry/sector knowledge and solutions to some of the most complex issues facing small, mid-sized and global companies. So it’s like I am not alone in Sao Paulo; another reason why I enjoy working for a global firm.

So, back to day 3.5. I met the entrepreneurs I will be working with at their current location in Vila Olimpia around noon; however, I quickly realized they were in the process of moving to another location. I met Edgard Ortiz, co-founder of Pixel Labs, who gave me a quick tour of the current location. Luckily, I was able to get a few pictures before we got in his car and headed to the new location in Rua Estevão Baião where I was able to get even more pictures.

 If I am still blogging several weeks from now, hopefully we will be able to see the transformation of this new office location (before and after).

Around 1pm, we drove back to Vila Olimpia for lunch at Trois 19 the 19^th floor of one of the newer skyscrapers in town.  I would have taken pictures there too but I decided not to be “that guy”. Daniel Li, also co-founder of Pixel labs, met up with us and we were able to chat about a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, food (Brazilian food of course); football/soccer; Silicon Valley; family; and of course business, which honestly, was secondary. However, it was truly inspiring to hear the passion in their voices of the type of company they are trying to build for their employees, for Sao Paulo and for Brazil. Just as inspiring was the humility with which they sought my input and ideas on how we could work together to help them achieve their potential.

Based on our conversation, it was clear that this company is at the beginning of a transition period – new office location, new business model, new product ideas, etc. I am so excited to be here with Edgard, Daniel and the rest of the Pixel team as they approach this inflection point in the life cycle of this company.

Co-founders Edgard and Daniel (left) and Edgar with Suely, the Product Development Director (right)