The J Curve Episode with Gustavo Brigatto, Founder and Chief Editor at The Startups Brazil: Five Big Ideas

Gustavo Brigatto is a founder and chief editor of Startups Brazil, a media platform that covers tech and venture capital in Latin America and beyond. Before becoming a founder, Gustavo spent 15 years as a business journalist, 12 of which were at Valor Economico, the largest economics, finance and business newspaper in Brazil.

In case you wonder about how big the media market in Brazil is, it’s VERY BIG:

1. In 2021, Globo Comunicação e Participações S.A. – one of the main companies within the media conglomerate known as Grupo Globo – ranked first in the media and publishing sector in Brazil, with net revenue of over $2.8B (14 billion Brazilian reals).

2. Media ownership is highly concentrated. Conglomerates such as Globo, the leading broadcaster, dominate the market and run TV and radio outlets, newspapers and pay TV

3. Brazil’s digital media consumption is one of the heaviest in the world: 171m people use social media in 2023. This number is projected to continuously grow to 191m by 2028

Here are the 5 big ideas from our conversation with Gustavo 🧐💡👇🏻:

1. ChatGPT and AI are not a threat to authentic journalism

   Although it’s still an uncharted territory, AI is poised to improve the efficiency of operations and bring down the overhead costs

2. The hardest thing about being an entrepreneur is taking everything on yourself

   When it comes down to it, there will hardly ever be as much risk involved with sitting behind a desk at a nine-to-five job as there will be as an entrepreneur. But freedom to choose your own destiny, do things your way and be part of the solution on your own terms worth it

3. The secret to community-led growth is authenticity and showing up as a founder or a CEO

   Community building has the best ROI out of all the marketing and sales tactics. At the same time, building the community is not the same as posting regularly on Instagram and LinkedIn. You need to put a face on your brand and genuinely interact with the community members across different channels

4. When scaling a digital startup, don’t depend on the platforms controlled by big tech alone

   Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn is your rental property, your AirBnB. While you absolutely can use them as a growth engine, you need to have a platform (think Newsletter), where you can build direct relationships with your customer / community member. You can’t be the hostage to the algorithm

5. Startups die by suicide not by homocide

   In content specifically, consistency, persistence and relevancy is the queen. Ignore the noise, focus on your own pace and getting the basics right

Gustavo’s book recommendation is Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh

You can watch the interview on YouTube here.

Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Thanks for reading,

Olga