Comment by kikoreis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kikoreis | Hacker News Reader

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Since I can't downvote, I just wanted to note I find your comment really offensive. Is the current zeigeist is to devalue anything remotely Brazilian? My experience is the absolute opposite of yours. I've built companies here that worked with very little prior experience. I've worked with lost of spectacular leaders, made really good money, and seen many things technology and business-wise improve dramatically over time.

It's hard to have a constructive debate about specifics on this thread because your post is essentially a list of negative generalities. But to take your first point, why would you say we don't have a startup ecosystem? I see dozens of startups around me that are bustling, hiring, taking financing, failing, pivoting, growing. Just in my small city we have Arquivei & Monitora who are success stories, and many that have gone through at least one funding round. A new startup center, ONOVOLAB, was set up here this year. There are other examples nationwide. Gosh, Google just opened its own accelerator here after witnessing the success of others' existing programs. It can't be as bleak as you are painting.

Are you a developer?

I'm sure there are exceptions, but the majority of cases always rules.

There's an entire historical background that explains why most "executives" and founders see programmers, or any employee of any sort, as obedients servs that must compel and be grateful for their jobs.

That "classism" will always be present and act as the strongest force against innovation in that country.

Technology is not a factory and, whenever you try to modularize it in such form, you see mediocre, subpar, results.

There might have some small local companies that are able to challenge the even worse local oligarchs from past generations, but they will never be able to compete at a global level, as you'd expect from a real startup ecosystem.

And if they end up facing an international competitor, they might as well be crushed or acquired by them.

I don't get into a personal attack here, but you may want to experience more in depth some of these places like SF, Israel, Chile, Paris, Berlin to understand these profound cultural differences.

I started my career as a developer, working at Promon on the Tropico R and RA exchanges, and then shifted completely to Linux and open source development, which is when I founded my first companies. I don't really do a lot of real coding any longer, though.

I see the symptoms you describe, of our startups being less globally impactful [1], as a natural consequence of a smaller, more internally focused [2], and less mature ecosystem, but I don't see all the dysfunction you allude to. I have worked with poor leaders and good ones in Brazil and abroad, and I can't say Brazil tends to any of the extremes of the spectrum. Yeah, there's an oligarchy that has a strong effect on the ability for an entrepreneur (or employee) to "make it", but name a country where there isn't one?

I write this mostly for the benefit of this thread, as I don't think you're really approaching this discussion with useful data or an open mind.

[1] although you have Movile, 99Taxis, iFood to serve as counterpoints to that generalization

[2] your comment on global reach being an important metric reminded me of Nubank, and this article from earlier in the year: https://epocanegocios.globo.com/Empreendedorismo/noticia/201...

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