Hey OP, how would you describe the startup culture in Brazil? I've been thinking of spending some time in São Paulo/Brazil working on personal projects. But, have no idea where to go and if there are other sw and/or hw developers hacking away.
Not coincidentally my goal is to move to the US as soon as possible.
That all being said, there are also some opportunities here. The country is huge (200+ million), so the internal market is big enough to fuel a startup growth. Second, quite often it's possible to merely clone something that is working in the US here. Some people did that with Groupon, for instance, and they made a lot of money.
Feel free to send me an email if you decide to come here. I'll be glad to show you around (contact details on my profile).