Entrepreneur Henrique Dubugras, 26, said he had one regret about his early career: spending too much time reading business books instead of talking more to clients, especially younger ones.
“As you read the business books, you see strategic structures, and they’re beautiful, amazing. But the problem when you’re too focused on strategy is you forget about the customer, the person you’re actually selling to,” he commented, during a debate at the Brazil Conference, in Boston, this Saturday (9).
Dubugras, who is part of the list of billionaires, also commented on the fact that, at 26 years old, he is no longer the youngest person in the work environments he frequents, and that he also seeks to better understand what this younger audience thinks.
“Whoever is 18 today was born in 2004. They’ve never lived in a world where Facebook doesn’t exist. There’s a whole new generation, they’re adults, making decisions and creating culture and moving the world. What kind of businesses are they creating? what kind of businesses are they interested in? This is the kind of thing I try to spend time on these days: a lot more time with consumers and less time with books,” he continued.
Dubugras joined the Forbes Billionaires list this month. Coming from São Paulo, he is one of the founders of Brex, a corporate card company for startups, alongside Pedro Franchesci, 25. The fortune of each of them was estimated by the magazine at US$ 1.5 billion.
The entrepreneur shared the debate with fellow billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, currently the richest man in Brazil, according to Forbes, and with Justin Mateen, co-founder of the Tinder app.
The trio dealt with innovation in work models after the pandemic. They pointed out that remote working brings advantages as it facilitates the hiring of people from different parts of the world, but that the system makes it difficult to incorporate young professionals into companies.
“In 2019, if someone asked me about remote work, I would say we wouldn’t go for this model at all. A few years later, we’re one of the first companies that announced that they’re going to be ‘remote first’ forever. employees from outside the Bay Area [região de San Francisco]. The biggest advantage is the ease of hiring,” he said.
Lemann replied that “I like it for myself. I think this works for many types of companies, but not for others. Over time, people will realize which ones they work for”, he pondered.
Dubugras also gave other advice, such as seeking to invest in areas that are growing. He said that when he started working with payments, there were only two large companies in the sector, which left room for the emergence of new solutions. “If you can find an idea you’re passionate about in a place that’s in a growing market, there’s good momentum. It helps a lot.”
“I love thinking about the second or third effect of things. iPhones came. They have GPS, so you can have delivery apps or Uber. And then there’s all these Ubers and the gig economy, which is now a huge part of the economy. What services can we provide for them? What will change in the world if 10% of the country’s population joins the gig economy?”
How to be an entrepreneur?
The businessman pointed out that the best way to train yourself to be an entrepreneur is to be one and try to create a company. And that it failed a few times before it managed to establish Brex.
Asked about the differences between starting a business in Brazil and in the US, he said he felt that there was a lack of available capital in his home country. “If you look at the most successful companies in Brazil, they were able to come to the US, raise money here and deploy it there,” he pointed out.
Due to this difficulty, Dubugras said he prefers to help more entrepreneurs in Brazil to move forward. “I would choose ten times more to spend time and money helping Brazil than helping Stanford grant funds go from 30 million to 31 million.”
Asked about dealing with success, he said he considers self-perception an important point. “You think you’re immune to some of the clichés that happen when you’re very successful, but you’re not. For me, that’s super important because since I was 15, I’ve had journalists and people saying, ‘He’s a genius. He’s so smart. ‘. So good,” he says.
“Enough people to make you believe that. You need systems in your life to go back and say, ‘Hey, you’re not so good.’
I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
