The Stanford Business Reporter

"Rio will never be the same." The CEO of the software startup where I worked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, uttered this phrase. I don’t think it was a compliment, either!

I spent my summer with Endeavor, a nonprofit dedicated to wealth creation through supporting entrepreneurship in developing countries. Endeavor provides networking opportunities and facilitates professional and industry contacts for the entrepreneurs in its program. One such service the organization provides is to match each entrepreneur with an "eMBA," an MBA student from a top school who works with the entrepreneur’s company for the summer. I worked with Autômatos, a provider of systems management software.

I worked with the three entrepreneurs who founded Autômatos (they are currently serving in the CEO, CTO, and general manager roles). They, themselves, weren’t that much older than I, so they really treated me as part of the team. We debated the state of the business--the product strategy, pricing policies, distribution partnerships (we signed a large one with Compaq while I was there), marketing positioning, and much more--just about daily. Nights became four-way, two-hour strategy sessions over pizza and "choppes" in the café at the bottom of our office-building, located in Cinelândia, the old cinema and theater district of the city. I was the fair-weather ally, sometimes siding with the CTO against the CEO and GM, sometimes with the CEO against the GM and CTO and sometimes just flaming all of them in favor of my own points.

Mornings became all-out email wars as we debated decisions made the night before. We probably yelled at each other every day as four strong personalities collided and the pressures of running a startup got intense.

I produced a mountain of paper while there: near- and long-term financial models, an offering memorandum and tons of calculations in preparation for the company’s second round of venture financing--essentially, all the useless paper you learn to produce as a junior banker. I nearly ruined the company’s one inkjet printer. I became the management’s number cruncher, idea-bouncer, personal secretary, psychotherapist, sergeant-at-arms, referee, personal trainer and friend. I became the firm’s expert on Brazilian coffee, dark chocolate and bad puns (as funny as they are NOT in English…they’re even worse in Portuguese). I provided all with great entertainment as I learned my "ãos, ões, ães" and other Portuguese sounds that don’t roll off a gringa’s tongue. I became the neighborhood novelty as I walked to the corner coffee shop in my cowboy pajamas at six in the morning, my apartment building’s enigma as I walked the eleven flights of stairs for exercise, and my bus driver’s arch enemy as I yelled for him to "slow the hell down!" I read O Globo every day and argued politics with our firm’s general counsel. And, I introduced my co-workers to The Doobie Brothers, The Allman Brothers and Gordon Lightfoot.

I learned about network infrastructure, the server industry, and everything you ever wanted to know about how to max out your CPU. Most importantly, I learned the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture--particularly as it relates to Caipirinhas, the samba beat, and food from Minas Gerais.

Thank GOD for SMIF. Working for a nonprofit would have been impossible if not for the grant. With the economy in the toilet and my job prospects uncertain-at-best, I was afraid I’d be eating Top Ramen for the foreseeable future if I worked in nonprofit. But, SMIF helped out, and I am proud to report that I haven’t eaten anything freeze-dried all year.