Sandro Felgueiras Castro

Focused on early-stage start-ups, with no restrictions on the business models that can be analysed and invested

FGV Ventures is a no-fee, no-equity startup accelerator focusing primarily on early-stage ventures. It provides strategic direction, training, and connections with mentors and partners. Notably, it's the first university-based accelerator in Brazil. It has completed 14 acceleration batches, accelerating 69 startups. Over 120 entrepreneurs have been directly impacted by their program, with the startups raising more than R$ 25.6 million post-acceleration. The valuation of the graduated startups exceeds R$ 125.1 million.

Board member of a start-up focused on exchanging global innovation to and from Latin America. Our target solution areas are Sales and Marketing, People Management and Industrial Solutions;

Context: Led a full turnaround of a highly fragmented Collections organization, rebuilding ~90% of the team within 12 months and restoring trust, accountability, and execution discipline using Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team framework. Action: Redesigned the credit cost structure with strict efficiency and budget governance; transformed the end-to-end digital collections journey across app, human channels, EPS, and marketplaces through UX optimization, experimentation, and automation; reengineered back-office processes with RPA; integrated EPS dialers with Salesforce, strengthening controls and eliminating external access to sensitive platforms (Conductor/Dock). Result: Delivered 30.4% reduction in total cost of credit YoY (2025x2024), outperforming budget across products. Positioning the human channel as the #2 recovery channel overall despite a stable average portfolio. Increasing 83% increase in cash YoY, while reducing PA expenses by 55%.

EvolvTech is a modern consultancy that synthesizes cutting-edge methodologies with the strategic vision of experienced executives to surpass theoretical limits and deliver pragmatic solutions. Emphasizing a partnership-centered approach, we collaborate closely with clients to drive tangible and impactful results.

The MIT Professional Education Technology Leadership Program (TLP) is a multi-modular program delivered by MIT Faculty on campus and live virtually and geared towards the development needs of the next generation of Technology CEOs, CTO’s, CIO’s and Emerging Leaders. Global technology leaders and practitioners learn to lead transformational growth by developing an understanding of exponential and digital technologies and innovations, and the methods and mechanisms to apply best practices within their organizations, sectors, and industries.

Context: Led the launch and scaling of the Open Finance division amid evolving regulations and growing market demand. Action: Inherited a cross-functional team of ~100 across Product, Engineering, Growth, Design, and Data, then developed their skills through targeted coaching and leadership programs. Defined the product vision and API roadmap, established governance and compliance frameworks, and drove go-to-market and partner-integration strategies. Result: Delivered a fully compliant Open Finance platform on schedule, secured integrations with leading banks and fintechs, and enabled seamless data sharing for millions of end users.

Context: Lead a ~40-member cross-functional organization—Product, Design, Growth and Data—across 7 squads and Product Managers, responsible for defining OKRs and driving the PicPay Wallet on the Open Finance platform. Action: - Planned and prioritized quarterly, semi-annual and annual roadmaps; tracked initiatives, epics and stories in JIRA; - Spearheaded end-to-end development of PicPay Wallet, optimizing UI data-load performance; -Conducted a full audit and redesign of data architecture (raw → cleaned → curated) to eliminate import errors and elevate data quality; Transformed raw Open Finance feeds into structured variables—e.g., inferring user income from recurring Pix transactions without explicit payroll data. Result: Launched PicPay Wallet on schedule, delivering over ~20% faster UI data loads, ~30% fewer ingestion errors, and enabling new data-driven credit and personalization use cases.

• Context: Oversaw ~200 employees and a network of 300 franchise units across Damasio, Ibmec Online, Estácio and Wyden digital postgraduate brands (300+ SKUs), generating BRL 200 M in annual revenue. • Action: o Developed and executed the 2022–2026 P&L growth roadmap, aligning product portfolios, pricing strategies and marketing investments. o Implemented service excellence initiatives—standardized training, revamped student support channels and introduced real-time feedback loops. • Result: o Grew revenue in line with plan targets, with early indicators showing a 12 % uptick in digital postgraduate enrollments. o Elevated brand reputation: Damasio’s “Reclame Aqui” quality rating jumped from under 7.0 to 9.1 within three months of launch (Mar/22).

• Context 1: Led the strategic overhaul of the Relationship, Retention & Renewal function amid COVID-19, with targets of 20.2 % renewal for continuing students and 21.1 % for freshmen. • Action: Restructured the team, introduced targeted onboarding, proactive communications and segmented relationship-building initiatives. • Result: Surpassed both renewal targets and boosted freshmen renewal rates by 8 percentage points. • Context 2: Oversaw service delivery across 100 campuses (800-member team) supporting 300 000 students. • Action: Rolled out remote customer-service channels (e.g., WhatsApp) and standardized support workflows for consistency and scalability. • Result: Significantly enhanced accessibility and responsiveness, improving overall student support.

• Context 1: At the Instituto’s inception, there was no formal structure for administration, HR, legal or operations. • Action: Designed and implemented the institute’s administrative processes, HR policies, legal framework and operational workflows. • Result: Established a fully functional governance and support backbone, enabling seamless launch and day-to-day operations. • Context 2: Launch of a new full-time school model across 13 states, partnering with ~200 schools to reach ~70,000 students. • Action: Coordinated with district leaders and school teams to standardize curriculum delivery, train staff and integrate operational systems. • Result: Scaled the program on schedule and impacted ~70,000 students with the new educational model.

Exchange student in1Q12