← Back to home
For Founders

We co-found AI-native companies in Brazil — and we write the first ticket.

If you are a Brazilian-market operator with real domain scar tissue and an AI-native thesis you cannot stop thinking about, this page exists to tell you exactly what we offer, what we expect, and how the studio actually works.

What we offer

A studio stack, not a perks list.

Capital

First-ticket capital, written by the studio.

Pre-negotiated first ticket from Avante on day one — no fundraising sprint before you can hire your first engineer.

Operating muscle

Senior operating partner attached, week one.

A partner who has built and exited at scale — in the codebase, not on a quarterly call. Engaged through your first revenue milestone.

Infrastructure

Talent funnel, finance, legal, security — pre-built.

A recruiter who already knows the local senior funnel. SOC2-ready posture from incorporation. Books that survive a Series A audit.

Distribution

A first-30-customer pipeline, run as a sprint.

When you hit Stage 4 (Traction), a structured 90-day sprint with named buyer targets — not random warm intros.

What we expect

A founder profile, not a credential.

We do not screen on schools, prior titles, or brand-name resumes. We screen on the five things below — and we are honest if a venture does not fit before either side wastes a quarter.

  • 1You are operating in a Brazilian market vertical with real, daily-operating-decision domain experience.
  • 2You are willing to spend Stage 1 (Research) doing customer-discovery, not building product. The discipline is the point.
  • 3You can name your ICP in one sentence — and you've already had at least 10 unstructured conversations with that ICP.
  • 4You are comfortable with the studio holding meaningful equity in exchange for first-money-in plus the operating stack.
  • 5You see English-language internal docs as a feature, not a friction point. Our partner network spans São Paulo + San Francisco.
What is different

Three commitments most studios do not actually deliver.

Operating partner, not check-writer.

Most studios oversee from quarterly board meetings. Avante operating partners are in the ICP doc, the unit economics spreadsheet, and the first ten hires.

São Paulo + San Francisco, both real.

Not a 'LATAM-focused fund based in NYC.' Half the team operates in Brazil; the other half built and exited in Silicon Valley. Both halves are in the founder's daily WhatsApp.

A 90-day-to-pilot discipline, enforced.

Lessons from Sigga (10× exit). If you can't get to a paid pilot inside 90 days of a serious customer conversation, the ICP or product is wrong — we surface that early instead of letting zombie deals burn runway.

Honest answers

The questions founders ask before signing.

"Why not just raise from a tier-1 VC instead?"

Tier-1 VCs are great at writing checks. They are not great at being in your codebase week one, designing your discovery script, or carrying the first 30 customers with you. If your venture needs $5M and three intros, raise from Sequoia. If it needs an operating partner who has built and exited at scale in Brazil, that is a different product — and that is what the studio is.

"How much equity does the studio take?"

Studio economics — meaningful enough that we are aligned for a decade, calibrated so the founders still own their company in a way that makes a Series A unblocked. Specific numbers are shared in the first structured call, not on a public page.

"Do I have to relocate to São Paulo or San Francisco?"

No. Most founders we work with are already operating somewhere in Brazil and stay there. The studio comes to you — partners visit, working sessions happen on your turf, and remote rituals (weekly checkpoints, async loom reviews) are designed for distance, not against it.

"What happens if my venture fails?"

Some will. The studio is built around honest stage gates (90-day-to-pilot, 6-month-to-paid-customers, 12-month-to-Series-A-readiness) — if a venture cannot clear them, we have a structured wind-down protocol: founders keep equity earned, IP rights are clear, and we stay in the corner of any future thing the team builds. We have lived this and we treat it as part of the relationship, not a worst-case clause buried in a side letter.

"What does an Avante operating partner actually do day-to-day?"

First 30 days: customer-discovery alongside the founder, ICP doc co-authored, first-ten-customer target list assembled. Months 2–6: weekly working sessions on whatever blocks the venture (pricing test, hiring loop, security review, fundraising deck). Months 6–12: shifts to coach + escalation owner — present at major customer + investor calls, on-call for crises. After Series A: board observer or full board seat, depending on what the founder wants. Concrete and bounded — not 'available for advice.'

"How long is the engagement? When does the studio step back?"

The default is 18 months of intensive operating engagement, then a structured handoff into board-level governance only. Some founders want the studio to stay closer for longer; some want full operational autonomy by month 12. We are explicit about this in month 6 — no surprises, no slow fades. The relationship continues through the cap table for the life of the venture, but the work changes.

Ready for a real conversation?

No deck required. A 30-minute structured first call: your thesis, our diligence frame, an honest read on whether this is a fit before anyone commits to anything.

Book a founder call →