Faire co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Marcelo Cortes, recently spoke to an audience of over 20,000 at Web Summit Rio, the world’s largest technology event connecting people and ideas that change the world. Leo Branco, editor from the leading Brazilian business magazine EXAME, interviewed Marcelo on the current and future state of independent retail, and Faire’s opportunity for impact. 

Faire’s Brazilian Roots

Marcelo was born and raised outside of São Paulo, Brazil. His parents owned a video rental store, which is where he learned the ins and outs of running a small business. By age 13, he discovered a passion for computers and coding after his parents purchased an Intel 286 for their business, and soon he became known as the “resident computer expert” in his family. Marcelo ultimately moved to Canada to further his interest in technology and study computer science at the University of Waterloo. From there he began his journey towards breaking into the tech industry, landing opportunities at some of Silicon Valley’s top companies including becoming a senior software engineer at Google, and a staff software engineer for Cash App at Square. While at Square, Marcelo met his Faire co-founders. 

Growing our Brazilian engineering presence

Faire has prioritized blending its Silicon Valley DNA with the Brazilian and Canadian tech market, resulting in a more robust and well-rounded engineering team. In the past year, Faire’s Brazilian team has grown by 600% to nearly 40 employees based in the region. Brazil is home to some of the most prestigious engineering colleagues, and the startup ecosystem has accelerated tremendously as a result. Faire is thrilled to have the opportunity to attract the talent of such high quality engineers and looks forward to continuing to expand its presence. 

Leveraging A.I. to support our customers 

As A.I. was a timely and popular topic at Web Summit Rio, Marcelo provided insight into the ways in which Faire is leveraging A.I. and ChatGPT to help over 700,000 retailers and 100,000 brands stay competitive with big box businesses. He shared how Faire has already leveraged ChatGPT to improve search bar results on the platform for retailers, and plans to experiment more to better serve Faire’s growing global customer community. Building world-class technology and leveraging machine learning and A.I. remains top of mind for Faire as we continue working towards empowering small business owners with modern technologies that improve the real-world experiences they deliver.

To view Marcelo’s full Web Summit fireside chat, click here.

Interested in joining our growing team? Click here to check out open roles.