Capyba Software Studio
A design-driven software studio I co-founded in Recife, Brazil. We built it from 4 partners to 30+ people, proving that design at the core of a business strategy isn't just viable — it's a competitive advantage.
The story
In 2015, four of us started Capyba from scratch in Recife — a city with a growing tech scene but no established design-led studios. We had a bet: that integrating design as the core business strategy, not a service bolted on at the end, would produce better outcomes for clients and a better company for us.
What we built
I created the entire design process from the ground up — from problem exploration and ideation through prototyping, solution evaluation, and refinement cycles. This wasn't a framework borrowed from a blog post. It was a methodology tested across dozens of client engagements, documented so it could scale beyond me, and refined every time it failed. We offered both software design and software engineering, which meant our designers and engineers worked as one team from day one.
The work
We worked with national clients like Unilever, Albert Einstein (Genomika), SEBRAE, SENAI, and RioMar, alongside international clients in London and Angola. Projects ranged from a genetic testing management platform for Genomika to a logistics marketplace (Fretapp), an education platform (Concursos de Bolso), and a property rental app for the London market (Inadash). Each one required understanding a completely different domain, negotiating with stakeholders who had competing priorities, and delivering solutions that people could actually use.
What it taught me
Running a studio taught me things you can't learn as an employee. How to sell design to people who don't know what it is. How to build a team that sustains quality when you're not in the room. How to make the call between what's right for the product and what's right for the business — and how those are usually the same thing if you zoom out far enough. Every role I've had since has been shaped by those six years.