Customer X

Leonardo Stuperti had spent years working in customer relationship management across small and large companies, but in 2017, he saw a critical gap in the Brazilian market. Most companies—especially SMBs—had no culture of using customer data platforms. They didn't understand their own customers. "Here in Brazil, it's a really big problem," Leonardo explained. "We don't have a culture of using customer data platforms. We don't use these kinds of software." With four co-founders (splitting equity 25/25/25/25), Leonardo set out to build Customer X, a customer success management platform specifically designed for affordable, SMB-focused deployment.

The team started development in 2017 and launched to paying customers in 2018. The platform integrated with CRMs, support software, and ERPs to help companies understand and manage their customer relationships. Rather than chase a saturated enterprise market, the founders deliberately positioned Customer X as the affordable alternative in a blue ocean within Brazil's SMB segment. By the time of this interview, the team had grown to 24 people, with 9 engineers and 3 sales reps pushing toward their annual goal of doubling sales.

Customer acquisition came primarily through Google Ads. Despite spending $100,000 on paid ads, the company was acquiring 6-8 customers per month—a respectable CAC of roughly $12,500 per customer given the $250 average monthly contract value. However, Leonardo was candid about the constraint: "Here in Brazil, we don't have a big market for customer success yet, so we are raising it slowly." Even with capital to spend, the total addressable market was simply too small to absorb more ad spend profitably.

What worked: the company achieved over 100% year-over-year growth and maintained exceptional retention, with only 1.5% monthly churn. The co-founder structure proved durable—all four were still active, with one (Marcel) serving as a "joker" who rotated through marketing, product, and other roles. What needed work: the paid ads channel had hit a ceiling due to market size, forcing the team to think creatively. The company began experimenting with expansion revenue, generating 10% of total revenue from upsells by separating the software into more granular, feature-based tiers.

With 100+ customers paying an average of 1,200 Brazilian reais (~$250/month), Customer X had reached approximately $25,000 in MRR ($300,000 ARR) at the time of this interview. The company had just closed a seed round of 1.5 million reals ($400,000 USD equivalent) at a $3 million post-money valuation—a 14x ARR multiple that Leonardo felt was fair. The ambition was bold: double revenue by year-end to $50,000 MRR. "I'm not sure, but I hope so," Leonardo admitted, before catching himself: "Come on, you have to be all in. Yes, of course we're going to do it." The next frontier was the U.S. market, but first, the team planned to dominate Brazil.