Solides

Alessandro Garcia launched Solides in 2010 with a traditional transactional software sales model. However, by 2015, he recognized a fundamental gap in the Brazilian market: small and medium companies lacked proper HR processes and had no access to quality talent management tools. Unlike the US market where companies like Bamboo HR and Guidepoint competed, Brazil had no serious players serving this segment. This market void inspired him to pivot the entire business from transactional licensing to a subscription model.

The pivot to subscription in 2015 meant starting customer acquisition from scratch. Alessandro reset his customer count to one and focused on building a product that would genuinely solve the turnover and HR inefficiency problems plaguing small businesses. His average customer saves approximately $107,000 per year in turnover costs while paying Solides just $8,000 annually for the holistic platform—creating an incredibly compelling value proposition. Over the next four years, he bootstrapped the company while achieving the classic "triple, triple, double, double" growth trajectory.

Growth accelerated through inbound marketing and an inside sales team complemented by an HR knowledge portal and academy. Rather than chasing customers through paid ads, Solides attracted HR professionals searching for educational content on managing people and processes. By teaching HR professionals—many of whom lacked experience—how to implement HR best practices, Solides introduced its software as the natural execution tool. This content-driven approach created a virtuous cycle: provide free education, build authority, and convert educated prospects into customers.

By 2019, after four years of bootstrapped growth, Solides hit $1M in ARR and raised a $3-4M Series A at a $15M valuation. The team then engineered one of the most impressive scaling trajectories in Latin American SaaS: growing from $1M to $15.6M ARR by 2022, then to $31.2M by March 2023—representing 100% YoY growth. The company achieved this through disciplined customer segmentation, dividing the sales organization into expansion, medium business, and very small business teams. Their unit economics proved exceptional: 105% net revenue retention, 1.9% monthly gross churn (24% annually), and 5% expansion revenue. The acquisition of Tanjarino in 2022 added a complementary time-tracking and electronic punch clock product, serving the 10,000 customers who use just that piece of the platform.

With 20,000 paying customers managing 2 million employees across 700 full-time staff (including 200+ engineers), Solides completed a $100M Series B in 2022 at an $800M valuation. Alessandro is targeting a $60M run rate for 2023 (80% organic, 20% from acquisitions) and plans an IPO once the company reaches $200M in annual revenue. The unique position of being an uncontested leader in a major emerging market, combined with exceptional unit economics and demonstrated ability to scale efficiently, has positioned Solides as one of Latin America's fastest-growing SaaS companies.