Rubens Costa

From startups to cities

I build products that move businesses.

São Paulo, Brazil

Craft

ProductAIGrowth

Business Models

MarketplaceSaaSPlatforms

Industries

EducationHealthMobilityGovernment

12M+

customers reached

6

markets and sectors

R$14M

business impact

Great products are built by great organizations. My work is to build both.

find the constraint
make strategy explicit
build shared context
design the system
measure the movement

0 → 1

Build the product, the team and the operating logic from a blank page.

10 → 100

Scale what works through systems, talent and sharper decisions.

R$14M

Business impact created through product, growth and operating-system decisions.

Bets I’ve made

01 / Caraguatatuba · Technology & Innovation

A city as a platform

i-Gov TI · ExcellenceTCESPA top-tier public governance benchmark.Grade A is TCESP’s highest i-Gov TI classification. In the 2023 statewide results, only 29 of 644 audited municipalities reached it — 4.5%.Source · TCESP IEG-M Yearbook, 2023 results
i-Gov TI Grade A recognition from the São Paulo State Court of Accounts

Municipal IT operated primarily as reactive support, without Product, Data or an integrated digital operating model.

Redesign the organization first, then build the governance, products, data and decision layers required for Digital Government.

  • Grade A i-Gov TIreported as the first in city history
  • R$3.5M direct savingsselected digital initiatives
  • R$23M+ broader contract savingsunder the executive mandate
  • +86.6% service capacity
  • -90.7% SLA resolution time
  • LGPD compliance
  • 16 months to deliver a four-year roadmap

Lead technology strategy, digital governance and the delivery of the municipality’s first integrated data and service portfolio.

Data Lake and Data Warehouse architecture · Executive situation room integrating 10+ departments · Six-product ecosystem spanning citizen, executive and internal experiences

Public record
Case chapter
Open standalone case ↗

02 / G4 Educação · SaaS · SMB

Personalizing education at scale

An 18k-user SaaS depended on event-led acquisition, offered less than 100 hours of content and lost 39% of invited users before login by day 15.

Use an AI assessment as the PLG entry point, operate activation weekly with Customer Success and deepen strategic and tactical content to create an acquisition-retention flywheel.

  • R$14M business impactreported at G4 Educação
  • 90%+ assessment adoptionwithin 15 days
  • +25% engagement
  • +30% visitor-to-lead conversion
  • 39% → 4% users without login by day 15

Lead SaaS product strategy and execution across onboarding, assessment, recommendations and the growth plan.

18k+ users · AI Individual Assessment · PLG and 30-day freemium motion

Case chapter
Open standalone case ↗

03 / Buser · Mobility & Logistics · Marketplace

Scaling without breaking trust

Series C hypergrowth was creating operational complexity faster than the marketplace could observe and coordinate it.

Build a reliability layer connecting marketplace economics, telemetry, real-time operations, partner quality, safety and customer trust.

  • ~R$80K / week operational savings
  • >90 min → <15 min incident coordination
  • 80%+ fleet connectedin ~1 month
  • 15+ partner-quality signals

Connect Commercial, Routes, Risk & Contingency, Safety, Product and Technology around a shared version of operational truth.

Marketplace and route economics · Fleet telemetry and the Control Tower · Incident orchestration and partner quality

Case chapter
Open standalone case ↗

04 / Kintsu · HealthTech · SaaS · Controlled/Compliant environment

Turning demand into repeatable delivery

Kintsu had signed enterprise demand, but Product and operating capacity were not yet ready to deliver it repeatedly.

Build the operating system and scalable Product core required to convert signed demand into repeatable delivery.

  • ~2.6× revenue
  • 2 → 5 pharma relationships
  • 5,000+ patients reached
  • -66.1% interaction cost

Build the Product and operating capacity required to turn signed enterprise demand into repeatable, compliant delivery.

Operating clarity and shared context · Productization and delivery capacity · Pharmaceutical contracts and B2B2C reach

Case chapter
Open standalone case ↗

Speaking & public signals / 7 records

The thinking travels beyond the work.

Operating principles

Great product organizations don’t ship more. They learn faster.

  1. 01

    Strategy creates constraints.

  2. 02

    Talent compounds.

  3. 03

    Design is a business advantage.

  4. 04

    Data informs. Judgment decides.

  5. 05

    AI changes the interface, not the need for taste.

Career, compressed

7 chapters. One obsession: building products people choose.

  • Caraguatatuba
  • Quero Bolsa
  • Kintsu
  • V4 Company
  • G4 Educação
  • Foregon
  • Buser
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