Starting small never stopped big ideas to grow. And the history of Shopper, today one of the largest digital supermarket platforms in Brazil, is living proof of this.
Created in 2015 by Bruna Vaz and Fábio Rodas, the company was literally born inside an improvised office, with R$28 thousand in initial capital and the clear purpose of reinventing the way Brazilians shop.
“Bruna lived in the office to save on rent. We used bucket doors as tables. It was what we could afford”, recalls Fábio.
The duo met at college, at Insper, during a social project that provided glasses to vulnerable children. It was there that they realized the power of entrepreneurship with purpose and execution.
“We learned what it was like to undertake without knowing we were undertaking it”, says Bruna. “It was two years of doing everything: raising funds, talking to volunteer doctors and understanding the basics of operations.”
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From this coexistence came society and the desire to create something greater. In 2015, while food e-commerce was still in its infancy in Brazil, they launched Shopper, with a model based on recurring purchases and operational efficiency.
“There wasn’t a pretty story like ‘there was no washing powder at home’. We saw an opportunity to use technology to reduce costs and improve convenience”, explains Fábio.
Entrepreneurs participated in the program From Zero to Top and told a little about the company’s trajectory, the investment they received from iFood and the goal of reaching R$2 billion in revenue in the coming years.
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Basic well done
In the company’s first months, the partners created a fake website to test whether or not people were interested in this type of service. When they realized that the idea was good and there was demand, they moved on to the next challenge: getting money to scale.
Without capital from investors, the couple relied on word of mouth and hard work. “We went to leaflet at the fair on the weekend and delivered orders during the week. Without easy money, we learned to spend only on what really matters. This created a culture of austerity that is still alive today”, recalls Fábio. An obstacle, which according to them, helped shape the company’s culture.
But attracting and convincing investors was not easy.
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“All the funds said no. We cleared the list. Nobody wanted to invest”, says Fábio, with good humor. “But looking back now, it was the best thing that happened. It forced us to be efficient.”
In 2019, the game changed: Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund (GIC), the former CEO of Renner, José Galló, and even Minerva Foods entered the cap table. Recently, iFood became a strategic investor, consolidating the business as a digital retail powerhouse.
Today, Shopper serves more than 130 cities, has more than 2 thousand employees and works with 12 thousand registered products, twice as many as a traditional supermarket.
But, for Bruna, the secret remains the same: doing the basics well.
“Our focus has always been to deliver what the customer asked for, on the right date, without disruption. It seems simple, but it’s what builds loyalty. Doing the basics well is still what delights the most”, says Vaz.
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Also read:
Watch the full episode about Shopper on the Shopper YouTube channel From Zero to Top or on the main podcast aggregators.
To find out more details about the company’s history and learn about its strategy for the future, watch the full episode on . The program is available in and in its podcast version on the main streaming platforms such as , , and .
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About From Zero to Top
O podcast From Zero to Top is an InfoMoney production and brings, every week, the stories of prominent women and men in the Brazilian market to tell their story, sharing the biggest challenges faced along the way and the main strategies used in building the business.
