‘Breaking’ once is already quite traumatic for anyone who undertakes. Broke it seven times. From his eighth business, which he finally managed to scale, Titto built a small empire and, today, leads a holding company with 11 operations in various sectors.
Before starting, however, he worked as an actor, a profession that taught him a lot about selling his own image. “I failed seven companies before making the first one work. When the eighth one accelerated, I began to understand the value of my image as an asset for business”, said Felipe, in an exclusive conversation with InfoMoney Interview, durante o Sankhya Connection de 2025.
He spoke to the reporter about the transition to the business world, how to build sustainable companies and the differences between being an entrepreneur. Check out excerpts from the interview with Felipe Titto below.
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InfoMoney: You started your career as an actor and turned into a serial entrepreneur. How did this transition happen?
Felipe Titto: It seems like there is a huge distance from the artist to the entrepreneur, but the truth is that it is basically the same thing. They both deal with the public all the time. There are two sellers. In this case, I sold my image my entire life, whether for good advertising contracts or good television drama contracts. I learned to sell on the breed.
I just changed it to another volume and another type of product. But my base and my sales school was art.
The transition happened for a single reason: financial. I needed more revenue. I became a father very early and realized that with the rise in revenue in this segment [o artístico]wouldn’t take me where I wanted. So, I understood that I needed new ‘baskets’ to lay new eggs. And that’s how I started taking risks.
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IM: Before you started getting things right in business, you made a lot of mistakes.
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FT: I made mistakes many times. I failed seven companies before making the first one work. When the eighth [empresa] It accelerated, I started to understand that the image also had a very good added value and I started to get into ‘media for equity’. I delivered my image as a percentage of some operations.
Today, I no longer do it because when I enter a business, I do it through contributions, with a seat on the board and on the council. And then, the business gained a volume that supplied my artistic side, with 300% more revenue, I had to make a choice to be able to dedicate my time better.
I knew that one side would kind of ‘muffle’ the other. And that’s what happened. Obviously, I don’t let my artistic side die. I am, whenever possible, participating in a business, but the corporate world takes up an absurd amount of time.
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IM: And today you lead more than 10 different businesses and different sectors. How do you divide this time and attention between so many businesses?
FT: In fact, I actually lead a holding company that has 11 operations. But I’m not at all on the front lines. It is already difficult to run a company with excellence, and it would be humanly impossible. But I am a partner in 11 operations, I am on the board of all of them and once a week, or every fortnight, I have a board meeting for each operation.
They are different businesses, from different niches, that require an operating strategy and the entrepreneur who is on the front line, who is most of the time my partner, is the one who manages the structure and strategy.
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IM: How to build sustainable and transformative businesses?
FT: There is no cake recipe for this. But the person who is building an innovative business is the one who lives up to the word entrepreneur. There is a very big difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur.
A businessman is the owner of a CNPJ and everything is fine. If he is a good conductor, he does not need to be a good entrepreneur.
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The entrepreneur is the one who is solving problems, is tuned in and sees what is happening with the segment within his niche, looking for innovations. For me, the translation for the word entrepreneur is ‘problem solver’.
I’ll give an example. One of the companies in which I am a partner is called Smooth, and it already has almost 50 stores in six countries. In one of the deliveries, the drink, which is cold, arrived somewhat ‘melted’. We understand that above a certain temperature, the packaging did not retain heat. So, we are developing technology for transporting cold and hot food, which can be coupled to transport food. It’s a new business that emerged from a nuisance.
This is not just a mentality for companies that are just starting out. The biggest companies in the world have in common the ability to solve problems on a large scale. This is what makes an innovative business. This means that you can be an entrepreneur within someone else’s CNPJ. It is possible to become an entrepreneur as a collaborator of a company.
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IM: Brazil is a country with many entrepreneurs. But, internally, there still doesn’t seem to be a perception of the innovation that is carried out here. What do you think is needed to change this scenario?
FT: The way people do business in Brazil is very ‘in the race’. I don’t take away the entrepreneur’s merit because millions of CNPJs are opened here per year. But many close too.
It’s not the entrepreneur’s fault. The educational system is completely deficient. People leave school without knowing how to file an Income Tax return, without knowing how to issue a note or handle money. It was necessary to teach this at the grassroots level, because people will deal with this for the rest of their lives.
Why isn’t there a mandatory financial education course from high school onwards? Because it’s easier: people who don’t have access, don’t complain, don’t bother.
IM: Today, you are also seen as an inspiration for many young entrepreneurs. How do you deal with this responsibility? How do you try to inspire these people?
FT: For a long time, I showed my achievements in one way and had no idea the impact it had on people. When I started to be called for lectures, I started to get feedback that was an instant thermometer and I saw, in fact, that it was possible to help people.
But I try to make it very clear that everything I show you results is not to boast. It’s for people to understand that you can leave the place I left and get to the place I arrived. Not that it’s the best place in the world: there’s still a lot to climb, but it’s already very relevant close to the place where I was raised.
It’s hard work, you have to give up people, events, commemorative dates, give up a lot of things, but if you want, you can do it.
But, in the same way that I get ‘like’, I get ‘hate’. I try to measure this in a very healthy way, starting from the point that praise and criticism will take you to the same place. Exaggerated praise paralyzes you because you think you’ve already done it, it’s already great. And exacerbated criticism paralyzes you because you think it’s no use.
I try to filter everything. I’m a little deaf to the world, I try to eliminate the extremes too and take what makes sense.
