In the early 2000s, when Google was still an almost unknown startup, Marcelo Lacerda participated in a meeting that would mark its trajectory. “They offered us the chance to invest 5% in Google. And I thought it didn’t make any sense,” he says. At the time, according to him, the business model was unclear and the team, still very young, seemed unlikely.
“The last straw for me was when Sergey Brin said that in the IPO he would limit purchases to 80 dollars per investor, to be fair. Furthermore, he also said that he would photograph all the streets in the world. I thought: this boy is going to get run over”, he says in a good-humoured tone. “And he did this disgrace and I think he photographed the streets of the world”, he comments with a laugh.
The decision that became a legend is now part of the collection of countless stories lived by Marcelo Lacerda, pioneer of the internet and Brazilian technology. Lacerda is co-founder of Nutek, creator of Terra and current Chairman of Magnopus, a company responsible for global projects such as The Lion King (2019) and immersive experiences for large global corporations.
The businessman participated in the program From Zero to Top and revisited four decades of technological disruptions and improbable decisions. He was one of the guests at an immersive meeting that connects entrepreneurs to real stories, challenges and transformative visions. The InfoMoney initiative is a partnership with XP Educação (XPE), XP Empresas and Galapos.
The creation of Earth
Lacerda often describes, with great humor, his beginnings as an entrepreneur. Before the web even existed, he was already developing software. His first company, Nutek, was born in 1987 as an electronic mail system. “We are the Jurassic of the internet. It didn’t even exist, in fact, when we started”, he says.
In the 90s, he participated in the creation of the first internet manuals and lived through the chaos of telecommunications privatization. The big leap came with Terra Networks. “Our business model was to bring in media groups as affiliates. It wasn’t technology, it was strategy.”
With accelerated growth, Telefónica bought control in 1999. A few months later, Terra went public on the Nasdaq. “We launched the stock at 13 dollars. In March, it was at 135. We couldn’t go near a calculator.”
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But it wasn’t all just glitter. The acquisition of Lycos, for US$3 billion and the dismissal of Google, became one of the most difficult moments. “The team was already rich. Terra’s CEO fell because of this acquisition, which was my idea. And from then on, things just went wrong. We lost our team and Lycos melted in our hands”, he recalls.
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Magnopus and the encounter that changed everything
Today, Lacerda continues to lead Magnopus, a deep tech company based in Los Angeles that develops advanced computer graphics and immersive reality solutions for names like Disney, Google, Meta, Amazon and even NASA. An American technology company, but with majority Brazilian capital and operating in a market that could reach billions of dollars in the coming years. A company that was born from an unexpected encounter.
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“We were at a dinner and they told me: that guy over there won an Oscar. I went there and said: ‘You’re going to have to tell me this story’. The dinner was over, but he enjoyed the conversation”, he jokes.
The meeting turned into a society. Today, the company creates immersive technologies used by Hollywood and large corporations. “The 2019 Lion King was filmed entirely within the software we created. It was like entering the Serengeti with virtual reality glasses.”
AI and the digital future
Regarding artificial intelligence, Lacerda is sincere and direct. “We are reinventing humans. AI is not a technological invention, but rather an expansion of human cognition. Just like language was 200,000 years ago.”
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For him, the central issue is not creating more powerful machines, but avoiding a leap in intellectual inequality. “We run the risk of having a small group that understands how the world works and a majority that knows less and less.”
For the future, he is betting on education, creativity and training in computer science. Lacerda leads, alongside other families, the creation of ITEC (a computing institute with philanthropic investment of R$400 million in Rio Grande do Sul.
“Brazil doesn’t have a global deep tech. But it has talent to have. We want to train the next generation of creative nerds. If Brazil has a Magnificent Seven one day, I hope it leaves there.”, he concludes.
To find out more details about Marcelo Lacerda’s entrepreneurial journey and the Brazilian internet, see the full episode on . The program is available 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 a production of InfoMoney 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.
