[{"jcr:title":"The successful path of three Insper engineering pioneers","cq:tags_0":"area-de-conhecimento:engenharia","cq:tags_1":"area-de-conhecimento:ciência-da-computação","cq:tags_2":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/institucional"},{"richText":"Felipe Buniac, Matheus Marotzke and Luca Noto won innovation competitions, including L’Oréal Brandstorm, in Paris, and now work in different market sectors","authorDate":"24/11/2023 16h26","author":"Tiago Cordeiro","madeBy":"Por","tag":"tipos-de-conteudo:carreira-e-profissões/networking","title":"The successful path of three Insper engineering pioneers","variant":"imagecolor"},{"jcr:title":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"themeName":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"text":"Insper’s three Engineering programs —  [Mechanical Engineering](https://www.insper.edu.br/graduacao/engenharia/engenharia-mecanica/) ,  [Mechatronic Engineering](https://www.insper.edu.br/graduacao/engenharia/engenharia-mecatronica/)  and  [Computer Engineering](https://www.insper.edu.br/graduacao/engenharia/engenharia-de-computacao/)  —  received the quality seal granted by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of  [ABET](https://www.insper.edu.br/noticias/cursos-de-engenharia-do-insper-recebem-acreditacao-internacional-da-abet/)  this year, for the first time. But these programs have attracted the attention of students and professionals in the field for a long time.   When  [Felipe Buniac](https://www.linkedin.com/in/felipebuniac/)  and  [Matheus Marotzke](https://www.linkedin.com/in/matheus-marotzke/)  enrolled in the first class of the Computer Engineering course, which began in 2015, they were attracted by Insper’s reputation. Marotzke found out about the new degree through his father’s cousin, professor  [Paulo Marques](https://www.insper.edu.br/pt/docentes/paulo-cilas-marques-filho) . “I went to visit the college facilities and received a private tour by another professor,  [Vinicius Licks](https://www.insper.edu.br/pt/docentes/vinicius-licks) . I left there determined to join the course,” recalls Marotzke.   Buniac, on the other hand, came from a diverse international experience. “I was born in Brazil, but in my youth, I lived in Mexico and the United States, due to my father’s career.” He attended the first year of high school in the United States. Back in Brazil, he completed high school at a school in São Paulo that uses a methodology based on projects.   “Learning was based on scientific projects, exhibitions, and debates. At the time, I developed an encryption software that ended up winning an award,” he says. “When the time came to decide on a degree, I knew I wanted to go to a college focused on computing, but with a methodology similar to what I had experienced in high school. The natural choice was Insper.”   International awards   One year into the course, the two students, who were in the same class, were already actively participating in innovation competitions. That’s when they met  [Luca Noto](https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-r-noto/) , who had just enrolled in the Mechatronic Engineering undergraduate program. “I got involved in all academic activities that Insper provided,” recalls Noto. “I was director of the Student Union, a position that Felipe had also held.”   In May 2016, Marotzke and Noto won the first hackathon held by Insper. In December of the same year, Marotzke and Buniac won first place in the Innovation Olympics, one of the most prestigious innovation competitions in the world, held by the consulting company IXL Center. “We signed up when we were in our second year of undergraduate studies and later discovered that the other competitors were all MBA students,” recalls Buniac.   The professors themselves encouraged the three students to come together in a team capable of making history: participating in the 2017 edition of L’Oréal Brandstorm, a global open innovation competition that, in 25 editions, had never been won by Brazilians.   The three young students accepted the challenge. They then developed a sustainable solution, based on soluble and biodegradable capsules, which, with the help of a mixer, would result in an individual personal care product. “The professors actively participated, discussing in detail the creation of the product and packaging. We received all possible support from Insper,” points out Marotzke.   After four selection stages, they outrivaled more than 8 thousand teams and were declared the winners. To this end, they went to Paris and personally presented a five-minute pitch for a panel made up of the CEO and other executives from L’Oréal Paris. In São Paulo, professors and other students watched the live presentation and celebrated the trio’s victory.   Networking at Insper   Marotzke and Buniac would still win one more challenge, an innovation competition conducted by Faber-Castell, a manufacturer of school and office supplies — Noto was the one who informed them of the opportunity. “We created a project for an augmented reality sticker album. We were then called by the innovation officer, who asked us what we would do to keep the idea from dying,” recalls Marotzke. “That’s when we both decided to set up a consulting business.” And this is how Melon Innovation was born.   The initiative, however, was short-lived. During a guided tour of Insper led by Marotzke, the young man caught the attention of Paulo Veras, one of the founders of the transportation app company 99. “Veras added me on LinkedIn, we scheduled a meeting at a café, Felipe and I described our initiative. And he responded to us with a provocation. He said that at that point in our lives, we should do something ‘more scalable’.” Veras then introduced them to Eduardo Rocha and Anderson Silva, both, respectively, former executive officers of Rodobens and Disal, two of the largest consortium administrators in the country, and who were willing to revolutionize the digital consortium market with the startup Klubi.   After a year and a half, Buniac would end up migrating to take on another prominent position, at the fintech Conta Simples, led by another former Insper student, Rodrigo Tognini. “While we were designing Melon, in the Center for Entrepreneurship (CEMP) of Insper, I shared a table with the creators of Conta Simples (Simple Account). Since that time, they said that I would work with them someday”, he says.   Since then, Buniac has worked at Conta Simples. “I started the day before the pandemic lockdown in São Paulo. I was one of the first 15 employees, and today there are around 280. I became a partner and hope to keep on growing here. I work on the company’s entire credit operation.” The first prepaid card developed by the fintech was used by him, still as a bank customer, to pay for lunch. “Later, when we migrated to a new credit card model, I was also the first to test it, as I helped build the product, test it and launch it”, says Buniac, who recently started practicing triathlon. “I train seven days a week, twice a day.”   Career sequence   Marotzke, in turn, remained at Klubi until six months ago, when he left. He went traveling for three months and, upon returning, took on a new professional challenge. He is now Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Product Officer (CPO) at Boldr, a London-based company dedicated to developing an energy management platform that allows residential users to reduce household energy consumption by up to 30%. “We’re hiring,” he announces. “We are going to set up an IT team based in São Paulo.”   As for Luca Noto, after doing an exchange program in Israel under the influence of Buniac, he completed his degree and decided to participate in the Ambev trainee program. “I was selected, rotated through different areas of the company and today I am in the technology area applied to logistics. In a team with three leaders, we optimize the routes of around 5 thousand trucks per day”, he says. “I’m happy here, there’s a lot of room to grow. But, in the future, I don’t rule out the possibility of having my own business.”   Throughout their journeys of almost a decade, the three former Insper students became friends, even though they haven’t seen each other in person for months, due to their busy professional lives. “We need to get together and have a beer,” says Buniac, at the end of the conversation, which brought the three together virtually — Marotzke spoke from Lithuania. “I will find our last photo together on my Instagram and send it to you,” promised Noto."}]