My Mission: Four Brazilian Women On Their Business Success

March is Women’s History Month. It’s a great time to reflect on how women have shaped our society, celebrate their accomplishments, and stress that we wouldn’t survive without a female perspective. 

Women fight in wars, start businesses, participate in politics, and bring balance to our often brittle world. So we spoke to four inspiring Brazilian women who share the same goal of spreading joy and bringing hope. 

Gabriela Vaz started college knowing nothing about programming. She had to work hard to learn different programming languages, tech tools, and other related subjects. Her studies included everything from front-end to back-end management, marketing classes, UX design, and databases. 

Gabriela started from scratch. She was learning a trade that’s often associated with men, eventually becoming a respected software developer. At her first job, Gabriela was the only female programmer. She’s now 22 and works as a front-end developer at Grupo Fleury. 

But this wasn’t enough for Gabriela. A few months back, she realized that social media can be used to educate people on tech, so she started an Instagram account with a unique feminine twist. Gabriela knew that women have a hard time getting into the tech industry. Her content was supposed to educate, inspire, and encourage women to choose a tech career. 

“@gabcodes is a project that brought me pride. I’m happy with the messages I’ve received from the people I inspired to study. They include women who had doubts or fears about entering tech but did it after discovering my profile.”

Gabriela has united a huge community of tech-savvy women, and she’s happy to contribute to their future careers. Like she says, it’s helping women take their first steps in the exciting world of technology.

Priscilla Jorge grew up in Fortaleza helping her mother with the family-owned hair salon. She was saving up money for college. Following her mother’s wishes, Priscilla enrolled in journalism but soon realized that she was more interested in working at the salon. Her dream was to make women feel beautiful and strong. 

“What fascinated me was the glow in a woman’s eyes,” says Priscilla, joking that “one trip to a salon is like having multiple therapy sessions.”

She decided to follow her heart and leave journalism for the beauty industry. Soon she was back at the salon, working side by side with her mother.

At one point, her mother decided to start teaching women home beauty tricks. The idea was to free women from visiting salons and offer simple ways of caring for their hair. It was also an attempt to boost their self-confidence, which became especially relevant during the quarantine. Priscilla used her mother’s knowledge to start the online Cronograma Capilar beauty program. 

The business was booming. She eventually concluded that it had to be more professional, accessible, and organized, so she built a website with the help of her brother.

Today Priscilla has over 500 clients who are interested in her services, products, and online classes. Despite all the challenges, Pris says she’s still determined to free women from beauty clichés, helping them discover good looks without having to visit hair salons.

“The problem is that a woman has to compromise. It’s not impossible, but she needs to focus on what she wants,” says Priscilla.

Amanda Sadi is the founder of Fertilid, an educational platform responsible for the first ovarian health self-test in Brazil. Fertilid’s mission is to offer women an easy way to track hormones, plan their reproductive future, and become more independent in the process. Currently, it offers a self-test that analyzes one specific hormone related to the ovarian reserve.

“It all started about 3 or 4 years ago when I had to face my own fertility and was diagnosed with an ovarian teratoma, endometriosis, and a low ovarian reserve. I had never heard of the ovarian reserve before, and I was impressed. I didn’t know there was a test for how much time we have to get pregnant. With this test, we can decide if we want to have children. We can track our ovules, our reproductive potential,” says Amanda. “The more we talk about reproductive health, the freer women will be to make the best decisions.”

Amanda realized that other women faced the same problems. She discovered that such information wasn’t easy to come by. The self-test was also expensive and not covered by any health plan. Fertilid offered an affordable alternative, allowing Brazilian women to take control of their bodies and reproductive future. 

The platform received wide recognition throughout Brazil, with health experts, medical professionals, femtech businesses, and influencers attending its launch. Amanda never dreamed that an online project could turn into a movement. She’d managed to begin a nationwide discussion on female reproduction and taboo subjects.

Ana Carolina Brigagão is an engineer by trade, but she was never committed to a strictly technical career. After a brief stint as a mechanical engineer, she decided that her life needed a radical change. 

She applied for work at Hostinger’s Customer Service and soon realized that her actual calling had always been working with people.

“It was wonderful because I love working with people. I helped customers and even used some of my engineering knowledge. Engineering is about solving problems and creating solutions. That was my everyday mission,” says Carol. 

Carol was a quick learner, and it didn’t take long until she was promoted.

“I discovered myself as a Team Leader. I love it. It’s amazing to have a team and grow together. Each member has their strengths and weaknesses, but we even each other out. Now we’re a team that’s strong, resilient, and empathetic,” says Carol.

Carol thinks it’s never too late to start fresh, and people shouldn’t waste their lives on unfulfilling careers. Moving from engineering to Hostinger felt like starting from scratch, but it was one of Carol’s best life decisions. And she’s not slowing down – Carol always thinks about improving customer experiences, so her next step is mastering UX design. 

My Mission is an interview project dedicated to Women’s History Month. We hope that these stories will inspire women to follow their dreams and challenge the status quo. Happy Women’s Month!