Opening a business in Brazil.

I’ve been living in Brazil for 5 years, I’m British and have had the luxury of working remotely for pretty much all of that time. Now however I have a start with several other founders who are dotted around the globe and I’m tasked along with another of opening the Brazilian operations.

I’m petrified, but also excited by the market potential as from my understanding contract law means almost nothing here. ‘It might get you a meeting with a Justice’ was a phrase often used. I have been careful at selecting partners, I’m using my own extended network and reputable firms to help with Market access and registrations. We have a good legal team, my accountant and a new hire FD are by all accounts great, although we won’t start earning revenue until launch around March, but I always feel there is something waiting to bite me in the backside.

I will keep the team very lean, the horror stories and be heard about hiring people and their ‘rights’ even if you as an employer have done nothing wrong have put me off that, which would make scaling the business more difficult, I am also pretty scared about the bureaucracy and the potential for having to ‘colour outside the lines’ as we say in England to get things done.

I’m optimistic but a realist, I’ve been here long enough now to know that of course there’s going to be some issues along the way. I guess I’m interested to hear the good the bad and the ugly and open to any advice people are willing to offer. What’s the standard checklist here?

Probably should mention I work in Biotechnology but we are Launching a couple of consumer healthcare products, we have chosen Sao Jose Dos Campos as a base due to some of the tax incentives and some great partnerships with the universities, we will hopefully use the tax breaks for ‘profit’ to provide a fund for university scholarships for STEM subjects for kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Thanks all. Grande Abracos!