Floripa is known for its beaches, not its industry. But increasingly, digital workers are able to work from anywhere, and places with pleasant weather and beaches are attracting “digital nomads” to come live, work, and play. Bali is a huge digital nomad hub (we loved it there) and a well know international tourist destination. Floripa is more local, but it is gaining notice as a great place for digital nomads to set up shop.
Unsurprisingly, there is also a growing local tech startup community. We met up with some startup founders at Primavera Hub, a new co-working space just north of Floripa city center. It’s located on the 4th floor of an office tower in a beautiful shopping complex overlooking the channel between Floripa and the mainland. The shopping center is mostly outdoors with trendy coffeeshops and bakeries and even an international food court.
Inside, it feels much like any co-working office you might find anywhere in the world. There are sections dedicated to specific startups, a little coffee area, and lots of phone rooms. The place is mostly empty (similar to offices in the US), so it’s a bit quieter with less energy than working at a coffeeshop in Bali, but the views are phenomenal. All three bears did some co-working together.
We had lunch at the top of the building at a very nice Japanese restaurant with local tech workers. The food was excellent, with a really nice truffle salmon tartare! We learned that PIX, the super-modern Brazilian digital payment system is actually run by the Brazilian government/central bank. We were surprised that the Brazilian government was so tech-forward. We don’t use PIX because everything in Brazil is tied to the CPF (government ID number) which we don’t have as tourists. This keeps us from getting a PIX account for digital payments, getting a bus ticket, getting a local SIM card (believe me, we tried), and even signing up for food delivery apps.
You see, Brazil doesn’t have to make things easy for tourists because they are their own largest market for tourism. The 12th largest economy in the world, Brazil has a landmass as large as the US, almost as large of a population, and by far, the biggest economy in South America. It has a strong movie industry, natural resources, and great diversity across the country. In many ways, it makes Brazil a great place for startups, as they can develop for the Brazilian market in a way that American companies cannot. Much of business in Brazil is relationship-based and requires local knowledge of customs, language, regulations, and just getting to know people. We have found that small talk is critical in ALL interactions here, even when just checking out at the grocery store.
Afterwards, we visited another happening retail space, Jurere Open/Jurere International. It’s much like Santana Row in San Jose, consisting of several blocks of apartments on top of retail shops. There’s a focus on international restaurants and shops, and of course, it’s right next to a super nice beach.
We ate at an outdoor food court with a large stage with live bossa nova music playing. What was really special was the large playground right next to the stage. As mentioned before, Brazil is extremely kid friendly, or more accurately, family friendly. The assumption here is that parents go out with their kids, as opposed to haing a babysitter, so things aren’t separated between “adult places” and “kids places”. In Brazil, bars often have “kids spaces”, and even the beach has carts selling liquor all day long.
At Jurere Open, we had our first Brazilian churro which is not at all like a Spanish or Mexican churro. It is a single fat churro filled with dolce de leite (or other filling) and then topped with more icing, sprinkles, pretty much whatever you want, so it becomes more of a churro sundae. Brazilians do love their toppings bars. Everything here is about more variety, more toppings, more color! We love the multitude of variety for buffet lunches and ice cream shops, but it turns out, I like my churros plain (which is NOT an option here).
In our next post, we’ll travel to the mainland for more food and beach adventures!