In 2015, Felipe Otoni's trajectory took a drastic turn. At the time, he worked as a consultant for a vehicle protection company and was deeply involved in the growth of the business. However, Felipe realized that he had been deceived by his superiors, discovering that they were involved in frauds. It was then that he decided to leave the company and the sector in which he worked. At just 25 years old, Felipe left Maringá, in Paraná, and moved to Vitória, Holy Spirit, in search of new opportunities and a fresh start
For six months, Felipe worked in digital marketing in the capital of Espírito Santo, helping to recruit new collaborators for a ride-hailing company. It was during this period that he had an insight: the digital strategies he was using could be successfully applied in the sales sector he had worked in previously. This realization motivated him to return to Maringá and turn his idea into reality. Without own resources, Felipe borrowed R$ 10 thousand from a colleague who became an investor partner in the business, returned to Maringá, opened an office, invested R$ 1.500,00 and, in 2016, founded theSegSmart, a company created to optimize the sales processes of products and services online for anyone or any business that needs to boost sales.
The first product of the company, theSegsmart Marketing, it was created to enhance sales through a referral system. Companies can register their products and services, and anyone – be a digital influencer or someone ordinary – can you recommend these products. In this systematics,both the business owner and the indicator benefit: the former with more sales, and the second with a transparent and traceable commission. In the first four years of operation, when SegSmart predominantly operated as a tool of Proteauto, a non-profit Vehicle Protection Association, the tool made the company go from 1.060 associates for more than eight 8.000 associates. Today it is 37 thousand
Due to the success, in 2018, the president of Proteauto, invested R$ 10 thousand in SegSmart to launch an extra feature, that leveraged the business: they then created the first self-inspection app, in which the person themselves, following the guidelines, take the photos and include them in the tool. This made it possible to triple the number of sales, jumping from 50 in January to 150 in February. In 2020, the company realized the high potential of this market and due to the demand from companies, disassociated from Proteauto, creating a monthly subscription plan for R$ 169,00
By the end of this year, SegSmart's expectation is to generate R$ 20 million and reach 1 million users. The optimism is mainly due to the launch of theSegSmart Web Plus, an extension for WhatsApp Web that transforms the way customers manage their sales. Optimizing contact management, the solution allows the customer to send bulk messages, create quick and personalized responses, connect the CRM and manage the sales funnel through WhatsApp Web. With an initial investment of R$ 200 thousand, the new tool began to be tested in January 2023 and, still running as MVP (Minimum Viable Product, in Portuguese, impacted more than eight thousand people, that lowered the resource for the three-day free trial. Of these, 3.615 signed up for the tool that has a monthly fee of R$ 59,00, a conversion higher than 43%.
From a 14-year-old boy to a future multimillionaire
If Felipe Otoni's "eureka" moment was during the transition between being a salesperson and the world of digital marketing, the entrepreneurial pin introduced itself early on, still in adolescence. Son of merchant parents from the city of Ponte Nova, in Minas Gerais, Otoni's first experience was at the age of 12. Wanting a video game, the father advised him to resell socks and, with the profit, bought the game itself. The venture went very well and he gained more clients. However, how practice interfered with studies, the father told to stop. At 14 years old, started washing cars. It started with the family vehicle and expanded to the neighborhood. At 16, went to work in the finance department of a construction company
The time of having a signed work card, what was achieved at the construction company, lasted a short time. With the desire to move to Maringá, hometown of the then-girlfriend, he decided to look for an alternative that would give him more flexibility to work. At 19, he became a consultant for Serasa Experian and started selling solutions for indebted companies. Moved to Maringá in 2010 and, in 2012, started to get involved with the sale of protection for trucks. Now, with an even larger market and enormous potential ahead, the next goal is to reach a revenue of R$ 490 million by 2025, in addition to expanding its base to 10 million customers that, with the platform, they grow and earn more by investing less. Proving that, even in the face of challenges and disappointments, it is possible to build an empire from scratch with determination, innovation and a clear vision of the future
