For a long time, mentoring was an exclusive resource for large corporations, such as those listed on the U.S. Fortune 500, where 97.6% already have structured mentoring programs. However, this scenario has changed: today, more and more entrepreneurs and startups are turning to mentoring to accelerate growth, avoid strategic mistakes, and develop a high-performance mindset.

The numbers confirm this trend. According to the Brazilian Association of Business Mentors (ABMEN), the number of mentors in Brazil increased by 78% between 2019 and 2020, reaching 35,000 professionals, and continues to grow, with an average annual growth rate of 19.5%.

For Filipe Bento, founder and CEO of Atomic Group, the pursuit of mentorship reflects the need for continuous learning and a well-defined strategy. "Successful entrepreneurs do not grow alone. Access to a qualified network, strategic vision, and the right mindset make all the difference in scaling businesses in a solid and sustainable way," he/she states.

What sets high-impact mentoring apart?

Contrary to what many imagine, mentoring is not limited to occasional tips or exchanges of experiences. It is a strategic acceleration tool that combines access to qualified networks, evidence-based decision-making, and the development of essential leadership skills.

Filipe Bento, who leads companies such as Br24, Atomic Ventures and Atomic Growth, explains that top-level mentors focus on developing power skills—advanced skills that include leadership in uncertain scenarios, negotiation, influence and executing ideas efficiently.

“Startups are increasingly aware of the importance of mentoring. The market demands agile and informed decisions, and interaction with experienced mentors provides a valuable shortcut, offering validation, guidance and new opportunities for growth,” says Filipe.

The entrepreneurs seeking this type of support, according to him, are visionaries looking for exponential growth. However, they face challenges such as fundraising, process structuring, and defining scalable strategies.

Six Strategies for Solid, Scalable Growth

With experience in accelerating businesses and transforming companies into highly profitable operations, Filipe Bento highlights six fundamental pillars that he works on in his mentoring sessions for entrepreneurs:

• Strategic alliances – Sustainable growth requires solid partnerships, whether with suppliers, partners or strategic investors.

• Timing and speed – Structuring agile teams and creating well-defined operational processes are essential for scalability.

• Operating systems – Efficient procurement, delivery and after-sales models are the backbone of a sustainable business.

• Growth mindset – Breaking internal barriers and limiting beliefs is a differentiator for leading and innovating.

• Impact and recurring revenue – Profitable companies do not rely on one-time revenues, but rather on predictable and sustainable models.

• Scalable growth – The structuring of processes and products allows a business to grow in an orderly and exponential manner.

For Filipe, mentorship is not a ready-made formula, but a process of strategic personalization. "We adapt the approach according to each entrepreneur's reality and challenges, ensuring they have the necessary tools and support to achieve concrete and sustainable results," he concludes.

We are one of the largest economies in the world. However, few of the country's enterprises benefit from robust innovation mechanisms to support their competitive growth. In a study conducted by Alexandre Pierro, one of the few Brazilians who participated in the development of ISO 56001, innovation management.andFounding partner of PALAS, a pioneering consultancy in this methodology in Brazil, it was found that companies that use this international management methodology increase their understanding of the subject by 271%, gaining greater preparedness and capacity to generate innovation, yielding positive short-term results. The study is the result of a master's thesis conducted by the professional at the Federal University of ABC.

For almost two decades, we have occupied intermediate positions in the global innovation ranking, despite being such a vibrant economy and having such a large consumer market. According to the latest Global Innovation Index (GII), conducted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), we are in 50th place out of 133 countries. There is a significant inconsistency between our economic and innovation positioning. ISO 56001 is an excellent opportunity for us to reduce thisgap, scores Pierro.

The main objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of organizations before and after the implementation of the ISO innovation methodology. Within this, five specific objectives were considered: to compare the processes and innovation structure with or without the application of the standard; to analyze the company's innovation culture and compare it with or without the application of the standard; to analyze the launch of new products, services, or processes created with or without the application of the standard; to compare the annual financial revenue generated from innovation-related products with or without the application of the standard; and to compare the reach of the innovation strategy within the organization with or without the application of the standard.

The research methodology included an online questionnaire on innovation principles; an online questionnaire on innovation culture; and live interviews with innovation professionals from companies at tactical, strategic, and operational levels. The answer options for the online forms were: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, and I don't know.

The first stage of the study surveyed 60 medium and large-sized companies from various sectors to identify the most commonly used innovation methodologies. The result pointed to three: Design Thinking, Brainstorm, and Agile. With this information, the professional applied the research methodology to 17 Brazilian companies that have already adopted the Innovation ISO. Among them are Grupo Boticário, Atento, CPFL Energia, Eneva, Copel, and many others with various sizes and segments.

According to Pierro, each company's responses were grouped and classified according to the pillars and concepts of the ISO 56000 family of standards, which comprises a comprehensive innovation management governance model, with ISO 56001 as the certifiable standard. The results were surprising.

According to the researcher, the level of understanding of overall innovation strategy is almost three times higher in companies that adopted ISO. Analyzing topics such as the definition of innovation; innovation goals; focus and type of innovation; innovation process; innovation objectives and indicators; innovation tools; and idea programs, the maturity level of strategic innovation leaders jumped from 35.71% to 87.50%; among the tactical team from 29.58% to 90.27%; and among the operational team from 32.70% to 88.10%.

The outlook on the ecosystem recorded a 58% increase to 67.1%. The communication improved from 55% to 69.5%. The resources needed to innovate – such as time, people, knowledge, infrastructure, andbudget- improved from 62% to 72%. "All these aspects are essential to ensure a continuous and high-impact innovation strategy."

Regarding culture, the fear of making mistakes decreased from 43.3% to 37.9%; demonstrating the creation of a safer and more supportive environment for presenting new ideas. "This fear creates a defense system within corporations, preventing professionals from sharing their ideas for fear of being reprimanded. ISO manages to make the corporate environment safer, with less resistance to innovation," celebrates Pierro.

All these highlighted improvements contribute to a greater balance between efforts and investments in innovations, which was also identified in the study. With this methodology, organizational ambidexterity – which is the ability to think about the future while meeting present needs – improved by about 10% in the surveyed companies, reinforcing a greater capacity to explore innovation.

The results achieved so far show that ISO 56001 can be an important methodology to boost innovation in our country. "This governance model is proving to be the most effective way to leverage innovation, creating numerous gains in strategy, ecosystem understanding, innovation culture, leadership, uncertainty management, communication, support, and process. It is our chance to improve our position in the global innovation ranking and become more competitive on the world stage," concludes Pierro.

BigDataCorp released the second edition of its study "CNPJs do Brasil," which analyzes the business landscape in the country. In March 2025, Brazil surpassed 64 million registered CNPJs, a 7.72% increase compared to the same period of the previous year. Looking only at active companies, the growth was even greater: 16.11%, increasing from 21.8 million establishments to 25.3 million. This rapid increase in the number of businesses in operation demonstrates the dynamism of the Brazilian market, which continues to expand rapidly.

This expansion is especially visible in the micro and small business segment, which leads the movement. Individual microenterprises (MEIs) grew by 20.90% in the last 12 months and already account for 78.74% of active CNPJs in the country. Small family businesses, with two or more partners all from the same family, are the second largest category, representing 9.75% of the total. In total, 88.49% of Brazilian organizations are micro or small family businesses, and the evolution of this type of business reflects significant transformations in Brazilian society and the economy.

Transformation and Formalization of Work

Thoran Rodrigues, CEO of BigDataCorp, highlights that the observed growth is the result of two major ongoing trends in the market. "Firstly, we have the strong phenomenon of 'pejotization' of labor relations. In this context, many people who were previously employed with a formal employment contract in the traditional model have started to act as service providers, structuring their activities as companies," he explains.

This transformation in the way people are hired can be observed in the growth of companies that declare "sales promotion" or "administrative support" as their main economic activities. These two activities are commonly used by workers who are transitioning to a PJ (individual legal entity) model, and they were the two most prevalent types of activity in the new companies. 6.76% of the CNPJs opened throughout 2024 had one of them as their main area of activity.

The formalization of small businesses, especially those linked to the so-called 'gig economy,' is the second major trend identified by the study. As an example, we observe that several activities in the transportation sector, both passenger and freight, had a higher-than-expected participation in business openings," adds Rodrigues.

In addition to the transportation sector, formalization is also reflected in small commerce and essential services such as hairdressers and manicurists, segments that continue to experience strong growth in the number of businesses opened.

Business mortality

Despite the overall growth in the number of active companies, the study also revealed an increase in business mortality. Proportionally, more companies closed their activities throughout 2024 than in any previous year, except in 2021, when the country was still dealing with the effects of the pandemic. A large part of this mortality is related to a return to normalcy in the economy.

For example, a disproportionate number of companies in the food delivery preparation sector was observed, reflecting a contraction in a segment that experienced significant growth from 2020 to 2022. Throughout 2024, 1.66% of closed deals operated in this area.

This acceleration in closures, when combined with the increase in openings, points to greater volatility in the Brazilian market, with less long-lasting companies and morechurn"ends the executive."

Even with so many memorable moments throughout the season, the final stretch of the most watched house in Brazil had a modest performance on social media. According to data fromWinnin— platform that uses proprietary AI to map cultural trends based on internet video consumption, engagement on platforms has decreased by an average of 42% compared to the previous edition. The decline in audience on open TV also reflected this scenario: the reality show recorded lower ratings than previous years, indicating a wear-out of the format among part of the audience, as shown in the graphs below.

Throughout the edition, the majority of the program's audience was female and dominated by Gen-Z and Millennials, accounting for 72% in their favor, compared to 28% of the male audience. The season was also marked by social and behavioral themes that generated widespread discussion on social media. Among the most discussed topics were: "reality show gossip," "lipedema," "racism," "hair in the reality show," "Aline's new look," "fights and arguments," "harassment," "accents," and "ageism." In parallel, the formats that most engaged the audience on digital platforms werehighlight videos, sketches, Q&A sessions, and live streams.

A highlight of this season was the impact of the audience's digital participation, which proved to be more active and discerning throughout the program. Social networks have ceased to be just spaces for cheering and have become arenas for moral analysis and judgment, where each participant's actions are dissected in real time. This change in audience behavior required faster and more aligned responses from brands and the production itself, consolidating a more responsive communication dynamic integrated with the collective sentiment.

The brands that knew how to activate theUser-generated content(user-generated content), they managed to expand their presence beyond the TV screen, creating a chain of organic engagement on social media.

While many bet everything on specific actions and major activations, it was consistency that made the difference in the most watched house in Brazil in 2025. THEFree Marketinvested in continuous actions, building familiarity and reinforcing its message in different contexts within the reality show. According to Winnin, this consistency caused the audience not only to notice but also to connect with the brand, ensuring attention leadership for three consecutive months and consolidating its cultural relevance.

(Consolidated engagement of sponsoring brands on owned channels, UGC, and advertising. Period: January 13 to April 23, 2025)

AlreadyKwai, Stone, MRVand even theNestleThey showed that when the audience becomes a co-author of the conversation, the reach goes far beyond what was expected. These brands stood out for driving high volumes of user-generated content (UGC), with Kwai leading by a wide margin in this regard. This movement not only strengthened your digital presence but also helped explain your dominance in the attention charts at the beginning of the season.

According to Winnin's survey, the campaigns most connected with culture stood out in BBB. Brands that appropriated cultural and emotional references managed to generate more attention and audience engagement. This is the case of CIF, which featured singer Belo as the protagonist of its campaign; of Galinha Pintadinha, which went viral with the story of the eggs; and of iFood, which revived the iconic catchphrase "Calabreso."

It is worth remembering that during the three months of the program, Winnin's platform provided weekly data through the official Big Insights Brazil page and an exclusive dashboard with simple registration. The reports highlighted the moments of greatest engagement, the performance of sponsors, audience behavior, and the best opportunities for brands that are outside the reality show.

Now, the company gathers thefinal season data in a comprehensive analysis, which shows who captured the audience's attention, the main interests of the audience connected to the program, the topics that resonated outside the house, and the brands that dominated the conversation. The material also includes a comparison between the 2024 and 2025 editions, as well as the performance of the brothers, creators, and content formats that generated the most engagement.

**Measurement based on video content about the reality show.