International Women’s Day: A Q&A with Paula Sampaio

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3 min readOct 29, 2020

How long have you been a honey badger? Since April of 2018.

Which location do you work in? Curitiba

What is your role in the company? I’m part of the CMI enterprise sales team. I am responsible for building and running outbound cadences within our key accounts and getting in touch with inbound leads that work within our key accounts around the world.

How did you hear about Pipefy? I had a friend who worked here in the early stages who was always talking about Pipefy and how much fun it was to work for the company. At the time, I was actually placed in an internship where we used Pipefy on a daily basis. I fell in love with the tool before even becoming an employee.

What kind of changes do you hope to see for women in your lifetime? Empowerment. Empowerment is at the center of it all. Just recently, I witnessed a couple with a two-year-old outside on the street asking for money. The woman was out there tending to her child, and the man was lazily resting against the tree requesting money from people who walked by. He barely put any energy into it. Sometimes, women look at those men and admire them. While I walked by, I was thinking about how she could do so much better if she felt empowered. But it wasn’t just her. It’s women as a whole who for some reason aren’t told they could have more from this life. Generations previously have been teaching their daughters to become housewives as if they don’t have other options, so they end up in these kinds of scenarios.

I was lucky to have a mom who inspired me to go after my dreams. My dad always encouraged us to chase our aspirations and to become independent. Empowerment starts at home with your family. Having these influences changes everything. Things have changed, but not enough. There need to be more discussions from parents about raising respectful young men so women don’t need to hear that they need to be careful and worry about how their actions can be interpreted by guys the wrong way. The focus should be on respect for everyone.

Who is your biggest inspiration as a woman? One, the Brazilian singer Anitta. She takes care of her own career and owns herself. She went after her dreams against the doubt of others.

Also, my grandmother. She was born in the 1940s, but she was always a forward-thinking lady. She takes care of herself and is a very healthy woman with a rebellious spirit. My grandfather respected her so much, she would never let a man shout at her and he wouldn’t dare. She imposed herself, which is something I admire. There is sometimes a culture of verbal and physical abuse with Latin Americans — we’re tough on the outside but inside we’re mushy. My grandmother always could stand up for herself and I respect that.

What kind of values do you think women specifically contribute to the workforce? Women are typically much more detail-oriented. We’re also usually more cautious. It isn’t often where you find an impulsive woman. We put that second thought into everything and are usually more flexible. Of course, having a diverse workplace makes it a better environment as a whole.

Do you have any plans to celebrate International Women’s Day? I will post on Instagram and Facebook about the many places I have traveled to around Brazil on my own as an independent and free woman. I also have people in mind to talk to about what we mean when we say female empowerment. There is this misconception that many men make when they hear feminism or empowerment… they think it’s about women rising above men. It’s not, though. It’s about telling everyone, women or men, that they can do anything they want, regardless of the preconceptions.

What advice would you give to a young woman starting her career? Stand up for yourself. Speak up when you see something you don’t agree with. Don’t let degrading remarks or comments bring you down. Also, please scale within your company! There are too few C-level women.

By the way, we’re hiring. Take a look at our open positions here.

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