Pipefy is Making Lean Management Accessible to “Do-ers” Everywhere
If I had a motto, it’d be Leila Janah’s quote that “talent is equally distributed; opportunity is not.” I believe that venture capital’s role is to nourish and reward talent wherever it lies. Few companies epitomize this belief more profoundly than Pipefy. We were thrilled to co-lead their $16 million Series A last year and are equally thrilled to participate in their $45 million Series B, announced today.
I still remember my first board meeting with the Pipefy team in Curitiba, Brazil. It took literally no time at all to recognize Pipefy as the kind of rare gem investors dream about. Here’s what I saw:
Passion combined with authenticity.
Everyone believes in what they are doing, feels supported by their peers and executives, and consistently reaches above and beyond the requirements of their roles. Teamwork and support are core to the social fabric of the company and emblematic of their unique and powerful company culture.
A pervasive learning mentality.
When walking from one side of the building to the other — passing the marketing, sales, and product teams — nearly everyone eagerly pulled me aside to ask questions. The palpable culture of learning stems from the top: Pipefy founder and CEO Alessio Alionço is a “learn-it-all,” never a “know-it-all.” His powerful example permeates across the organization, from the executive team to the interns just getting started. This kind of growth mindset and agility is what sets the great companies apart — the companies that never rest on their laurels and instead evolve with and lead the market, constantly learning, growing and improving.
Humility balanced with confidence.
Here’s a company founded in a tiny Brazilian town that most people have never heard of, and they’ve assembled a world-class team with the skills, confidence and conviction to build a product that is not just the best in Brazil, but in fact the best in the world.
Pipefy is revolutionizing workflow management while creating the operating system of tomorrow for growing enterprises.
The technology is built with a product-first approach, adopted eagerly by “doers” who just want to make things work. Since our very first pitch meeting, I’ve been consistently impressed by the product’s elegance and incredible user-centricity.
The problem they’re addressing is extremely important and difficult for enterprises. Systems have to work in concert with one another; Pipefy is creating the recipes and workflows to tie it all together.
Pipefy is entering the market at precisely the right time. For starters, a number of high-profile companies are achieving scale and going public using a product-first approach, making this an ideal climate for Pipefy to execute on a product-led growth strategy. Second, a slew of SaaS and cloud-based solutions are inundating enterprises with best-in-class tools. There is going to be a huge need for solutions like Pipefy’s that allow companies to operationalize the interoperability across these systems.
Finally, the product development space has reached an optimum maturity level for Pipefy. There has been so much disruption around agile and Lean; when you overlay this to a company, you can see how Pipefy enables organizational transformation using Lean management concepts.
With every passing day, week and month, our already deep conviction in Pipefy grows even deeper. The team is executing on all cylinders while evolving their vision into something ever-more audacious. We’re continually impressed by their exceptional leaders, as well as their efficient growth. Pipefy is demonstrating the kind of agility, efficiency, and high-quality outcomes that they deliver for their own ecstatic customers.
Pipefy has built the right product with the right team to address the right opportunity. Keep up the amazing work, and congratulations, Pipefy team!
