FLOW invited the executive and entrepreneur Marcelo Blay to participate in the Conversation with Leaders webseries. In the following videos, he shares his professional experiences and tells how planning innovation helped him found the Minuto Seguros.

Desafios de ser executivo em empresa da família

Blay started the conversation by talking about the experience of having worked at Porto Seguro, a company founded by his family. It reinforces the importance of understanding the owner's mind and maintaining a philosophical alignment with the family members who run the company.

experienced entrepreneurship

When Marcelo Blay decided to undertake in 2010, in order to minimize risks, he wanted to work in a segment he knew. He chose the insurance business, in which he had worked for more than 15 years in large companies such as Porto Seguro and Itaú. To found Minuto Seguros, he combined the best of both experiences: Porto Seguro's relational culture and Itaú's focus on performance. With this management style, and focusing on innovation with planning, his business became the largest online insurance broker in the country and leader in the automobile segment.

The success story of Minuto Seguros

Planning was very important to achieve these results. It was a year of preparation before starting to sell insurance with the support of technology. Blay redeemed his management skills acquired in the MBAs at FGV and Columbia University. In addition, he carried out market research, contracted consultancy, did benchmarking in international markets, developed a pilot, developed a system, hired and trained professionals. The objective was to open the doors safely, so as not to compromise its reputation in the market.

The entrepreneur attributes success to an essential differential, especially in the field in which he operates: human support in sales. “Insurance is a complex, long-term product with specific terminology. People are not familiar, they need human care,” he says.

Turning mistakes into virtues

But the path was not easy. Prior to Minuto Seguros, he received other business proposals and was on the verge of setting up a health insurance company from scratch, a project to which he devoted time and resources for almost a year. It was a large project, which would have as partners a publicly traded company and a large brokerage in the field. He would be CEO and would have equity interest, but plans have changed.

At lunch with one of his brothers who wanted to sell his insurance brokerage, he saw an opportunity for Minuto Seguros. Blay bought his brother's company and decided to focus on the online business, a position that no brokerage had until then.

360 view of risk

Blay says starting a little older — he was 44 at the time — made him risk averse and take certain steps to maintain the wealth he's built. He limited the amount he would invest in his own business to preserve the family's lifestyle, which made him need to seek outside investors for the company. In addition to reducing his investment and risk, according to him, this decision helped bring people with different views and partners who demand results.

Company challenges x influence on profiles

For Blay, different moments in the company attract and demand different profiles of professionals. For example, when the company was still a project, he sold a dream, and professionals with a solid career would hardly change their positions to go to a startup with no guarantee of success. After about three years in the market, these professionals begin to see potential in the business. Another lesson learned from the growth trajectory is to understand that the people who took the company to that level are not necessarily the ones who will help it reach the next level.

The impact of the wrong hire

Blay says from experience that fast-growing companies can't go wrong with hiring professionals because there's no time to waste. He estimates delays of about two years on major projects because of this. Therefore, despite his experience and networking, he prefers to invest in professionals to help with this task. “Just as I like our clients to have us as experts when making decisions for insurance, I think that to make decisions about anything I have to be surrounded by good experts,” he says.

For more videos from the Conversation with Leaders webseries, click here.