Thirty years. Three decades shaped not merely by milestones, but by the quiet, persistent rhythm of becoming.

When asked which emotion accompanied me on this journey, one word arrived uninvited but undeniably present: doubt.

My memory travels back to 2008, to a corridor in building 23B in Campinas, where the future arrived not as certainty but as an unsettling invitation: “Go to the United States. Help us build CI&T there.” At the time, CI&T’s presence in North America wasn’t yet a reality — it was a sketch on the edge of ambition, scribbled in hope and audacity.

And yes, there was doubt. Not the delicate, momentary kind, but a heavy, unrelenting presence. Could we, a Brazilian company born in the warmth of Campinas, carve a place among titans in a land where everything felt vast and foreign? Could we, with our lyrical English and agile minds, resonate in a market that often preferred precision over poetry?

This wasn’t only a professional question. It was deeply human. Leaving behind the known for the unknown demands not only courage, but a willingness to be undone and remade. We weren’t going into battle with a slingshot — we carried Lean principles, Agile practices, and a culture stitched together by empathy and ingenuity. But would it be enough? Or, as doubt insisted, was this merely a beautifully constructed delusion?

I studied the landscape like one prepares for exile — eager yet uncertain. Each established name loomed like an ancient mountain. The cultural gulf yawned wide. And doubt, ever eloquent, whispered its favorite line: “Who do you think you are?”

And yet, even in that noise, a stubborn ember glowed. Not certainty, but faith — in the brilliance of our people, in the difference of our method, in the warmth and wit of our way. That ember lit a path, and I followed.

I landed in the U.S. not with confidence, but with conviction. The early days delivered on every challenge promised by my doubt: communication blunders, cultural missteps, markets slow to trust. And still, we pressed on. Each small win — a project delivered, a client returning, a new hire thriving — became a quiet act of resistance against that old voice of uncertainty.

Then came breakthroughs. We partnered with Johnson & Johnson, crafted apps for Coca-Cola, and slowly, we weren’t just present — we were necessary. Offices grew across Atlanta, New Jersey, New York, and Oakland. Comrade and Ntersol joined our story. Our once-questioned value was now impossible to ignore.

Today, in 2025, North America is not a distant dream — it is a cornerstone of CI&T’s global force. Our partners — PepsiCo, Domino’s, J&J, Coca-Cola — are industry giants. We rang the bell at the NYSE. Giants like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and AWS walk beside us as peers.

Looking back, doubt was not the enemy. It was a companion, the necessary skeptic that sharpened our intent and clarified our purpose. Doubt does not paralyze when embraced — it purifies. It demands we leap not blindly, but bravely, and with eyes wide open.

We transformed doubt into drive, not alone but together — with every CI&Ter who dared to believe, every client who gave us a chance, and every moment we chose to listen not only to our fears, but to our dreams.

As we honor CI&T’s 30-year legacy, let us not banish our doubts. Let us greet them, question them, and let them refine us. In doing so, we honor not just the company we’ve built — but the courage it took to build it.

With enduring gratitude,