Why I founded Polisofia after nearly two decades in very different worlds

I started in 2007, still in college, as an intern at Gemalto — a digital security company now part of Thales. That was my first real contact with a multinational: processes, systems, hierarchy, bureaucracy. I learned what worked. I also learned where things got stuck.

Then came Unilever and John Deere. Two great schools — each with a different profile, but with one thing in common: solid structure, outstanding professionals, and an HR function that truly supported the business. I worked as an HRBP at both — that internal consulting role that requires moving across everything: payroll, labor law, training, performance, compensation, culture. You need to know a little of everything and understand the business you're supporting deeply.

Throughout that period, one realization kept solidifying: all of that structure — that depth of processes and people — is the exception in the market. Most companies will never have it. And it's precisely that majority that needs the most help.

The first attempt to break out

After maternity leave, I didn't go back to the traditional corporate model. I became a partner at Miríade — a diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy, at a time when that agenda was gaining strong momentum. That was my first entrepreneurial experience. I learned what it means to sell, to build something from scratch, to rely on yourself to make things happen.

But I was still close to my familiar territory: training, development, the world I knew well. The bigger shock would come later.

ClearSale — and the cost of absence

I went back to the corporate world, this time to ClearSale — an anti-fraud technology company with over 20 years in the market. That's where I truly understood the tech world: digital products, data science, machine learning, the early conversations about what would become artificial intelligence.

But ClearSale had a very different character from John Deere: despite its size and history, it lacked processes and systems. I was part of the team that built the internal HR consulting function — supporting leaders with team management, conflict resolution and performance reviews during a period of rapid growth.

I was laid off from there. And that turning point made something clear that the structured world of multinationals had never let me see: the absence of a strong HR function quietly undermines business growth. It shows up as a founder buried in conflict when they should be closing deals. As a team growing without knowing where it's headed.

The shock that changed everything — Innovari

In 2023 — the year ChatGPT launched — I co-founded an early-stage artificial intelligence startup. For the first time, I stepped completely outside HR. I handled everything that wasn't the code: administrative, financial, marketing, sales. Real survival mode — ideation, MVP, persona definition, decisions with zero resources and zero margin for error.

And it was during that time that my co-founder said something I've never forgotten:

That hit home. Years of corporate habits were so deeply embedded in how I thought that I couldn't operate any other way. I learned, in practice, what goes through the mind of someone building something from zero: what the priorities are, what matters when time and money are short.

The startup didn't succeed. But what I learned there is invaluable.

Clara — where the worlds came together

After Innovari, I joined Clara — a fintech that had already gone through its Series B, with over 300 people, in full expansion. And there I found something I hadn't experienced before: the combination of both worlds.

Agile like a startup, complex like a mid-sized company. Constantly moving between strategic and operational — sometimes in the same day, the same meeting. Doing a lot with little. Using artificial intelligence every day to gain speed with a lean team. Learning that waiting for perfection before acting isn't an option.

At Clara, the synthesis happened. I had lived the world with a process for everything. I had lived the world with no processes at all. Now I was living the middle ground — and I understood both sides from the inside.

The case that pushed me forward

During that period, a friend reached out. Founder of a civil engineering firm — Vectec — with around 20 people. Technically brilliant. But he told me he was spending most of his time resolving conflicts and HR bureaucracies, completely removed from what he was actually good at: leading technically, closing proposals, growing the business.

I gave him a strategic direction. Over a year later, he came back: it had worked — and he wanted the next step.

That's when everything clicked. The technical founder — the engineer, the doctor, the developer — is exceptional in their field. But when the team grows, people management becomes a problem they were never trained to solve. And having someone with the expertise I'd built over nearly two decades? Not viable on a small or mid-sized company's payroll.

That's exactly the space Polisofia was built to fill.

What Polisofia means

The name comes from Greek — poly (many) and sophia (wisdom). Multiple wisdoms: the idea that understanding an organization requires more than a single field of knowledge. Philosophy, anthropology, political science, administration, people management — each discipline illuminates something different about how people organize, decide and build together.

I bring the solidity of multinational processes. The speed and simplicity of startups. The capacity to operate at strategic and operational levels simultaneously. And listening — which is always where I start. Before proposing any path, I need to understand the house.

Because my role isn't to create dependency — it's to arrive, listen, help identify the problem and map a path forward. To bring that knowledge into the business so that, at the end of the day, the founder recovers their focus on their own expertise and the company grows with more autonomy.

Organizing the house, so you can do what you came here to do.