42 Rio: Bridging Inequalities in Brazil’s Cultural Capital
Nestled in a building overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s world famous Sambadrome (the venue where the main events of the city’s carnival take place each year), a 20-minute ride away from the city’s iconic beaches, 42 Rio is one of 42’s two campuses in Brazil. Founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Hector Gusmão, Bruno Castello and Ula Amaral, the campus only truly opened its doors in 2022, after a rocky start due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now firmly on the rails, it seeks to address Rio’s inequalities of opportunity while empowering its students to become entrepreneurs in their own right.
A glance outside the windows on the eastern side and you can see Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous Sambadrome stretching out in all its glory. A glance a little further to the South and you can see the curves of some of the world’s most iconic beaches: Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. Yet make no mistake, while the surroundings are somewhat enchanting and would remind anyone of their dream holiday, you are standing in the middle of a studious cluster inside the 42 Rio campus.
Boasting a capacity of 200 workstations, 42 Rio was initially established to address inequalities of opportunity in the city. After having launched Bolder, an innovation hub gathering over 50 Brazilian corporations, Hector Gusmão, Bruno Castello and Ula Amaral quickly became aware of the shortage in IT talents that companies in Brazil faced. “Seeing the vast potential among young people in the favelas (Rio’s most deprived neighborhoods) and the demand for tech talent in (Bolder’s) companies, we realized that we needed to do more than just a business. That is when we decided to bring 42 to Rio, starting in our hub.” — Hector Gusmão tells us.
Despite the obvious potential, 42 Rio was off to a rocky start, facing many challenges in its early years, the first of which being Brazil’s rigid education system. “Brazil’s education system is regulated by the Ministry of Education, which sets highly conventional rules that shape public and employer perceptions of universities” — Hector Gusmão notes. On top of that, just a few months after the signing of the initial contract agreement to set up 42 Rio, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, delaying the actual opening of the campus to 2022.
Nevertheless, 42 Rio’s team was able to turn things around in the years that followed. The campus now receives numerous applications each year, and aims to grow further in the years to come, as Hector Gusmão points out: “we aim to reach a capacity of 300 students next year. At the moment, we host between 2 and 4 Piscines each year, and we want to set 4 as our minimum starting next year. Approximately 4,000 people apply per selection process, and the student body is highly diverse: 40% come from low-income backgrounds, 45% are from ethnic minorities and 24% are women!”
On the job front, students at 42 Rio have plenty of job opportunities, both with the campus’ partner companies — such as BocomBBM, Vibra Energia, Austral Seguradora, Icatu Seguradora and Vale — and with other employers across Brazil. Nonetheless, while the demand for 42 students grows in the country, 42 Rio’s founders also hope to foster an entrepreneurial mindset among their student body. “Over the past few years, we’ve worked on employability and increased market awareness for 42 Rio. Starting next year, we want to empower our students to become entrepreneurs. We believe that our students can transform Rio and the world by developing solutions for complex problems using technology” — Hector Gusmão concludes.
