Mr. Latino Or Not?

Details:
– Male
– White
– 27 Years old
– Brazilian/American

Life Pre-College
– Born in the US to a low-income Brazilian family. My dad passed away, and my mother moved us to a small city in Brazil.
– Attended a local high school on a scholarship.
– Joined the youth wing of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, where I participated in leadership development, community involvement, campaigns, and met governors, mayors, ex-presidents, and ministers.
– Founded a Leo club (youth organization of Lions Clubs International) in our small city.

College Experience
– Moved to São Paulo with the goal of getting into investment banking, which was non-existent outside São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro.
– School: 2nd-tier private university. A poor choice in hindsight, making it nearly impossible to break into investment banking at the time. I lacked the clarity coming from a small city in Brazil to know which university to attend.
– Degree: Economics
– GPA: 3.7
– Extracurricular: Member of the Finance Club – Met some influential people, including having a drink with the ex-president of the central bank and father of the Real Plan, the 1994 monetary reform that ended hyperinflation in Brazil.

Work Experience/Internships
Some Brazilian universities allow internships from the first year, which I did both from a career ambition perspective and to pay for my education.
– Operations Intern at a small asset management firm (10 months)
– Large Corporate Business Development at a 2nd-tier Brazilian bank (1 year)
– M&A Intern at an M&A boutique (8 months) – Started at the beginning of my third year of university. I barely attended morning classes, working from 10 am to 10 pm or later. Managed to maintain high grades while taking a heavier workload. Received an offer to become a full-time analyst after 8 months.
– M&A Analyst at the M&A boutique (2 years) – One year while still in college, another year post-graduation. According to the partners, I was 6 months from becoming an Associate when I left.
– Business Development Associate at a London-based Crypto ETF Issuer (1 year and 8 months): Offered a role by a contact I made while working in M&A, moved to London, and became one of the first employees of the first Crypto ETF issuer in Europe. Worked with the CEO to manage relationships with market makers, stock exchanges, and Web3/Blockchain companies. Responsible for developing, raising capital, and executing the company’s new tokenization projects, among other tasks.
– Head of Business Development (11 months): Continued some tasks from the BD Associate role but became the CEO’s right-hand man for strategy, product, and corporate development. Led the company’s potential capital raise and pivot to selling the company. Learned a lot from the CEO about operations (HR, Legal, Finance, IT). Still consulting for the CEO and get paid occasionally for some work.
– COO Tech Venture Builder (Web3, Media/Events, others TBD) (12 months – Current) – Joined post-sale of the previous company, attracted by a contact’s vision and product. Built and now manage day-to-day operations and two ventures. Hired and manage a team of four (HR, Finance, Legal, IT). Overseeing financial planning and budget management. Drafted the company’s foundational legal documents. Represent the company at most conferences around the world (traveling to over 10 different countries in last 10 months). CEO (Majority shareholder) refuses to call me a co-founder due to “branding,”.