Founder and co-CEO of VTEX alongside Mariano Gomide, Geraldo Thomaz is an expert in digital commerce. Over the past 22 years he has distinguished himself as an entrepreneur and as a leader in building one of the most successful e-commerce platforms today.
In this post, you will be inside the story of Geraldo Thomaz. You'll find out how he managed to transform VTEX into a global e-commerce company and unified trade. Keep reading and learn more!
GERALDO THOMAZ AND HIS TRAJECTORY AT VTEX
Between 1992 and 1994, Geraldo Thomaz was a student at Colégio São Bento. Later, between 1995 and 2000, he studied Mechanical Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. While graduating he worked as an intern at Banco Icatu. But at the turn of the millennium, life changed dramatically.
In the early 2000s, Geraldo Thomaz's father-in-law owned a clothing company in the city of Macaé. Every month, however, he had to drive to São Paulo to pick up orders. Soon after, he came back and made the deliveries. It was then that Geraldo and Mariano created a CRM software that did this via the internet. Thus was born Textile Showcase, embryo of VTEX.
The first four years of entrepreneurship were the most difficult. Vitrine Têxtil, which had a maximum of five employees, sold a B2B CRM that did not give much return. So, the duo also began to invest in the creation of e-commerces, until, in 2007, the opportunity arose to create the Walmart e-commerce.
The production of Walmart's e-commerce was a watershed. From then on, Vitrine Têxtil was renamed VTEX. Geraldo Thomaz and Mariano turned to selling an e-commerce platform. In the following years, customers multiplied and VTEX began to develop solutions for B2C, B2E, B2G, etc., in all sectors of activity.
THE POWER OF VTEX TODAY
Along with partner and friend Mariano, VTEX co-CEO Geraldo Thomas led the company without the help of investors for many years. It was only in 2012 that it received funding from the Naspers Group and later from Riverwood Capital. In 2016, the multinational financial advisory firm Deloitte recognized VTEX as the fastest growing SME in Brazil.
With the VTEX platform, which was now the great product, Geraldo Thomaz's company went from a turnover of R$10 million in the 2000s to more than R$100 million in 2016. starting point for over 2.500 in over 30 countries.
Today, companies like Coca-Cola, Carrefour, Sony and Samsung use the VTEX platform and other technologies. The company achieved Gartner recognition, from CIO Review and Retail Tech. In 2019, it received a contribution of R$580 million from Softbank Constellation and Gávea. Already in 2021 debuted on the NYSE.
VTEX co-CEO Geraldo Thomaz currently lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, from where he leads VTEX's expansion around the world alongside Mariano Gomide. Like his partner, Geraldo likes to practice spearfishing, an activity that possibly inspired him to “fish” the big fish in the market.
As soon as you can click on “Mariano Gomide” and learn about the story of Geraldo's partner, also founder and co-CEO of VTEX.
