Victor Barros
Founder, Investor & AI-native Operator @ Gringo (acq. Corpay), EskolareVictor Barros
Founder, Investor & AI-native Operator @ Gringo (acq. Corpay), EskolareServices
$400 / month
Start free, decide later
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1
Free 7-day trial
No charge until day 7. Cancel anytime. -
2
Ongoing calls + chat
1 × 50-min call per month, unlimited Q&A. Replies in 2 days. -
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No lock-in
Month to month, no contract.
MentorCruise summary
Victor is a Founder, Investor & AI-native Operator at Gringo, acquired by Corpay, and Eskolare. He has 20 years of experience in technology, product, and business, including founding Eskolare and helping lead Gringo to a $180 million acquisition. He helps founders validate products, make sharper decisions, and build and scale companies with AI.
Based on 21 verified mentee reviews
- Reviewers often praise his practical, actionable feedback on product choices, business problems, and startup decisions.
- Mentees value his calm support and responsiveness between calls, especially when they are making difficult decisions.
- Several reviewers credit him with helping them focus on the right priorities, understand their customers, and shape stronger products or offers.
About
Most founders don't fail on bad ideas. They fail by focusing on the wrong thing at the wrong time - and right now, by guessing how to use AI.
I've been on both sides. After 20 years building and scaling startups, I learned to read the stage before choosing the move. And over the last few years I went deep on AI as a builder, not just a user, rewiring how I operate, mentor, and run companies.
That's what I bring to mentorship: cutting through the noise so you focus on what moves the needle now, and turning AI into real leverage in your work.
Who I work with:
- 🌱 Early-stage founders on the 0→1 journey - validation to first traction
- 🚀 Growth-stage founders scaling 1→10 - fundraising, team, product, business model
- 🧭 PMs, engineers, and professionals who want to use AI to level up faster and lead
Where I help with AI (specifically):
- 🤖 Building with Claude & Claude Code - designing, prototyping, and shipping real products and internal tools, even lean
- 🧩 AI agents & automation - autonomous agents and workflows with MCP and the Agent SDK that do real work in production
- 📈 AI in the business - where it creates leverage across product, growth, and ops, and how to drive real adoption in a team
- 🧠 An AI-powered operating system that makes you and your team faster
What else we can work on:
- 🏗️ Entrepreneurship - zero to scale, turnarounds, reinventing mature businesses
- 💰 Fundraising - Angel and VC rounds: the pitch, the story, the terms
- 📦 Product - validation, MVP scoping, roadmap, launch
- 📱 Technology - architecture, AI/ML integration, building lean with modern stacks
- 🧗 Leadership - becoming a sharper decision-maker and building teams that execute
Some context:
- I founded Eskolare, an education fintech serving 1M+ families and 3,000+ schools in Brazil - bootstrapped, fundraised, and built the tech myself.
- I spent ~4 years at Gringo, Brazil's #1 driver platform (20M+ users), as investor and executive, leading Product, M&A, and two Business Units as GM. In 2025, Gringo was acquired by Corpay (US) for US$180M.
- I'm a Board Member at 6 companies across travel, data, legal, event, fin, and auto tech.
- I run much of my own work - mentorship, advisory, marketing - on AI agents I build and operate myself. What I teach is what I use.
- EO member for 9+ years, including helping grow the São Paulo chapter and supporting expansion across Latin America.
How I work: no generic advice. I shorten your learning curve with what I've actually lived - the decisions, the mistakes, the frameworks that worked at each stage.
If you're building something real, or trying to make AI your edge, let's talk.
👉 Book a session and let's get to work.
What mentees say
5 out of 5 stars
I've been running by business for about 3 years now as a solo founder and I decided it'd be great to get some outside perspectives on the inside of the business. Victor has put a lot of energy into understanding my product and business which I find invaluable. He feels like part of the team from the first call and is adding tons of value every interaction. Victor has been providing actionable insights with our goal clearly infront of us.
Ordin
Pro Plan • 1 month
5 out of 5 stars
Have been with Victor just over one month and am finding the experience valuable so far. Victor is particularly responsive in between mentoring calls, and I've found him a helpful sounding board at times of making a lot of decisions. Recommend a chat with Victor to see if he can help.
Ronan
Pro Plan • 1 month
5 out of 5 stars
As a first time founder, I benefited a lot from Victor's experience and calmness in dealing with the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. He consistently brings stream of ideas and proposal, yet coupled with practical recommendation on what he has tried and tested before. Our conversation and mentorship wasn't limited to just the work content, but it covers all spectrum of life entrepreneur, for example, how to manage cofounder relationship. I would recommend Victor to any founder who need a second opinion or someone who understand the journey of entrepreneurship well.
Sin Siang
Standard Plan • 5 months
Get to know Victor
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Article 5 min readVictor Barros – Meet the Mentor
Driven by a passion for democratizing learning and fostering entrepreneurship, I've co-founded startups and hold key roles at Gringo and …
Read more
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Article 5 min readThe missing translation: how to turn technical progress into business language
Most engineering teams have a delivery problem that isn't about shipping — it's about translation. This article walks through a …
Read more
What happens when you start
You tell Victor your goals. They see exactly what you want to work on before session one.
You meet within days. Victor reviews your application and books your first session, usually within a day or two.
You leave with a plan. Concrete next steps and a weekly rhythm from your very first week.
