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 building and scaling startups, including founding Eskolare and helping Gringo reach a $180 million acquisition. He helps founders validate products, focus on the decisions that matter at each stage, and use AI to build and scale their businesses.
Based on 22 verified mentee reviews
- Reviewers often praise how deeply he learns their product and business, including researching them before the first call and understanding their company from the start.
- Several reviewers value his practical, actionable feedback on product decisions, business challenges, and leadership.
- Several reviewers mention his calm support and ability to keep them focused on the right decisions.
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
Before we'd even had our first call, Victor had already researched everything he could possibly find about us. He turned up to that first meeting prepared and ready to hit the ground running. That was the moment I knew he was a different kind of mentor. We've been working with him for several months now, and it has honestly been a game changer. My only regret is that we didn't meet him sooner. Victor is extremely hands-on. He has completely transformed the way we look at our business - not with theory, but with the perspective of someone who has already walked the exact path we're about to walk. He's built, scaled and exited a company himself, and it shows in everything he says. The way he thinks about building and scaling applies to any industry, but we got lucky on top of that: he was in the automotive space building an app, and so are we - so he understands our market from the inside as well. Working with him has probably saved us years of mistakes we would otherwise have made ourselves. He is always responsive, and everything he says is intentional. He doesn't waste time on calls with silly chit-chat - although honestly, I'd love to, because he's such a cool guy. There aren't many mentors who genuinely care about your progress and your success. Victor does. If you're deciding whether to work with him, I promise you won't regret it - we'll personally be continuing our relationship with him for a very long time.
Ahmed
Pro Plan • 2 months
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
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.
