Sai do Papel: growing startups is easier than getting paid

A startup can do almost everything an investor asks. It can find customers, increase revenue and stay alive. Then comes the awkward question: when does the investor get paid? Sai do Papel, the Rio de Janeiro innovation group, has had to confront that distinction. Its founder, Carlos Junior, described a portfolio in which businesses grew without producing the exits or dividends a fund needed. The companies were moving. The money was waiting.

01 / The return that never arrived

The numbers Junior shared in July 2026 explain the change. Across almost 30 invested startups, fewer than 10% had been written off. Yet roughly half had delivered no relevant return to the fund. Growth had not made them sufficiently attractive acquisition targets, and they were not distributing dividends. That is an uncomfortable middle ground: a company can be doing reasonably well while its investor has little to celebrate.

Sai do Papel’s fourth fund therefore incorporates venture debt through a convertible loan. Junior described returns above Brazil’s CDI benchmark but below bank lending rates, no real collateral, and borrower grace periods of one to five years. Investor redemption could begin after the first year. These are the founder’s descriptions of the structure. Their practical appeal is a possible route to repayment alongside the chance of an equity return.

02 / An idea needs more than an audience

The Portuguese name Sai do Papel describes getting something off paper. Junior founded the group in 2017 after experience running a digital agency and investing in startups. In his account, meeting motivated entrepreneurs combined the energy of someone starting out with the connections of someone further along. The resulting company built services around the distance between having an idea and having a business.

Its Academy offers mentoring, masterclasses and pitch feedback. The 2025 pre-acceleration cohort advertised four three-hour sessions on customers, problem-solution fit and testing hypotheses. Acceleration went further: business models, minimum viable products, market analysis and routes to customers. A founder with an untested proposition and a founder with early sales have different homework. Putting them on different tracks is a useful acknowledgement of that fact.

Kuba, the Brazilian headphone business, supplies a telling example. In a testimonial published by Sai do Papel, CEO Leonardo Drummond described finished products sitting inside an organization that was itself still a prototype. The problem was the company’s ability to handle expansion. Good headphones do not automatically produce good processes. That is where business education can become useful, even after the product has found buyers.

“Our company was still an MVP.”Leonardo Drummond, Kuba CEO · translated excerpt from a company-published testimonial

03 / Give the corporate buyer a problem

Corporations arrive from the opposite direction. They have structures, staff and customers, but may struggle to translate a strategic ambition into a practical experiment. Sai do Papel’s Corporate unit serves innovation managers, business teams and human resources departments. Its menu includes workshops, hackathons and internal entrepreneurship programs. The sharper distinction lies in what follows the initial event.

SdP Startup Studio develops ideas with a dedicated team beyond the hackathon. SdP Match begins with a corporate challenge, maps suitable startups, invites presentations and selects solutions for proofs of concept. This gives the introduction a destination. The commercial logic is services for corporate buyers alongside startup development and investment activity. A prospective client can ask for a program attached to a particular business problem.

04 / A gas pipeline beats a vague brief

The sector hubs put subject knowledge behind those introductions. Energy Hub, created in 2020, covers renewables as well as oil and gas, mobility and related technologies. Its published TBG case starts with a wonderfully specific request: help reduce the time needed to deploy transport gas pipelines. The group says one solution was entering implementation with TBG’s support. Specificity makes it easier to judge whether a proposed innovation is useful.

Finance Hub publishes a similarly concrete case. Data Hacking Days², a LAB368 initiative involving Banco Carrefour and Grupo Carrefour Brasil, mixed employees and outside participants to explore data-led financial services for business customers. The published tally is 112 participants and 15 delivered projects. Health Hub connects companies and startups around areas including analytics and teleconsultation. These networks organize conversation around a sector’s problems rather than a universal enthusiasm for technology.

05 / The room is part of the product

Introductions also need somewhere to happen. Arca Hub borrows its name from Noah’s ark: founders, investors, corporations and academia are the different species aboard. By July 2026, it had moved to Copacabana’s Shopping Cassino Atlântico. Junior described a shift toward visits with a purpose, such as a business round or workshop, rather than treating the hub simply as an everyday office.

Rio Innovation Week provides another meeting ground. In 2023, Sai do Papel and 100 Open Startups offered a free Ignition track that included an event ticket, online mentoring and access to 18-minute business meetings. Against separate funds, consultancies and coworking spaces, Sai do Papel’s proposition is the connection between these activities. Mentoring can prepare the founder for the meeting; sector knowledge can help make the meeting relevant.

06 / Copy the sequence, check the terms

There is a practical sequence to borrow: test the customer problem, build a workable business, seek a relevant buyer and choose financing suited to the next step. The debt shift adds a condition. A grace period postpones repayment; it does not invent the cash to make it. An idea still searching for demand belongs closer to validation than to a repayment schedule.

Corporate pilots have their own condition: someone inside the buyer must be able to move the work toward a purchase. Without that route, another promising presentation may accomplish very little. Sai do Papel’s story is useful because it exposes these separate jobs. Getting an idea off paper is the beginning. Finding a customer, building the organization and arranging how investors get paid require further decisions.