In the 2000s, the internet had a very special spirit. There was no infinite feed and no algorithm deciding what you’d see: there were forums, fan sites and communities that brought people together around shared interests.
That was the setting when I joined a Brazilian forum dedicated to The Legend of Zelda. And it was there, between threads and conversations, that an idea started to take shape.
The idea I couldn’t find
I couldn’t find a Brazilian Super Mario site or forum with the proposal I had in mind. Maybe something similar existed somewhere on the internet, just not the way I wanted it. So I did the only thing that seemed logical: I decided to build it.
That’s how Mario Brasil was born: www.mariobrasil.com.br.
A real lab
What started as a fan initiative became my big personal lab. To get the idea off the ground, I had to learn, test, fail, fix and figure out, hands-on, how to build experiences for other people on the internet.
I was already building things before I knew it could be a career.
That’s how curiosity started turning into technical knowledge. Then came anime sites (including projects related to One Piece), MMORPG initiatives, game servers and many other gaming projects. Every community and every system was a chance to learn more.
What stayed
A lot has changed since then. The tools evolved, the projects took on new dimensions and the passion for building became a profession: in startups, iOS and Android apps, systems and, today, startup investments too.
But what drives me is still the same: curiosity, the will to learn and the joy of turning an idea into something real. In the end, I’m still that nerd who discovered the internet wasn’t just a place to consume content: it was also a place where I could create.