Nubank ec-1

Brazil is a country riven with economic contradictions. It has one of the largest and most profitable banking industries in Latin America, and is among the world’s most developed financial markets.

For most startups, the hardest early challenge is identifying a market and a product to serve it. That wasn’t the case for Nubank CEO David Velez, who knew the potential for success in Brazil.

David Velez needed to fill two key co-founding roles to begin building Nubank — he needed a CTO to lead the engineering side of the business, as Velez didn’t have an engineering background.

It’s easy to assume the name Nubank refers to “new bank,” but that’s not what the founders were going for. The word “nu” in Portuguese means “naked,” and Velez wanted the name to reflect his vision.

Nubank’s first office, on California Street in the Brooklin neighborhood of São Paulo, makes for a great beginning to the company’s story.