With a pioneering academic background, a professional debut in the midst of the dot-com bubble, and the courage to take risks at a time when there were no clients or portfolio, he built AmplitudeNet and closely followed the evolution of technology, always with a critical, innovative, and human perspective. In this interview, he shares with us the key moments, the challenges, and the vision for the future that continue to guide him.
1. How was your academic journey?
Caesar: I graduated about 25 years ago in Electrical and Computer Engineering from FEUP, specializing in Artificial Intelligence, at a time when the Computer Science course did not yet exist in Porto.
2. What was your first professional project like and what did you get out of it?
Caesar: My first professional project was at Shopping Direct, a company created by Grupo BCP, in what was the first major e-commerce project in Portugal.
One of the characteristics of this project was the fact that at the time they used the most expensive e-commerce programming tool in the world, which differentiated itself by introducing concepts of personalization and one-to-one marketing, which was something that was beginning to be introduced.
However, the amounts involved in the licensing of this solution generated projects with values that were totally out of line with the Portuguese reality. This was at the height of what became known as the era of the “Internet Bubble”, where there was a great deal of speculation about the value of online companies and where in the end the overwhelming majority failed.
It was also a time when everything was very new and where daily blatant mistakes were made in what I did on the Web.
But it was also a phase in which a lot began to be born, such as the science of usability and the awareness of the importance of involving end consumers in the processes of creating Online solutions.
It was in this follow-up that I realized the impact that small usability changes could have on sales and also how poor management decisions can ruin projects with great possibilities of success.
To AmplitudeNet
3. What motivated you to create AmplitudeNet?
Caesar: I was 27 years old when I and one of my current partners, while we were still working on the BCP project, decided to create a platform based on open source platforms, with the same principles of personalized marketing.
So we worked day and night we developed our platform, which gave rise to the creation of our company after 2 years.
It turned out to be a mix of frustration and ambition, because even during the experience at Shopping Direct we thought: “There has to be a better way to do this” and we decided to take a risk. We didn't have clients or portfolios, but we had ideas and we wanted to prove that focusing on the user and personalization were the future.
Nowadays we have about 20 employees and we remain two of the original founders.
4. What were the early days on AmplitudeNet like?
Caesar: The early days at AmplitudeNet were intense, as the company needed money to survive and since we didn't have clients yet, it was necessary to create a financial cushion that would allow us to dedicate time to consolidating the company.
We had extensive experience in all facets of the Web, such as e-commerce, one-to-one marketing, information architecture, usability, and we also had a personalization platform far ahead of time at that time.
Our biggest challenge was to make the public understand our concept and show customers that we had the capacity to do things differently and better.
We started to have some customers and I remember that our first projects on the web were with a bookstore and a wine company, and that the final result was so good, that from that moment on we naturally began to have more customers and to grow organically, which gave us financial impetus and credibility.
5. When did they realize that they needed to change course within the company?
Caesar: When the Website and E-commerce market began to be dominated by ready-made platforms, which in the eyes of the end customer were able to do everything without any effort.
We lost count of the clients we had and who told us that they were going to switch to another solution, who only needed 3 months, because they had a new, turnkey solution, but then the projects took more than 5 years to achieve something minimally close to what they already had with us.
Thus, the perception that began to exist in the market with the massification of “ready” platforms led to a change of direction in the company. And about 15 years ago, we decided to invest in Digital Signage, creating another platform for managing screens, after identifying that it would be an area with an enormous future.
6. Why Digital Signage?
Caesar: The solution we offer is transversal to any business area, which really captivated us. Within the Digital Signage universe, there are two different realities.
One is the one in which the end customer is the consumer, which happens, for example, in shopping malls, where the consumer ends up seeing screens everywhere. This is the reality that people are most aware of, as they are increasingly bombarded with the videos and images shown on the various existing screens.
In this reality, after 15 years, our biggest competitor is still the pendrive, that is, even large brands with hundreds of stores, still use flash drives and do not see the need for software to replace them, even after realizing all the great benefits that they could obtain from there.
The other reality is that of corporate television, where the final customer is the company's employees and when entering into this reality, companies don't just want to show images and videos, they want to have intelligent broadcasts that attract the attention of employees.
In addition to videos with the mission, values and projects developed, companies want a much more dynamic issue, capable of capturing the attention of employees, such as the presentation of key company KPIs, news of the day, meteorology, stock market indicators, topics covered on social networks, local traffic conditions and even sports news.
All of this is possible, due to a series of apps associated with our software, in which those who are outside this reality end up thinking that there is a large team producing all the content of the broadcast, when in fact we have already managed to make everything very automated.
But more than software, Amplitude Net offers a complete solution, from hardware to software, installation, management and support.
Currently in Portugal, we work with about half of the PSI-20 companies and manage large networks, such as the software for Tabaqueira's 3,500 screens or Tranquidade's nearly 700 digital storefronts.
7. What moment do you consider decisive in the company's history?
Caesar: I highlight EDP's entry in 2006 as our client.
At the time, EDP, using our software and a large internal team, created a very prestigious corporate television channel, having received several awards for the best corporate communication channel, not only nationally but also internationally.
Another key moment was our international expansion to Brazil about 15 years ago.
César - Management and Vision
8. How do you describe your leadership style?
Caesar: I value the well-being of the team. I believe in work-life balance. I want people to feel like they're working on something that makes sense and challenges them. This also ends up being a challenge, as the team must remain motivated, in order to be able to increase our business and launch features to the market that add value and allow companies to grow.
Teleworking turned out to be a minor obstacle in this process, as I consider that the cultural issue that we always try to promote within the company is a bit lost, yet we adapt and the important thing is to try to make people grow within the company, to be critical, productive and above all to feel good.
9. How do they position themselves in terms of marketing?
Caesar: As we always had a very strong organic digital presence, historically we ended up becoming a very passive company, in other words, essentially it is the customers who come to us, since we receive several leads on a daily basis.
This is because for years our SEO was very strong and well worked out. Since taking over the management of the company about 4 years ago, our marketing has become much more active, we have begun to attend reference events and create many other dynamics, which create more value and notoriety for us.
10. Is Artificial Intelligence central to your strategy?
Caesar: It always was. In the beginning, the platform that gave rise to the company was filled with Artificial Intelligence components, with recommendation algorithms and intelligent information crossing.
Nowadays, we already have some features in our software, such as the automated creation of audio advertisements and image generation. We also have, month after month, more internal processes in the company to be automated by Artificial Intelligence.
We are currently working on a series of new solutions, ranging from the creation of very innovative features to be introduced in our software, as well as hardware that can complement our software.
Our objective, increasingly, is to be able to provide our clients with a better solution than the one that already exists in the market, with very competitive costs, but at the moment I prefer not to delve into this topic any further, as the idea is to try to surprise the market with the presentation of these new solutions.
11. And what is your vision for the future, both about the company and about Artificial Intelligence?
Caesar: In addition to all the Artificial Intelligence evolutions that we have planned for our solutions, a close objective is to achieve a greater international presence, with the creation of a worldwide network of partners.
Regarding the future of Artificial Intelligence, I think that in the long term many chaotic things may happen.
Several of the episodes of the series “Black Mirror”, in addition to a big knot in the head, give us an excellent perception of much that could happen, since we were able to see the dark side of many things that are about to happen, without having ever thought about them.
In the short term, in the space of about 5 years, perhaps the most impactful transformation will be the union between robotics and Artificial Intelligence, because I think we will have “humanoids” present in our daily lives, such as to clean our houses, explain to our children, keep company with the elderly and many other things.
12. Do you have any advice for those who want to start a business in the technological area or any difficult moment that inspires our readers?
Caesar: I can tell you a funny story about the difficulty of entrepreneurship.
During the pandemic and with teleworking, the Corporate TV channels that companies had ceased to have visibility, because people were not physically in the companies. So we created an extension where the broadcast passed on company channels could now be transmitted to computer screensavers when they stopped being used for some time.
The marketing departments of the companies loved this new solution, but we ended up with no results in selling it, because it needed the approval of the technical teams, because it was necessary to install a program on the computers and in the midst of a pandemic, everything that was installed was boycotted by the IT departments.
Subsequently, and with more success, we created a solution for Teams and right now, we are the only company capable of creating Corporate TV channels on Teams with Digital Signage software.
This new solution was also a challenge, as we had to prove that it worked and that it was useful for companies. And after a year in this process, in which we offered the solution to companies so that they could realize their real value, we already have some large companies as clients and with a content viewing rate by employees of around 80% (in the first 2 days of new publications), which beats all other internal means of communication of the companies.
This is a small example, which shows us that it is necessary to always be prepared to change. The key to survival is to adapt, learn, and explore every opportunity.
Looking back, what makes us most proud of is our resilience, because we have already gone through very good and other very difficult phases, but we continue to innovate, to grow and to maintain the team spirit that we had at the beginning.
