Why this persona fits the audience
He is currently building a marketing attribution SaaS in São Paulo as a one-person startup. There are no employees or cofounders, and he personally handles the codebase, growth experiments, sales conversations, and customer support.
- Age: 33
- Location: São Paulo, Brazil
- Occupation: Solo founder, martech SaaS
- Income: BRL 180k-360k
- Education: Bachelor's degree in computer engineering
- Company size: 1 (himself)
- Years in role: 2.5
“I don’t have a work-life balance. I have a *work-life stack*—sometimes I hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and everything resets for 30 minutes.”
Lucca Santos dropped out of his master’s in computer engineering to build what he calls 'a better Google Analytics for scrappy e-commerce brands.' His current SaaS, AttriBot, tracks marketing attribution with a focus on Facebook Ads and email campaigns—a niche he chose because 'every other martech tool ignores the messy middle.' The codebase began as a weekend project in 2021 but became his full-time obsession after securing $12k in pre-revenue revenue from a beta test group. Lucca’s biggest constraint is time: he logs 12-hour days but still can’t keep up with feature requests or delegate tasks. His most recent pivot involved sunsetting a planned attribution API to focus on self-serve product management—a decision that cost him a potential pilot client but simplified his codebase by 40%. Financially, he survives on retained earnings and the occasional freelance Python gig, but refuses to take VC money 'until they see traction,' which he defines as $50k MRR. His apartment resembles a server room, with cables snaking between a gaming monitor and a portable mini-fridge stocked with energy drinks. The only luxury he allows himself is a $300 espresso machine, which he justifies as a 'productivity tool.' His relationship with time is transactional: he measures his output in 'lines of code per minute' and resents social obligations like 'wasting 2 hours on brunch.' Status matters to him, but not in traditional ways—he’d rather be known as 'the guy who built AttriBot alone' than 'the CEO with a fancy office.'
Background & daily life
A day in their life
5:45AM: Cold shower to 'restart brain' (his hack for burnout). 6:15AM: Grinds beans for espresso while listening to yesterday’s TechCrunch newsletter on 1.5x speed. 7:00AM: Debugs a false-positive in the attribution dashboard—caused by an undocumented API change. 8:30AM: Cold emails three e-commerce brands while monitoring Slack for customer tickets. 10:00AM: Picks up a pão na chapa from Boteco do Zé before a call with a potential $2k client in Lisbon. 12:30PM: Naps for 15 minutes facedown on the couch. 2:00PM: Tests a new UTM tracker script he coded overnight. 4:45PM: Posts a witless TikTok-style video about 'how I built my entire stack for $17/month' (gets 12 likes). 6:30PM: Orders delivery (again) while Zezinho knocks over a coffee cup. 8:00PM: Reads 'The Lean Startup' for the third time, highlighter in hand. 10:15PM: Checks Slack once more before passing out fully clothed.
Lifestyle
Lucca rents a 40m² apartment where his bed doubles as a makeshift server rack. His routine starts at 6AM with cold showers and home-roasted coffee, then a 20-minute walk to a coworking space he frequented pre-pandemic but now uses solely for its coffee machine. Lunch is usually a pão na chapa with mortadela from the boteco downstairs. He skips weekends—they’re just '24-hour workdays with worse lighting.' Healthwise, he’s lean from walking 10k steps daily but ignores doctor’s advice to take breaks. Social life is digital: he attends soccer games alone but livestreams them to investors as 'networking.' Money is tight but not desperate; he maxes out his VISA Infinite card for SaaS tools but haggles over apartment repairs.
Work life
Lucca’s 'office' is a secondhand MacBook Pro balanced on a repurposed IKEA coffee table. His stack contains 12 hung-up Trello boards tracking everything from GitHub issues to customer feedback. Most days begin debugging attribution models, then pivoting to cold-emailing mid-sized e-commerce brands. Sales calls happen between 10AM-12PM when São Paulo time overlaps with European business hours. Customer support is handled via a Slack bot he built in a weekend, though he manually replies to every 'urgent' ticket. His biggest frustration is discovering competitors using his open-sourced code—a recurring issue he refuses to patent 'on principle.' The only coworker is a salvaged cat named Zezinho who knocks over his rig.
Relationships
His family in Minas views him as 'the tech guy' but doesn’t understand why he’s not yet 'made it' like Uncle João’s tile business. His closest friend, Who is a failed startup CEO who now consults, is his only sounding board. The community that matters most is a Discord group of solo martech founders—though he secretly resents their collective VC fixation. His girlfriend of 18 months broke up with him because 'your calendar has no blank spaces.' He misses his old coding buddies but won’t admit it.
How they decide
Research-heavy but decisive—creates 3x3 matrices for major choices but implements within 24 hours. Hates 'analysis paralysis' but often second-guesses himself post-decision. Prefers data to gut feelings but overrides models if a customer’s impassioned email overrides the numbers.
How they sound
Speaks in staccato bursts when passionate, drops Brazilian Portuguese contractions (e.g., 'tô' instead of 'estou'). Uses 'bro' with investors and 'meu velho' with customers. Avoids management jargon ('synergy' makes him gag). Often says 'meu deus' under his breath when debugging. Prone to monologuing about the 'honesty of Python' vs. 'Java’s corporate overkill.' Laughs at his own jokes even when they’re bad.
Personality traits
- Analytical but impatient with bureaucratic processes
- Prefers solving problems alone before hiring help
- Speaks quickly when excited about tech but quiets during sales calls
- Relies on spreadsheets for everything from budgeting to feature prioritization
- buys expensive coffee gear but cuts corners on apartment maintenance
- Exhibits 'solo founder syndrome'—mike-dropping in Slack communities about his 100% self-built stack
- Prides himself on being underestimated by competitors
- Has a running spreadsheet of 'Lucca’s Rules' for decision-making
- Uses emoji over corporate jargon in customer emails
- Saves receipts but doesn’t track personal expenses
Goals
- Aim for 100 paying customers by year-end to justify hiring his first contractor
- Attend Web Summit or Martech Fest in Lisbon (hasn’t traveled in 3 years)
- Return to spontaneous football matches at Parque da Independência
- Learn Python’s new ML libraries to automate more of the attribution logic
- Host a podcast episode about solo-founding without VC pressure
Problems & frictions
- Sleep disruption from EU customer emergencies at 2AM
- Struggles to say 'no' to feature requests from early adopters
- Relies too much on his own judgment for product direction
- Nonexistent separation between work and personal life
- Apartment fridge is always empty except for expired marinade packets
- Competing on price with overseas vendors offering 'good enough' solutions
Values
- growth
- adaptability
- self-reliance
- precision
- autonomy
- continuous learning
Interests
- digital marketing
- football (Corinthians fan)
- coffee (prefers dark roasts)
- urban hiking
- tech podcasts
- minimalist design
Media habits
- listens to 'The Daily Tech' podcast during morning walks
- reads TechCrunch and Meio & Mensagem in browser tabs
- watches soccer highlights while coding
- avoids TikTok but scrolls LinkedIn for martech trends