Article
Conta Azul: Built so others don’t repeat the same pain
29/1/2026
Business insights
Article
Conta Azul: Built so others don’t repeat the same pain
Business insights
January 29, 2026
Conta Azul: Built so others don’t repeat the same pain
Business insights
January 29, 2026
Article
Conta Azul: Built so others don’t repeat the same pain
Business insights
January 29, 2026
Article
Conta Azul: Built so others don’t repeat the same pain
Business insights
January 29, 2026
Quick facts
- Company: Conta Azul
- Founded: 2007 (Brazil)
- Employees: 700
- Customers: +101K
- What it does: ERP that helps small and medium businesses gain financial clarity — turning numbers into decisions, not anxiety.
- Founder lens: Purpose first, product discipline, culture as a system, profitability as a feature (because sustainability changes everything).
- Joining Visma: Vinicius approached it as a long-term responsibility — keeping local autonomy while gaining strategic support and a clearer multi-year horizon.
The origin of Conta Azul is not a spreadsheet. It’s a small store in a small town in Brazil, and a boy watching his grandmother carry the full weight of entrepreneurship with a devotion you don’t learn in business school.
Vinicius Roveda would spend school breaks at her grandmother's store, close enough to see the details that matter: the rhythm of customers, the quiet improvisation, the responsibility that never clocks out. What stayed with him wasn’t the operational grind—it was her joy.
“What stayed with me the most was seeing her eyes shine when she talked about her business and her customers.”
And then he watched that same business collapse under something that feels painfully avoidable in hindsight: financial chaos that turns love into stress, and effort into debt. Bad financial management can destroy what’s been built with real care.
That contrast—between pride and fragility—became the seed of everything that followed.
Purpose before product
At 17, Vinicius left home to study Computer Science. He worked during the day and studied at night. There was no romantic storyline in it—just effort, repetition, and the kind of discipline you don’t announce because you don’t have time.
“I was very bad at programming”, says Vinicius.
Most founders would edit that out, but he says it plainly, because what matters isn’t the weakness—it’s what he did next. He didn’t cling to the role he thought he should be. He chose the role the company needed.
He realised he was good at aligning people, building teams, holding vision, making meaning without making noise. He learned business inside ERP and software companies, and over time, he arrived at a conviction that would shape his entire leadership style:
“You can’t really change a company’s culture unless you are the founder.”
If he wanted to build a company that treated small business owners with respect—without confusion, without hidden traps—then he would need to build it himself.
So in 2007, he did.
Not to chase a market trend, but to address a pattern he could no longer ignore: in Brazil, millions of small businesses work relentlessly—and far too many break for reasons that aren’t about lack of talent, but lack of financial clarity.
“I wanted to help people like my grandmother avoid going through the same situation.”
Even the name came from that exact intention—not branding, but outcome.
In Brazil, a healthy company is one whose bank account is “blue.” Bills are paid. Cash flow is under control. The panic quiets down.
“Conta Azul means “blue account” literally, so, it means that a company is doing well — that it’s financially healthy.”
It’s hard to explain how powerful that is unless you’ve watched a business become a source of anxiety. For Vinicius, “blue” wasn’t a color. It was relief. It was oxygen.
But building relief is not a simple product problem.
He and a trusted engineer built the first version, selling by day and building by night, trapped inside a brutal equation: the market was massive, customers were small, willingness to pay was limited, and the product still had to be excellent—because payroll and accounting don’t forgive mistakes.
“We had to build a beautiful product, at an affordable price, and only win if we achieved scale.”
That’s what people miss about this kind of company: the romance is not in the idea. The romance is in the refusal to lower the standard.
Silicon Valley didn’t bring glamour. It brought a mirror.
A few years in, Vinicius and the team were selected by 500 Startups and invited to Silicon Valley. He still describes it as a defining chapter, not because it validated them, but because it exposed them.
They learned SaaS models, recurring revenue, structured go-to-market, experimentation, and ruthless focus. But the most important lesson wasn’t a framework. It was the discomfort of realising that effort is not the same as value.
By 2012, they faced a hard truth:
“We realised we had built many features we thought were important — but our customers didn’t.”
That year wasn’t about acceleration. It was about subtraction. Simplify and rebuild around what truly mattered to small business owners.
Growth followed, as it often does when focus becomes real. Hiring accelerated. Expectations rose. And with scale came the part founders rarely narrate with honesty: the loneliness of being the person who sees the numbers first.
When runway tightens, you cannot distribute that fear across the team. You carry it so they can keep building.
“When the company has only two or three months of cash runway, you live that alone.”
Then, after years of building inside pressure, came a milestone that didn’t just change their spreadsheet—it changed his nervous system.
Profitability.
“When we became profitable, I started sleeping better. That is non-negotiable.”
Most companies call that a financial achievement. Vinicius treats it like something deeper: a company that can finally breathe is a company that can finally care properly.
Culture is not a slogan. It is a system.
If Conta Azul has a “secret,” it’s not a trick. It’s consistency. Vinicius speaks about culture the way someone speaks about engineering: not as vibes, but as structure.
“Culture is the soul of the company, is how you give feedback. How you evaluate people. How you onboard. How you make decisions. Culture cannot be intangible.”
This is where the story becomes more revealing: he isn’t sentimental about leadership. He is humane, yes—but not soft about responsibility. He knows companies only endure if they can outgrow the founder’s ego.
Hard decisions come with the territory, restructuring, letting go of people you respect, changing leaders, and preparing for cycles you can’t yet see.
A company, in his mind, must become bigger than its founders—otherwise it cannot be trusted to last.
Why Visma felt different
When Visma entered the conversation, Vinicius wasn’t looking for a quick exit. He was thinking like someone responsible for a future that includes investors, customers, and a large team. The decision couldn’t be clever. It had to be right.
The first meeting was short—but it left him unsettled in the best way.
“I remember leaving that first meeting thinking: how have I never heard about this company before?”
So he did what careful founders do when they’re not being seduced by headlines: he researched, visited, spoke to other founders in the group, and actively looked for red flags—cultural, strategic, human, but he couldn’t find them.
What he found instead was a partner that understood SaaS deeply, respected local leadership, and thought in decades rather than quarters.
“Visma thinks globally, but truly understands that the future is built locally.”
And after joining, the part that mattered most was not a dramatic “integration story.” It was the quiet confirmation: autonomy stayed, support showed up, and the relationship felt consistent—less like being acquired, more like being backed.
The kind of continuity founders almost never get.
The personal discipline behind the company
Vinicius doesn’t separate leadership from life. He talks about balance the way he talks about profitability: not as a wellness trend, but as something you protect because the cost of losing it is real.
“I believe in balance — mind, body, and family.”
He’s a father of two daughters. He runs. He trains. He takes care of his health as a discipline, because steadiness is not an aesthetic—it’s a responsibility. His company is built for clarity, and he tries to live the same way: less chaos, more intention.
“If I’m strong physically and mentally, I can be better for my family — and a better leader for the company.”
That is what makes his story feel different. It’s not that he never struggled. It’s that he built a life—and a company—designed to endure struggle without losing his humanity.
Conta Azul began with a child watching a business collapse from the inside. It became a company built so others don’t repeat that pain. And as it grew, it kept the same quiet promise at its centre: give people control, give them visibility, and give them back a little peace.
Because in the end, the most meaningful version of success is simple: a business that can breathe—and a founder who can sleep.
That is why it grew. That is why it endured. And that is why its account is, finally, blue. 💙
What would you build differently if “sleeping better” became a real KPI? 💙
About the episode
Voice of Visma
Welcome to the Voice of Visma podcast, where we sit down with the business builders, entrepreneurs, and innovators across Visma, sharing their perspectives on how they scale companies, reshape industries, and create real customer value across markets.
Diana Kigyossy
Benedikte Lyngbø
Holli Hatherly
Berit Braut
Mandy Burger
Victoria Bondarchuk
Jet Bouwman
Brian Ye
Lilja Helgadottir
Carina Ramsøy
Kejsi Gjordeni
Martin Olstad
Claus Dahl
Vlad Boldura
Kaja Falck-Ytter
Linn Kjærland
Ida Nicoline Glosimot
Stina Wahlsten
Pieter Bijl
Emily Northway
Rie Jørgensen
Henriette Veiby
Magnus August Lien
Philip Scarampi
Ari-Pekka Salovaara
Helle Hobbelhagen
Alexander Lystad
Ida Strande Markman
Amanda Lundius Mörck
Isabel Arkvik
Gina Ross Eriksen (former employee)
Juliette Prado (former employee)
Anne-Grethe Thomle Karlsen (former employee)
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