From $2/Hour to Brazil’s #1 Logistics Powerhouse

My whole childhood I grew up with her helping her doing everything. Ah and I saw how hard it how hard it was and how much money she could make working at home for example. Mhm. So I thought I need to do something selling something. I need to do anything. Welcome to the Know Your Ship podcast presented by E-Hub. I’m your host Frank Golce. Hey, this is Paul or I’m going to get it wrong. You correct it, Paulo. Yeah, you got it. So, he’s a Brazilian with Italian roots. Yeah, I know. I’m an American with Italian roots. How many times do you run into that? There’s a lot of people with Italian roots all over the

world. Yeah. In And your wife, too? Yeah, my wife have the the Italian passport. I haven’t yet. But you because you have to speak Italian a little bit. You have to take a test, right? Yeah. But I don’t think it it would be too difficult for you to learn Italian. I mean, you speak Portuguese, right? Yeah. Portugu I think Portuguese is a difficult language. It is. Oh my god. It is. Yeah. Challenging. Difficult. With I have two kids and now with my kids in the school, I think easier to learn English than Portuguese. Easier to learn. Yeah, I think that’s probably true. Yeah. And for them also because in in in Portuguese we have a

lot of prepositions and and uh like the the verb to be for us is oh my god it’s a long list. There’s several versions of it. Yeah. And in English is just I am and that’s it. I was and that’s it. For me it was not so difficult cuz when I came here 13 12 years ago I didn’t know any Portuguese uh English word. But for me it was not like difficult to start communicating. But if you get like an American, you start to teach him Portuguese, that would be tough. Yeah, I think you’re right. I I have a few friends uh who served missions for the LDS church in uh in Brazil and Yeah,

it’s an interesting interesting language. Yeah, very beautiful. I think it’s beautiful. Yeah. Well, isn’t it your home your home language is always you feel Yeah. you know, strongly about it. Yeah. Well, I mean, you you grew up in Brazil, by the way. Founder CEO of US Closer. Okay. So, let me just ask you this before we get get rolling. Just give us like the overview of what you do with what what US Closer does. Yeah. We are like a fulfillment company like Amazon but for Americans it’s hard to think about the point of my business because here in America we have everything from everywhere get access from everything like new clothes, new albums from artists,

everything but in Brazil is not. So I grew up in Brazil and I came to America in 2020 20 no 2013 and as a Brazilian living there I know how hard it is to get stuffs like that is new that is get launched. So when uh our Brazilian customers want to buy something the only place to buy it here and there in the US closer. So our company basically is an American address to Brazilians buy online and American stores ship to our warehouse and then we ship to them in Brazil because a lot of stores doesn’t ship to Brazil because it’s Yeah. Like Target, they don’t ship to Brazil. Yeah. Amazon does now, but Target,

Walmart, and any personal stores, they don’t ship to Brazil at all because Brazil is a complicated country on taxes and dirties and everything. Mhm. And as a Brazilian, I know how that works and that is what make US clothes are the biggest company on our segment for Brazil now. Yeah. So trying to help with the difficulty of buying goods in the US and moving them to Brazil for consumers. Yeah. So we are like we don’t sell anything. We don’t sell anything. We just offer this the the the address. Mhm. And we just tell the customer, hey, we received your parcel or your product and now we can ship come here to Orlando or ship to

anywhere actually. And JSON help us a lot on the international shipping to any country actually. But our customers like 99% are Brazilians uh that live anywhere. Oh, not just in Brazil. Not in Brazil. Yeah. Mainly Brazil, but we have Brazilians living everywhere. Mhm. Yeah. So, how it’s a great company and and it’s a a great way to solve a problem that you saw in the marketplace. Mhm. But how did you end up in Salt Lake City? You went from Brazil to Salt Lake City. Yeah. Actually, my my wife, we was just dating. Uhhuh. And then she said after, I think was 6 months, I’m going to America. I’m going to study English. And she did

didn’t invite me at all. She just said like, I’m going. And I said, you didn’t say, you didn’t take that as a sign. It’s like she was trying to get away. Yeah, she I think she did actually. But I said, okay, I I I want to go with you. And then I start to like to get get everything done to come here and know the English school because I didn’t know any English at all. Mhm. So, uh my wife have family here in Salt Lake City, but they are not Mormons. And I didn’t even know the church. I didn’t know. And the first time I I I arrived here there in Salt Lake City, I

just thought, “Oh my god, what I’m doing here?” Because on the plane the like the downtown is so small. We have like I don’t know at a time 10 buildings. That’s it. Mhm. Oh my god, I’m in a farm right now. What I’m doing here? Compared to Brazil. Yeah. Compared to my city, we don’t have a lot of buildings like huge buildings, but it’s a big city where I live in Philly in Brazil. And then when I know better Salt Lake City, then I got it. Then I got the the Mormon stuff and I I understand how the city works with the Mormon church and and I love it. Actually, I just left uh Salt

Lake City because of the the weather and also logistics here is way better than Orlando for my company. Gotcha. Wait, so you didn’t like the weather in Salt Lake City? No. What? You didn’t like the winter? No. The snow? Yeah. That’s not because you don’t it that’s not like Brazilian weather you grew up in. We have winter in Brazil. But the the problem actually it was uh with the kids without the kids was good because I went to Brighton out Park City ski resort. Yeah. I learned how to ski because we don’t have snow like that in Brazil. But then with the kids start to get tough like 6 months in house. Oh, not going

outside. It’s stuck inside. Then I experienced Orlando after like five, six years in Salt Lake City on the winter on the New Year’s and and on the holidays. Mhm. And then I I saw how Orlando is like Brazil. And then we just bought a house here for a vacation and then we just thought why don’t move there. And then we just moved the whole company with like was 11 big trucks to move the whole company in 2023. Wow. Wow. Salt Lake City. Did you hear And how long were you in Salt Lake City? 10 years. Uh, and so that and that’s where you built the business. Yes. Started in Salt Lake City. So, did you

go to Salt Lake City to learn English or did you go to Salt Lake City with this business in mind? No, I didn’t even know that exist like this thing. So the the whole story how how it started uh before we start preparing to come here to get some money because we didn’t have like any money left to do this crazy stuff uh we start to sell things in Brazil like imported things like Hollister Tommy Nike. Oh. Oh. So you you had American goods that you were selling online in Brazil. Yeah. So, I got a loan on the bank with my mom with everybody that I could and I got the money, gave to my

uh dating girl at the time, gave her like $5,000, go there and buy a lot of stuff. So, she bought a like six big bags. She Tell us her name. Amanda. Amanda went to the went to the US, came to the US. Mhm. Bought a bunch of stuff Mhm. to resell in Brazil. Brought it back to Brazil. And then you would sell it online. Yeah. and also on a physical store and in the store. Okay, we opened the store and we kept the store open for I think was like six months and then we made a lot of money. We got the money to pay the school, pay the tickets, like the whole process, the

visa and everything and then we came here and when we came here uh we closed we shut down the store in Brazil and our customers starting to go in the store in Brazil and ask, “Hey, I’m here in the door. What happened? You guys are not open anymore. And then, no, I’m living I live in uh Salt Lake City in Utah now, not in in Brazil anymore. Huh, cool. Can you send me something from there? Maybe, probably. Let Let me ask my my wife’s family. And they just said, “Nah, it’s almost impossible to ship to Brazil. Brazil, it’s a tough country. They tax everything uh gets stolen. They lost the parcels.” And then I said

that to So those are all the challenges sending stuff from the US to to Brazil. High high taxes. Yeah. Gets lost or stolen. It’s hard. Even even today, if you ask to any American or even Brazilian that doesn’t know a US closer, they’re going to say the same thing. It’s really hard. It’s difficult because it is if you go to a UPS store, you’re going to pay like I don’t know probably $500 for shipping. M if you go to a USPS, you’re going to pay 80, 90 bucks for like one pound. So, it’s really expensive. And then when I started, I use my customers as a trial to see your Brazilian customers who are asking

for you to send stuff to them. Yeah, I can ship you something. I I not charge like any fee or anything. I just let’s try out if going to work out or not. And it worked. So, at the time we we was not doing what we do right now. We used to go to Hollister and Abberrombie in Gatway. Gateway the gateway mall. Yeah. They used to have a lot Hollister there. So we bought the whole thing like the t-shirts from 2013 to 2015. If you go to any store in Salt Lake City, if you live there, you know that you cannot find any t-shirt for men’s in the store for two years. You bought all

of them? I bought everything. Yeah, because it was that popular in it was like a t-shirt from Hollister was at the time like on the promotional price for like eight bucks, $10 and in Brazil they resell that for like 200 ri that is at the time was like $100. So yeah, there’s a lot of people that made a lot of money in Brazil reselling. So you weren’t reselling the clothes, you were sending it to Yeah, I just like services there. It’s like a personal shopper. So, I just go to the store, buy everything, and hey, here’s pay my service, and I ship to Brazil. So, how did you how did you figure out the because

it’s so difficult to ship to Brazil, how did you have success shipping to Brazil? What was the secret or what’s the secret? I I would say just try it. Uh-huh. Because was never easy. Mhm. But I think because everybody’s afraid to do it, nobody did. And so I did just a term and conditions. I explain everything. What is my responsibilities and what are not and it’s not so hard actually. It’s like everybody thinks it’s really hard. It’s kind of hard but it’s not impossible to do it. And then I think the the breakthrough for my company was I was on the internet showing that it’s possible and telling people how to do it. So you

were posting uh things to the like videos and things. Yeah. Like on Facebook at a time. Okay. So to describe what you were doing and how to Yeah. to move goods from the United States to Brazil or to Brazilians. Yeah. Yeah. Is that And so have you just built That was the start. Yeah. That was the start. And and have you has your business changed over time or is it essentially the same thing trying change every I say to Jason like every year two years we have a a change of the the customers like the whole thing the whole base we change for example at the time we resell for not resell we offer the

service to go to stores like Tommy Tommy Hufinger and and Hollister and Aberroby uh but we got a point that we don’t have products to buy anymore. more because we bought everything and they don’t replace and put new stuff in the store. Uhhuh. So, oh my god, what are we going to do now? Then one time I went with my father-in-law to Los Angeles Mhm. with a a rental car when we got like 800 t-shirts. So, we got all the t-shirts from Los Angeles area and drove back to Utah. And what happened and what changed the business model? At the time, by the way, our company was not called US Closer. It’s called Manzy and

Paul. Amanda Impalo. Ah, creative name. Very. So, uh, uh, so what happened is Salt Lake City is not a huge city and we don’t have a lot of stores at the time. We didn’t have Louis Vuitton. We don’t right didn’t have a lot of cost and a lot of brands we don’t have in Utah that are popular in Brazil. In Brazil. Uh-huh. So, the customers start to ask us to go to the store and buy the products there and we don’t have that store here. I’m sorry. So they start to asking us if they can buy online and ship to my apartment and I said why not? So okay so previously you were buying uh

you would go out and buy like t-shirts or whatever and send them to Brazil and then someone in Brazil was reselling that. Yes. Okay. Now your customers are calling you and saying I want to buy this from Tommy or Hollister or something online but they can’t figure out the shipping. Can I just ship it to you? Yeah. And then you can figure out the shipping. Yeah. Because the stores at the time, they don’t ship to Brazil at all. Like even Amazon, they don’t ship to Brazil. Right. Was really hard to find any store that shipped to Brazil at the time. Yeah. And and what I noticed is everything just happened in my life with my

wife. So everything’s just Oh my god. Everything’s happening and going really well. Like and when you say everything is just happening, are you saying that things are just kind of falling into place or is it or are you making like a conscious effort to to Yeah, I would say that to both actually. Both actually. So you a little bit of or you organized and being thoughtful about it and a little bit of good luck like this is happening. It’s all aligned. Yeah. We say in Portuguese, I don’t know if it translate going to be make sense, but you have to be ready when the train pass by you. Maybe you have something in in English,

but you you need to be ready when the lucky knock your door. Oh, yeah. So, uh, at a time. So, what was that? Wait, what is that saying? Do we have a saying like that in the Now I’m completely blanking on it. You have to be opportunity knocks only knocks once. Something like that. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, something like that. So, we have that that Portuguese. We have a saying also that uh if you miss if you miss the bus another bus is going to come by. So you’re you’re at the bus stop, you miss the bus, another bus is going to show up. So you have to be you need to be ready.

Yeah, you have to be ready. So what happened is for example, we didn’t have the the stores in Salt Lake City. So we offered our address so the customers can buy. But then we had another problem. uh American stores, they don’t like international shoppers because they think it’s a fraudulent thing. So they start asking us to buy for them online. So Okay. So So now the customers are asking you to purchase it. So first they said, “Well, I’m going to buy it online and send it to your apartment.” Yeah. And you said, “Okay, let’s do that. Why not?” And so did you start getting a bunch of products in my apartment? Imagine like receiving. How

did feel about that? She was good actually. She We worked really hard. Yeah, we used to work because we studied the time between I think was 8:00 a.m. to 1:30. We were like up to 2:00 a.m. every single day preparing stores. And we had four Hollister stores in Salt Lake City. One in Provo, one in Salt Lake. Yeah, we had four at the time. So, we had to go every single day on every single store. And there is a problem on the Hollister at the time. You cannot you can just buy 20 products per person per day because they don’t like the resellers. Uh yeah. Yeah. So I have to go to the store, buy

20 t-shirts. Then I’m in a go buy 20 t-shirts. Then we drove to another store, buy another 40, and that’s it. So the maximum we can buy a day was 160 t-shirts at the time. So uh we are always uh offering the solution to the Brazilian customers. So with that we starting making the online purchases for the customers. So they send us the link and we buy it to them because you’re in the US and with the American credit card so they can buy it. And so the some some of the US stores don’t they’re concerned about people over overseas or international making purchases. Yeah. Sometimes they don’t they don’t they don’t know how to

buy it. They know how to put address because in English different Yeah. And the well that’s another thing when you’re doing international shipping. No one ever thinks about that. The addresses are completely well can be different than US. Yeah. The basing address sometimes the billing address being different from the the delivery address doesn’t match. They cancel the purchase. So everything and the way they do like a zip code or it’s all it can all be Yeah. Yeah. International shipping is challenging. Yeah, it is. Okay. You’re you’re solving you’re solving a need here. Okay. So now you’re now you’re buying online for your customers. Yeah. So we was going to the outlets. We are receiving parcels

and buying online. Yeah. And on that that time was 2020 20 2015. So we went back to Brazil. We got married. We did a big party and came back. And when we came back in 2020 in 2015, what happened is the dollar against Royale went from 250 like $1 two ri 50 went up to like five bucks. Five RI. So $1 worth five. Five re. Okay. So we just stopped like the whole thing shut down cuz imagine now if a dollar worth I don’t know three or the opposite. Mhm. So we didn’t know what to do anymore. So we started working out how to do like how to survive actually here because we didn’t have

any other job. So what happened is we we almost open uh do you know koshinga the Brazilian pastry kosha? Oh yeah I have tried maybe that that is like uh uh with uh chicken and it’s like a pastry. It’s really good. Mhm. We almost shut down the the company called Made in Po and we we did the logo. We did we we did all the research to bring the machine to do the koshinas here in the US. We did everything. The brand the branding the bags. We did everything. And then my mother said, “No, keep trying that. Keep trying. Let me let me let me help you. I can borrow you like a couple thousand

ris at a time and try a little bit more.” Really? Yeah. And then Okay. But then I and Amanda we thought Mand po will not work out for American company or even if you want to go to other countries Mand po nah doesn’t look professional and then we found the name US closer that make uh the meaning is like US even like United States closer or US closer so both ways. Oh that makes complete sense. I should have had you explain that in the beginning. It’s like the US is closer to Yeah. Yeah. So that is so we the whole thing that’s that’s really a good story because I was thinking of it as US

closer like you were helping close business. Does that make sense? Mhm. But it’s closer like proximity. US closer. Yeah. I think you could use both. Yeah. So what happened? We just changed the name of the company and we got professional. We hired a IT guy. He’s still working with us. M uh and then we start just being more professional, not like a homemade business or something like that. So we start to editing videos and do everything that we can to look professional. Mhm. So what happened is on 2017 uh no 2016 we got our first warehouse. The things start to like getting better at 2016. And getting better in which way? like the the currency

exchange. What what happened is Brazilians noticed that that is the only way to buy. We not get any better. So it is what it is now. So even with the exchange everything got more expensive in Brazil. Everything got more expensive but still there was the the access to the products they wanted was still here in the US. Okay. So what happened is the customer that used to buy Hollister and everything they just disappear. So the market just changed. So in 2014 we was doing I would say 90% personal shopper in the stores 10% like the the packages that we was receiving and in 2016 90% was online purchase made from the customer and 10% stores

like the the outlets. Mhm. And in 2017 that when I met Jason, we moved to the second warehouse that was 7,500 square ft. Mhm. And at a time we was doing I think it was around 100 shipments a month and that was a lot for us. Mhm. Um and at a time we knew Jason and we start offering a really cheap solution to ship to Brazil by EP pack at commercial EAC by USPS up to4. Mhm. And when that happened that we just Oh my god, we blow up. So that was a huge difference. Yeah, that was for you. There was. And And so what year was that that you met? 17 18 2017. 17

was 17. That’s when you met Yeah. 2017. That’s when you met Jason. That’s the one and only Jason Hermanson. He always tried to find the solution for my business. Always try to find That’s true. Yeah. Even though he works hard. Yeah. We because what happened in 2020 2019 USPS stopped offering the US uh the commercial in Brazil. So what happened is we didn’t have any solution anymore. So he always tried and with the co uh he always tried to help me uh to get business with other companies. Uh at the time we got in 2021 we got AIT for the we was doing directly flights from Salt Lake City to Brazil. Mhm. So that was

like a huge uh like advantage against our competitors. Mhm. So Jason always helped us with solutions. So sometimes we stop working together like doing the something with the the the freights and everything because we don’t find something that works for my customer, right? But we are always communicating and try to find like a solution that works for us closer and for my customers in Brazil. Yeah. Great. I love that story. Okay. So now we’re you have a warehouse. You’re shipping 100 Yeah. parcels a day. 100 or so parcels a day. And you’re still doing videos. You’re Yeah. So I started videos in 2017. And the combination of e- packet from USPS and also when I

put my face on YouTube that is what make the difference on the company cuz at the time any other Brazilian company was showing like the face of the owner or any other people. Mhm. So I think that give the customer in Brazil because imagine if you want to buy something in Italy Mhm. you’re going to buy a Rolex and ship to I don’t know Italy closer. Mhm. If you don’t see any face or anything that show you, it doesn’t feel Yeah. It doesn’t give you confidence. That’s right. So, what happened is even though I was young at the time and look like a child, but there’s someone there. There’s someone there in the other side

because for Brazilians to buy an iPhone like $1,000 for us like it’s almost 6,000 ri that is four times the minimum wage in Brazil. So, it’s a lot of money for us. So you have to trust somebody to the other side of the country and if I do something wrong I can just disappear for them right? So it’s hard. So when I start showing and when I created my YouTube channel then the the things started working out for for us closer and you built trust with your with your customers and you think that combination of uh the the warehouse and this desire to become more professional and putting putting out videos about your service and

what you do so people could see you. Uh you think that was a point of significant growth? Yeah, for sure. For the company? Yeah, for sure. Cuz we we have we we still having some American companies that are like us closer. They’re way bigger than us like my US ship to uh shop fans. They there’s a lot of uh American companies. But the the interesting point is all the owners of these companies, they are foreign. they are immigrants because they know how hard it is to buy. So they know how to solve the problem. So I I think that is a really like interest point that this kind of business the freight forer usually the

owner is not American. They are from Italy because they understand the issue. Yeah. They understand the the pain. They understand how it works. Yeah. For example, if uh I don’t know, I try to get in Argentina market. For me, it’s hard because I I don’t know how Argentina works and what is the culture and everything. So, for me, it was really easy because I’m from Brazil. I grew up there. I know how hard it is, what is good to import, what do we have there, what do we have there. Yeah. So, I I know what to talk about when I go to YouTube or Instagram now. Yeah, you’re an expert. I I think that’s an

interesting uh business principle to to think about is you know uh well you not not that you landed in it but you figured out somewhere where you had expertise and the the desire to work hard and solve a problem and where in and you’ve been able to build a business around that. Mh. I think that’s really interesting. And uh one of the things that you mentioned is uh the the YouTube videos that you started doing. I noticed on your wall over here that you had the 100k 100,000 subscribers. Now we have two 77 Yeah. 277,000. We’ll have to get So he has Are those available? He has the videos of when he was Yeah. We

can send it later. Well, that thing. Yeah. Clip that in for sure. Cuz he looks like a little kid. I mean, literally looks like a little kid. How someone going to ship like a $5,000 thing to this guy there? That guy? Oh my god. Did anyone ever say that? Was that a comment that you said like, “Hey, you look so young. How do you know how to do that?” No one ever said that. Because the point is everybody start doing because in Brazil it was hard to find a Brazilian doing what I do. M so for example in the past the customers from Brazil that usually do this since 2000 mhm and I don’t know

one they know for example shippy 2 the big company in Nevada but it’s hard to find someone there to talk and speak in Portuguese even the customer support yeah so it’s hard for them so hey I know how that works let let’s try that and the customer start you doing reviews on Google on Facebook on Instagram on everything and good reviews yeah so what happen is just they just trust the company. Yeah. Brazil loves soccer. It’s the national sport, right? Yeah. But you don’t at all. You don’t like soccer? No. You were too busy trying to build a business. Yeah. That I think that what make me do what I do cuz I I was

never good at anything in sports. So the only I was not beautiful. I didn’t know how to kick a ball. I didn’t know anything. So the only solution for me was get rich. So let’s work. That’s what I did. And for for for me and a metaphor was was really hard because imagine if you do a business here. You’re an American. You do a business here. For you it’s hard to open a business there. Sure. But I have a lot of advantages. I speak English. Yeah. Right. You know how when I come here I didn’t know how to open a a bank account. I didn’t know how to do anything. And you came here without

speaking any English? Any. My wife speak like number one, please. Can I have a Big Mac? That’s it. But me, I was just behind her. Number two, the Big Mac meal. But how would you say that in Portuguese? How do you say I want number two, the Big Mac meal? Numero, please. So for us was really hard. For example, I didn’t know at all that I need um firefighter. What is it called? It’s a firefighter. They come to your business and check everything if everything is correct. Inspection inspection, fire. I didn’t know that. I find out in 2020 when you were after 3 years of being open. Yeah. I didn’t know at all. No fire

inspection. I just have the business license and that’s it. That’s it. Do you think the statute I think the statute of limitations is run on that, right? Like you’re we’re not going to get him in trouble by No. No. Actually, actually was uh when the the the guy came to us closer, I told him, I have no idea that I have to do this. The fireman or the inspector came? Yeah, the boat. Actually, the whole thing, the whole crew and I’m in trouble. You guys going to shut down the business? No. Actually, let me tell you, you are the like the best company we have been. And we just have a couple things that we

need to fix. like the that was like a a wall plate for the outlet cover. Yeah. And so it was like stupid stuff. Yeah. And he said just fix that and you’re okay. Oh, that’s great. Okay. Oh my god. I thought I was going to the jail, but okay. Then I find out how to do it. But for us it’s really hard because we are American. So for us it’s like 10 times harder to do everything here. Yeah. It’s a great story. H how did you uh how did you learn English at school and with my customers and Jason? Oh man. No. Yeah, that’s that’s probably like Yeah. So I have to learn English. That’s

an elementary education in English. If you’re going to Jason like that’s why come on. Huh? It’s your fault. Yeah. Yeah. Where where did you go to school to learn English? Uh I went to a school called Lumos. At the time it was Oh my god. I don’t They changed the name in Sal City. Yeah. And my wife did the uh Colombia Community College on the 5300 by Costco there. Yeah, absolutely. She did an international business. Oh, very good. Okay. Okay. Well, I think it’s uh I think another interesting part of your story which is really fascinating. Um I mean just coming here and figuring out a business and then building it. I mean and learning

the language is amazing. But you didn’t you didn’t grow up and you didn’t study to be in the shipping logistics business. No, you were you were studying to be like an engineer. Yeah. I was doing production engineering in Brazil. Yeah. And then what happened was that okay is in and is that in uh like the high school level college level? It’s college. It’s like uh engineer here is the same thing. Sure. So uh I was working in uh a factory in Brazil and I was making in dollars. I have no idea but I was making four re I have here let me here here that is a Brazilian that was not I didn’t show you

that is a Brazilian uh carta that is kind of a passport but you work so when you get hired somewhere they sign passport to work yeah and if you open you can see my picture when I was 18 really nice guy mo Oh my gosh you look like you should being in like uh the Backstreet Boys. Do you know that band? You could be a lead singer for the Backstreet Boys. And you can see there uh there’s a how how much I was making an hour was like $4 for RII and49 something like that. Like less than a dollar an hour you were making as an engineer. No, that was like the beginning. Later I

was doing like $2 an hour. Oh, really moved up. Yeah. Okay. So you were studying to be an engineer and and then financially you just didn’t think it made sense. Yeah. So one time I was because I was I starting to do projection not projection what it’s called like scratches on on what is the the program name CAD. Uhhuh. So CAD Yeah. We called Kaj. Uh so what happened is I was I went to a like engineering engineering uh department on the company. Mhm. And I asked my boss at the time, hey, how much they are making a month now? Like the guy was 75 years old. Like he was the top one around 5,000

reis at the time was maybe $2,000 per month. Per month. And I said, “Oh my god, I have to do other thing.” 5 5,000. Okay. And so 5 I was making 1,500 reis, 1500 reis a month. And what is like what would you consider uh doing well in Brazil? How many how much a month do you need to make to a to be comfortable? 5,000 is it it’s at a time 2012 was good. Was was good. Yeah. Now to live well like here like like as an American you probably going to have to make 20,000 ri around $5,000 $4,000 per month. Yeah. But to live really well like 50,000 re ice that is $10,000 per

month. Okay. Yeah. And so that wasn’t appealing to you 5,000 a month. No, I want more at the time. I want more cuz I know my mom used to work my my father working in a factory also be like 2,000 real eyes a month. And my mom used to do uh personal clothes like underwear, pajamas, bras and everything. And like selling or selling she was building making and selling. Oh yeah. So my whole childhood I grew up with her helping her doing everything. Ah and I saw how hard it how hard it was and how much money she could make working at home for example. Mhm. So I thought I need to do something selling

something. I need to do anything. And then at the time in 2012 before I knew my wife uh I didn’t even make any online purchase in my life. Never. Never. Never. Like on eBay Amazon. Always in the store. Yeah. I didn’t even know how to buy online at the time. Yeah. I was not like a smart guy. Yeah. At all. You’re very That’s not true. You’re a really smart guy. Yeah. At the time I thought I was not. and her father uh used to sell on internet for a long time and he teach me how to sell on the internet. What was he selling? Uh phone cases, tablet cases and that’s it. Where would he

get that from? From from China. Yeah. Okay. So he was buying Oh, he was buying from China and selling in Brazil online. He had his own store. No. Was uh we have a company like eBay that is called Mercado Li. Oh, so he was posting it on he was posting like on eBay. Gotcha. And then I learned how to do it and in the first month and second month I did like 4,000 reis doing this. So So something good there. Ah that is the that is the way I want to go. I don’t want to make things with my hands. I can sell online. I learned how to buy online to sell online. Mhm. And

then I started putting my money there and there where comes my my part of selling online. No, I don’t have anything in right now, but I saw my service, right? Yeah. So, you don’t Yeah. Uh the service of moving product from Okay. Yeah. Wow. That’s amazing. uh as we talk about your company and what you’ve built and what you are continue to build as you look back how how so you started in 2012 would you say you started in 201 13 with the internet selling 2012 12 12 years about 12 years and you’ve been in the United States uh 8 years no since 13 so oh 12 12 years 12 years okay okay so let’s

talk about your your business as you look back on all that you’ve done and accomplished to this day and we talk about some business lessons. Uh what do you think is the most important thing that you did when you started this company as you were as you were thinking about how you’re going to make a living? You’re coming to the United States. This might be an opportunity. What are the some of the most important things that you did in building that from the beginning? I I I would say on my business how uh transparent I was on the internet and how I am. Mhm. And how I show what really makes sense to import and

what doesn’t. Mhm. Because there’s a lot of my competitors, they just went to sell and sell and sell. Doesn’t matter if the customer going to pay more. And I think how honest I am on the on the internet and showing confidence to everybody. I think so that is the main point for us closer. So I’m always like yesterday I was on uh YouTube live for 2 hours and a half showing products that you can buy online and make sense to ship to Brazil or come here to to pick a or not. So I really honest with everybody. So, so, so transparency and letting people know who you are. Uh, and do you interact with your

customers on the Yes, a lot. Even though that even though the the the trouble customers cuz as any challenging customer Yeah, we have customers with problems. So sure like back back time to time I just got online on Instagram or YouTube and I just ask anybody wants to come like on online with me to chat and a lot of times I get not a lot but sometimes I get customers that are pissed off with the company or something happened the delivery are late and come on let’s talk with everybody and get give you a solution what happened if it was our fault was Jason fault or USPS fault or Brazilian customs faultm Mhm. And then

I always transparent with the customers on the internet. Always 100% of the time. When you say to your customers, I think it was Jason’s fault. Do Do they typically say, “Yeah, but one time something happened.” Remember Jason, that we got two two pilots in Los Angeles airport. They just disappeared in LA airport and they arrived at the LA airport. Yeah. Jason delivered. a sign for the the the receiving and the two pal one one pallet or two pallet I don’t remember they just disappeared there and then I told the customers the crew what happened is this Jason took the parcels I give to Jason he drove up to Los Angeles airport here’s the signature he

got the signature the pictures everything and I explain to the customer and now what happened Jason gave some money back I give some money back to the customer and we explain everything that that And okay, that makes sense. So, so you don’t if there’s challenges, you address the challenges. Yeah. You don’t try to make an excuse to avoid or try to avoid it. And so, how important is that for your business? If as you’ve grown your business, clearly building trust with your customer, building a relationship with your customer has been meaningful. That is really hard because uh when we receive any package, we have to open it. Oh yeah yeah yeah because you have to

make sure whatever you’re sending Yeah. Yeah. We have to we can just ship legal stuff to Brazil or anywhere actually. Yeah. So uh when we receive we we record the whole thing because sometimes the customer buy on eBay for example and the seller send out like the wrong item or is a scam or something like that. Mhm. So we have customers that ship like $40,000 product to our warehouse. So I have to every single day I do uh Instagram stories showing what you’re receiving, how many parcels, how many parcels we ship to Brazil now and everything. The whole process we’ve we get something like late by any reason we always let the customer know. So

we we are like I call my customers uh like is langi that’s like a puppy. Mhm. in English is looks weird but I think we build with us closer like a community so everybody trusts the company and they know if something bad happen US closer going to be here for them doesn’t matter what happened we are here to help we’re going to find a solution for him so customer support customer service building trust to your with your customer is critical to the business and that’s been a key for your success yeah for growing for growing the company what what are some of the things as look back, is there anything that you think, h maybe

if I would have done that differently or that was a challenge I had a hard time with. Is there something that you would have changed as you built the business or do you think everything aligned the right way? I I think uh if I can do better, the only thing that I could I would change is move to Florida sooner sooner because Jason know for example here if you want to ship something to Brazil we pay around $4 a kilo mhm for the the plane for the the company and in Orlando in Salt Lake City we we paid I think 12 or $13 kilo. So at the time if was we was here in the

co time I would have made like millions more. So that is the only thing but like the whole process of learning the permit for the firefighter everything I think was a lesson. So I would not change anything because that built me and build the US closer and the company. There’s lots of lots of lessons along the way. Yeah. Yeah. And and so that that’s something that uh I think is interesting is un like how location affects affects the company. There’s some companies that it, you know, it doesn’t matter, but there’s lots of local and state regulations and taxes and fees and everything that you should be considering. For example, last year was, no, this year

on the beginning of the year, I I almost sold my company. I was just, oh my god, I’m done. I’m tired. I I’m not in the company on the business anymore. I mean, let’s see what happen if I do a quot um evalu evaluation for the company and how that turns out. And then I found a guy in Los Angeles to buy the company. Mhm. And is he uh American or actually he was Chinese, but he he he was born here in Los Angeles. and he came from Los Angeles. You’re here to know to like to meet me and and and see the company and and he asked me if he can move the company

to Los Angeles and I said no at all. If you do that I not sell for you. No deal. No deal because that there’s no sense. For example, here in my warehouse we are taxfree Florida and that is something that is unique. Mhm. So our warehouse is recognized by the state of Florida as a freight forwarder. So the customers, for example, if they buy online and ship to Brazil, they get the tax back from Amazon, eBay or whatever. So in California, they charge what 10% sales tax and the shipping from California to Brazil going to be like double triple. So for our business, a lot of freight forwarding companies, they are here in Miami. M

most of them are in Miami actually but we moved to Orlando because on the 2022 our president in Brazil change Mhm. and we got like 85% decrease in our volume at all. It was in 2022 we closed the year making 20 almost $20 million for the company and in 2023 we made like 7 million. That is only because of the taxes we got in Brazil. The new president in Brazil raised taxes significantly. Yeah. from 60 to 92%. Oh my gosh. And that so that really affected your business a lot. The ability to Yeah. And then we we we have the I have the family that we want to move to like nicer place like with

Disney and everything and also family because from Salt Lake City to Brazil if my parents want to come and or if I want to go to Brazil is like 24 hours airport like the travel time like 24 hours. And here my father-in-law is coming tomorrow. He going to get a plane 7:00 a.m. going to be here like 5:00 p.m. So it’s it’s awesome. Yeah. Really and we save a lot of money with that. So with the the the challenge of the Brazilian president that changed from Bosonado to Lula, there was something that we need to do to save money as much as we can. Sure. So uh what we did we uh we get everything

in the trucks and move to to Orlando. And why Orlando? because of Orlando have the biggest Brazilian community in US and also because of Disney award Universal we receive uh a lot of Brazilians last year was around I think was like 700,000 Brazilians Brazil coming to visit so we start a new service that is called uh pickup like uh hid in Portuguese they buy online ship here oh and then they come here and pick it up can pick it up at the and how has that gone it’s really it’s going it’s going really well Because what happened is then I start to to find another problems that my customers had. For example, I never imagined.

For example, one customer was here last last week and he was really glad because his son is autist. Autistic. Yeah. And he could not go to any store like outlets because it was crowded and noisy. Oh. So I got goosebumps when I remember. So he could buy online anything that he wants shipped to here and come here to pick it up. So that was awesome. That is made my day here. Yeah. Yeah, it was really nice. So now we have a lot of services. We have the complex is Chile that is the the online purchase. We have the personal shopper. We have the freight forwarder. We have special requests on the on the warehouse. So

we are always offering more services to the customers. So now we we also going to offer to the customer delivery on the hotels on Disney. Ah that’s great. That makes perfect sense. Absolutely. So, we have to keep innovating and and trying to find solutions for our customers. And we we have a lot more to do. We have we can rent our cars. We can rent homes. We can sell travel packages. We can do all for the Brazilian that are traveling here. Oh, I love it. It’s a great story. Congratulations. You’ve done an amazing job. Jason is a huge fan. He’s told us all about you and I’m glad that we get the opportunity to share

your story with our with our fans and with our customers. It’s terrific. It’s fantastic. A lot of good lessons. Okay. So, I have to ask you before we let you go. Uh it you’re it sounds like you like to work all the time. Yeah. You’re a workaholic, but what do you do? I mean, we have this nice wall of your Lego sets, but you started building those. You don’t build those anymore. You built these during the pandemic. Yeah. It was the home. So I just start buying it. Every single week I buy a new one and start building. I have more at home and I sold some because I don’t have place anymore to put

to just I’m done. I stop with this. So is this is is Lego popular in Brazil or is it? It is. And it’s really expensive. So So you can have an idea. Anything that you can imagine in Brazil is 10 times more expensive. So a Lego I don’t know this one here, the Ferrari. Mhm. probably. Here’s 229 179 in Brazil going to be 2,000 ri. Oh man. So it’s really expensive. That’s very expensive in dollars to make the the the conversion going to be like four to five times in dollars in Brazil. Wow. And the minimum wage in Brazil is like 200. No, $300. Three $400 in Brazil the minimum wage. So it’s really tough

to buy something for. So I didn’t have the opportunity to buy in Brazil as a kid or receive as a gift. So when I started making money and that is the other thing that for me was really challenging taxes here on 2022 I got killed in taxes. Mhm. Cuz I didn’t know about the business expense, how to buy cars and pay taxes. So in 2022 I paid $450,000 in taxes. Wow. Yeah. In the next year I didn’t pay anything at all. That’s only Gwagon. I bought a Raptor. I bought You bought all the stuff. The Legos for my background. So, let’s write off everything. Yes. Then I learned I paid a a consultant consultant. Consultant.

Yeah. To help me with that. So now we’re doing everything 100% correct. Consiliary. That’s what we say in Italian. How do you say in in Portuguese? A consultant. Consult. Consur. Yeah, they help me a lot. And then for example, another thing that I do with the the US closer the the online purchases, I get a lot of points on my cards. Oh, sure. Yeah. And you can use like traveling and Yeah. So what I do now, I don’t charge anything for my customers. So if they want to buy an iPhone for $1,000, I’m just going to charge them $1,000 and that’s it. And they keep me asking me how you make money on that. Yeah.

I don’t make money. I make points. And I tell the customer what I do and why I don’t charge anything for them. Wow. And they know I have like 40 million points. So they know why it’s free and how that works. And I show on my also my personal Instagram. I show the how to do it. But for Brazilian Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Well, what else do you like to do when you’re not working? You have you have family, you have kids. Yeah. Yeah. Now I And your kids are now in jiu-jitsu, but you weren’t in jiu-jitsu. I started a month ago. Oh, you did? Yeah. Just did. So, it’s it’s nice. It’s And as

a Brazilian, for me, it’s a I’m a shame that I didn’t do it before. I thought jiujitsu. Yeah, because it’s that’s popular. It’s good. It’s very popular. I thought I thought I may have this completely wrong and we can edit this out if I do. I thought it was Capoetta in It was in the past. Uh-huh. It was in the past, but with the the Gracie family in Brazil in the ‘9s and 2000s. I didn’t realize the Gracies were Are Gracies Brazilian? Of course. I did not know that. Yeah, they are Brazilians. I thought they were American. No. Are you sure? Yes, 100%. They are from Brazil. We’re going to have to Yeah, the Gracie

family. I might have to fact check you on that. Yeah, you can. The Gracie family. Yeah, the Gracies. Maybe we just claim them as I have to tell my jiu-jitsu professor that. Oh my god, that is American. That is so American. That is right. Yeah. To claim it. Yeah. Oh my god. Well, those American Gracies, we love them. No, we love those guys. Okay. Uh, do you you do you love living in Orlando? Is this the is this the right place? Would you would you do you ever see yourself back in Brazil? Actually, I do. Actually, I do. We are building a home in Brazil now. Big house in Brazil. Mhm. Cuz I never lived

in Brazil as like a rich person. And Brazil in my opinion is the best country to live as a rich person. And also I have the family and all my my family there. But it’s like when you go to, I don’t know, Cancun and everything’s so cheap there. If you have like $5,000 in Cancun or any other country, you’re going to be oh my god, you’re going to live really well. Mhm. The Brazil is the same. So when I was living in Brazil on my 20s, I didn’t know the good places of Brazil. I didn’t I don’t know Brazil actually. I think Jason know Brazil better than me or even you because I I never

the first time I took a plane was to take my visa to come here. That was the first time that I got in a plane. So I want to know I want to go to Brazil next year with my family to live there for like a year or two year years maybe and see how that works, what what it’s like. Yeah. And get closer to my family. I have two kids, seven, five years old. Mhm. And so I want to enjoy before they grow up and they don’t want to know about me until they are 20 again. Yeah. Well, that’s going to happen. Absolutely. Well, Paulo, it’s been so great to talk with you. It’s

been so great to visit with you. I love your story. It’s fantastic. It’s very inspirational. Congratulations on all that you’ve accomplished. Where uh Okay, so where can people find you? Where where can they find you online? And what is the website? Where can people learn more about the company? The website is uscloser.com. Uh going to be in Portuguese and English on YouTube. Going to be only in Portuguese, so I’m sorry, but it’s us uh YouTube.com/ uscloser. And my personal Instagram is Paulo Socatelli, but that is only in Portuguese, too. I’m sorry. I know. I was doing research. I was telling you, I was doing some research and I like to listen to, you know, if

people, my guests have done podcasts or other videos and stuff. I found a bunch of your videos, but I couldn’t understand a thing you were saying. Yeah, Jason have the same problem, right? Yeah. Yeah. But and and you speak Jason English, so you two can understand each other. Follow. Thank you so much. I hope you come and visit us in Salt Lake City sometime. Yeah, for sure. For sure. On summer, not winter. Only in the summer. Great to see you. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Know Your Ship podcast presented by e-hub. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review.