In this episode of the Business Blast Podcast, host Tyler Wagner interviews Eduardo Ibrahim, a software engineer with a master's in finance who left a secure position at a major Brazilian company to launch his own startup in Silicon Valley. Eduardo explains how his company combines artificial intelligence and behavioral economics to tackle the fragile pricing models of the airline industry, citing recent airline bankruptcies as evidence of market opportunity. He shares personal stories about the challenges of quitting a stable job, offers broad business advice emphasizing focus, progress measurement, and leveraging a core skill to attract talent, and reflects on the mindset needed for entrepreneurship, including advice he would give his younger self. The conversation also touches on his views of happiness—living authentically without societal pressure—his favorite book, Sapiens by Yuval Harari, and the key lesson of understanding human evolution for better empathy in business. Eduardo cites a favorite quote about success being the alignment of self‑liking, work‑liking, and method‑liking. He concludes by directing listeners to find him online via a simple Google search, where his social media profiles and TEDx talks (currently in Portuguese, with an English version planned) are listed.
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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner as always. Today's sponsor is Authors Unite, and if you want to become a successful author, Authors Unite is the place to go. So head on over to authorsunite.com to check out a free case study that will teach you how to do exactly that. And now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Eduardo Ibrahim with us, and he is a software engineer and a master in finance. He left a dream job in Brazil to start his own company in Silicon Valley, and the company's goal is to bring together behavioral economics and artificial intelligence to redefine the complex pricing model of the airline industry. He believes that our master skill is learning and that machine learning will make machines as capable as we are, rebuilding the world as we know it. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you, Tyler, for having me.
Of course, grateful to have you on. So the first one I got for you today is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I think leaving my job and starting my own company was the great challenge in my life, because when you are living for so many years in the only way people say to you that works, and then you give up all this status quo, you are getting another stage in life. In my case, I had a kind of public job in the biggest Brazilian company, so it was too hard to say to my family that I was giving up all the safety to risk everything and start from scratch to build my— something by myself. But now after some results, they can see that it was a good decision.
Yeah, very nice. And then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
As a software engineer with a master's in finance, as you said, the possibilities are very broad. Because of this, I decided to focus on some industry that I really like, which is travel. I think everyone likes to travel, but most of the people, they don't know how complex is that industry, especially when you are talking about airlines. Their models are so fragile because they need a lot of money to run. And this is why we see so many bankruptcies and buyouts around the globe. It just happened in Brazil last month. One of the biggest airlines asked for financial rescue. They can run very well when the economy is good, but they are always getting in trouble when it doesn't happen. I think this is why there are still many opportunities for travel market. We need to bring innovation to the industry for— and for me, artificial intelligence and behavioral economics together has a lot of new answers. I explain it on my TEDx talks, and if your audience wants to know a little bit more, they can find me there.
Awesome, man. And then, uh, excuse me, what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
If you look at any industry and technology, there are a lot of opportunities out there, of course. But for me, the challenge is to stay focused on— because, because the results take a while to appear, and this is why you have to measure the progress. Not only the final results, to be sure that you are on the way you plan to be and you're not creating any disappointments along the way. Also, as an entrepreneur, we are always required to develop a wide set of skills, but I think you need to be recognized by something you're very, very good at. It can be sales, technology, manage people, or anything else. But this way you can attract good people to work with you and form a team, of course. Now, for example, after the last election in Brazil, there are new investments come from everywhere, like China, Europe, and even States. There is a lot of excitement about that, and for me In this moment, it's still more important to focus on an opportunity that you're really passionate about. Otherwise, you have no energy to persist until you get the final results.
And then the next one I got for you is, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
That's a, that's a good one. I think if I could go back in time, I probably would be sleeping in someone else's couch in Silicon Valley, rather than being in a job that I really don't like, just to pay my, my weekends, you know. If you look at many entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs now, they are worried about social needs. Especially now that to be a tech entrepreneur is a kind of fancy. But for me, this is a trap. It's a fantasy. Because there's nothing fancy in giving up your weekends to work like hell. No. And this journey probably will take a double of the time that you are thinking now. So you have to learn How to like the risks, the problems, the pain, the critics, if you really want to bring your vision to life. Otherwise, you are creating wrong expectations, and this will lead you to give up along the way. So, in summary, the piece of advice to myself, my young self, would be Forget about what other people are thinking about you. Work on your self-knowledge to choose an industry that you really like. And find a unique product that solves a big problem. Then stay on this path no matter what. I would like to say this for my young self.
And then, so kind of go now a little bit down a different path. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Yeah, also a good question. For me, if you have something that makes you be looking forward every day and you don't want to spend time with anything else, this is where your happiness is. It could be creating a company like I'm doing now, but also could be helping others, raising children, or just be meditating by yourself. There's no form. I think that there's no key to happiness, but there's some way to avoid unhappiness, which is live the life you mean to be, your real life. Without following any trends or society pressure.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
There's a book that I always say that that's the book of my life. The name is Sapiens. Many people know it because it's a bestseller. From Yuval Harari, and also its sequence called Homo Deus. Because he brings clarity about the human brain's evolution and explains a lot of the construction of our reality. And how we can deal with this, from a historical to a scientific perspective. And I think it's essential book for any entrepreneur because if you want to know yourself, if you want to know the society and become more empathetic with your customers and teams, it's— there's a lot of things to know there. Hmm.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
I really like the quote that says, uh, success is liking yourself, is liking what you do, and liking how you do it. Because these three things have to come together from the bottom to the top. I mean, if you want to like yourself, Before you have to like what you do, and if you want to like what you do, before you have to like how you are doing this. It's a very straightforward process, and this is why I like it.
Yes, man. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you is how can our audience best stay in touch with you and connect with you online?
I think the easiest way is to go to Google and type my name, Eduardo Ibrahim. You probably find my my social medias and TEDx Talk. It's now in Portuguese, but YouTube is very good in subtitles now, and I'm planning this year to make TEDx in English too. So, Google is the easiest way for sure.
Okay, thank you again for coming on, man.
Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure, Tyler Wagner.
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