Rodrigo Costa has a seat at the table when it comes to helping his “superheroes.”
The Orlando-based serial entrepreneur says he has one job at his company DeTask: keep other business owners’ dreams going.
He does that through his platform, which leverages gamification and artificial intelligence to help businesses engage with and retain employees.
“They create jobs and are responsible for keeping the economy moving,” Costa said. “For me, they are my superheroes. That’s what motivates me to do this every day. It’s like a spiritual thing.”
DeTask’s platform uses data and blockchain technology to help businesses, generally of between 50 and 200 employees, recognize employees and reward employees securely.
Costa’s story has become a good example for Central Florida businesses because not only has DeTask started to thrive here. It has also leveraged a relationship with UCF’s Business Incubation Program to collaborate with a second incubator company Brisa. Both are clients of the Kissimmee location.
The partnership with the 30-year-old firm illustrates the power of being involved in a community.
Brisa has long established itself as a business that helps companies adopt emerging technologies through customized software.
As hybrid work became more widespread after the COVID pandemic, Brisa leaders wanted to re-engage employees.
So DeTask built a gamified solution for the company that rewards employees for daily tasks.
It was a partnership borne out of a shared experience of the incubator’s soft landing program, Brisa CEO Paulo Toledo said.
“It has been very insightful and very useful for us,” he said of the soft-landing program. “You learn how to do business here, right? Doing business here (in the U.S.) is much different than doing business in smaller economies.”
Toledo was recently recognized by the Florida Small Business Development Center with a small business excellence award.
His collaboration with Costa illustrates the ideal environment and results of an incubator. It highlights the value of shared spaces and professional networking in innovative spaces.
But, more than that, partnering with the incubator helped Toledo learn the ropes of doing business in the U.S.
“We got support and started to understand how to fit our business into this huge and bright market that is the U.S.” he said.
Brisa, which was originally founded in Brazil, has built anything from software that allows an image projector to project onto irregular surfaces (say, a sneaker) and specialized smart locks for short-term rentals.
As the firm, which has its U.S. headquarters here, builds out and encourages employees with recognition, Costa feels that he’s right there cheering along with them.
“Every time I see an employee receive a badge for recognition, it’s priceless,” Costa said. “I know that they are recognizing the hard workers, the people who help them succeed.”
