Marcelo Marzola, the 33-year-old co-founder of Predicta.net,
is a perfect example of how hot Brazil's $1.6 trillion economy has
become — and why its entrepreneurs are now getting their phone calls
returned by venture capitalists after a decade of "You're from where?"
Marzola was invited to present his company's free online behavioral-targeting tool, BTBuckets, at the Google I/O Web-developer conference in San Francisco in May. To get ogled at the Google conference is the goal of any Web developer. Marzola earned rave reviews for creating what has become a de facto standard, used on more than 2,000 websites in 90 countries by such corporate titans as Pfizer, Motorola and Unilever. The product fills an overlooked niche in the industry by allowing websites to segment their users according to their online habits and then direct targeted content and advertising to them in real time. "It has turned the industry on its head, and it's gaining mass recognition," says Daniel Waisberg, an industry consultant and a former chair of marketing of the Web Analytics Association. (See the 50 best websites of 2009.)
To read the full, original article click on this link: Brazil: Venture Capital's New Hot Spot - TIME
Author: Lori Ioannou / São Paulo
