When Lucas Schiavini passed the entrance exam for one of Brazil’s top engineering schools, he was only seventeen. There was just one problem: he was not legally allowed to enroll. Rather than wait, he sued the government and won.
That decision set the tone for a career defined by unconventional paths and an unwillingness to wait for permission.
Today, Schiavini builds AI-powered software for US tech companies from São Paulo, Brazil. His code runs on trading platforms serving over two million users. He has won international pitch competitions, published a book on robotics education, and studied decision-making under uncertainty with Nassim Nicholas Taleb. He is twenty-eight years old.
A Childhood Spent Moving
Schiavini’s path to engineering was anything but linear. As a child, he moved every six months due to his family’s circumstances, constantly switching schools and catching up with new curricula. By the time he was eleven, he had taught himself design and animation. At twelve, he built his first game. At fourteen, he launched a YouTube channel that would eventually accumulate over 350,000 views.
“I never had the luxury of stability,” Schiavini says. “So I learned to adapt fast and teach myself whatever I needed to know.”
That self-reliance would become his greatest asset.
Competing in Robotics, Building for Impact
At the University of Brasília, Schiavini studied Control and Automation Engineering while competing in robotics for five years. His team placed fourth and eighth at the Latin American Robotics Competition, building autonomous systems and learning the hard lessons of real-world engineering.
But Schiavini was not content to stay in the lab. He wanted to build things people would actually use.
His first major opportunity came through a contract developing health technology for the Brazilian government. Working with a team, he helped build web portals and mobile applications for the healthcare sector. The experience taught him how to ship production software under pressure and how to navigate the bureaucracy of large-scale systems.
AllFarmZ and the $10,000 Win
In 2019, Schiavini co-founded AllFarmZ, an agtech startup aimed at helping small farmers pool their purchasing power to buy supplies at lower costs. The idea was simple but powerful: collective bargaining for those who needed it most.
He took the concept to TrepCamp, a global entrepreneurship competition held at UC Berkeley. Competing against over 500 teams from around the world, AllFarmZ took first place, and Schiavini walked away with $10,000 in seed funding.
“That win taught me that ideas from emerging markets can compete on a global stage,” he says. “You don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to think big.”
Writing the Book on Robotics Education
While still in university, Schiavini took on another project: writing a book. Robótica Educativa em 365 Dias was designed to teach children the fundamentals of robotics through Arduino-based projects. He created eighteen lectures covering sensors, programming, and hands-on building.
The book was published and remains one of his proudest accomplishments, a way to give back the kind of structured learning he never had as a child, constantly changing schools.
“I wanted to create something that could help kids who were like me,” he explains. “Curious, but without access to the right resources.”
From Fintech to Millions of Users
After graduation, Schiavini joined Nelogica, one of Brazil’s leading financial technology companies. There, he worked on Profit and Vector, mobile trading applications used by over two million active traders.
His focus was on implementing Kotlin Multiplatform, a then-emerging technology that allowed code to be shared across Android and iOS platforms. The work was technically demanding and required coordinating across multiple teams. His blog post on the implementation was read over 1,000 times on Better Programming, and he was invited to speak at The Developer’s Conference 2021.
“Fintech taught me what it means to build at scale,” Schiavini says. “When millions of people depend on your code, you learn to ship carefully.”
Learning from Nassim Taleb
In 2025, Schiavini attended the Real World Risk Institute, an executive program led by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Antifragile. The program covered decision-making under uncertainty, tail risk, and the limits of traditional statistical models.
For Schiavini, the experience was transformative.
“Taleb’s work changed how I think about building products,” he says. “Most people optimize for average outcomes. But the real question is: what happens when things go wrong? How do you build systems and companies that survive the unexpected?”
He has since applied those principles to his own ventures, focusing on resilience and optionality rather than chasing growth at all costs.
Building AI for US Clients
Today, Schiavini runs VIVICTUS, a software consultancy specializing in AI-powered applications. From São Paulo, he works with US-based startups and tech companies, shipping production-ready products in weeks rather than months.
His current work involves building AI agents (systems that use large language models to perform complex tasks autonomously). It is a field at the cutting edge of software development, and Schiavini is positioning himself at its center.
“The next decade of software will be defined by AI agents,” he says. “I want to be building that future, not watching it happen.”
He is also developing Vedeggio, a personal finance application designed for people who find existing budgeting tools overwhelming. The app reflects his philosophy of building tools that respect the user, are simple, effective, and designed for long-term use.
What Comes Next
Schiavini is preparing for his next chapter. He continues building AI agents for US clients while developing Vedeggio, his personal finance app. He will be presenting at WebSummit Rio in 2026.
“I sued my government at seventeen to start my career early,” he says. “I’m not going to slow down now.”
For Schiavini, the path has never been about following rules. It has been about finding a way forward, no matter what stands in the way.
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