Working in Public, Staying in Focus

September 30, 2025

I started this journey with a specific ideal: to build Retomar completely in the open. I wanted to put every line of code, every success, and every soul-crushing struggle on display. My goal was simple—to inspire others to step out of their comfort zones, take action, and know that imperfection is part of the process.

I wanted to share everything, because I believe in the power of a community that gets to see the raw, unedited fight.

But the reality of working in public did not match the ideal.

I found that every time I intended to make a quick social media post, it ended up consuming more energy than an hour of coding. I agonized over every recording, every image, and every caption. After posting, I agonized again over the engagement metrics. The process wasn't inspiring; it was a constant, debilitating drain on my focus.

Social media simply does not come naturally to me. Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s my ADHD—who knows?

What I do know is this: I refuse to build technology that creates anxiety, and I refuse to let the anxiety of marketing stop me from building the tools people need. The decision was clear: it was more important to reduce the cognitive load of a thousand Instagram posts and refocus that energy entirely on the applications themselves.

Today, I’m genuinely thrilled to announce the result of that focus.

The first Alpha version of Hearlful is ready for the world.

In line with our mission to simply help, I’ve decided to make it completely free during this Alpha phase. If you want to take it for a spin, I urge you to try it out.

But as I’ve said before, my strength is in fighting to make the technology serve you, not the other way around. I need to know where it is failing.

This is my favor to ask: Please share all your feedback. The good, the bad, the confusing, and every bug you stumble across. Feedback really is a gift, and every single piece of input you give me will be taken into consideration. It is the only way we can make this tool better for everybody.

With that said: Welcome to Hearlful.

Building a Tool, Not Another Problem

July 23, 2025

We’ve all had that feeling. You open an app or a website to do one simple thing, and you're met with a wall of buttons, pop-ups, and confusing menus. You feel your frustration rise. For me, that feeling is more than just an annoyance; a cluttered, confusing interface is a visceral source of anxiety. I can't stand information overload.

Technology should feel like an extension of you. It should be smooth as butter. It should get out of your way and let you accomplish your task. It should be a tool that helps, not another problem you have to solve.

Sadly, so much of the technology we use today is designed to do the opposite. It’s built to keep you engaged, to harvest your data, to sell you something. It adds to your cognitive load instead of reducing it.

This is the core belief I'm building Retomar on.

My obsession is to create tools that are relentlessly simple. Tools that are calming. Tools that respect your attention and your intelligence.

For an app like Hearful, this means every screen is designed to provide clarity in a moment of confusion, not add to it.

For a tool like Na Régua, it means the entire experience is focused on one job: helping you navigate the chaos of your bills without feeling overwhelmed.

I've spent my career fighting for this kind of simplicity on the inside of large companies. I’ve seen how easy it is for good intentions to turn into a frustrating user experience. I refuse to let that happen here.

This is my promise: I will not build technology that creates anxiety. The tools I build will be quiet, reliable allies. They will be built to help. That's it.

What 'Retomar' Means to Me

Posted: July 15, 2025

For the last ten years, my career has given me the incredible gift of working internationally. Of all the places I've been, Brazil has captured my heart. It's a place that felt mystical to me long before I ever visited—the food, the music, the sheer warmth of the people. I love the way business meetings start with hugs, the importance of family, and the easy closeness between people.

As I started learning Portuguese and spending more time there, my affection grew. But I also began to recognize a familiar struggle.

I saw the same kind of soul-crushing bureaucracy and punitive financial systems that exist all over the world. I saw good, hardworking people get trapped in cycles of debt, overwhelmed by processes that seemed designed to make them fail. It's a global issue, where late fees are used not as reminders, but as money-making machines for powerful interests.

I am an outsider in Brazil. I know that. No amount of Portuguese will change it. But sometimes, an outsider can offer a different perspective. It’s like trying to untangle a difficult knot—the person who has been struggling with it for hours can get stuck, but sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can spot the one thread to pull that makes everything else come loose.

And I saw a way I could help.

I could build a simple tool to help people manage their bills. A tool to make interest rates and due dates clearly visible. A tool to help them organize the chaos and avoid the traps. A tool that remembers there's a human being at the other end of the transaction.

That frustration slowly turned into an inspiration, and now, a passion.

This is where the name comes from. Retomar is a Portuguese word. It means "to take back." Not like returning to a place, but like taking back something that was yours.

To take back your power.

To take back your dignity.

To take back control.

I'm not going to change the world with an app. But if I can build something simple that helps someone hold on to a little more of their money, sleep a little better at night, and feel like they have a fair shot, then I've done something more than just complain from the sidelines.

That's what Retomar means to me. It's a start.