---
title: I started my first "company" when I was 19. Here's what happened
 
description: >
  When I was 19, after one and half years of law school, I realized that I should have been studying something different. So, after giving it a lot of thought, I went all-in in architecture: I started college again and opened a 3D visualization studio. The "studio" was me in a bedroom.

template: post
output: atomic-essays/i-started-my-first-company-when-i-was-19-here-s-what-happened.html
date: "2021-07-01"
tags:
  - atomic-essays
---

<p>When I was 19, after one and half years of law school, I realized that I should have been studying something different. So, after giving it a lot of thought, I went all-in in architecture: I started college again and opened a 3D visualization studio. The “studio” was me in a bedroom.</p>

<p>My rationale was: “Ok, I’m starting college again, but <mark>now instead of waiting for an intern opportunity, I'm going to find a way to experiment with the profession earlier."</mark></p>

<p>I was confident that I could handle simple visualization projects because I began to learn 3D modeling and rendering during high school, and creating illustrations wouldn’t require me to finish college.</p>

<p>So I bought a new computer and registered the company. Then, what?</p>

<ul>
  <li>I struggled to find clients; When I found them, I learned that doing the most realistic render wasn’t the goal, but helping my clients show their projects to their clients with proper illustrations, balancing quality and costs;</li>
  <li>I got confident and entered a design contest; I won the contest and received a full scholarship for one of the best design schools in Brazil;</li>
  <li>I left architecture school;</li>
  <li>I began college again, but this time in product design;</li>
  <li>I stopped doing archviz work;</li>
  <li>I bootstrapped a backpack brand (with the money I earned with archviz);</li>
  <li>I sold backpacks;</li>
  <li>I saw a stranger on the street using my product;</li>
  <li>I gave a TEDx talk that led me to a whole new chapter of my career.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>The lesson I learned:</strong> <mark>starting to do things before "knowing everything," leveraging what I already knew, helped me figure out the rest and created opportunities that I didn't imagine when I started.</mark></p>