How Deskfy Blended SAP Culture with Startup Agility
Victor Dellorto explains how corporate processes and design thinking structured expansion to over 28,000 stores.
Victor Dellorto, founder and CEO of Deskfy, details the cultural blend between corporate structure and startup agility. Speaking on Marketing - The Podcast, he analyzes the role of SAP processes, design thinking, and cross-industry operations in scaling the business.
In an interview with Bruno Gimenes on Marketing - The Podcast, Victor Dellorto, founder and CEO of Deskfy, discussed building the company's organizational culture by combining multinational governance with startup flexibility. Having worked at SAP prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Dellorto structured Deskfy's operations to leverage the maturity of corporate processes without sacrificing the agility and sense of ownership essential for a growing business.
In the video above, Dellorto shares behind-the-scenes insights from his time at the German multinational and explains how that technical and methodological foundation guided Deskfy's growth across diverse market segments.
The Blend Between Corporate Processes and Ownership
Reflecting on the transition from large enterprises to entrepreneurship, Dellorto notes that multinational experience provides a structured foundation of processes, documentation, and scalability that is rarely accessible to those starting their careers at small companies. According to him, the key challenge lies in balancing that organization with a culture of direct accountability and flat hierarchy.
"Our agreement as co-founders when we started the company was: let's take the best of both worlds. We want the ownership of a small company, the informality, the flat hierarchy, but we also want the processes, the branding, the long-term vision, and the results of a multinational," Dellorto states.
Mission-Critical Support, Innovation, and Design Thinking
His experience at SAP spanned multiple fronts, ranging from premium support for mission-critical operations to working with emerging technologies. Dellorto recalls managing global enterprise clients and international agencies under high-pressure scenarios involving system outages. Later, he worked on initiatives involving AI, neural networks, and in-memory databases applied to core business challenges.
Another central pillar integrated into Deskfy's management was design thinking certification connected to Stanford's d.school and concepts popularized by Tim Brown—an approach actively encouraged at SAP. For Dellorto, the takeaway extends far beyond aesthetics: it is "a methodology that treats design as a discipline, not limited to visual UI/UX design or advertising creative, but design as a mindset and how you apply that to business rules."
Cross-Sector Reach and Navigating Marketing Pain Points
With more than 28,000 connected stores across Brazil and Latin America, alongside presence in markets such as London, California, and New York, Deskfy serves brands including Tramontina, Arezzo, Spoleto, Domino's, Claro, Casa do Construtor, and Bob's. Its portfolio covers diverse sectors, from franchises and company-owned retail to dealership networks, pharmacies, credit unions like Cresol and Sicredi, and distance-learning educational institutions.
Dellorto emphasizes that this diversity requires distinguishing universal marketing pain points from segment-specific needs: "Since we were talking about design thinking, it was invaluable to maintain a student mindset, active listening, and an open mind—core principles of the methodology—to understand what is a broad market challenge versus a sector-specific challenge." He adds that this cross-industry dynamic has been present since year one, when the company served clients such as Melissa, Grendene, Spoleto, Café do Ponto, and Clube Turismo, which also helped define sectors to deprioritize for now, such as the tech market.