House of Pace Bets on AI and Launches Hop Humans
JP Perpétuo and Rodolfo Morais explain how the endurance community is building autonomous authority through AI.
JP Perpétuo and Rodolfo Morais detail House of Pace's shift from a founder-led model to an autonomous, AI-driven community. Learn about the Hop Humans initiative and how ultramarathoner Shubi Guimarães joined the project.
Transitioning a brand anchored in the founder's persona into an ecosystem with its own authority is one of the greatest challenges for any growing business. At House of Pace (HOP), a platform for the endurance community, this maturation process is driven by the user base itself and a tech stack designed to operate autonomously.
From founder-led growth to community autonomy
Early on, growth followed the standard founder-led growth playbook, where the daily presence of JP Perpétuo sparked discussions, set the agenda, and paced technical exchanges on gear, training, and sports tech. However, as the ecosystem matured, the brand's weight began to rest on the strength of the network itself.
According to Rodolfo Morais, HOP reached a stage where the community runs organically. Even during prolonged absences by the founders, the platform maintains active momentum with over 1,000 daily messages, cementing a collective authority independent of constant moderation by the partners.
Artificial intelligence and the Hop Humans initiative
To sustain this scale without sacrificing content quality, House of Pace operates under a 100% AI-first approach. The company uses proprietary artificial intelligence models to map internal community dynamics, evaluating top-engaged members monthly not just by message volume, but by criteria such as technical depth, answer thoroughness, and question relevance.
From this data analysis, Hop Humans was born—a program gathering roughly 20 facilitators across Brazil. Rather than acting as traditional brand ambassadors, these members serve as community guardians and leaders, representing the ecosystem organically at training sessions, races, and in-person endurance events.
Connecting with Shubi Guimarães at Voturuna Park
Among the first selected for Hop Humans is athlete and XTREMMA Sports host Shubi Guimarães. Her connection with the founders began during a Strava event hosted at Voturuna Park in São Roque, São Paulo, which became the platform's second-biggest global highlight in January—trailing only cyclist Tadej Pogačar when reaching one million followers.
Following the gathering, Shubi caught a ride with JP and Rodolfo for the hour-and-a-half drive back to São Paulo. That long car ride sealed a direct partnership with the founders, making the ultramarathoner a regular presence at Voturuna training sessions and one of the most active voices across the HOP community.