JP Perpétuo: From Tech CFO to Endurance Entrepreneur
Former tech CFO and House of Pace co-founder shares how triathlon became his outlet and a new business venture.
In an interview with Stemma Sports, JP Perpétuo reflects on his career across the startup and venture capital ecosystems. He details how endurance sports became his outlet, his health scare after his first 70.3, and the inception of House of Pace.
Born in Switzerland due to his father's career at a multinational company, but raised in Minas Gerais, JP Perpétuo moved to São Paulo in 2016 to study Economics at Insper. From the start of his degree, he balanced academics with practical work, commuting on shared bicycles across the city to make it between the office and university. During this period, he began his immersion in the business and tech ecosystem alongside Alexandre Luiz, working on strategic projects and investment reports at the firm that would become Mar Ventures.
The Startup Proving Ground and the CFO Challenge
Two years later, JP took on a leadership role at Avec, a software platform serving the beauty and wellness sectors. He experienced all the classic stages of a hypergrowth startup firsthand: the team scaled from around 30 to 340 employees, raised multimillion-dollar rounds from international funds, and expanded into new verticals, before navigating the impact of the 2020 pandemic and the subsequent global venture capital downturn.
Stepping into the CFO position, he steered through the market's forced transition—shifting from growth at all costs to a strict focus on cash efficiency and profitability. These were demanding years of corporate restructuring until the operation was eventually sold.
Sports as a Sanctuary and a Health Scare
During this peak period of corporate pressure, endurance sports emerged as his primary decompression outlet. An avid consumer of performance data, running shoe tests, supplementation, and sports technology, JP dove headfirst into triathlon and debuted at the half-distance at Ironman 70.3 Brasília, finishing in around 4 hours and 30 minutes.
Shortly after the race, however, he suffered a severe medical emergency during a business trip to Joinville. Intense abdominal pain landed him in the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a cecal volvulus—a twisted intestine that required immediate emergency surgery. The condition, linked to emotional stress, pre-race dietary restrictions, and atypical intestinal anatomy, forced him to cancel his training cycle for Ironman Brazil in Florianópolis.
From a WhatsApp Group to a New Business
During recovery, sharing workout routines and product reviews on his @jppace__ profile built organic traction. When he set up a WhatsApp group to discuss nutrition, gear, and training, 150 athletes and friends exchanged over 8,000 messages in the very first month.
The community's response signaled a clear opportunity in the endurance sports ecosystem. Deciding to pursue full-time entrepreneurship in the field he loved, JP brought in Rodolfo Morais as a partner. Together, they began securing strategic investors—including Fernando Pavani—taking their first steps toward connecting their initiatives to the market and Voturuna Park.