Our Entrepreneurs

Company Snapshot

After growing tired of their corporate careers, childhood friends Mario and Eduardo opened a sophisticated restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. Running the popular “Guilhermina Café” presented them with a number of operational problems, but also gave them the restaurant experience necessary to start their next venture: Spoleto.

Spoleto combines the speed of fast food service with the pizzazz of a gourmet chef preparing innovative, restaurant-quality food in front of the customer. This unique dining experience has become one of Brazil’s most popular franchises, with over 150 restaurants. Since selection by Endeavor, the number of jobs at Spoleto has grown by 3,221%.

Mario is now President of Grupo Umbria, the parent company that he founded in 2006 to manage all of the Spoleto brands: Spoleto, Domino’s, and Koni Store.

Endeavor and Grupo Trigo

The Entrepreneurs have received extensive mentoring from Endeavor regarding expansion strategies: currently, the Spoleto chain has 180 locations in Brazil, and has begun expanding internationally in Mexico and Spain. In addition to eMBA and G-Lab support, which assisted with expansion, the Entrepreneurs received mentorship in ownership restructuring, operational best practices, and legal issues.

Mario was a country board member in 2005, and participated in Global Entrepreneurship Week and a CEO Summit.