COMMUNITY & DEVELOPER RELATIONS
Developer relations in Brazil: a practical guide for AI technology companies
Technical workshops and scoped challenges give technology companies ways to meet founders and developers in Brazil. Start with a specific audience, a problem participants can investigate and a plan to support them afterwards. Registrations, product trials and continued adoption answer different questions.
Start with an audience and an implementation problem
Define who needs to learn or test something. A team evaluating an API for a prototype has different questions from a team operating a production system. Ask what participants already use, what they want to build and what would prevent them from trying your product.
Choose a bounded challenge that fits the time available. It might involve evaluating output quality, connecting a tool to an existing workflow or comparing the effort required for an integration. Describe the starting point and what a useful demonstration should show.
Avoid treating a gathering as proof of demand for the whole market. Conversations with a selected group can reveal practical questions; broader commercial conclusions require further evidence.
Prepare the first successful experience
Before inviting participants, test the onboarding path with someone unfamiliar with the product. Make prerequisites, documentation, sample projects and support channels easy to find. Confirm how accounts, credentials, usage limits and any trial credits will work.
Assign a person who can help with technical blockers during the activity. Record recurring problems so the product team can distinguish unclear documentation from a missing capability. If people spend most of the session troubleshooting access, there is little time left to evaluate the tool.
For local participation, confirm the language of the session, examples and follow-up. Portuguese support may be useful, but the choice should reflect the audience rather than an assumption about every developer in Brazil.
Choose a format that fits the task
A workshop can guide participants through a defined exercise. A hackathon gives teams more room to develop different responses to a challenge. A technical conversation can help a brand understand needs before committing to either format.
Agree on responsibilities, mentor availability, evaluation criteria and what happens after the session. NewHack's corporate innovation and hackathon work combines these elements in scopes defined for each project. Participation in a workshop does not, by itself, show that a company is ready to buy or deploy a product.
Consider a hypothetical example: an AI platform invites a group in São Paulo to evaluate a document-search workflow using sample material. Teams compare the answers with a small set of expected results, note failures and explain how they would review an uncertain answer. The provider leaves with observations about the exercise and documentation. Any production use would require a separate decision and further work.
Separate attendance, activation and continued use
Define the denominator and observation period for each measure before the activity. Useful indicators can include:
- Participation: people or teams who attended and attempted the exercise, compared with registrations.
- Activation: teams that completed an agreed first action, such as a working integration, within the stated period.
- Continued use: teams still using the product after the initial activity, measured only where that information is available and appropriately collected.
- Product feedback: documented obstacles, reproducible issues and suggestions that the product team can assess.
A seven-day or thirty-day review may be a useful starting point, depending on the product and the initiative. These are planning examples, not benchmarks or promised outcomes. Report unknown results as unknown; a missing response should not automatically count as adoption or abandonment.
Agree on follow-up before the event ends
Explain what follow-up participants can expect and obtain permission for ongoing outreach. Separate participation in the activity from optional marketing communications. Decide who handles product questions and how feedback will reach the people responsible for the tool.
Keep the next step concrete: an office hour, a review of unresolved issues or a conversation about a possible pilot. Offer something relevant to the participant's work instead of assuming that everyone wants a sales call.
Explore a partnership with AI House Brasil
AI House Brasil is a NewHack and Entrypoint initiative at Serena, in São Paulo. It connects AI-first founders, developers and technology companies through residency and community activities.
International AI, cloud, API and developer-tool companies can discuss a partnership with AI House Brasil. Potential formats include workshops, content, mentorship and scoped challenges. Audience, deliverables, resources and indicators are agreed for each initiative. The purpose is to create a useful exchange that can support further collaboration; product adoption and commercial results depend on what happens next.
Discuss a partnership