A DIFFERENT WAY TO ACCESS MENTAL HEALTHCARE
Pulsão de Vida was born from a question:
Why isn't there a healthcare plan focused exclusively on mental health?
At the time, I was looking for new products and business opportunities for Clínica Pulsão, the psychology clinic I co-founded with my mother. I wanted to create something that could go beyond the traditional model of selling individual consultations — something more accessible, recurring and capable of reaching a much larger number of people.
The context made the question even more relevant. We were coming out of a global pandemic, and the importance of mental health had become increasingly visible. At the same time, many people still struggled to access psychological care because private consultations were simply too expensive for their budgets.
I began thinking about the healthcare model itself:
Why doesn't Brazil have a healthcare plan focused exclusively on mental health?
I had never built a healthcare product or benefits network before, and I didn't know what the answer would be. So instead of assuming, I decided to investigate.
I arranged a meeting with a major entrepreneur who was a partner in one of Brazil's largest healthcare companies. Together with my business partner, I went to his office to understand why a mental-health-only healthcare plan did not exist and, more importantly, what could actually be built.
That conversation changed the direction of the project.
A traditional healthcare plan would involve a much more complex structure than what we were looking for. But a benefits card could create a simpler path to the same fundamental goal: making mental healthcare more accessible while creating a recurring and scalable business model.
From that point on, Pulsão de Vida became an exercise in turning an idea into a real product — building the technology, defining the model, creating the brand, testing the market, developing partnerships, building a sales operation and eventually connecting hundreds of clinics to the network.
FROM PRODUCT TO OPERATION
Building Pulsão de Vida required creating much more than a benefits card.
I worked across the entire system:
PRODUCT
Benefits model · User experience · Product structure
TECHNOLOGY
System development · Connectivity · Operational infrastructure
BRAND
Naming · Visual identity · Communication · Product presentation
GROWTH
Influencer outreach · Events · Partnerships · Lead generation
SALES
Sales structure · Team training · Clinic acquisition
OPERATIONS
Partner network · Processes · Internal organization
The product evolved through several layers:
Idea → Product → System → Market Test → Leads → Partnerships → Sales Team → Clinic Network
That progression is perhaps the most important part of the project.
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ACTION
Move with purpose
Opportunity → Decision → Initiative → Execution
Fuel the idea
ENERGY
My fuel is the hunger to make things real.
FROM A QUESTION TO A PRODUCT
The project began with a question that challenged the conventional healthcare model: why couldn't there be a plan focused exclusively on mental health?
Instead of starting by designing a product based only on assumptions, I decided to investigate the business model itself.
I arranged a meeting with an entrepreneur who was a partner in one of Brazil's major healthcare companies, Hapvida. Together with my business partner, I went directly to his office to understand why a mental-health-only healthcare plan did not exist and what would be realistically viable.
The answer changed the direction of the project.
A conventional healthcare plan would involve a much more complex regulatory and operational structure. A benefits card could achieve part of the same objective with a much simpler model.
I left that meeting with a new direction:
If I couldn't build a mental healthcare plan, I could build a product that made mental healthcare more accessible.
From there, I began developing the product, its system, connectivity and operating model from the ground up.
THE HUNGER TO MAKE IT REAL
Once the product was developed, the next challenge was to make Pulsão de Vida visible and bring it into the real world. I began taking the product beyond the clinic, participating in events, presenting the concept and looking for opportunities to place mental healthcare into new environments and conversations.
I also started building strategic partnerships that could expand the product's reach. One of the most relevant was a partnership with Smart Fit, connecting Pulsão de Vida with a large network of people outside the traditional healthcare environment. These opportunities helped position the product in different contexts and allowed us to test how the concept could connect with broader audiences.
Events and partnerships became an important part of the product's development. They created opportunities to present the idea, understand people's reactions, generate interest and discover new possibilities for the business.
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CONNECTION
Connect the dots
Connecting people, ideas and opportunities
THE DRIVE TO MAKE THINGS REAL
Once the product began reaching the market, I realized that its growth would depend on the connections built around it. I created the Pulsão de Vida Kit as a way to introduce the concept to people who could help amplify it, and strategically sent it to influencers, entrepreneurs, bank managers, company directors and other influential contacts. The response went beyond visibility: people connected to those recipients began showing interest in the product, turning the initial outreach into a growing network of potential leads.
As these connections increased, I realized that the opportunity needed a structure capable of sustaining them. I rented a commercial space, built a dedicated sales and marketing team and trained people to approach psychology clinics and present the Pulsão de Vida model. What began with personal outreach gradually became a repeatable commercial process — connecting the product with clinics that could join the network and, in turn, with people who needed more accessible mental healthcare.
The network eventually grew to more than 200 partner clinics across 50 municipalities, transforming Pulsão de Vida from an idea and a benefits card into a broader operating ecosystem.
FROM PEOPLE TO NETWORK
Influencers
↓
Reach & Awareness
↓
Leads
↓
Sales & Marketing Team
↓
Partner Clinics
↓
Users
Every connection created another possibility. The challenge was turning those possibilities into a system capable of growing.
