When multiple conversations with people in the health sector brought up the massively informal and manual work-scheduling process within the sector, StarGrid’s founders, Guilherme Bunse, Tiago Fiorenza, Henri Fiorenza and Werner Trieloff, accepted the problem-solving challenge. Coming from various backgrounds such as AI, programming and finance, the founders quickly put together an MVP. After receiving an immensely positive response, they started looking for investors. In 2019, one year after its founding, StarGrid grew over 600 percent, and the pandemic helped them adjust the product to become more efficient and simple to use. “The ease of implementation of our software is incredible,” says Werner. “With younger generations, the adoption is easier because it simplifies shift planning. There’s an important adaptation taking place.” 

Today, the founders are expanding their solution to become a complete workforce-management platform, ready to be plugged into other apps. To accelerate this development, in 2023 they merged with Salux, one of the biggest Brazilian players in health and hospital solutions. “We want to make our platform fully predictive, helping hospitals and other companies to plan for more available staff if more patients arrive, for example. Together with Salux, we can build the blocks to get there faster,” says Werner. His cofounder Guilherme Bunse agrees: “Workforce management is something much broader than just shift planning. Bringing other functionalities and making our workforce management truly holistic wouldn’t be possible by ourselves. One startup doesn’t make a summer!” 

StarGrid’s work culture is based on engagement, creativity and agility, and the founders also want to make work fun. “When we had an office, we partnered with Red Bull, and they got us a Red Bull fridge for the team,” says Werner. “At the beginning, when we got our big clients, many things needed to be done manually. And the entire team was up for it, regardless of job title. We had pizza, had some beer, and did it together.” The team is often open to delivering impeccable projects even when working in the wee hours. The unfortunate passing of founder Tiago Fiorenza at the beginning of 2023 brought StarGrid’s lean team of eleven closer together. “If our main developer and founder is gone in the middle of a merger process, it increases our drive to make it work,” says Guilherme. “Our team is more engaged than ever.”