Tiago's Profile

Tiago Bonchristiano

About Me

I was born and raised in Brazil, find a piece of my identity in my Italian heritage, and realized my appreciation and passion for immersing myself in different cultures while living in Spain and the United States. My multinational background defines me. Creating long lasting and genuine relationships with people from all around the world fuels my interest and curiosity in learning from others and their diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Some of my interests include traveling, sports and languages.
• Traveling: every year, when choosing where to spend my vacations, a new and different location is always top of mind. So far, I have been to 19 countries and I'm eager to visit many more. Currently, my top countries to visit are: Egypt, India, Japan, Morroco, and South Africa.
• Sports: I follow an active lifestyle and enjoy working out, hiking, running, and learning new sports. I have been practicing water polo for over ten years and had the opportunity to play at both a national and professional level, representing my home country at the South American championship (more about it in the Sports section). Currently, I participate of a water polo masters team, a running club, and an adult volleyball sports league.
• Languages: my multinational background has taught me the appreciation of languages. Being able to communicate with someone with their first language is always more impactful. I'm fluent in Portuguese and English, and have a proficient level in Spanish. My two main goals at the moment are to improve my Spanish and to learn Italian.
I'm a huge believer of (i) being drastically open minded, (ii) being able to figure things out in any possible way, (iii) being my best self at all times and in any situation.

ps: regarding my belief (ii) above, this website is a great example of figuring it out - I decided to learn how to code a website and, through free courses and Youtube videos, I learned how to write with html, css and javascript languages and built this website from the ground up.

Work Experience

Future Farm    (March 2021 - Present)
Future Farm | Fazenda Futuro is the first Brazilian FoodTech. Through its vertically integrated manufacturing and decentralized innovation process, the company crafts clean label plant-based products, selling them to over 30 countries worldwide. Two years after joining the North America Business Unit as an intern, I led all investor-facing matters and oversaw the region’s P&L & $2M budget with the goal of increasing market share while ensuring financial viability.

Manager, Strategy and Operations & Investor Relations    (Feb 2023 - Sep 2023)
Sourced a $7.5M check size opportunity by driving end-to-end execution of a Series D capital raise.
Increased product margins by 7% by developing a new distribution network that sells directly to domestic distributors or end clients and reduces supply chain layers, as we transitioned away from selling to one major go-to distributor.
Decreased the monthly closure process by 8 hours by automating inventory tracking through an Excel dashboard and GL Accounts mapping through a new expense management tool.
Increased 1H2023 top-line by 368% and improved bottom-line by 63% vs same period YAGO by closing new clients (Retail & Food Service), creating a tiered pricing structure based on distribution models, and carefully managing the region’s OPEX.
Specialist, Investor Relations    (Feb 2022 - Feb 2023)
Spearheaded the 2023 Global Business Plan by collaborating with each Business Unit, bridging functional departments and the Brazilian Headquarters, and organizing project governance, workflows, and deliverables.
Built the Investor Relations department from the ground up by managing relationships with current investors through monthly newsletters and quarterly calls, fostering a network with new investors and strategic partners through in-person and virtual events, handling all communications with the Board of Directors, and analyzing competitors’ earnings reports.
Analyst, Business Operations    (Jul 2021 - May 2022)
Closed the first 3 USA clients with the Sr. Director of Sales by pitching to buyers, determining the selling price and investment bundle, and providing customer support with product documentation.
Supported overall company growth as we sold the first 6 containers by building the price architecture, executing the first 4 events (B2B & B2C), creating Nielsen retail data dashboards in Excel for category and innovation insights, and collaborating on the 2025 Global Roadmap project with a leading Brazilian consulting firm.
Intern, Business Operations    (Mar 2021 - July 2021)
Built the North America Business Unit from the ground up as the third hire by working cross functionally with the CEO and the Director of Operations to develop the regional distribution model and organizational structure, ensuring that products were compliant with food safety regulations, and officially launching the go-to-market strategy.

Sports

Since my childhood I have always had an active lifestyle. When I was a kid, I played several team sports such as basketball, handball, volleyball, and, as a true Brazilian, soccer. Right before becoming 12 years old, I learned about water polo and joined my sports club team. My last soccer position was as a goalie, so I also saw this new sport as an opportunity to play in the field and score some goals, but... You guessed it right, within my second practice I was already the new goalie in our water polo team. I ended up loving being a water polo goalie and never stopped playing the sport. Recently, I joined the Nashville Channels Cats masters team, where I practice once to twice a week, play tournaments throughout the year, and volunteer as a goalie coach to help aspiring youth players.

Some of the water polo teams I played for and awards I won:
• UC Santa Barbara - Collegiate Division 1 (2017 - 2021): awarded All-Academic Team (2018 and 2019), 1st Team All Gold Coast Conference and All-American Honorable Mention (2018), by keeping a GPA above 3.20 while practicing 20 hours weekly with additional weekend tournaments.
• Menlo School - High School (2015 - 2017): selected as one of the team captains during my senior year when I also broke the goalie record for the most saves in a season.
• Brazilian National Team (2015): selected as the starting goalie to represent our national team during the U17 South American tournament, which we won and had the best defense (least scored) in the tournament.
• Esporte Clube Pinheiros (2011 - 2015): selected as the team captain on my age group; played from my age group all the way up to the adult/professional level; won several tournaments, both at national and state levels.
Besides water polo, I also enjoy working out by myself at the gym and playing other sports with friends. I find that joining sport clubs is a very fun way to meet people. Currently, I'm a member of the Nashville Running Club which meets once a week to run 4 miles, of an adult coed volleyball sports league, and I play soccer with some local Brazilian friends.

Education

I lived and studied in Brazil at Colégio Santa Cruz until I was 16 years old. However, in order to play sports at a top-notch level, Brazilian students have to play for sport clubs since academic instutions have zero sport focus. This creates a huge conflict for students athletes that have minimal, to almost none, support between their academic instituions and their sport clubs. Thus, in order to achieve my ambition to be a student athlete at both great schools and water polo teams, I decided to move to the United States. I ended up living with a host family in Northern California, where I finished my High School studies at Menlo School, and then going to the University of California Santa Barbara to pursue an Economics degree. During my Junior year in college, I also had the opportunity to study abroad during winter quarter at ESCI-Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain. Below are some additional highlights on my collegiate studies:

University of California, Santa Barbara (Goleta, CA) (Sep 2017 - Jun 2021)
B.A. Economics (GPA: 3.61) and Technology Management Certificate (GPA: 4.0)
• Relevant Courses: Game Theory (A), Negotiations (A), Persuasion and Sales (A), Writing for Public Speaking (A-).
• Technology Management Certificate: consisted of 18 credit units designed to gain an understanding of entrepreneurial and business practices in emerging and global technology-driven companies. Coursework: Fundamentals of Business Finance, Fundamentals of Business Strategy, Principles of Marketing, Understanding and Managing Technology Organizations, Lecture/Speaker Series.
• Honors: Dean's Honors L&S (4 Quarters, Spring 2020 - Spring 2021).

ESCI-Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) (Winter 2020)
• Relevant Course: International Team Management (A-).