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About
Leila doesn't just talk about building great organizations — she built one from scratch, starting with less than $200 in a Rio de Janeiro favela, no business pedigree, no safety net, and every reason to fail. What followed was one of Latin America's most extraordinary entrepreneurial stories: 26 years at the helm of Beleza Natural, growing it from a single location into a $100M+ national brand with 4,000 employees, 120,000 monthly clients, and 55+ locations across five states — while simultaneously creating an entirely new market, dismantling beauty industry exclusion, and building one of Brazil's most admired workplace cultures. Leila speaks from that lived reality: the strategic decisions, the leadership failures, the operational breakthroughs, the fundraising battles, the culture-building work that never appears on a P&L but determines everything. Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, honored with the Veuve Clicquot Business Women Award, named by Forbes Brazil as one of the eight entrepreneurs to follow, and featured on the covers of Exame and Americas Quarterly, she brings to every stage a rare combination of global credibility and radical authenticity. Her audiences — from MIT Sloan and Columbia Business School to the Milken Institute Global Conference, TEDx, YPO, and the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society — consistently describe her as the speaker who shifts something: the way they think about what's possible, the way they lead their teams, the way they face what looks impossible. Leila delivers more than a keynote. She delivers a perspective that stays with people long after they leave the room.
From Zero to Scale: Building What the World Said Was Impossible
Keynote, Session, Webinar • 60 minutes
What does it actually take to build something from nothing — in a market that doesn't believe in you, with resources that shouldn't be enough, for a customer everyone else has ignored? In this 60-minute keynote, Leila Velez draws on 26 years as the founder and CEO of Beleza Natural — Brazil's largest curly hair beauty chain, built from $200 and a vision into a $100M+ enterprise with 4,000 employees and 120,000 monthly clients — to answer that question with rare specificity and honesty. This is not a story of overnight success or inherited advantage. It is a masterclass in what disciplined leadership, relentless execution, and an unshakeable belief in your market can produce when most people are telling you it can't be done. Leila takes audiences inside the decisions that defined her company's trajectory: how she built a culture that retained talent at below-sector attrition rates in one of the world's most volatile labor markets; how she designed operational systems that scaled across 55+ locations without losing brand integrity; how she navigated institutional fundraising as a young woman of color with no pedigree; and how she turned an overlooked community into a loyal customer base of 120,000 people a month. She also speaks candidly about failure — the leadership mistakes, the growth traps, the personal cost of building something at that scale — because that honesty is precisely what makes her insights actionable rather than just aspirational. Audiences leave with a clear-eyed framework for scaling with intention, leading through complexity, and building organizations that create value for their people and their communities — not just their bottom line. This program is ideal for: entrepreneurship summits, executive leadership conferences, women's leadership forums, corporate innovation days, private equity portfolio events, and university business programs. Tone: Inspiring, rigorous, and deeply practical — equal parts keynote and executive masterclass. Available formats: 60-minute keynote | 45-minute keynote + Q&A | Half-day workshop (expanded version)
Audience
Business owners, entrepreneurs, women and general public
Format
Duration
60 minutes
Delivery
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