> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://upnext.world/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # HeyShip Helps Importers Turn a Profit by Revealing Brazil's Hidden Costs - URL: https://upnext.world/heyship-brazil-hidden-import-costs/ - Published: 2026-10-26T14:35:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-26T14:35:52.000Z - Description: Neto Concon found his first business idea in a WhatsApp group full of complaints. After a frightening first import in Brazil, he and his co-founders built HeyShip, an AI platform that predicts landed costs, flags margin risks, and now serves more than 300 companies. Payments and fintech are up next. - Author: Dr. Paul Newton - Tags: Flashpoint POV, Spotlight Neto Concon found his first business idea in a WhatsApp group full of complaints. Later, his first import left him afraid of what the shipment would really cost by the time it reached Brazil. Exchange rates kept moving, and the process turned out to be far more complex than he had expected. As CTO and CPO of HeyShip, Neto now works to solve the problem he encountered that day. The platform predicts landed costs, flags at-risk margins, and gives importers a sharper picture before they commit to a purchase. ### **A Thousand Complaints on WhatsApp Made Him an Entrepreneur** Neto went to Vancouver in 2016 to study English and loved the experience. Vancouver sits six hours behind São Paulo, so he woke up to a WhatsApp group of about a hundred people and roughly a thousand messages, all complaining about the same problem. He began thinking about how to build a solution. That was his first experience identifying customer needs and shaping a value proposition, and it set him on his entrepreneurial path. He holds a degree in economics and business management and worked in investment funding before launching his own business. At that stage, hiring developers or investing in technology was difficult, so he taught himself to code. He went on to launch several companies as the technology side of the team. While he owned one of them, he met Vinicius Marques and Kleber Fontes, who would become his co-founders. ### Half of an Imported Product's Cost Is Bureaucracy Neto's first import frightened him. He worried about costs and how much exchange rates had changed, and he couldn't tell what the product would cost when it arrived in Brazil. The process was much more complex than he had imagined. Vinicius and Kleber helped him through it, and afterward Vinicius showed him an MVP, the first version of HeyShip. The three discussed adding technology to reduce uncertainty. The numbers explain the fear. Neto describes a landed cost as roughly half product cost and half taxes, freight and insurance. When an importer makes a mistake, that bureaucratic share can climb to 60 or 70 percent. Many importers estimate costs in Google Sheets and Excel files with old formulas that are hard to share with clients or teammates, so decisions rest on poor information. HeyShip brings the work into one place. An importer uploads an invoice, and the AI predicts landed cost more accurately and flags where margin is likely to suffer. It also offers insights, such as whether a product ships better by plane than by sea or needs FDA authorization. Brazilian beauty companies that import makeup are a good example. Flying it sounds more expensive, yet after the full calculation it can beat three months on a ship. *"They get really impressed about the insights we give,"* Neto says. *"That's the wow moment."* More than 300 companies now subscribe. ### **Reducing Uncertainty Lets Small Importers Grow and Hire** Most Brazilian importers are small businesses operating on thin margins. Neto believes that helping them earn more lets them build more sustainable companies, hire more people and offer good products to more customers. He also points to the tax savings, cheaper freight, and better insurance HeyShip has recommended as economic value for the country. For someone entering the industry today, the platform helps find better suppliers abroad and understand the legal authorizations needed before launching. Importers can rely on accurate predictions, something Neto lacked on his first import. *"We reduce the uncertainty,"* he says. Payments come next. When we spoke in October, Neto expected to launch within two months, letting importers buy dollars and pay their suppliers abroad through HeyShip. He calls it a power move toward becoming a fintech. After that, the team wants importers to hire freight and insurance on the platform as well, so the whole import process lives in a single place. --- ### About Flashpoint POV Spotlights Flashpoint Global produces each Founder POV Spotlight using its proprietary category leadership framework. Every Spotlight begins with a Future Narrative session, where a founder’s POV is clarified and operationalized as the lens through which new categories are built. The result is content that moves founders beyond product messaging and into the role of category leader, helping the market understand the problem, the stakes, and the future being created. *If you are a founder building a new category,* [*learn more*](https://flashpoint.global/?ref=upnext.world)*.* ****Running a startup? Want to be featured in What's UpNext?** We are always looking for founders doing interesting work. If you want your startup in front of the UpNext network, apply for a spotlight. 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