Juliano Primavesi
Brazilian tech entrepreneur with four exits and 25+ years of building companies — from a teenage search engine to selling KingHost to publicly-traded Locaweb in 2019. Today, investing where it matters.
The Journey
Juliano's first venture launched while he was still in high school: Prokura, a semi-automated search engine indexing 200,000 Brazilian websites, became his first acquisition exit. The pattern — build, learn by doing, exit — would repeat across his career.
In 2000 he co-founded Hostnet, a web hosting and domain company, growing it to BRL 60K MRR in two years before selling his shares in 2002. He then founded HostSul (2002), launched a wave of digital products (GigaFree, GigaBusca, GigaFoto, GigaColor), and built Giga, a wireless internet provider serving Porto Alegre and the southern mountain region — scaling it from 100 to 4,000 customers before its acquisition by Adylnet.
In 2006, with USD 200,000 in personal debt, he founded KingHost. Twelve years later it served 80,000 active customers, hosted 300,000+ websites, employed 220 people, and reached financial break-even at 35% EBITDA — culminating in its acquisition by publicly-traded Locaweb (B3: LWSA3) in 2019. KingHost ranked among Brazil's top tech employers (Great Place to Work) every year from 2015 to 2022, and Você S/A's top 150 best companies to work for in 2017 and 2018.
After the acquisition, Juliano ran KingHost as a Locaweb subsidiary through and beyond the parent company's IPO on B3 — sharpening his understanding of corporate governance and public-company compliance. He has since served as Senior Strategic Consultant at UPX, Advisory Board member at Guia da Alma, and strategic advisor at Adentro, bringing M&A and culture-building experience to each.
Today, through Mahalo Ventures, Juliano invests as a value-added partner in Series A and frontier-stage companies — particularly in AI, Cloud, and EdTech — combining capital with the operating playbook he developed across four exits. His framework draws as much from neuropsychology, positive psychology (he holds an MBA in the field), and systemic thinking as from balance sheets — because he believes durable companies are built when physiology, mindset, and purpose are aligned.
Key Milestones
- Founded and exited 4 tech ventures across 25+ years
- Scaled KingHost from USD 200K personal debt to USD 10M+ ARR
- KingHost acquired by Locaweb (B3: LWSA3) — 2019
- KingHost financial break-even with 35% EBITDA — 2018
- 220 employees · 80K active customers · 300K+ websites under management
- Pioneered self-built DDoS protection with the Sinapse platform
- 8 consecutive years on Great Place to Work rankings (2015–2022)
- Top 150 best companies in Brazil — Você S/A (2017, 2018)
- Summited Mount Kilimanjaro — July 2018
Today
Mahalo Ventures backs visionary founders building durable companies — from frontier AI labs to applied technology in Latin America. As a value-added investor, Juliano partners with teams who understand that long-term value compounds at the intersection of strong fundamentals, real culture, and aligned purpose.
Areas of Expertise
- M&A Strategy and Execution
- Corporate Governance & Public Company Compliance
- Growth Strategy and Operational Scaling
- Technology Infrastructure (Hosting, Cloud, DDoS, VoIP)
- People Management & Culture Building
- Series A Investment (Cloud, AI, EdTech)
- Neuropsychology, Positive Psychology, Systemic Thinking