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Discover the journey of entrepreneur Rayssa Thebaldi, who went from homemade production to earning R$ 8 million with the fitness fashion brand Água Azul.
The successful journey of entrepreneur Rayssa Thebaldi, 34, began with an initial investment of just R$ 800 and a personal need to find sportswear that combined style and comfort. Currently, the business, named Água Azul, has reached an annual revenue of R$ 8 million, operating an industrial structure that centralizes everything from creation to distribution of the pieces.
What started as a side project to her corporate career in a multinational became a life purpose for the founder, who now leads a team of 30 direct employees and has 18 seamstresses providing services.
Get to know the journey of entrepreneur Rayssa Thebaldi,
Reflecting on the challenges of her journey, the entrepreneur emphasizes that the path is not linear and requires great resilience in the face of everyday problems. She recalls crucial mistakes, such as the lack of planning in inventory: “I remember there was a time when I spent everything I had buying fabrics, without studying or knowing if it was something that would sell or matched the product.”
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According to her, this lesson was fundamental, as situations like this can lead to capital waste and the need to create products just to “offload” stagnant raw material. Besides inventory management, the founder highlights the importance of accounting organization, recommending that new business owners seek specialized consultancies as soon as the company begins the scaling process.
According to the entrepreneur, accounting support is essential to manage taxes and avoid financial confusion between personal and company cash flow.
The path to million-dollar revenue
The growth of Água Azul was marked by constant physical and digital evolution. The brand has gone through several stages since 2017:
- The beginning involved door-to-door sales, using suitcases to showcase the pieces.
- The first showroom was only 20 m².
- In 2021, the business moved to a 100 m² space.
- Today, the operation occupies a warehouse with over a thousand square meters.
The production, which started with only eight items, now reaches 8,000 pieces monthly. The founder acknowledges that the growth exceeded her initial expectations, when the goal was just to achieve a monthly salary of R$ 5,000.
Entrepreneur’s Strategies for the Digital Market
To keep the brand in the spotlight, the company adopts the model of launches known as “drops” or capsule collections. This strategy allows for continuous new offerings, meeting the fast-paced dynamics of e-commerce.
For Rayssa, the secret to longevity lies in planning: “When you do things just for the sake of it, rushing and taking on more than you can handle, you feel it a lot because you lose money without knowing how to communicate.”
Physical Expansion and Corporate Education
Even established as a native digital brand, the entrepreneur is expanding its presence to physical retail, opening stores in Vitória, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. According to her, this move responds to a market need to offer in-person experiences and bring the brand closer to its consumers.
In parallel, the founder created “Água Academy” to share her teachings with other aspiring entrepreneurs. The initiative aims to offer quick courses on crucial topics:
- Detailed collection planning.
- Clothing modeling techniques.
- Effective content production strategies.
“Entrepreneurship made me a very strong woman, with good self-esteem, it made me flourish. And why not share this? I have an Instagram just to share these teachings. We talk about what works and what doesn’t,” questions the founder, reaffirming the purpose of her work beyond profit.
