Designing the Future: Innovation, AI, and the Entrepreneurial Mindsets? 

In this Entrepreneurship Speaker Series talk, Marcello Póvoa explores how innovation emerges at the crossroads of business strategy, design, and technology. Drawing on his journey as a founder who built and sold an award-winning digital company, he reveals what makes startups succeed — from multidisciplinary execution to investor appeal — and how artificial intelligence is reshaping the next wave of entrepreneurial opportunities.

Marcello also contrasts startup agility with the transformation challenges of large organizations, sharing real case studies of digital evolution, failure, and reinvention. The session closes with practical reflections on career growth and how designers, entrepreneurs, and innovators can thrive in a rapidly changing digital world.

Marcello Póvoa

Marcello Póvoa is a digital entrepreneur, strategist, and creator at the intersection of
business, design, and technology.

As founder and CEO of MPP, he led the strategy, design and development of award-winning digital products used by millions across industries such as finance, media, retail, health, telecom, and education.

After successfully scaling and selling the company, he now advises startups and large organizations on innovation and digital transformation—while remaining deeply connected to academia as a professor and graduate-program leader.

Marcello holds a Postgraduate Degree in Digital Business Leadership from Columbia Business School, a M.Sc. in Communications Design with honors from Pratt Institute, and an MBA from a Coppead/UFRJ.

This event is part of Pratt’s new initiative The Power of a Creative Education: Succeeding in an AI-Driven World.