Interview with Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder, André Alcalde

André is Chief Product Officer and Co-founder of Celus and therefore always has our vision in mind. He is the go-to person when wanting to know anything about the plans and future of Celus.

Hey André! We want to learn more about you.

That is great, I am glad to share with you a bit about myself!

Where do you originally come from and what brought you to Germany?

I was born in a medium-sized city in Brazil called Maringá, which is known for being one of the greener cities in the whole country. I moved to Florianópolis to study electrical engineering, and my university had lots of international contacts, including German institutions. Towards the end of my studies, I took one semester abroad to do my internship in Mannheim, as Germany is known for being a nice place for engineers to work and for having a great life quality. After finishing my studies back in Brazil in 2010, I worked for one year there, but always wanted to come back to Germany. After lots of Skype interviews, I finally got a job in Freiburg that time, and in 2011 I came back only with a one-way ticket, and since then here I am.

What are the three coolest things about working at Celus?

In my opinion, the challenge, the team, and the vision. The challenge we are tackling requires working with the latest technologies, keeping informed about what is going on in the market and allows no day to be boring. Working as a team is fun and we make sure there is always constant communication and a good feedback culture, so that we can develop ourselves as professionals and as people. And finally, our vision is very ambitious and serves a clear purpose: To reshape how electronics are designed and with that allow the whole society to profit from smarter products coming faster and cheaper to the market.

What fascinates you the most about the Celus product?

Our software is a platform that empowers engineers to rethink the whole design process of electronics. The current design process is based on several assumptions that were valid when it was conceived, and we are working to simplify this process, update it and remove legacy assumptions by using the latest technologies, like cloud computing and machine learning.

What lead you to your profession of product development?

That is something that happened naturally, as I brought with me the experiences of working as a hardware design engineer, and all the points I saw a potential for improvement. So why not using that to drive the development of a great product?

What is the best part of your day?

I am most productive after 4 pm, and I also feel more energetic evenings. That’s the time I take to learn new things, read a book, or maybe go for a run.

Do you have a life motto?

Not as a ready-to-read sentence, but I definitely have a philosophy I like to follow, which is living to a certain degree in a minimalistic way. I don’t own stuff I don’t need, and this gives me lots of freedom and flexibility, which are things I value very much.

Which advice would you give yourself 10 years ago?

I would tell myself to do exactly what I was thinking of doing, since the decisions worked out very well to bring me where I am today.

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