Carlos Diego Cavalcanti has spent over a decade building something most tech leaders talk about but struggle to execute: a company where the people come first, and the results follow.
As CEO and CTO of Valcann — the cloud computing firm he founded in 2014 — and Latin America Cloud Lead for EPI-USE, Diego sits at the intersection of deep technical expertise and genuine human leadership. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science. He's a Visiting Fellow from MIT. He teaches at CESAR in Recife.
And the thing he wants to talk about most? Relationships.
He built Valcann without outside investment. On purpose.
In an era where startup success is often measured by funding rounds, Diego made a deliberate choice to grow Valcann independently. No outside investors. No external pressure reshaping the company's direction before it had found its footing.
What that bought him was something harder to put on a pitch deck: the freedom to experiment, to fail small, and to build a culture that wasn't being optimized for someone else's exit timeline.
It's a decision he'd make again — and the reasoning behind it is worth hearing in his own words.
"We make our own champions in-house."
One of Valcann's most distinctive growth strategies has nothing to do with the cloud. It has to do with universities.
Diego has built a talent pipeline by partnering directly with academic institutions — identifying promising people early, developing them within Valcann's culture, and creating what he describes as internal champions. Not just skilled technicians. People who carry the company's values as they grow.
It's an approach that requires patience. It doesn't scale the way a recruiting firm does. But Diego would argue that's precisely the point.
On resilience — and what actually builds it
"Discipline creates the structure that allows you to be resilient when challenges come."
This might be the most practical leadership insight in the entire episode. Diego doesn't frame resilience as a personality trait — something you either have or you don't. He frames it as an output. Something that gets built through the habits and routines leaders establish long before the hard moments arrive.
For anyone leading a team through a migration, a restructure, or just the everyday pressure of keeping a cloud-dependent business running — this reframe is worth sitting with.
The AI piece
The episode doesn't avoid the topic everyone is circling right now. Diego shares his perspective on where AI is heading in professional services, and what it means for the teams he leads and teaches.
His take is neither utopian nor alarmist — which is probably why it's worth hearing. He's thought about this from two angles most commentators only have one of: as a practitioner deploying cloud infrastructure, and as an educator watching how the next generation of technologists is being shaped.
Why this conversation matters for EPI-USE clients and prospects
At EPI-USE Services for AWS, we work with organizations navigating some of the most consequential infrastructure decisions they'll make. The technical side of that — the S.H.I.P. methodology, the W.H.A.L.E. Assessment, the architecture — matters enormously.
But Diego's conversation is a reminder of what makes those engagements actually work: trust, relationships, and the human judgment that no migration checklist can replace.
"At its core, this episode is a reminder that while technology continues to evolve, business remains fundamentally human."
Listen to the full episode
Diego joined Carly Pepin on Built For This — a podcast for founders, executives, and vision-driven leaders. The episode runs 58 minutes and covers entrepreneurship, leadership, remote work, resilience, strategic partnerships, and the evolving role of AI in professional services.
Carlos Diego Cavalcanti is CEO and CTO of Valcann and leads cloud services for EPI-USE in Latin America. Connect with Diego at valcann.com.br or learn more about EPI-USE Services for AWS at epiusecloud.com