Gary Carrier
Who they are
Gary Carrier is Co-Founder and CEO of KODIE — he previously founded Plataforma Impact, a 501(c)(3) that trained IT talent in low-income communities in Rio de Janeiro, and co-founded Posto9, a customer management platform.
Person
Gary took a BA from the University of Washington in 2009, studied at Universidad Latina de América, and finished an MA at UC Berkeley in 2014 — an academic arc that spans Latin America, the West Coast, and the Southwest. From there he moved through investment roles at MCE Social Capital (Portfolio Analyst, Investment Manager) and operations work at Approach Management Services and New Story, before landing a Presidential Fellowship at UNLV where he led technology deployments supporting Super Bowl LVIII and more than 1,000 local businesses. In 2021 he founded Plataforma Impact, a 501(c)(3) delivering IT skills training in low-income communities in Rio de Janeiro and matching junior talent with hiring companies — it has since shut down, but it seeded the model KODIE now runs at scale. He co-founded KODIE and KODIE Academy in 2026, and separately co-founded Posto9, a customer management platform built with Andre Lajter, and Toucan Açai, an early online marketplace for açai products. He runs the Plataforma Newsletter on LinkedIn, covering tech talent, community building, and new beginnings, and has published 'Beyond Microcredit' and 'Better Loans for Better Housing'; he is also writing a book titled 'The Fun Economy' due via the SXSW book division in March 2027. The through-line is using operator experience — investment, ops, fellowship, nonprofit — to build workforce infrastructure that connects Latin American technical talent with US companies. He is also an advisory group member at Desert Forge Ventures and a Latitud LF4 Fellow, and holds a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt.
Company
Gary co-founded KODIE in January 2026 — the company was new from day one and he has been building it from the ground up. The most recent public signal is KODIE's announcement of a continuous development model built around technical and cognitive evaluation, rigorous screening, continuous mentorship, and AI-native readiness for assembling global technology teams. On the capital side, KODIE raised $10M in user acquisition financing in March 2026 from PvX Partners to expand its AI-powered platform. Alongside the talent placement business, KODIE Academy is actively upskilling 1,200+ technologists per year from Latin America in AI, cloud engineering, cybersecurity, and software development.
Market
KODIE sits at the intersection of nearshore tech staffing and edtech — connecting US companies with Latin American talent while training that talent pipeline through KODIE Academy. It competes with other online tech-skills platforms and nearshore staffing providers in a market where AI-powered education is projected to grow at a CAGR exceeding 25% through 2030. The tailwind is strong, but so is the field: edtech providers, global staffing platforms, and bootcamp-to-placement models are all chasing the same nearshore demand from US engineering teams.
Network
Gary's closest named collaborator is Andre Lajter, with whom he co-founded Posto9. He has amplified content from and referenced Brian Chesky's management philosophy publicly, suggesting he tracks founder-operator thinking at that level. He is connected to the Desert Forge Ventures network as an advisory group member and to the Latin American tech ecosystem through his Latitud LF4 Fellowship.
- Andre Lajter· Co-founder of Posto9
- Brian Chesky· CEO, Airbnb (referenced/amplified)
How they likely show up
- Short-stint tenure shape across multiple orgs (MCE, New Story, UNLV fellowship, Plataforma Impact) → moves fast, tests ideas, and doesn't wait for permission to pivot.
- Founded or co-founded at least five ventures (Plataforma Impact, KODIE, KODIE Academy, Posto9, Toucan Açai) → high agency; likely treats company-building as a default mode, not a one-time event.
- Plataforma Impact was shut down but its model became KODIE → learns from failure publicly and iterates rather than walking away from the thesis.
- Presidential Fellow at UNLV leading Super Bowl LVIII tech deployments → comfortable operating at large-scale, high-stakes events and in institutional settings, not just scrappy startup contexts.
- Active at NY Tech Week and Boston Tech Week in 2026, plus Desert Forge Ventures advisory role → builds network deliberately through in-person events; likely values face-to-face relationship capital.
- Writing a book ('The Fun Economy') alongside running an early-stage company → processes ideas through writing; probably thinks in frameworks, not just tactics.
Conversation tips
- → Reference the Plataforma Impact-to-KODIE arc — asking what he learned shutting down the nonprofit and restarting as a for-profit will get a real answer, not a rehearsed one.
- → He writes the Plataforma Newsletter and is working on 'The Fun Economy' — acknowledge the writing specifically; he'll notice if you've actually read it.
- → He's a Latitud LF4 Fellow — if you have any Latin American tech ecosystem context, use it; that community is clearly central to his identity and network.
- → Ask about the UNLV Presidential Fellowship and Super Bowl LVIII — it's an unusual credential and likely a point of pride worth surfacing.
- → Don't cold-pitch him on a hiring or training product without acknowledging that he is building exactly that — he'll have a strong point of view and will want a peer conversation, not a sales call.
Toolbox
Openers
- Open on the Plataforma Impact shutdown and KODIE launch — he founded a nonprofit to train IT talent in Rio, shut it down, and rebuilt the model as a for-profit platform in 2026. That's a specific bet worth asking about.
- Lead with KODIE Academy's 1,200+ technologists per year figure — it's a concrete scale claim for a company that launched in January 2026, and the story of how he got there that fast is genuinely interesting.
- Reference 'The Fun Economy' — he's writing a book for the SXSW book division due March 2027 while running an early-stage company. That's an unusual combination that opens the conversation about what the book argues.
Discovery questions
- You shut down Plataforma Impact after running it as a nonprofit in Rio — what specifically didn't work, and what made you confident enough to rebuild the same thesis as KODIE?
- KODIE Academy is upskilling 1,200+ technologists a year in AI, cloud, and cybersecurity — how do you think about the relationship between the academy and the talent platform? Is it a pipeline or a separate business?
- You announced a continuous development model with technical and cognitive evaluation built in — what does 'AI-native readiness' actually mean in your screening process, and how do clients respond to it?
Avoid
Don't treat KODIE as just another edtech or staffing company — he has a deliberate thesis about Latin American talent infrastructure that runs through Plataforma Impact, KODIE Academy, and his Latitud fellowship, and a surface-level framing will signal you haven't done the work.
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Sources
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Try Brief →Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on August 6, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.
Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →