About me

You can call me May. I turn AI strategy into operating reality - across products, teams, and business models. And I spend my free time reading philosophy and building tools for thinking clearer. This site is where those two obsessions meet.

At Stone, a Nasdaq-listed fintech serving Brazilian SMBs, I lead the AI-first transformation across the commercial platform. I created Polo AI First to embed AI into Stone's commercial operation through workflow redesign, copilots, and AI-powered intelligence tools - then expanded its scope into customer-facing AI products.

My work spans technology, product, and organizational change: aligning cross-functional teams, redesigning workflows, and building the mechanisms that turn AI into measurable business impact. I'm known for combining structured thinking and pragmatic execution to solve complex challenges through AI implementation, operating model design, and transformation at scale.

I've always built things. An urban mobility startup in college, a jewelry ecommerce with my family, decision support systems using optimization algorithms for oil well drilling. I joined Stone when we had fewer than 50,000 customers - today that's less than what we onboard in a month. I left briefly to lead the financial services front at a software startup, and when I came back it was to help build the people team during a phase of insane growth. I watched the company go from 6,000 to 15,000 people, lose nearly 80% of its market cap, and rebuild itself. All from backstage.

The resume zigzags, just like life. In every challenge I've brought to the table what I do best - systems thinking that connects technology with real problems, and the drive to make things happen.

This space

This is my lab - a bit of work, reflections, and 100% sandbox for fun. I'm very curious and would love to collaborate with people who connect with what they find here.

If you're also thinking about these things, say hi: hello@mayra.villas

I don't have social media other than LinkedIn.