How a Fighting Spirit Helped Anderson Amaral Find Independent Success

Anderson Amaral is a man of many talents: he's a trained Jiu-Jitsu fighter, a former corporate executive, a data science and AI professional, and the owner of a successful remote agency based in São Paulo, Brazil.

He's also inventive; the kind of fellow who takes a common worry—like leaving the stove on—and turns it into an opportunity to create change ... by pointing a camera at the stove and training image recognition software to detect signs of fire.

But whether he's tinkering with ways to automate areas of his own home, or working with clients to solve complex problems, one thing is clear: Amaral is proud of his work as an independent professional—with good reason.

Transitioning from chief data officer to independent professional

In his past professional life, Amaral handled high-level decisions as the chief data officer for a U.S.-based startup. As he moved higher into the ranks of corporate leadership, he spent less time on the technical side of data and automation projects.

He liked his job but also knew that the further he moved away from technical work, the more he narrowed his future opportunities. After seeing a friend achieve success as an independent professional on Upwork, Amaral decided to try freelancing on a part-time basis.

By day, Amaral handled high-level decisions as the chief data officer for a startup based in Delaware. By night, he took on freelance projects that allowed him to keep his technical coding skills sharp. This balancing act would prove highly beneficial when the startup he worked at experienced a setback.

"We raised $20 million as a startup company, but we failed in getting series A funding," Amaral said. "The next day, we lost our jobs. And I was thinking, okay, freelancing was a part-time thing: now it's going to become my full-time thing."

Finding fulfillment through freelance work

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While Amaral became a full-time freelancer out of necessity, he quickly found success—and fulfillment.

"I've never been happier," he said. "I took on really challenging AI-related projects and started making the same amount of money I'd been making in my full-time work."

He even began to make connections with people he'd long admired.

With 20 years of Jiu-Jitsu training under his belt, Amaral grew up watching professional matches on TV. One day, a world-champion Jiu-Jitsu fighter whose career Amaral had long followed reached out to him on Upwork.

"He didn't know I was Brazilian too, or a Jiu-Jitsu fighter, when he invited me to the job. We worked together for 10 months and it was the best experience ever. I got to do something that I love, data science, about a subject I love—Jiu-Jitsu. I still train every day,” Amaral said.

The two men ultimately became friends, regularly meeting to catch up when they were both in São Paulo.

Amaral began taking on an increasing number of jobs that allowed him to combine his passions, and started to develop a software as a service (SaaS) product that his clients could market as their own. He also became more confident in his role as an independent professional.

"When I first started out, I thought that people might not look at the idea of freelancing as a good thing. I worked as a chief data officer, so I thought people might judge me for working as a freelancer now—and I originally set my Upwork profile to private," Amaral said. "But then my friend who invited me to Upwork suggested I make my profile public.

“Once I did that,” Amaral said, “a lot of clients started finding me through Google searches that led them to my Upwork page. They'd create a profile to hire me—now, about 90% of my clients come to me through my Upwork profile."

After setting his profile to public, business took off—so much so that in 2022, Amaral realized he needed to hire a team.

Moving from solo service provider to agency owner

"When I had more jobs than I could deal with, I started researching how to create an agency," Amaral said. "I knew it would be difficult, and to be honest, it wasn't easy."

At the toughest points, Amaral thought about continuing to work as a solo freelancer—but ultimately decided to push forward and form his agency, Scoras. Things got a little easier when he realized he could take some of his learnings as an independent professional on Upwork and apply them to his growing team.

"I realized I had to keep everything the same standard—the way I send proposals for a job, the way I deal with clients, and the way I use Connects," Amaral said.

By keeping all of his client work (and many of his agency hires) on the Upwork platform, Amaral can streamline operations and work in a way that benefits his business.

"I don't feel safe working with clients off of Upwork, so I bring them on the platform," Amaral said. "And when I hire someone for my agency, if they're not in Brazil, it's much easier to hire them through Upwork."

Today, Amaral has both a physical agency office and his virtual presence on Upwork. He's built an international team of a few core professionals as well as six to seven freelancers that provide support for specific projects.

His AI expertise also allows him to run his agency efficiently.

"Some people might wonder why I have a core team of about three people," Amaral said. "Why wouldn't I hire more? The answer is because AI lets a group of three people work as if they were ten people. For example, I'm not a front-end development guy—but I can create AI agents that make front-end code in JavaScript or Node.js. It's made my life much easier."

Looking to the future in AI—and beyond

With the help of his team (and those AI agents!) Amaral is able to split his time evenly between running Scoras and working directly on client projects. This mix of work allows him to continually hone all of his soft and hard skills—something he sees as essential to continued success, especially as the technical capabilities of AI tools increase.

"I think communication and the ability to understand a customer's needs is going to become more important than ever," Amaral said. "I tell people to get good at communication, get good at understanding, get good at empathy; that's not only essential for your job, but for your life."

While Amaral isn't changing the core nature of his agency's work, he is exploring the idea of offering more one-on-one consultations with clients—itself a great way to exercise that understanding and empathy.

"I do want to expand my agency team and continue to learn about automation, but I really want to book more consulting calls," Amaral said. "You're really dealing with interesting problems as a consultant; it's a lot of responsibility to give your opinion and how to implement it. So if you're in doubt about your AI or machine learning, or if you aren't sure what you need, talk to me. Let's get together and have a virtual coffee and discuss."

To connect with Amaral and learn more about how AI automation could help you in business—and life—visit his Upwork profile.