Gama, a small town in Brazil’s central scrubland, was not the most obvious place for a budding computer scientist to grow up but Marco Gomes did not let that put him off.
At the age of 11, he built a computer using discarded parts from old desktops and taught himself how to write code. By 12, he was selling his services as one of Gama’s few website developers, creating designs for everyone from the owner of the local hardware shop to a language school.
The son of an evangelical pastor and a wedding photographer, Mr Gomes has made it to the forefront of Brazil’s social media scene. His company, boo-box, displays 1bn advertisements for clients every month across 500,000 blogs and other social media sites, and claims to reach about six in 10 internet users in Brazil.
Mr Gomes no longer works from his bedroom but from a trendy office in one of São Paulo’s upmarket business districts, complete with Google-esque relaxation areas.
“Even though we’re still small – there are about 40 people here – we are able to c