Founder & CEO · Cygnus.IT · Investor

Samuel
Rulli

I build AI that runs inside real operations in regulated industries like healthcare and insurance. Startup investor. Based in Austin, Texas.

01. Philosophy

Pragmatism at Scale.

I founded Cygnus.IT in 2018. The company was headquartered in San Diego, California until July 2026, when we moved our HQ to Austin, Texas. Our product, AI.DATA, reads, validates and audits healthcare documents for health plan operators and insurers, catching inconsistencies and fraud before the payment goes out.

Before that, I spent 14 years at one of Brazil's largest insurers, going from system analyst to senior software architect on mission-critical systems. I then led innovation projects for one of the country's largest credit bureaus, a national fuel and mobility network, and startup incubators. Putting AI into production isn't about hype: it's about clarity, trade-offs and disciplined execution.

+20Years in technology
4Startup investments
ATXBased in Austin, Texas

02. Work

01

Advisory & Fractional CTO

Technical direction and AI strategy for founders and scale-ups: architecture, AI in production, regulated industries and technical readiness for fundraising.

02

Speaking & Workshops

Technical talks and hands-on workshops on AI in production, distributed systems, and engineering culture.

03

Insights & Articles

Deep dives into the state of the art of software engineering and AI.

Read articles

03. Investing

Startup Investing

Investor in four Brazilian startups across fintech, crypto and agtech, through equity crowdfunding rounds on Captable: Alter (acquired by Méliuz), Capital Empreendedor, WebroPay and CowMed.

See on LinkedIn
  • AlterCrypto · acquired by Méliuz
  • Capital EmpreendedorFintech · SMB credit
  • WebroPayFintech · payments
  • CowMedAgtech · herd monitoring

Recommendations

[Samuel] is one of the best technical leaders I've ever worked with. He has a high level technical repertoire, inspiring leadership, adding a lot of business knowledge. Having its own consultancy, he manages to create teams of high technical and experienced performance, which are able to deliver elegant and high quality solutions.
Henry ChungSenior Product Manager · Fintech, E-commerce & PaymentsWorked on the same team
Samuel is one of the best Solution´s Architects I've ever worked. Besides his strong techinical background and his extreme commitment to get the things done, he is a person strictly oriented by ethical values who inspires trust and admiration in everyone he works with.
Norman SabinoVP of Technology @ BlipManaged Samuel directly
Samuel is one of our specialists most engaged in innovation, new technologies and new languages. He has deep knowledge of programming and distributed architecture and is one of our references in using high-value services (Watson, Google Vision, Amazon Machine Learning).
Mauricio MartinezR&D Manager · Founder, Oxigênio AceleradoraManaged Samuel directly · Translated from Portuguese
I worked with him in various projects and demands, he always acted with a lot of leadership, engagement, perspicacity and brilliance. Samuel has an enormous capacity to create solutions with excellence and always willing to implement them in the best way.
Gil Vicente Bernardo PintoEnterprise Solutions ArchitectSenior colleague
He is truly a ninja when it comes to solving problems. Sharp, intelligent and proactive are some of his everyday strengths. He masters everything he works on and has an enormous capacity to learn.
João DieygoSr. Software Engineering Manager · Fintech & BankingWorked on a partner team · Translated from Portuguese
Public recommendations on LinkedIn →

Exclusive content

Download the e-book and receive insights on AI in production, architecture, and technical leadership.

Free E-book

Enterprise AI Transformation: From Theory to Practice

A practical guide for leaders who want to put AI into production with clarity, no hype, and no empty promises.

  • AI maturity diagnostic
  • Architecture and data flow for production
  • Real cases and common pitfalls

By downloading, you also subscribe to the newsletter via Substack.

04. Contact

Let's talk.

Advisory, speaking, partnerships or investment. Share the context and I'll reply by email.

Prefer email?

[email protected]Or reach me on LinkedIn

I read each message carefully and only respond when I believe I can contribute practically.