# Our origin: from code partner for agencies to AI-first engineering

# Our origin: from code partner for agencies to AI-first engineering

Carlos Eduardo de Souza · 2026-10-30

Coopers started in 2013 as the team agencies called when they needed code. What we kept from those years, and what changed.

Coopers was founded in 2013 in Curitiba to be the best development partner an agency could have. Many of the habits we still keep come from those first years.

### Where we started

 Our first clients were advertising and digital agencies. Some had no web team; others had more projects than people. We took on design, front-end and back-end: sometimes a whole project, sometimes a single stage, always on their deadline.

### What those years taught us

- **Scope and schedule in writing,** because agencies answer to their own clients.
- **One point of contact,** so nobody has to manage a development team they did not hire.
- **Mobile first and responsive,** long before it was the default.
- **Delivery before the deadline,** not on it.

### What changed

 Over the years agencies brought us into their clients' projects, and companies started to hire us directly: corporate portals, CMS platforms, apps and long-term partnerships in Europe and North America. Today we work as one nine-discipline team, AI is part of every stage, and we are the official TYPO3 partner in Latin America.

 What did not change is how we work: with the client, as one team. [More about Coopers](/about).

> We started as the team behind other people's projects. We still build that way: together.

## More from the journal

- [Journal](/blog.md)

- [Machine speed, human signature: how we use AI without losing accountability](/blog/machine-speed-human-signature.md): AI drafts a lot in our pipeline. People still decide. Here is where AI sits in each stage, and where it does not.
- [TYPO3, WordPress or headless? Choosing a CMS for a multilingual site](/blog/typo3-wordpress-or-headless.md): Three questions decide it: who edits, how many languages, and what your IT allows.
- [GEO: writing for people and for AI answers](/blog/geo-writing-for-people-and-for-ai-answers.md): Search is no longer only a list of links. What changes in content and code when answers come from AI.
- [React Native in 2026: when one code base is enough](/blog/react-native-in-2026-when-one-code-base-is-enough.md): Where cross-platform wins, and the cases where we still write native modules.
- [Verification and validation: how we check every delivery](/blog/verification-and-validation-how-we-check-every-delivery.md): Done is defined at the start. At the end, we check against it, item by item.
- [Working from Curitiba with teams in Vienna and New York](/blog/working-from-curitiba-with-teams-in-vienna-and-new-york.md): Hours that overlap, rituals that travel, and what we learned about working across time zones.
- [Our origin: from code partner for agencies to AI-first engineering](/blog/our-origin.md): Coopers started in 2013 as the team agencies called when they needed code. What we kept from those years, and what changed.
- [How we build a website, step by step](/blog/how-we-build-a-website.md): Five steps from the first question to the first weeks after launch, and what you see and approve at each one.
- [Monthly maintenance: why a website is never finished](/blog/monthly-maintenance.md): A site nobody looks after gets slower, less secure and harder to find. What monthly maintenance covers, and how we run it.

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HTML: https://coopers.digital/blog/our-origin