One Guy, His Kids,
and Way Too Many Games

From Brazil to the Backyard

I moved to San Diego from Brazil in 2015 for what was supposed to be a short English exchange program. I never left. I enrolled in community college and worked toward a degree in Computer Science, and to help pay for it, I started a small moving company on the side. In 2021, I shut the moving business down to focus on stability for my family and get back to my real career path in software development.

Arcades and video games have been a constant in my life since I was a kid. My younger brother and I spent every free moment we could playing side by side — competing against each other, then teaming up to take down the final boss. That mix of friendly competition and teamwork stuck with me.

My wife and I lived in City Heights during my college years, then moved to Pacific Beach, where our first son was born in 2020. As our family grew, we moved again to North County for more space, and our second boy came along in 2023. These days, our backyard is basically a permanent party zone — we prioritize outdoor time, and there's rarely a weekend without a game set up somewhere on the lawn.

My kids are, without question, my toughest customers. Every new game I bring home gets tested — and usually stress-tested — by my two boys before it ever makes it to a booking.

Why Games, Why This Business

I genuinely believe good games do more than pass the time — they build creativity, sharpen strategy, develop motor skills, and teach kids (and adults) how to handle both winning and losing with grace. Our whole family gravitates toward places with food and games — arcades, lawn games, bowling alleys, all of it.

Popup Arcade SD grew out of a simple frustration: arcade and game rentals in San Diego were dominated by big corporations with high minimum purchases, and getting any real variety meant renting multiple separate machines, since most cabinets only come loaded with one or two games. That felt backwards for a city with this much going on.

So we built something different. Every arcade cabinet we rent is multi-game — dozens of classics in one machine, so the fun never runs out and you're never stuck with just one option. It's the arcade experience I wanted to bring to my own kids' birthday parties, now available for yours too.