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  • Nuno Morgadinho 8:23 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Empresa em Portugal vs Silicon Valley 

    A INEO, na sua mais recente newsletter, trouxe à baila outra vez a sessão intitulada “Da Ideia à Empresa” que o co-fundador, CEO e Business Development Director da Critical Software deu na Take Off 2007. Se ainda não ouviram vale a pena ouvir o Gonçalo Quadros falar um bocadinho sobre a história desta empresa, que é das mais reconhecidas empresas portuguesas no mundo.

    http://ineo.pt/2010/02/podcast-goncalo-quadros-critical/

    Do outro lado do oceano, as histórias são bem diferentes mas também valem a pena ouvir :) Aqui fica um vídeo de um painel com 6 estudantes de Stanford que criaram empresas nos seus 20 e poucos anos.

    “Six young Stanford grads and entrepreneurs — Steven Garrity, Clara Shih, Kimber Lockhart, Jeff Seibert, Josh Reeves, and Tristan Harris — share their experiences starting companies and raising capital. While being in their 20s may seem to be an obstacle to outsiders, they said they “flipped” this liability into an asset — focusing instead on their raw ability to bring innovative ideas to life. They advise all young entrepreneurs to be persistent, opportunistic, and scrappy. “

     

  • Nuno Morgadinho 4:32 am on February 24, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Coworking Lisboa 

    http://www.coworklisboa.pt/

     

    • Pedro Sousa 10:21 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      É um sitio fantastico para estar. confirmo. :)

    • Nuno Morgadinho 10:28 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      Oi Pedro, vi-te no vídeo e já tinha visto no teu blog que costumas utilizar o espaço. Parece ser um sítio porreiro e que segue a ideia do “coworking” genuinamente, ou seja, onde as pessoas estão todas na mesma situação. É verdade? Digo isto porque também há empresas que alugam espaços dentro dos seus escritórios e lhe chamam coworking mas para mim isso é mais um “aluguer de escritório” do que um espaço de coworking.

  • Nuno Morgadinho 3:52 pm on February 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Co-Working: Independent Workers Unite 

    “Many people strive for the freedom that working for themselves and freelancing brings. You can work odd hours in your pajamas at home, travel to exotic locals but still be on the job, not have to clock in at an office. After the initial exhilaration of being independent cools a bit, there is something missing- co-workers and the social environment that working for a company can bring. Enter Co-Working. Co-Working is an idea that independent workers still want and need social interaction and structure during working hours. Going stir crazy working in your living room? Can’t stand that Madonna remix album they keep repeating at the cafe? Want to bounce your ideas off some other geeks? Co-Working!”

     

  • Nuno Morgadinho 4:02 am on February 15, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Startups and Samurais 

    In this video Jason Calacanis talks about his experience as an entrepreneur and also what it takes to succeed in creating a successful startup company. It starts off a bit slow but after warming up Jason really nails it: “you go through the world as a Samurai, you just walk through all this noise, with a huge sword right on your belt, which you know you can take at any moment and just cut someone in half”. A must watch if you’re into startups.

    Via MV

     

  • Nuno Morgadinho 1:48 pm on January 11, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Kickstart: What is in it for me? 

    Este fim de semana foi o Kickstart 1H10, um Weekend Bootcamp para empreendedores, organizado pela SeedCapital em Lisboa. Correu muito bem, recebemos boas sugestões e foi muito útil. Os projectos que vão receber financiamento ainda não são conhecidos mas posso dizer que estamos super entusiasmados com o nosso projecto, mais motivados que nunca e passámos da fase do “ah e tal temos de acreditar que isto vai funcionar” para “agora sabemos o que fazer e como se vai processar”. Temos riscos que estamos a correr claro mas sabemos quais são e isso reduz a incerteza de todo o processo.

    Durou Sexta e Sábado o dia todo. Sexta falou-se sobre Estratégia, Modelos de Negócio, Gestão Financeira, Contabilidade e Fisco. Sábado falou-se sobre Criação de Negócios e Marketing.

    Já tinha feito o Kickstart Mini-MBA com o Mário Valente e portanto algumas coisas não eram totalmente novas para mim. A parte sobre Marketing ficou a cargo do Patrick van der Walk e posso dizer que simplesmente adorei a talk dele. Claramente conhecer o Patrick e poder trocar impressões com ele é uma valia extremamente grande.

    No Sábado à tarde as equipas fizeram o seu “elevator pitch” e também uma apresentação de cerca de 30 minutos sobre os seus projectos ao conselho consultivo da SeedCapital, constituído por pessoas da área financeira, propriedade intelectual, advogados, etc.

    Algumas coisas que deu para perceber:

    • Quando se começa a pensar numa ideia para um projecto, que eventualmente pode justificar a criação de uma empresa, nem sempre se tem a noção do que isso implica. Quando se faz os fluxos de caixa, mesmo que em forma de previsão, percebe-se que para ter uma empresa é preciso conseguir um certo volume de negócios para compensar a criação da mesma. Os fluxos de caixa são úteis também para se perceber que investimento inicial é necessário. Deixa de ser uma coisa totalmente inventada e passa-se a ter um plano concreto no papel que permite ver mês após mês se estamos a ir no rumo certo ou se é preciso ajustar alguma coisa, e.g. o esforço de vendas ou o esforço de marketing.
    • Talvez mais importante de tudo foi o ter percebido mais uma vez a importância de sair da zona de conforto e ir falar com as pessoas sobre o que é importante para elas e se a nossa ideia vai resolver um problema real.

    O que a SeedCapital está a fazer é diminuir as barreiras à entrada que existem em Portugal para os novos empreendedores tecnológicos. A maior parte das iniciativas do género (IAPMEI, bancos, etc.) são extremamente burocráticas e tratam tudo da mesma forma, seja o vosso negócio uma carrinha de cachorros ou uma coisa tecnológica. Normalmente é logo exigido um plano de negócios e não há ajuda para o elaborar.

    A sensação que tenho é que o processo na SeedCapital é mais gradual e faseado. Tendo uma ideia que à partida parece ter potencial aprende-se a que perguntas é preciso saber responder para analisar a sua viabilidade, em oposição ás outras iniciativas onde é preciso responder ás mesmas perguntas (possivelmente mais), sem estar consciente da sua importância e de como chegar ás respostas, e isso é fundamental.

     

    • Sérgio Santos 10:21 am on January 12, 2010 Permalink

      Obrigado por partilhares a experiência que tiveste no Kickstart. Parece ter sido muito bom. Agora resta saber mais sobre a ideia que apresentaste :)

    • Henrique 9:27 am on January 15, 2010 Permalink

      E já agora, qual é o projecto que estás a desenvolver??

  • Nuno Morgadinho 10:19 pm on December 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    The on-line place for live concerts 

    I had this fantastic idea the other day. A web site where people can watch live concerts. I’m talking here about:

    High-Quality Audio Streaming

    High-Quality Wide Screen Video Streaming

    Don’t you just love it?

    DVD-Quality like.

    But then I found out about Fabchannel.com, now closed after 10 years in business, and moved on.

     

    • me 4:31 am on December 28, 2009 Permalink

      and all because corporate greed and short-sighted people run the industry.

  • Nuno Morgadinho 4:17 pm on December 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    There is Nothing Like Free Advice 

    There is really nothing like free advice..

    What I mean by this is the following.

    Right now you might be struggling with something. Your startup, your thesis, your project, whatever.

    Have you thought of all the experts in the world that can help you? They are all at the distance of an email. All the entrepreneurs, all the scientists, all the teachers in the world. It might take just one email to change what you’re doing to be something awesome. Why not take the action?

     

  • Nuno Morgadinho 5:50 am on December 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Hackers, Makers and Geeks in Lisbon 

    As I mentioned in my previous post, I have some friends who are not applying to SeedCapital because they are by themselves. Unfortunately there isn’t yet a place where people can see what projects are in need of more people. It is also not that easy to meet someone on-line to work together. We need a certain trust in that person, etc.

    I think the best way to meet people that are interested, smart and have initiative is to attend one of the many hacker events that are held monthly (or at least regularly). In Lisbon we have several of them:

    Twittlis – monthly meeting of twitter.com users in Lisbon
    http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4884748/pt/Lisbon/Twittlis-monthly-meeting-of-twittercom-users-in-Lisbon-19/Mar-Adentro

    AltLab Hackerspace Lisbon
    http://altlab.org/

    Lisbon Perl Mongers Group
    http://lisbon.pm.org/

    Comunidade Portuguesa de Rich Internet Applications
    http://www.riapt.org/

    Lisbon Ruby Group
    http://www.ruby-pt.org/

    Gathering of Developers
    http://god.pt/

    One Over Zero Group
    http://oneoverzero.org/

    Do you know of any other groups?

    Update (13/12/2009): Since this post I’ve found out about the following groups:

    XAMLPT – Comunidade Portuguesa para Tecnologias de Apresentação da Microsoft: WPF, Silverlight, Surface
    http://www.xamlpt.com

    Ignite Portugal
    http://www.igniteportugal.blogspot.com

    Portuguese Ubuntu Community
    http://www.ubuntu-pt.org

    Mobile Monday Portugal
    http://mobilemondayportugal.com

    Confraria Security & IT
    http://events.linkedin.com/Confraria-Security-TB-Store/pub/50120

     

    • joao 6:57 am on December 11, 2009 Permalink

      Unfortunately I don’t know any. I would be interested in such groups but not only in Lisbon. Portugal has Hackers, Makers and Geeks also outside Lisbon, some of them are truly good ones and other truly bad ones, like in Lisbon :)

      Can’t understand why we have so many Lisbon Groups and not Portugal Groups instead.

    • Pedro Sousa 9:46 am on December 11, 2009 Permalink

      btw, It’s not Lisbon Ruby Group, it’s portuguese ruby group. we co-organized some dinners in Coimbra and Porto.

      I think it’s just a mather of audience, if enough people organize stuff outside of Lisbon, the rest of the community will mostly follow (ex: takeoff, barcamp).

    • RicardoCastelhano 10:19 am on December 11, 2009 Permalink

      Heyas Nuno,

      tens também o grupo

      XAMLPT – Comunidade Portuguesa para Tecnologias de Apresentação da Microsoft: WPF, Silverlight, Surface (http://www.xamlpt.com)

      Bom trabalho com o blog !

    • Nuno Morgadinho 7:28 am on December 12, 2009 Permalink

      Thanks guys for all the feedback.

      There is also Ignite Portugal. Their next meeting will be in 17th of December, in Lisbon.

    • Jose 4:04 am on December 28, 2009 Permalink

      There you go the Portuguese PHP User Group

      http://groups.google.com/group/portugal-phpug

      I believe that there are some more, but don’t know the addresses.

  • Nuno Morgadinho 6:23 am on December 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Your Startup in Portugal 

    After the audience suggested that a venture capital firm was necessary in his talk at Take Off 2008, MV started SeedCapital.pt.

    SeedCapital has now started to receive submissions and the number of received projects has been quite low.

    I know there is a lot of people with potential in Portugal that would like to start their own startup. Here are some things you might not know:

    1/ You don’t need to live in Lisbon or even want to live there.

    2/ You don’t need to be unemployed ou self-employed. You don’t even need to leave your current job. If you’re working it is very likely you can obtain permission to work on a personal project on your free time, as long as your project doesn’t pose itself as competition.

    3/ If you think “I don’t have enough knowledge, if I’m the right person, if I’m bright enough”, join the club, you’re not the only one. In Portugal we suffer a lot from this. No one ever suffered from excess of confidence, so turn yourself to the other extreme. You’ll maybe have more people calling you arrogant, but at least you won’t be insecure anymore. And you can’t do stuff without people talking against you, so get over it. And the most important thing is wanting to do, the will to distend the effort necessary.

    4/ You’ll never know unless you try. And even if you’re not selected, it doesn’t mean anything. Ideas can only be tested in the long run and after they are put into practice.

    5/ You will need someone else if you’re just one person.

    I’ve sent a couple of e-mails to some friends I would like to see them applying. One of the things SeedCapital will probably have is a space where all the startups can be working. It won’t be mandatory to be there of course, but if it works I think it would be great to see that happening.

    Also some friends are not applying because they are alone. I wonder how we could solve this. Maybe a startup job board where founders could post a summary of their idea and look for co-founders? I don’t know.

    You can still submit your project. Something that might be worth listening to is the talk by MV at Take Off 2008:

    http://takeoff.ideias3.com/2008/podcasts/mario_valente.mp3

     

  • Nuno Morgadinho 1:00 pm on November 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    European Web Startups Founded in Germany 

    It isn’t Silicon Valley but old Europe still has a few interesting things going on in the startup world. I went around to search for startups in Germany and around. I looked particularly for companies doing Software as a Service.

    It features where the companies are based and what service they provide. It is by no means comprehensive, just enough to tease those pessimists that say nothing is going on in Europe. Here is the list I came up with, feel free to comment about other interesting startups you know about:

    • Babbel – by Lesson Nine GmbH, in Berlin – online platform for teaching languages.
    • Jimdo – by Jimdo GmbH, in Hamburg – online platform for website creation.
    • ScaleUp – by ScaleUp Technologies GmbH, in Hamburg – online cloud computing platform.
    • TripWolf – by tripwolf GmbH, in Vienna – travel tips from professional travel writers.
    • fatfoogoo – by fatfoogoo AG, in Vienna – in-game commerce ecosystems for the monetization of online games and virtual worlds via microtransactions.
    • yigg – by YiGG GmbH, in Munich – social news website with features such as discussion boards, map integration, bookmarking and geotagging.
    • papermint – by Avaloop IT Solutions GmbH, in Vienna – virtual world with casual gaming and social networking.
    • wooga – by wooga GmbH, in Berlin – social games for networks like Facebook.
    • absolventa – by Absolventa GmbH, in Berlin – online platform that allows companies/recruiter to view the resumes and contact graduating students.
    • Venyoo – by venyoo GmbH, in Hamburg – one of the leading event calendars in Germany.
    • Communipedia – by ekaabo GmbH, in Weinheim – service developed to help people build a social identity to take on the web.
    • Xing – by XING AG, in Hamburg – social software platform for enabling a small-world network for professionals.
    • Studivz – by VZnet Netzwerke Ltd., in Berlin – social network platform. Studivz.net is very similar to Facebook, but primarily focuses on the German speaking market. The company was sold to Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, a German publishing group, for €85 million [1] in January 2007.
    • Opportuno – by Opportuno GmbH, in Munich – job search engine that specializes in finding jobs directly on employers’ web sites.
    • FriendCaller – by C2Call GmbH, in Werl, near Cologne – browser based Java VoIP service. Which has recently received funding from High-Tech Gründerfonds [2].

    [1] – http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/german-facebook-clone-sells-for-e100-million
    [2] – http://www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de/htgf/

     

    • Thomas Oppong 6:52 am on November 30, 2009 Permalink

      I think there are a lot of potential in Europe. Keep us updated on the rest of Europe.France has a lot of startups too. Anyway thanks for the heads up in Germany.

    • Kevin Dykes 3:51 pm on December 13, 2009 Permalink

      Hi Nuno – Thanks for including @scaleup in your list of interesting startups going on in Europe. After spending almost 14 years in the US startup world and the past year here in Germany, I agree with you… Europe is producing exciting some companies right now!

      Let us know if we can ever provide any insights or support as you grow your company. We love supporting founders of startups – especially those right here in Germany!

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