Could the Algarve become a “Silicon Valley”? This was one of the questions that remained on the air, last Friday night, in the small auditorium of the Municipal Theater of Portimão, at “Start Talking About…”.
This event, integrated in the Startup Europe Week, which was staged in more than 220 European cities, brought together entrepreneurs from the region and beyond, in front of an audience of 160 people. There was talk about problems, potentials and solutions to make the Algarve region an «entrepreneurial ecosystem».
According to Luís Correia, himself an entrepreneur and one of the organizers of the event – the largest ever held in Europe, in this context – «any startup is a napkin, most of the startups they start like this, with an idea written on a napkin. But it's hard to go from napkin to real life. There is bureaucracy, fees, licenses… in addition, the European market is very different from the US market, where there is a very large territory, without borders. In Europe, each country has its requirements, its laws. This is what “Startup Europe Week” wants to eliminate».
The “Start Talking About…” was attended by André Marquet, co-founder and president of Productized.co and co-founder of Beta-i, Bruno Carlos, general director of Clarnet Soho Portugal, Hugo Barros, coordinator of CRIA- Universidade do Algarve, João Saleiro, co-founder of Boonzi.pt ( of personal finance), and Ana Luís, representative of CCDR Algarve and CRESC Algarve 2020.
For Luís Correia, the initiative in Portimão “exceeded expectations, because time was too short. We submitted the proposal to the European Commission at the end of December and, in early January, we received the answer: “ok, you can do it”. We had less than a month to organize and we always thought of doing this event at the Café-Concerto [of TEMPO], which has 80 seats, but after three days, the seats were sold out. We then moved to the small auditorium, we placed the ticket office for 180 seats, and the room has 160. But, with more time, the audience would have been bigger».
In terms of what was discussed, Luís Correia also makes a positive balance. «It was interesting, we tried to bring people from various parts of the Algarve, with the exception of André, who is a ecosystem builder, but who comes to the Algarve often. They were invited from different spectrums: CRIA is more institutional, CCDR manages European funds and we brought in two entrepreneurs: one from the Algarve, but who is not in the Algarve [João Saleiro], and another who managed to be successful in the region [Bruno Carlos]».
This was one of the issues that raised the most debate during the session. For João Saleiro, «there is no reason not to create a startup in the Algarve. There is a better quality of life, the Internet is the same, the facilities are cheaper…».
However, the founder of Bonzi, who works in Lisbon, thinks that two things are missing: «positive examples and mindset. the phenomenon startup it's new in Portugal and it's even younger here», he considers.
It's to create this mindset that Luís Correia organized the event and the aim is to extend this type of initiative to the whole Algarve: «all this started because I created a Facebook group called Start Algarve. I usually work in the Algarve [at Popcornmetrics, startup which Luís Correia is co-founder] and was tired of not meeting other people and working alone. I invited some people and quickly the group reached 140 members. After two weeks, I had a meet-up and there were 17 people. The first was in Portimão and we've already done a second in Lagos. We are now going to do a “Startup Weekend” within the next three or four months, and in between, we are going to organize a series of information sessions and workshops to promote entrepreneurship in the region», he adds.
«What I want to do with the group is to cover the whole Algarve, with events in Faro, Loulé Albufeira… to create a group of people, a community that speaks the same language and is present throughout the Algarve», he concludes.
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