I've been saying and writing for years – and I'm still practicing it now – that few entrepreneurial ecosystems have such favorable conditions for the success of new companies as the Algarve.
StartUp Portimão is a good example of this, with 13 companies investing and doing business with truly remarkable levels of market conquest.
But there are also other successful cases to point out, such as the Regional Center for Innovation in the Algarve – CRIA, based at the University, in Faro: more than 40 companies, more than 120 jobs created, more than seven million domestic sales, more than five million exports.
Of course CRIA has the advantage of operating within a university, but successful experiences also occur in other contexts… and in the same city: a Faro Avenida – a “coworking” space in the center of the capital of the Algarve, just to give an example – is working magnificently, with 26 offices full, many deals to be done and even a waiting list!
If I refer to these good examples, to these success stories, it is only for one reason: there is a way of working, a way of launching and managing incubators and business centers for startups, which works.
There is a method that produces good results, which increases the number of jobs and per capita income in the territories where it is installed.
However, if there is a way of working and managing the launch of new businesses and new companies that produces good results, there is no reason why this same method should not be replicated in other organizations in the Algarve to produce similar results.
What I am trying to demonstrate is that – if there is a small base of essential conditions at the outset – these success stories can be replicated in other cities in the Algarve, both in terms of industrial projects and good business for the sector. trade and services.
These new projects could even start in incubators and business centers that are already up and running, but which, for one reason or another, have not yet found the way to spread their wings and fly.
Those projects that are already on the ground – municipal or business associations – are always a good starting point. With the right management and communication, they have everything to take off and reach the success indicators of the cases I mentioned at the beginning of this text.
There are also two or three aspects to take into account. The informal network of contacts and information sharing between incubators has to work more and better.
Synergies between companies need to be stimulated by more intense communication between the interlocutors of each unit. And they also need to be worked with professionalism, with a sense of opportunity, with a business spirit!
This is what needs to be launched and built: an entrepreneurship support network, an investment attraction network. The Algarve is a sea of business opportunities waiting to be monetized.
Author Luís Matos Martins
Creative Territories
Startup Portimão
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