A Peek into Entrepreneurial Lisbon

While traveling in Lisbon, I attended two meetups for entrepreneurs. This was my first peek into the entrepreneurial side of the city.

General Observations

• Meetups in Lisbon are predominantly attended by English-speaking foreigners.
• Portugal offers a Golden Visa program: Foreigners can obtain citizenship in 4 years by investing €500,000 in real estate.
• There's no capital gains tax on cryptocurrency in Portugal.
• Americans can often stay in the Schengen zone beyond the typical 90-day limit without issues, except in Switzerland.
• Most bars in Lisbon offer only one type of beer, simply listed as "beer" on the menu.

Entrepreneur Profiles

Juan (NYC)

• Project: New Socks City - sustainable socks made from ocean waste
• Challenges:
  • High storefront rental costs in Lisbon
  • Communicating sustainability message effectively to consumers
• Solution: Organizing pop-up markets for Lisbon makers

Ben (France)

• Project: Datastake - SaaS solution for African data collection
• Goals:
  • Improve access to quality data for businesses and NGOs
  • Establish a marketplace for selling structured data
• Choosing Portugal for:
  • Low corporate tax rate
  • Preference for straightforward tax payment

Richard (Poland)

• Background: Created 35 companies, 13 still running with 100M total revenue
• Current focus: Robotic warehouse automation
• Advice:
  • "Choose business partners carefully"
  • "Don't undervalue yourself as a software engineer"

Lenka (Czech Republic)

• Project: YouTube channel "Chica Czecha" on education
• Insight: Online content creation is valuable for entrepreneurial careers

Riko (Finland)

• Background: Sold a DNA testing company
• Current project: Estimating carbon footprint in supply chains

Brandon (New Jersey)

• Background: Sold an ed-tech company
• Current project: Complete online high school education
• Market insight: Varying acceptance of online education across EU countries

Lourenço (Lisbon)

• Role: Undergrad in student entrepreneurship association
• Advice on startups: "Focus on the problem, not the business model initially"
• Insight on Portugal: Good for raising kids, but young people often leave

Other Local Entrepreneurs

• Pedro: Indie video game developer, creator of Idle Paladin
• Jose: Hardware startup for predictive maintenance on molding machines
• Gabriel: Hardware startup helping blind people learn braille

Roman (Britain)

• Background: Wine business owner
• Moved to Lisbon pre-Brexit to maintain EU status