Better Call Shao

A Peek into Entrepreneurial Lisbon

Listen Later

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
                              • ...more
                              View all episodesView all episodes
                              Download on the App Store
                              Better Call ShaoBy Shaoqing Tan