Nov/Dec 2023 -> free events, interview with Elisa Tarzia - 351 Portuguese Startup Community, new initiatives, Xmas Party
Richard Lucas
This free newsletter has information about new and existing Entrepreneurship and Community events in Lisbon and sometimes elsewhere, interviews with community leaders, and more. We have just over 2100 Subscribers and are growing at around 100 subscribers a month. Apart from our guest interview you will read about Open Coffee Lisbon (note date change) and Ericeira, the Newcomer Welcome Club Christmas Party, the new Entrepreneurship Table initiative and the Entrepreneurs Welcome Club.
Interview with Elisa Tarzia, Vice President 351 Portuguese Startup Community Portuguese Startup Community
Please introduce yourself, 351 Portuguese Startup Community , any other businesses/projects you are involved in, and why you are here in Lisbon, Portugal.
Elisa Tarzia: Since 2013, I've been calling the vibrant streets of Lisbon home. I am originally Italian, from a seaside town in Tuscany.
My love affair with the Portuguese capital began back in 2008 when I first came here during my Erasmus exchange. After that, I returned home to finish my studies in Sociology and International Relations and moved back to Lisbon in April 2013.
I have been working in many areas - from music to oil&gas. But it was when I started working at Beta-i, as Head of Events, that I became closer to the startup world. Today I wear many hats in the ecosystem: I am Co-Founder and Vice-President of 351 Portuguese Startup Association (the no-profit that was born in 2022 to keep the Community running); I am Marketing Director of BRIDGE IN, a company that helps foreign businesses establish operations in Portugal; and, finally, I run my own branding & events business.
Richard: What is the vision for 351 Portuguese Startup Community What problems is it aiming to solve?
Elisa Tarzia:
At 351 we see two main problems:
Access to entrepreneurship
The Valley of Death
Access to entrepreneurship is crucial. First and foremost from an education perspective - 351 aims at capacitating brilliant people to have ideas and transform them into profitable businesses. Entrepreneurs are one of the main drivers of innovation and economic growth, and there must be a deliberate effort to capacitate and empower these players. The risk profiles, however, vary incredibly from one person to another, mostly depending on their financial situation. The prevailing common characteristic among entrepreneurs often lies in their access to financial capital—whether it be through family funds, inheritances, or a background and network that facilitates financial stability. While it may appear that entrepreneurs possess an admirable inclination for risk-taking, it is typically their access to financial resources that empowers them to embrace and navigate risks confidently.
So when it comes to Access to Entrepreneurship, 351 acts on two main pillars: education and network. We are bringing back Techstars Startup Weekends, and not only to Lisbon. Startup Weekends help aspiring entrepreneurs exchange ideas, launch businesses, build networks, learn skills, join global communities, save money, and more. Decentralising such initiatives is crucial so we want to organise Startup Weekends everywhere in the Country.
Building a network is fundamental for those who do not have access to family money. This is what we do with our slack community and our 10+ weekly initiatives.
The Valley of Death is a trickier problem as it requires the concerted action of several public and private players. There is a critical stage in the development of a new company, where it faces significant challenges in securing funding and achieving sustainable growth. This phase typically occurs between the initial seed funding or early-stage financing and the point at which the startup becomes profitable or attracts larger rounds of investment.
351 has a long-term strategy for this and is working with private companies and public institutions to make sure Portugal’s Valley of Death shrinks year after year. Portugal Tech Week is definitely at the base of this strategy: we aim at creating a “Tech Week”, such as the ones that already exist in London, São Paulo etc…, where we put our startups in front of local and international investors.
There are also other initiatives we develop, specifically some policy-making projects such as “Iniciativa Nuven”, to create a better, more competitive and more sustainable cloud ecosystem in Portugal.
Richard: You’ve been involved in other community activities, like events, maybe other. Please tell us more and attracts you to this type of scene in general ?
Elisa Tarzia: Definitely. There are many informal communities in Lisbon and, besides 351, I am mostly drawn to creative industries communities - I can cite one in particular called “Conversas”. Generally speaking, What distinguishes this city is its spirit of urgency. In Lisbon, there's a collective drive to turn aspirations into reality— individuals aim for excellence and this contagious energy fuels progress.
Richard: There are many WhatsApp groups, and entrepreneurial communities: What makes 351 Portuguese Startup Community different/better ?
Elisa Tarzia: I wouldn’t go with “better” honestly. We do not compete with other communities. To the contrary, we are more than happy to see other groups flourish and we support them to the best of our ability (for example, with the Community Fund).
What makes 351 different is that we want to champion the whole ecosystem from the ground up.
Richard: What are the main challenges?
Elisa Tarzia: community building is a tougher job than most people think. So keeping the community engaged was actually one of the biggest challenges, especially because all the moderators (a huge shout out to Fernando Jardim, Cíntia Costa, Isabel Carapeta, Pedro Rocha and Eduardo Tourinho) are volunteers.
Richard: The Slack group and activities are clearly useful- how do you assess whether 351 Portuguese Startup Community is on track? How do you know that you are succeeding?
Elisa Tarzia: Last year we were chasing people to listen to us; this year we are being chased to contribute, to run projects to speak at events… this is more than a vanity metric, it means we have achieved a stage where 351 is recognised as one of the main players in the ecosystem.
Another, more important validation, comes from the community itself and from the words of our members. Many who joined refer that it is simply “the place to be” in Portugal for anything startup-related. Still, keeping the community engaged keeps being one of the main focus and challenges as it grows.
Richard: Can you share a bit about the finances? Does 351 Portuguese Startup Community expect to make money. What are your main revenue sources? Are there any prominent entrepreneurs or public funds that support 351 you want to thank?
Elisa Tarzia: So, let me first dot some i’s and cross some t’s.
351 Portuguese Startup Community will remain free access (although curated). We do not expect to make any money as a community. We do, however, expect to raise funds for 351 Portuguese Startup Association, which is no-profit. The money we raise will allow us to allocate a full-time team of moderators to the community, and a team of project managers for programs we run for the ecosystem, freeing us from relying on voluntary work. As a no-profit, we do not have revenue exactly; we do not have owners or shareholders who receive profits. But we do provide services and run paid programs to ensure we are financially stable - at the moment, public funding and paid projects with corporates and startups are our main revenue source. We will also launch a paid membership plan soon - but I want to stress that the community and the perks we give to the community will still be free.
We most definitely want to thank Lisbon’s Municipality that gave the first, fundamental, impulse to the Community Fund. Then, another special thanks goes to all the coworks that hosted our Coworking Thursdays!
Richard: Moving onto marketing, how do you make sure that people know about your website, and get the word out so that people who might be interested get to hear about events, or list them know you exist.?
Elisa Tarzia: A lot of SEO, a lot of PR, and a lot of networking, all done by our volunteers, myself included. When we have available funds, we also run some paid social media campaigns.
Richard: What are your entry standards/quality control over events who you agree to list on your site ?
Elisa Tarzia: anything that brings value to the startup community is welcome. I know it may seem vague, and sometimes it is indeed difficult to choose.
Richard: How do you assess the Lisbon and Portuguese business and startup “eco system”. What’s going well and what still needs improvement.
Elisa Tarzia: In terms of notoriety, it’s doing pretty well. I think entrepreneurs are also more mature compared to 7-8 years ago.
But there are things that really need to change. The local ecosystem is really behind in terms of diversity and the “bro culture” that reigns in some contexts does not help at all. Some institutions do not even pretend to care, and that is a really bad sign.
Richard: What advice would you give someone who has recently arrived in town, is interested in startups and doesn\t know who to talk to or what to do?
Elisa Tarzia: well, join 351 and definitely attend Coworking Thursdays. Then I guess it depends on the area of interest… for instance, for fintechs there is a really interesting offer; for web3 too. Lisbon is also becoming quite the gaming hub.
Richard: How can people get in touch with you if they want to ask more questions or want to list their events on your site?
Elisa Tarzia: We all have access to our general email: team@351.community
Anyone can also reach out to us on 351 Slack. But really anything works: LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp…
Richard: Anything I didn’t ask that you want to share?
Elisa Tarzia: Nope, you were very thorough :-)
Upcoming events
Tuesday 28th November Lisbon Newcomers Welcome Club #22
Tuesday, November 28th, 18:00-20:30- Titanic Sur Mer R. da Cintura do Porto de Lisboa.
Hosted by Jaqui, supported by Naren, Richard and our wonderful volunteers. Sign up here https://www.meetup.com/lisbon-newcomers-welcome-group/events/296533370
About Lisbon Newcomers Welcome Club
Not just for Newcomers, but also those who want to welcome them. We start on time, and have to be out by about 20:30 so don’t be late. This "Lisbon Newcomers Welcome Club" gathering is for people who are new to Lisbon or want to welcome them, and increase their number of connections. The first meetup was held November 2021 and since we have welcomed 2348 people to these events. Each event creates new bonds between newcomers to Lisbon and those who have been here for a while in a simple, fun, yet effective way.Many thanks to the team at Titanic for the venue and support. Our events are open and welcoming to people from all backgrounds. You will be surprised to see how many different nationalities come together at these events. We have a structured first sixty minutes with icebreakers aimed at making things easy for introverts and for people to connect with one another. Then participants are welcome to hang out and socialise as they wish after this part of the meeting is over.
Free Community Announcements If you have a community initiative you want to share or announce at either event, let us know in advance.
HUGE Thanks to Simao, Pedro, Carolina and the bar staff at Titanic for their ongoing support.
Friday 1st December Open Coffee Ericeira #6
Our 7th event in Ericeira is planned for Friday 1st December in our new venue Coastal Cowork Collective Ericeira R. de São Félix 12e · Ericeira Sign up here For those wondering how we’ve organised many hundreds of events without paying for venues, read ‘How to find low/no cost venues for community events”.
Open Coffee Ericeira is a friendly informal networking event for entrepreneurs, professionals, locals, guests, and people in the startup community in Ericeira. Your hosts for our December event will be Olga Kirillova, Carsten Pfisterer with support from Richard (me) if needed. It starts at 10:00. Olga and Carsten are doing a stellar job, as you can read about in our interview published Olga back in May. She and Carsten made our first promo video as below
Thursday 7th December Christmas Singalong Party with live music
at Alto Amor R. do Norte 86 · Lisboa from 18:00-22:00
Sign up here This event will have a live secular Christmas sing-a-long with the amazing William Carbone on the keyboards. Singing in groups in one of the oldest ways of bringing people together, going back many thousands of years. We are doing a secular Xmas Sing along for people of any religion, or none. Our values are simple "We welcome all who welcome all" You don't have to be good at singing.
All I Want For Christmas Is You, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer White Christmas I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year Jingle Bell Rock So this is Christmas Rocking around the Christmas Last christmas Let it snow! Always look on the bright side of life Monty Python Rocking around the Christmas tree Like a virgin Glee R.E.M Losing My Religion Sweet Caroline Alice Smokie knocking on heavens door Merry Christmas Everybody Sweet Carolin We're going to Ibiza and other party hits. We will be welcoming the Lisbon Kinnernet community to this event.
Our "introvert friendly" events are open and welcoming to people from all backgrounds, with integration activities and games,
Tuesday 5th December Open Coffee Lisbon #22 @ Startup Lisboa Rua da Prata 80 · Lisboa
Tuesday 5th December 2023 at 9:30 - 11:30 Sign up here www.meetup.com/open-coffee-lisbon/events/297335760
Everyone at Open Coffee gets a minute to say 1. who they are, 2. what they do, 3. What they are looking for, and 4. how they can help other people. After everyone has introduced themselves, the rest of the event is free form networking. Free, fun, and useful, it is popular for those who are looking for clients, investors, co founders, employees, a job or just inspiration. Start the day with positive, high energy people who can be bothered to be up for an early start. Big thanks to Célia Outeiro and Joao Nunes Rosado at Startup Lisboa for the support and venue.
Thank to connections made at our Web Summit Special event new Open Coffee Groups are planned in Amsterdam, Tokyo, Porto and Kaunas If you want to get a group going in your city, or university, or to help with an existing event, get in touch here https://forms.gle/hjQUMyFap5K8yo8y9. We will do our best to help you get up and running.
Entrepreneurship Tables
The new Entrepreneurship Table initiative has had successful pilot at Nova SBE Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute. . Learn more about the concept here . Get involved here and join the team. Read more in Project Leader Anna Novitskaya’s Linkedin Post.
Lisbon Entrepreneurs Welcome Club
During the Web Summit I floated the idea of starting a Lisbon Entrepreneurs Welcome Club, for those who want to welcome new entrepreneurs in town, in co-operation with existing startup support organisations I’ve several expressions of interest. If you want to help me get this off the ground in 2024, connect with me on Linkedin
Taking Community Building projects global.
I’m working on onboarding videos to recruit community leaders around the world.
Here’s a non-public Youtube video for CAMentrepreneurs, to onboard people who want to lead local groups for the University Alumni Group I founded, and here’s an training video on how to host Open Coffee meetups. Neither are public, but I want feedback, the more critical the better.
I’m putting processes and the team together over the next six weeks. If you want to be involved, get in touch, and let me know via this form
The newsletter
We have 2100 subscribers. If you want to help with this newsletter by contributing content, please contact me. Also we don’t have an Insta presence yet. If you would like to run our social media, please get in touch. If you want to reach my audience with an announcement about a project of interest to them free of charge, let me know. As Sophie put it in an interview a few months ago there are more sheep than shepherds out there. Don’t be a sheep, be a shepherd. The more the word gets out that through this newsletter, Open Coffee and Newcomer Welcome Club that anyone can reach about 5500 people connected to Lisbon who opted in, the more we can bring the pro-community eco-system together.