Looking for Development

Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of doing a mentoring session for the Spring batch of Founders at Startup Lisboa. While the primary focus was on marketing, I couldn’t resist highlighting one of the most critical success factors for startups – networking and building a community around their venture. From my conversations with nearly every successful founder I’ve sat down with – whether it’s for content, potential customers, or my own networking efforts, this theme consistently emerges. Many attribute a large part of their success to networking and community. It’s helped them subsequently achieve valuations in the millions, and in some cases, the billions. Here’s the actual slide I used to illustrate how crucial this aspect is for these highly successful founders: Connecting with the right people, sharing knowledge, and creating a supportive community are pivotal steps towards sustained growth and success. The story I’m sharing with you today is not only a testament to this but also evidence of what happens when you nurture connections in the startup world. I had the pleasure of speaking with Charlotte Ketelaar, the CEO and Co-Founder of Capwave AI. Capwave aims to revolutionise the capital-raising process for early-stage founders by fluently […]

Embarking on the journey of building a tech startup from the ground up presents a unique set of challenges, especially for non-technical founders.  The pivotal question that looms is: how do you bring your product to life? Essentially, you’re faced with three paths:  Partnering with a tech co-founder Hiring talent (be that senior or junior) Outsourcing to a software development agency. Drawing from my own ventures as the founder of a tech startup,  a B2C eCommerce startup in the wine industry, I can share a thing or two about that process that can help you avoid a world of pain.  The end goal of our startup was to help users understand and discover the right wine for their taste. The challenge was to connect a traditional and offline world like the wine industry with an advanced digital experience to not only purchase but learn more about wine.  As you can imagine, my co-founders and I were mostly involved in the operational and marketing side of the business but we rapidly understood we needed to provide an outstanding digital experience to differentiate ourselves. When it came to finding the right tech stakeholder, my journey wasn’t just about making a choice; it […]

My entrepreneurial path began with a simple idea: creating a consignment marketplace for sneakers and streetwear. It was a venture I began with my brother, and it quickly turned into a startup journey into the heart of e-commerce, a sector both dynamic and challenging. We quickly uncovered the multifaceted nature of digital commerce. The platform quickly became more than just a website; it was an e-commerce hub connecting diverse tools and integrations. From managing inventory to synchronising sales channels, every step was a lesson in complexity. As our marketplace grew, so did our challenges. We faced the daunting task of managing an ever-expanding tech stack, integrating different tools from across the web to help our merchants sell as easily as possible. The realisation hit us hard: the world of e-commerce was evolving rapidly, but the available solutions were not keeping pace. We encountered a recurring problem – e-commerce integrations were often tightly coupled with individual commerce services, lacking the flexibility needed by merchants. This rigidity in the digital landscape posed a significant barrier, limiting our ability to adapt and expand our business model. In parallel to this, my brother and I were falling more in love with the e-commerce space, […]

I’m an entrepreneur and investor who’s spent the last 20 years working my way through the entrepreneurial journey. In that time, I’ve also become an investor and advisor to several startups. My latest venture is Ovvio. Our platform was a pandemic baby that was born out of a need to connect humans with other humans to solve daily tasks with the help of someone else’s knowledge. Technology has long been a passion of mine and, while I have some tech experience, my co-founder and I quickly realised that building the MVP for Ovvio with an in-house team may not be the best way to validate our assumptions and get to market quickly. In this article, I’ll explore how we made the decision to build the first version of Ovvio with a software development company. I’ll also cover how my co-founder and I went through the due diligence process and vetted potential agencies to ensure we found the right partner for us. Finally, I’ll share some tips and tricks for setting up the founder-agency relationship the right way, so you can increase your chances of success should you decide to build your startup with an outsourced partner But first, I’d like to give you […]