TEDxEdges Carlos Oliveira (video): The Art of Growing a Start-up

TEDxEdges Francisco Veloso (video): A Tech Hub development Strategy for Portugal

TEDxEdges wants to see you in 2010 in Algarve

Pedro Rocha Vieira joins TEDxEdges team.

We would like to welcome Pedro as he joins the TEDxEdges team as Associate. Pedro holds a business degree and after some years in the banking industry, Pedro left to a 9 month south america trip, back in Portugal he worked at Chapitô and then co-founded the "Social Innovation Programme" at TESE, a social innovation hub that he co-directed for almost 3 years. Recently, he became a freelancer in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Secret History of Silicon Valley by Steve Blank

Black Eyed Peas support Portugal National Team on the Worldcup

Start-up city: "Lisbon, by the Sea (by SeedCapital)"

Author Note: I am publishing this article "as is" on TEDxEdges blog because I truly believe in every single word of this text. I also fundamentally believe that Lisbon is a great city to have a start-up, however there a number of issues that are preventing Lisbon to be the great start-up city it could be. Let's look to the map
below, and you can understand why Lisboa has all the conditions to be great start-up city:



My point is the following: the only true incubation park in Lisboa is located in Estrada do Lumiar, and it is very far away from any technical university (students don't tend to drive - and they are right). The closest metro station (Telheiras) is 25 min of walking distance from the incubator, which is simply too far away.

So my point, is that I'd like to see an incubator (in the same terms of the IPN of Coimbra,) close to a Lisboa technical university.

This said, the following article was first published in here, and text credits are to Mário Valente.

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Note: this article was written for a Techcrunch guest post back in August but was never published. Maybe we’re not news worth printing…

Who wouldn’t like to get their startup going in a city by the sea, with great climate, surrounded by hills, and get around the city on trams or get to the beach through a beautiful suspended bridge? And you can also add to that great food and great wine…

No, I am not talking about San Francisco, California. I’m talking about Lisboa, Portugal. Although we do have a beach called California close by: the Californian coast was first explored by a Portuguese sailor at the service of the Spanish crown, who was a native of Sesimbra, a fishing town 30 km south of Lisbon where there is a place called California Beach.

It must be said that Lisbon probably isn’t on the radar as a preferred location for startups; or that it is a hotbed of entrepreneurial action. But it could be; it can be; it should be. We are, after all, the West Coast of Europe. The business environment has been getting friendlier after years of slowing bureaucracy and there are some local startups that should warrant a closer look.

As for the business environment: you can now incorporate in Portugal for €360 in less than one hour and, in some cases, you can even do it online; corporate tax rate is an average 25% but a capital gain on the sale of shares held for more than one year is tax exempt; foreign direct investment has a lot of tax incentives and so does investment in high tech companies; 100Mbps fiber-to-the-home connections are available since January and 1Gbps connections will be available in September.

Regarding the startup environment there are a lot of changes going on. A lot of talent is available since there are three major universities in and around Lisbon where stuff like transparent and paper transistors is being invented. Some students now prefer to get their own startup going, instead of working for some major company; some are even leaving those companies and their secured jobs to go it alone.

Some local startups that deserve special mention:

* Adegga.com a social network for wine lovers
* Tarpipe a tool to automate content workflow, publication and sharing
* GoPlan an online project management and collaboration tool
* GuestCentric a booking engine and a reservation platform for small hotels
* Survs a tool for the creation of online surveys
* PostCrossing a worldwide postcard exchange
* MyTVShows an online service for managing your TV show watched/to-watch lists
* Maverick a small YC-clone seed investor (disclosure: I am one of the founders)

Recently Microsoft has acquired a Portuguese company (Mobicomp) specialized in mobile phone software for an undisclosed amount. If Microsoft is in on it, maybe others should take notice of other Portuguese projects.

I believe that Lisbon should be the preferred location for startups that are intent on going worldwide. If you are an American company, we are the closest European country; we can be the perfect point of entry in Europe. If you are an European company, we are the EU country which is closest to the US. In both cases this would save you a lot of time on flights :-). Aditionally we have close bonds with Brazil, one of the BRIC emerging markets that also speaks Portuguese (one the most spoken languages worldwide) and close bonds with nearby Spain (its connection with other South American countries is also a potential advantage). If you add to that nearby Africa, you can understand that our geographic position was an advantage for Portuguese seafaring explorers (the first venture backed startups) who discovered new worlds and created globalization. Maybe these characteristics could also be an advantage for startups.

According to Paul Graham’s wisdom, Lisbon is all about style, hipness and quality of life. The message that Lisbon sends out is the same as Berkeley’s or San Francisco’s: you should live better.

I’d say that the next best thing to the West Coast of the US would be the West Coast of the EU. Maybe we should be on your startup’s radar after all…

Critical Promotes a Corporate Fund to invest in Start-Ups

Critical group (Critical Software) announced that it will create Critical Ventures I, a fund of venture capital for investments in technology-based companies in early stages of development.

The fund will receive, in addition to the capital from the Critical group, capital of other national and international financial investors. This fund will significantly enhance the group's ability to finance projects for technology commercialization in the global marketplace resulting from the R&D group (spin-off), or R&D "pool" from other companies or partner institutions (spin-in). The Critical Ventures I takes the form of an Enterprise Capital Fund, and will actively support new development opportunities and technology solutions for high value added solutions.

The investment fund will be endowed with 10 million euros intended to invest in early-stage operations, ie, as Seed Capital to assist start-ups - funded enterprises being established or whose operation has been started very recently and whose sales volume is still small, but with technological solutions with high potential. Occasionally, the fund may invest in operations of Late Venture, ie companies and products that are more mature, for example if they wish to launch new projects / products or embrace new markets.

"The Portuguese - and even the European - venture capital market, in the area of 'early-stage' is very limited, which limits the agility and flexibility needed to harness effectively the potential of new technological solutions that our country can produce, "notes Gonçalo Quadros, Director of Critical SGPS, adding that" there is incredible talent that needs to have a proper context for getting itself in line with the economic development model that we want for Portugal." it's exactly those talents and ideas of young entrepreneurs - beginning from within our own company - that we want to encourage and support".

The ultimate goal is to combine expertise, technology and market experience of the Critical group to the ability of financial partners in this corporate fund, and thereby create the right ecosystem for the production of smart-money. It was noted that investors in the fund will always have right of first refusal to finance the earlier phases of development of enterprises supported, a feature that greatly increases the attractiveness of the fund to investors.

Technological innovation as an agent in the introduction of competitive advantages, is a pillar of the Critical group. The establishment of the Critical Ventures is "another step in the development strategy of the Group, is to allow new talent to have the opportunity to launch new businesses and, within three to five years, prove they have what it takes to succeed in the market" , notes Diamantino Costa, Director of Critical Ventures.

TEDxEdges 2010 at Algarve sponsorship opportunities

TEDxEdges 2010 sponsorship opportunities

TEDxEdges has only been possible with the very kind support of our sponsors.

We have started some discussions with potential partners/sponsors for TEDxEdges 2010.

Please contact me if your company is interested in supporting this conference that is dedicated to spreading the best ideas that matter in any discipline, and aims to create a better world, starting by Portugal ;)

Best regards,

André Marquet

Jacob Gelt Dekker from TEDxAmsterdam

Jacob Gelt Dekker talks among others about two great guys from Portugal! Can you guess who they are?

Jacob Gelt Dekker from TEDxAmsterdam on Vimeo.

Portugal will have a lithium-ion battery factory for electric cars in Aveiro

Project integrates the strategy for promoting a greener environment, starting with early support for renewable energies.

It is another step in the strategy to promote sustainable mobility and a cleaner environment. The Renault Nissan group chose the region of Aveiro (North of Portugal) to install the future lithium-ion batteries factory that will carry the energy of electric cars, a project which represents an investment of over a quarter billion euros and is expected to start operations in 2012.

The decision will be made public on the 7th of December, at a ceremony at the Cultural Center of Belem (CCB) and has the presence of the Prime Minister José Socrates and the president of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn.

Working as a magnet for other initiatives in this area of business, the future battery factory promises to serve as a launching platform of the Renault-Nissan for the rest of the world.

Portugal, along with the United Kingdom was one of the two countries selected by the French-Japanese group to proceed with a project of this nature, at a time it increases its compromise of building this type of motor vehicles.

The choice of Aveiro, to the detriment of the city of Sines (South of Portugal), is justified by the proximity of another plant of the group Renualt-Nissan and with connectivity to the road and rail networks.

The "Companhia Aveirense Componentes para a Industria Automóvel"(CACIA), with nearly three decades of existence, works exclusively to Renault-Nissan and is currently the second largest plant in the automobile sector in Portugal.

Bet on green energy

This project will thus join the package of initiatives that have been rolled out in recent years to reduce energy dependency of Portugal of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas and that have strong impact on trade balance.

"Portugal through the investment made in renewable and a commitment to partnership with Renault-Nissan, has now won the right to be among the countries that are technology leaders in mobility with respect to the electric car." The words are from the Prime Minister, José Sócrates, and were made during the signing ceremony of the memorandum for the construction of the plant held on 20 July, that was attended by vice-president of Nissan Europe, Eric Nicolas.

This development is the result of the strategy that has been carried out in recent years and that catapulted Portugal for the top places to promote the renewable energy sector and now looks forward to defining the new strategic guidelines.

Despite the constraints from the recent economic melt-down, Portugal is expected to end 2009 with about 42% of electricity from renewable sources, above the 39% target imposed by Brussels.

And it promises not stop there. In 2012, we are aiming for 44%. But "we can reach 45% by 2015, depending on the result of the energy efficiency policies that are being implemented, supports the president APREN - Renewable Energy Association, António Sá da Costa.

The Portuguese government is considering for the next few years, the installation of 3,000 MW of additional wind power, of which 2,500 MW will be built offshore on the sea. A package which is completed by an additional 250 MW of small hydro and 1,350 MW of solar, in addition to the existing 150 MW of existing photovoltaic capacity.

Portugal sets for the first national-wide open standards electric car grid in the World

A network of 1300 charging stations for electric vehicles will be ready by the end of 2011 and incentives for the purchase of vehicles for individuals and companies are the outlines of an law-decree on the electrical mobility which was adopted today by the Portuguese Government Cabinet.

The Portuguese Government wants to have by the end of 2011 a network of 1300 stations charging electric vehicles and more than 25 "fast-loading stations" in 25 cities. For purchases of electric vehicles, the incentives for individuals are the exemption from vehicle tax and a grant of five thousand euros (for the five thousand units sold until the end of 2010), then adding more 1500 euros in case of an old-automobile is given in exchange for recycling.

For companies, the government plans to give fiscal benefits in Corporate Income Tax (IRC) for the purchase of electric fleet vehicles. The Public Administration,is required to bear 20 percent of electric vehicles in fleet, from 2011 onwards.

"Betting on electrical mobility is to bet on reducing CO2 emissions and the sustainability of the energy model," said the Economy Minister, Vieira da Silva at the end of the Council of Ministers.

The network of charging stations will be managed by the National Electrical Distribution Co. - a company which has not yet been created - and which vendors can participate with a share of the capital not exceeding five percent. The company will have to be made by March 2010.

According to estimates by Vieira da Silva, users of electric vehicles will be able to save one-third the cost compared to car usage dependent on fossil fuels like gas or diesel.

The pilot phase of the project supply chain ends in 2011. "From there we hope to generalize to the entire Portuguese territory and make electric cars a competitive option for urban mobility", said the Minister of Economy.

The Portuguese electric car charging system, which is branded under the trademark MobiE is also the only nation wide system to be based on open standards, so that any car maker can use it, thus preventing vendor deadlock schemes.

Adapted from Publico.

Dan Ariely was in Portugal

Dan Ariely was in Lisbon for the a conference ConscienciaLeve promoted by CGD. Dan spoke at 19h - I had the opportunity to listen to his famous talk - that was not very different from the one he gave at TED, so if you don't know Dan, just watch his video.

Renewable energy-saving 13 billion euros

The area of renewable energies will represent savings accumulated between 2005 and 2015 of more than 13 billion euro in imports of electricity and fossil fuels, estimates a study by Deloitte and the Portuguese Association for Renewable Energies.

The study "Impact of Macroeconomic Energy Sector in Portugal", presented today in London, estimates that in 2015 the energy sector will contribute a total of 4 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or 2.4 percent cent, doubling its contribution in 2008 (2 billion).

At the environmental level, indicates the same work, "the most direct impact is in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2, the main greenhouse gas emissions), with an overall saving of about 430 million euros, and the approach to Kyoto targets. "

APREN president, António Sá Costa said that "the reduction of energy imports will allow a saving of 1900 million euros and reduce national dependence on imported energy," while presenting the study.

He also said that "the renewables sector, should represent in 2015 about 60.800 jobs directly and indirectly, over 25 thousand jobs in 2008 and about 6 percent of the current level of unemployment."

in Publico