What am I doing here?

Here I am in Portugal!  An Englishman with nomadic tendencies.  A husband and a father of two.  So what am I doing? 

As a family we made a decision at the end of last year to base ourselves in Cascais, Portugal.   The dream all started when we took the seeds of inspiration and looked to see if Portugal could be more than a fantastic, vacation spot.  Timing on this was important because our kids were fast approaching school age.  If we didn't do it now. We probably never would.

Last year, for various reasons we ended up in Cascais for around 5 months.  Although regularly traveling to the UK, USA and India I found myself based in Portugal with no professional network.  I took an opportunity to visit Lisbon, and go to Startup Lisboa to see what the local startup scene was like.   I found an 'open door', a great community, and a wonderful spirit of endeavor.  I also found an opportunity to meet likeminded souls who were inspiring to be around.

So, uplifted by the opportunity I begun to meet people across Portugal that were travelling their own startup journies.  In each one I saw a special kind of drive and was impressed with their attitude towards their friends and family.

After mentoring a few startups in Braga, and becoming part of the advisory board for FollowPrice, I started reaching out to different accelerators and incubators.  One of these was Fabrica de Startups and its founder Antonio.

In Antonio I recognised something special in the way he organised a programme of education for 500 people across Portugal.  It's focus was on digital marketing skills and he delivered it simultaneously to five locations using webcasts.  He did this intense work, giving all the energy he could to support what could be potentially life changing digital skills for this group.  I fully respected how much he put of himself into the programme and when he offered me the opportunity to be part of the Fabrica journey this year I felt compelled to find a way to make it happen.

As a family, we recognised in Portugal that we had a great set of life opportunities.  To enjoy a very different climate to the UK, in a region with relatively low crime and with an easier pace of day to day life.  We also recognised how much we enjoyed the people and of course the many opportunities for cake.  

Until we came here this year pretty much everyone we knew in Portugal was Portuguese.  We had barely spent any time with expats.  That started to change as we looked for schools etc.  

We knew that the language would be hard for us, but that it also presented an opportunity for our children to get experience of more than just english and for them to embrace a different cultural paradigm along the way.

So, did we do the right thing?  Bringing our young family here and disrupting the 'normal flow' of things that would have been their way of life in the UK.  Early signs are good!  Only time will really tell.  What's important for now, is to keep looking for the new experiences that make this is a unique opportunity for all of us.

I'm writing this blog to track many things, including my exploits in search of the perfect nata.  From time to time I may also add in some updates about our family and how we are doing here too.

S.

Nata e pao

New stuff alert!  Natas with Nutella!  How cool is that?

Many thanks to Malik who came to our meeting today with a box full of treasures curtesy of Nata e Pao in Benfica.

Great pastry.  Good deep dish.  Light custard - very similar to that from Versailles - and a lovely thin layer of Nutella in the base next to the pastry.

Summary : awesome!  Couldn't eat every day, but as a treat every now and then it's a must!  Kudos to Nata e Pao!  Muito obrigado Malik :)

 

How long will your founder team last?

One of the top 3 reasons that startups fail is rooted in team.  

Sole founders find it much harder to scale their companies, and so it is very likely that new people have to join the mix quite quickly.  As they arrive the questions of equity, compensation, decision making, responsibilities and some might say boundaries are all key to the successful human dynamic of that top team.  If the team stutters in its evolution, so does the startup.

For me, in setting up for success from the start there are three key roles to look at beyond the technologist part of the equation.  Ideally there will be founders in each:

1. CEO - the Chief Executive Officer is the primary face of the business, the leader and decision maker.  No matter how flat the organisation of a startup someone has to lead and to be credible in doing so.  Experience counts for a lot here as does strong belief in the journey.
2. Revenue driver - if a startup is going to scale then it needs to find sales.  A strong revenue driver being in place from the beginning is good as it's one of the hardest hires later on.  This person will be closest to customers and bring insights and feedback that will be essential to the roadmap.
3. CFO - Chief Financial Officers are more than interpreters of accounting rules.  They are the people that make the money happen.  With accute sense of timing they enable the money to be there when it's needed and in a fast growth startup this is a skilled job.  Either a part time CFO with oodles of experience in at the start or a co-founder committed in this area is a simple way of ensuring your dreams grow as quick as they might and don't get stopped in their tracks by lack of cash.

In all these roles the big question is experience.  Can first time founders cover all this off or should there be a blend of experience?   In my eyes the decision is firstly about speed -> first time founders are most likely to be slower covering all this ground, and secondly the decision should focus on funding.

If your intent is to raise serious amounts of money, particularly in the USA, then investors will look for these kinds of roles to be covered by experienced people.  

They want to see multiple attempts and some successes in these key areas to give them confidence the team can make a reality out of the potential unfolding.

Will first time founders not be able to raise cash?  Of course not, but the lower the experience and credentials of the team the smaller the pool of investors who will take a gamble.

Will first time founders or sole founders crash and burn within 18 months.  Not always, of course not!  But failure rates are globally around 90% for startups and this team question is a big part of that stat.

There's no single right way of course.  No absolutes in terms of team management and no one way of predicting the future precisely into a paradigm you can begin today.  

At the end of your startup journey, the ultimate arbiter of whether you got it right or wrong is you.  Did you do what you wanted to do, as fast as it could be done, as fast as it needed to be done, with what you had at your disposal to do it?  A great question to ask yourself at the end of each team meeting.

S.

Versailles - sounds French but very Portuguese

Ok so it's the first working day back after a long weekend which means there is a desperate need for coffee and where there is coffee there must be cake!

As I am working from Saldanha today it meant a chance to go to Versailles which is a lovely place indeed.  Here's what they had for me today 

 

I am happy to say that the combined total for the two was 1 euro 90, which was excellent.

The natas here are smaller than I like but delicious.  A light creamy filling.  Deep dish, but small casing with a nice flakey texture.

These guys are definitely in my top 5!

Always take at the counter and do some people watching.  It's a great place for that.

Summary : great nata, great price, great place #recommend 

Surprise! Ice cream flavour

 

Oh my goodness, Artisani what have you done?  It's pastel da nata ice cream and it's very very nice indeed.  Tried a small amount today.  Too rich for me to eat a whole tub but very nice indeed.  Well worth a try.  #recommend

Sical!

Great news!  You can find Sical everywhere here and they do their natas at just 90cents.  A cafe and a nata just 1.5 euros.

As a result there is always a lot of churn at the counter.  But is it just price or is there something to it?  Harry and I went to find out.

 

Now my sample this time was only 50% as Harry was feeling a little peckish too, but I can confirm it was a winner!  Certainly a top 5 experience and if value for money was the only factor this would be in first place :)

The perfect scenario - Natas from heaven

Taking on a taste challenge is not something to be done too casually.  You need a framework in which to operate or it's hard to compare and contrast what is going on.   Let's not forget cake is a very serious business :)

Just in case you want to try your own taste challenge, here's the model I use....

1. Receive with thanks - In whatever condition or temperature the nata is served, take it with thanks.  It is served, and sampled as is.  Do not select, or change or fashion the sample.
2. Canela or not - The first bite always without.  Up to 50% with.  Cinnamon is lovely, but it can really change the sample.
3. Coffee? - for a true sample the coffee must be kept away from the nata.  The bitterness of the bean changes things, particularly if the nata is oversweet.
4. Alone or with company - I really don't mind, but I have to say cake for me is a team sport :)

When I am sampling, I like to make a note on whether the nata was warm or room temperature, I also like to note observations around the pastry, the custard, the surface of the nata (sometimes more burnt) and the smell.  I also like to note the price and make a judgement on whether it has been a value for money experience. 

For me the perfect scearnio is a nata that is:

• directly received from the oven
• crispy, flakey, slightly greasy pastry for the outer case
• Deep dish (not shallow)
• a warm, slightly runny custanrd
• Light burning to the surface
• Dusted with fresh Canela
• Costs less than 1 euro 50 cents.

Everyone thinks about these things differntly of course.  This is just how I like it!

League table of experiences to follow soon.

Stew

Go natural? What was I thinking?

So here I am at the airport in Lisboa.  It's nearly time to board and its therefore important for me to grab a farewell Nata.  Surprisingly in go natural at the airport I could get one and as I'd just picked up some sushi for the flight it seemed like fate had dealt me a favourable blow when I saw these little parcel of filo joy next to the counter.

 

So how did they rate?
Eye appeal - 7/10 -> I felt compelled
Pastry -> 3/10 - crispy crunch, not greasy.  Not flakey.
Custard -> 1/10 - not a lot and not that nice!

Overall, that's a 3.5 / 10.  Recommendation : don't do it to yourself.  I have no idea what I was thinking!  

Ranking: not even top 15.
Any extenuating circumstances?  Well this was an airport.

Overall value for money - at one euro ninety cents this was not a good value experience.

P.s. The sushi was awesome!  Stick to the knitting, go natural :)

Blast from the Past - Launching TechHub Bangalore in 2014

I was trawling through some stuff over the weekend, and I found this.  Brought back some great memories of times in Bangalore and some amazing people that I met there on both my journey to grow a testing company as well as the journey to take TechHub to India.

Wanted to share it and in its own little way I hope it inspires you to follow some of your own dreams.  We will never achieve 100% of the dreams we never even start.  The rest is all about you!

#liveyourdreams