“Created by founders – for founders”: the community of Founders Founders

Created to address the unique needs of late-stage startups, Founders Founders takes a community-driven approach to incubation, leveraging the experience of scale-up entrepreneurs. To learn more about this founder-led initiative, we spoke with Miguel Albuquerque, Executive Director of Founders Founders.

This content is available in Portuguese.

– How did Founders Founders come about?

Founders Founders was created by five people who, in 2016, were associated with UPTEC (an incubator focused on early-stage startups), but who were all leaving the incubator. The most obvious way out would have been for everyone to go their own way, independently, each with their own project, but they quickly realized that the most important thing in creating a business was the people, the support network and the sharing of knowledge.

That said, they decided to create a space dedicated to late-stage startups, so they could be closer to each other, make the most of each other’s specializations and still be surrounded by people with the same needs and problems.

– What kind of projects do you incubate?

Founders Founders is home to soft and hardware technology companies from different areas of specialization and verticals ranging from gaming, retail tech, healthtech, fintech, cleantech, adtech, among others.

Although they may seem quite distant at first glance, there are nevertheless a number of common characteristics that unite the different companies in a greater mission. Issues such as the passion for technology, the fact that they are all medium to large projects, the desire to grow, the need to enter international markets, mean that all the projects have a common point. The most important thing is that the projects demonstrate maturity, have clear objectives and are aligned with our philosophy of sharing, collaboration and sustainable growth.

– Do you have an area of specialization?

Founders Founders is not limited to a specific area of expertise, but has a natural focus on tech startups, given the profile of its founders and community. We work with projects in a variety of areas, including SaaS, artificial intelligence, IoT, fintech, e-commerce and digital transformation. Our main differentiator is our practical experience in scale-ups, which makes us especially relevant for startups looking to grow quickly and face the unique challenges of this phase. In addition, we provide a diverse network of mentors and partners who offer support in multiple areas, allowing startups to find specialized resources for their concrete needs.

– What does your incubation model consist of?

As well as offering a physical workspace for companies, we also offer a range of common services in the space, such as an auditorium, meeting rooms, cafeteria and gym, which allow the space to be used widely and across the board. In addition, we also work on the social side through regular events for the resident community, as well as learning and acquiring new skills through networking events, integrated training programs designed exclusively for Founders and team leads.

Above all, we provide an ecosystem that promotes collaboration, innovation and growth, offering personalized programs, access to mentors and a strong network of founders who share their experiences and knowledge in a peer-to-peer (P2P) logic. As part of our mission, we seek to create an environment where startups can thrive, exchanging knowledge and resources to help them achieve success.

– Can you tell us the story of a startup that made a difference in the incubator? And where did incubating with you make a difference?

The founders of F2 were and are also founders of other companies that marked the beginning of the incubator and which, even today, are benchmarks in the ecosystem (the story of the chicken and the egg).

It would be impossible not to highlight Infraspeak (which appeared during F2 and recently raised a Series B round of 18M€), Laborders (which already existed before F2, but has doubled in staff and turnover, being a good example of a bootstrap startup), Shiftforward (which was sold to Velocidi and later sold to Kevel, an American retail media company), MusicVerb (a marketing company for event managers that was bought by a Danish company) and Tuizzi (which was one of the first, if not the first company, to raise venture capital from Portugal Ventures). These are success stories that have a lot to do with the success of F2.

– Failure is also part of the journey. What do you learn most from something that didn’t go well?

The biggest learning is to know that “the path is made by walking”. Especially if we’re talking about communities, people or businesses, it’s important to realize that you can’t achieve great goals without long-term planning and trust.

Our model is based on total transparency, confidentiality and trust between the incubatees, which naturally takes time to build. In the past, we thought it would be possible to create a larger community so that they could take advantage of all our spaces and services, when in fact it works exactly the other way around – the community is not the cause but the consequence of everything we do (naturally).

– What is your incubator’s differentiating factor? In other words, what is it about you that uniquely enhances the success of the startups you incubate?

The differentiating factor of Founders Founders is our unique community approach, created by founders – for founders (which derived in the name). We’re not just an incubator; we’re an ecosystem where scale-up entrepreneurs share experiences, challenges and learnings, creating a unique support network. The environment is highly collaborative, fostering genuine relationships between founders, where the exchange of knowledge and mutual support is constant.

In addition, we offer personalized programs and access to mentors who understand the real needs of growing startups, guaranteeing support aligned with the specific challenges of each business. This combination of proximity, sharing and specialized support is what really boosts the success of the startups that are part of our community.

– What kind of projects or startups are you looking for now?

Our initial purpose was to support companies with some business maturity/seniority and today, that continues to be our main focus as an incubator. That said, we’re looking for tech startups in the scale-up phase, with experienced teams and products or services that have already been validated on the market. We’re looking for ambitious projects with growth potential that are ready to benefit from a strong, collaborative community of entrepreneurs. We especially value startups that bring disruptive innovation to their fields and are aligned with global trends such as sustainability, artificial intelligence or digital transformation. More than that, we are looking for founders who want to be part of an active network of sharing and learning, contributing to the collective success of the Founders Founders community.

– Community is one of the factors that distinguishes an incubator from an office center. How do you take care of yours and what plans do you have to make it more cohesive and fertile?

In fact, we don’t want to be just an office center, but rather a community. And for us, that means working with people who are willing to share their time and space with each other, in a logic of interaction and common learning, based on a set of common beliefs, values and interests. Above all, we want to work with people who have enough know-how to add to the community, but who at the same time are humble enough to also receive from the community.

That said, we try to integrate people as much as possible into our spaces and events, exploiting the synergy of the group and the companies that work with us in the best possible way.

– What are the main challenges for incubation in your specific context?

At Founders Founders, our biggest challenge is also our biggest opportunity – our incubation is directly linked to our focus on scale-ups, which require highly specialized support in areas such as internationalization, attracting investment and growing teams.

The fact that we are located in Porto, although part of an ever-growing ecosystem, also presents barriers when it comes to attracting global talent and creating solid connections with major international markets.

Another relevant challenge is to maintain the cohesion of our community, which has been growing and expanding to more companies and more people, while maintaining proximity and the exchange of value between peers, without losing impact and networking. Finally, raising funds and aligning with corporate partners or investors who understand the specific needs of scale-ups is also an ongoing effort.

To overcome these difficulties, our approach focuses on personalization, collaboration with the local and international ecosystem, and the creation of programs that are highly targeted to the real pains of founders.

– Do you want to share any news with us? Any events or initiatives that we should all keep in our agendas?

At the beginning of next year, we’ll have Big Bang Bada Boom, a training program for team leads in leadership, marketing, product and revenue; we’ll have various recurring events for our wider community and we’ll also have a series of surprise events (still under construction) that can be followed on our digital platforms and channels.

ABOUT #INCUBXDISCOVERIES

#IncubXdiscoveries is Startup Portugal’s monthly feature that will help you discover Portuguese incubators. What projects they incubate, how they manage their community and what success stories they’ve had and future projects are some of the topics covered in these interviews.

If you’d like to find out more about Founders Founders, either because you’d like to see your project incubated in this region or because you’d like to establish a partnership, contact the Startup Portugal team at incubadoras@startupportugal.com.