By Miguel d’Aguiar, Executive Director, Startup Portugal
Ten years ago, I was celebrating the birth of my fourth and youngest child. It was a hard road, with more nights at the hospital than I’d ever wished for. A crazy year, but an excellent one.
Ten years later, I’m celebrating his birthday and Startup Portugal’s 10th anniversary. More nights at the office than I’d ever planned for. Another crazy year, but another excellent one.
Startup Portugal exists because, a decade ago, someone thought of two small words: “what if.”
What if Portugal had an organization that stood up for founders, promoted entrepreneurship and stayed close to the government? One that helped the ecosystem grow, and Portugal grow with it.
More people, more partners and more ideas gathered around that question. That’s how Startup Portugal was born.
A law built for startups
Some time later came a new “what if”: what if Portugal had a law for startups? One that defined what a startup is, offered real benefits, and encouraged new founders to see entrepreneurship as a viable career path.
In 2023, Portugal got its first legal definition of startup and scaleup. It came with a stock options regime taxed at an effective rate of 14%, one of the most competitive in the EU.
Bringing the ecosystem together
Years later, another “what if”: what if Portugal had an event that brought the whole entrepreneurship ecosystem together? One with renowned speakers, sharing knowledge across borders.
That’s how the SIM Conference was born. It’s now heading into its 4th edition, with larger and more diverse audiences every year.
The rest of the ecosystem grew around the same idea. Today, nearly 150 incubators and accelerators are accredited in RNI – Portugal Incubators, the National Incubation Network. A decade ago, this network barely existed.
The next decade: National Entrepreneurship Agenda
Celebrating 10 years by only looking back would mean admitting the best is behind us. It isn’t. So the question stays, this time pointed forward.
What if Portugal had a new entrepreneurship strategy for the next decade? One built with founders, investors, universities and incubators, and one that brings financing, tax policy, bureaucratic simplification, talent, internationalization and the ecosystem together.
That’s the National Entrepreneurship Agenda, which we’re building now and want to deliver to Portugal in the coming months.
Stories worth telling
An ecosystem isn’t measured only in euros and funding rounds. So we asked: what if we told the stories of the people who built it?
We invited people who know these companies closely to write a series of storytelling articles for Startup Portugal. They follow Portuguese founders from the hard early days to today’s successes, and so Tales From The Ecosystem was born.
And because some stories are meant to be heard rather than read, we’ll keep giving a voice, on radio and podcasts, to those building the country that doesn’t exist yet.
From destination to gateway
What if Portugal stopped being just a destination and became a gateway for European innovation into the world’s largest market?
That question gave rise to Scale Up Now. It connected dozens of Portuguese and American startups, mentors and investors, with a direct line to Plug and Play in Silicon Valley.
Business Abroad has taken more than 300 Portuguese startups to international markets since it began. The same question brings more Portuguese founders, year after year, to the SIM Conference, to Road 2 Web Summit, more recently to Tech Foundry Portugal, and to every stage where Portugal should be.
Ten years in numbers
No one measured how many startups Portugal had ten years ago. Today, there are more than 5,000 active startups. They employ around 28,000 people and generate over €2.8 billion in revenue, close to 1% of Portugal’s GDP. They also account for 1.5% of total exports.
Seven in ten were founded in the last five years.
Portugal has also produced eight unicorns: Farfetch, OutSystems, Talkdesk, Feedzai, Remote, Sword Health, Anchorage Digital and, most recently, Tekever.
None of this happens alone
Thank you to the Government, which believes with us that entrepreneurship is a matter of State policy. To our partners and members, who bet on this ecosystem every day. To the Startup Portugal team, who work so that each “what if” becomes an answer, not just a question. And to the entrepreneurs, investors and builders who are the reason Startup Portugal exists.
The next “what if”
Ten years from now, my youngest will be 20, and so will Startup Portugal. He has taught me more about resilience and belonging than anyone I know. I’d love for him to be working at a Portuguese startup by then, in an ecosystem where inclusion isn’t the exception but simply how things are done.
I’d also love for us to look back and say that we kept asking the same question, “what if,” and kept turning it into an answer, together.
To the next 10 years of Startup Portugal, and to the Portuguese ecosystem.
And if you have a “what if” of your own, Portugal is a great place to start.
