Entrepreneurship in Portugal
Jun 1 2010

I went to Portugal with 4 other colleagues (3 of us presented) to help give a workshop on incubation management and on-shoring opportunities for Portuguese technology companies to the US.  The UTEN program is also run through IC2 which the Austin Technology Incubator (where I work) is also under.

[Boat photo: Taken in Porto. These were the types of boats that people used to transfer port wine to different parts of the Europe and the world.  The bridge in the background I believe was built using the same material used to build the Eiffel tower.]

In my previous post on culture, food, and technology, I discussed a little bit about the culture which is very different than the US culture, and I believe culture plays an important role in entrepreneurship.  I don’t have a lot of time to write this up since I’m in Barcelona, Spain and will be heading outside soon to enjoy the weather, listen to people & pigeons, read, and write before I head back tomorrow so I’ll keep it brief:

The people we interacted with (incubator managers, professors, technology transfer officers) were all eager to learn how to help make their country more supportive of entrepreneurship.  Their government has allocated money to support programs like ours not just with UT Austin but also universities like MIT, Harvard, Cambridge, and Carnegie Mellon to help them in this mission.  We were there giving a workshop on incubation management that included exercises on negotiations, case studies, due diligence best practices when selecting companies, how to mentor companies, etc.

The cultural norms of late lunches, late dinners, arriving fashionably late, siestas and sometimes waiting for things to happen versus making things happen doesn’t always mesh with the capitalistc entrepreneurship traits we are so used to in the US.  The people in the roles above have a challenge ahead of them to help not just the entrepreneurs but the entities playing supportive roles to move faster and connect the dots in different ways than they are used to.  Many of them are so energized about their potential roles in making this happen and have made significant progress!  It’s hard for them, the government, and even us to appreciate how far they have come in the last few years and how much hard work is ahead of them.

[Man cooking photo:  This was taken in Porto outside of the restaurant I mentioned in the food, culture, technology post I mentioned above.  This entrepreneur was cooking sardines and bell peppers on the streets.]

The companies that are in their incubators today are not just technology related as most of us in the US understand them.  They include innovation in textiles, marine biology, foods, etc.  It will be fascinating to see how and if they can get the few entrepreneurs in their country who have made money on traditional businesses to take the risk on technology investments.

There are very few business angel investors and as I mentioned most of them are not used to investing.  Their wealth is also typically not as great as the investors in the US.  The venture capital market is virtually non-existent and I think most of the venture capitalists have home bases in other places in Europe or the US and will occasionally invest in a Portuguese company.

Overall I was impressed with the people, the program, and the vision.  I was so glad I had the opportunity to go and contribute to the success of the program. There are so many moving parts including a government under economic stress, as are other countries in Europe, but the fact that they have intelligently identified an opportunity to invest in knowledge enhancement in the world of entrepreneurship (dear to my heart) is in my opinion a very wise, long term strategic decision!

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Turning Metal Into Gold – The Alchemist
May 23 2010

One of my favorite fables is written by Paulo Coehlo.   It’s called  The Alchemist  (Amazon Link) A Fable about Following Your Dream and it was required reading in my class when I taught entrepreneurship at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.  It is about a shepherd boy who has a dream one night of finding a chest full of treasure.  After meeting a gypsy and a king, he decides to trade in his sheep and follow his dream.  Along the way he faces many challenges, gets in a rut, meets interesting people, never gives up, meets the love his life who waits for him, and eventually finds his treasure.  When I first read the story the parallels to entrepreneurship struck me.   Entrepreneurs often have to blindly follow their vision when others around them think they might be a little off their rocker.  Entrepreneurship requires a lot of faith, hard work, and luck.

The reason I’m re-reading and writing about the book now (in an airport; finishing up in a hotel) is because I was on my way to Portugal for a business trip.  It happens to be Entrepreneurship week in Portugal this week, and I was selected to go as part of a team to give a workshop on entrepreneurship to Portuguese technology transfer and incubator officers.   I have traveled to many places but not Portugal and I’m excited about the opportunity.  So far Porto seems to be a very beautiful city.  On the way back, I’ll be spending a few days in Spain to visit my cousin Ashan Pillai (wikipedia link), a prominent viola player.  Not only does he have his own wikipedia page, he also has a great website.  The shepherd boy named Santiago (which also happens to be my son’s middle name) is from Spain and he travels to Egypt to find his treasure and discovers it’s not there!?  It’s somewhere else and the book describes his journey where he does eventually find it.

Do you feel like you are on a journey…an impossible one sometimes?  I sometimes do….an interesting journey to find my treasure whether it be riches, love, or the tangible/intangible impact I can leave on the world.

One of the biggest takeaways from this book that I always hoped my students would think about is when you take a chance to follow your dreams “the world conspires to help you.”  Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you are making a hard decision or pursuing a dream, a project, or a task and you feel ‘in the zone’ that things seem to become easier and people seem to show up at the right time to help you out?  Some people call it coincidence or luck…which it is but it also makes you wonder.  A few quotes/statements I like from the book are:

About the world’s greatest lie:  “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.  That’s the world’s greatest lie.”

“The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon [that you are holding].”

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky. “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.  And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.”

Of course like anything in this world the heart must be balanced with the head to keep things in order and to make progress but a company (or a person) without a heart, a dream, or a vision will not go very far.  This is why I believe the Founder of a company should stay with the company as long as possible because they often represent the heart, which we all know is necessary for a human to survive.

For the skeptics out there (myself included), The Alchemist is after all just a fable and Santiago didn’t have a wife or kids while galavanting across the desert.  Those are pretty big responsibilities.  However, many famous fables, Biblical or otherwise, have inspired people to do many great things!  So take it with a grain of sand…like the ones in the vast desert that lay between you and your treasure.

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