Go Youth Conference (GYC), created by and for young entrepreneurs, happened during this weekend in Lisbon, and PortugalStartups.com couldn’t miss it.
Tiago Vidal, who created GYC with only 17 years old, told us what were the main changes in this edition:
I’m truly glad with this year’s edition. This time we invested in production and decoration, creating different spaces. Our main innovations were the creation of “pitch the master”, a place where everybody can spend some time with mentors/speakers. We also added to the Conference the startup dinner, the farewell party and some tours for foreigns coming to GYC.
A very well organized Berlin-like venue welcomed the delegates in a mixture between conference and meetup that invites to conversations and networking. Good food from Portuguese local startups or small businesses kept the mood and the energy. But what about the content?
This event was full of big national and international players rocking the stage.
Most of the speakers talked about major trends, the importance of working on big markets, what is the current situation of the Portuguese startup ecosystem and the advantages of working in Portugal.
Investment was a recurrent topic and an important one, mostly in a country with an early stage and growing startup ecosystem. Even having a long way to run, which was very evident in the panel with Alexandre Barbosa (Faber Ventures), Martin Mignot (Index Ventures), Ciaran O’leary (Earlybird VC) and Hussein Kanji (Hoxton Ventures), investment is growing in Portugal and it didn’t go unnoticed.
"We are kind of a startup in the VC industry" @agarciabarbosa about @faber_ventures #GYC15
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 18, 2015
"When we founded @faber_ventures we wanted to know how to bring value to the table" @agarciabarbosa #GYC15
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 18, 2015
SEE ALSO: Portugal in the eyes of international VCs
Sharing experiences and inspire the entrepreneurs to be is always a challenge GYC tackles. Very insightful talks came from Or Arbel, Co-founder and CEO at YO, Morten Primdahl, Co-Founder and CTO at Zendesk, Kathryn Minshew, Co-Founder and CEO at The Muse, Thom Cummings, Head of New Markets at Soundcloud and others. A closer look into the perspective and lessons from Portuguese entrepreneurs were also highlights of the event.
Education plus fun plus science – MIguel Pina Martins from @science4you_pt takes the stage #GYC15
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 18, 2015
"We are building something we have experienced before" @miguelamaro @Uniplaces #GYC15
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 18, 2015
How do u know if it's the right partner to "marry" with? Make a trip together or move in together, says @justvasco @theunbabel #GYC15
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 19, 2015
"Every plan is gonna break in front of the customers, I spent too much time developing the product from my ideas" @jaimefjorge #GYC15
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 19, 2015
. @filipacneto "Now there's an ecosystem and other startups are raising investment" – learn from the ecosystem! #GYC15
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 19, 2015
A special focus was given to education, with guests such as Jeremy Johnson, Founder and CEO at Andela and Matt O’Brimer, Co-Founder at General Assembly.
"Brilliance is evenly distributed but opportunity is not" @JeremyJ @Andela #GYC15 #GoYouth
— PortugalStartups.com (@pt_startups) April 18, 2015
The day ended with Ray Chan, Co-Founder and CEO at 9GAG. “Following your passion is bullsh*t, follow your effort instead” he said.
Well, we are making some efforts to release some interesting articles and interviews with some of the speakers and participants. Make sure you don’t miss them!
To all the GYC team, thank you for this really interesting weekend of learning and sharing.
