And I’m a Founder, before anything else. My first job was at my very own startup, Uniplaces. 

I’ll admit, I was a little green when I started there. That has made me realise how mentorship is so important for other founders. 

It’s why I started Entrepreneurs Organization Portugal and why I’m a lead mentor at Techstars nowadays. It made me an Angel Investor that’s hands-on and happy to help. And it’s definitely why it’s so important to me that Shilling has experienced founders that can guide the people we invest in. 

Co-founding a second company, Coverflex, nearly ten years later was a completely different experience. I was more experienced. But also because we picked super experienced people to join us, and that let us fast track the growth of the brand. It’s how we made Coverflex the largest pre-seed round in Portugal.

That’s why I’m always looking for teams of experienced founders. 

And it’s my biggest advice for other founders, too: if you want to skip a few steps and really hit the ground running, surround yourself with clever, capable, veterans.

Well, it’s that and “never settle for mediocracy”.