Coming from the US, having lived in Europe and having spent a big part of my professional live in start-ups, I believed that I was well prepared to jump in Porto Alegre start-ups eco-system. Wrong! Here everything is different. I met with very smart young entrepreneurs (almost 25 year old) who are teaching entrepreneurship and who are mentoring older entrepreneurs who want to develop their businesses. www.sementenegocios.com.br I discovered their office, the beautiful “Libertade House”, that is like a community of young people who are working on multiple entrepreneur projects such as design, software development, urban intervention, personal development or vegetarian pizza delivery…. It is a kind of anti-stress environment where our happiness is more important than the “end of the quarter”. I met with an intern (22 year old), who is the coolest person that I never met in a startup environment. He is responsible of the development of one of the entrepreneurship program. He is super smart, extremely careful of your wellness and full of tips and advices to enjoy his city. Today was a surprise to me. I was expecting naively that the startup community in Porto Alegre had duplicated the model developed in the US or in Europe where the pressure of the time and productivity are king. But, actually, they are developing their own model respecting their way of life and culture. I was wrong and I love it. I can’t wait to discover this community in more detail and be inspired by it.
