Breeding ground for talent in Porto with Founders Founders

The building that once was a Department of Investigation and Penal Action now houses Founders Founders, a co-working space in the city of Porto that will help boost startups.

The Founders House is a 1300 m² house in Porto city centre. Six months of refurbishing works transformed this derelict building into twenty two offices with up to 100m².

Currently, most residents are B2B product-oriented companies.  

This building was borne from the fact that the 5 founding startups needed a place to make their businesses grow. All of the "founders" had started their path at UPTEC and decided to find a cost-effective solution in terms of business needs - office space, furniture and technology. 

Founders Founders also provides a café and relaxation rooms.

They all moved into a shared office environment because, according to Tiago Carvalho, representative of Laborders "we wanted to stay together so we synchronized our departure from UPTEC".

This arrangement goes far beyond square footage and the main perk is the sense of community as networking with other entrepreneurs helps businesses get faster than they could individually.

Felipe Ávila da Costa, from InfraSpeak, another of the five founders, added that "We were born from the community to be a community".

This collaborative atmosphere is open to other startups and as of March applications are open for teams who wish to benefit of connecting and working with like-minded people.

The unmatched energy in the startup world in Porto can only be spread further, as Secretary of State for Industry, João Vasconcelos, states that Porto "is the first example in Portugal" of creating an innovative environment "on this scale".

Startups behind Founders Founders: MusicVerb, represented by Rui Santos Couto; InfraSpeak, represented by Felipe Ávila da Costa; LabOrders, represented by Tiago Carvalho; Shiftforward, represented by Paulo Cunha and Tuizzi, represented by Afonso Santos.