Anyone who thinks that entrepreneurship is easy or something that instantly results in a big billing is mistaken, requires a lot of dedication, resilience and study! In fact, entrepreneurship is not an easy feat. There are countless technical and socio-emotional skills that an entrepreneur needs to develop, from knowing how to deal with people to building the best team to master the core activity of his business and understanding the socioeconomic reality of the country or countries where he operates.
Francisco Lopes, an entrepreneur from Lisbon (Portugal), is someone that knows this reality all too well. At 18 he founded Portal da Sabedoria, a tutoring center which ended up becoming the largest e-learning platform in Portugal.
Then, after graduating in 2019 from an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (in what was already a major change in his life, steering away from his Physics Engineering background), he co-founded LINK, a TikTok brand factory that has achieved 1 billion organic impressions on campaigns for a wide range of clients.
More recently, he co-founded New Renaissance (NR), a platform and marketplace for NFT management and curation focusing on digital collectibles from high end artists, celebrities and iconic brands. While this is still a very early-stage startup, it has already provided Lopes with several important lessons:
Be nimble – prioritize speed, fast iteration and quick testing
According to Lopes, NR was able to deploy a high stakes product in a little over 2 months from the beginning of ideation. In such a competitive industry, like the NFT one certainly is, being this fast gave the company an important head start.
Promote diversity from the beginning
NR is a diverse company since before its inception, considering it is a joint effort of 4 people with different backgrounds, 3 of which are immigrants, and only 2 had met offline before banding together to start the company.
Stay open minded about new ideas
Despite the launch of the company’s product having happened in a very recent past, all ideas thrown inside the team are valid and taken into consideration. This promotes the appearance of new ideas, which also explains why NR has a huge number of ideas to choose from.
In conclusion, it is incredibly valuable for all entrepreneurs to study and learn from those who have been in their skin before, as learning from them is a fundamental part of the growth of any person who considers himself an entrepreneur. Using the wisdom of other entrepreneurs will bring you a step closer to success.
