Some of our attendees have sent us their bios. Here you can meet them. They are crazy and they are brave. They are Pirates!
Ana Sofia Pinho – Ana Sofia is a Management Engineer passionate about entrepreneurship, medicine, environment, design and lean. Currently working as a Lean Consultant at a Healthcare Clinic and doing a Post Graduate in Lean Thinking, area she learned to appreciate from her internship at Bosch. A Summer Course at London School of Economics on Entrepreneurship and participating and volunteering for Startup Weekend Portugal were amazing experiences that intensified her passion for the startups industry. She enjoys reading, listening to music, meeting people and having ideas of products that can help the world to be a better place, or at least, make someone laugh (herself included). Looking forward to meet the Pirates!
André Jordão – 6 years in the cubicle nation, working for Accenture and Portugal Telecom. Artificially flavoured by many, many business books. Sun Tzu follower on Twitter. Serial project doer. Founder of fplays.com, a game changing football platform. Dog lover. Ok, I also like hot cookies and tea.
António Henriques – Because the journey is more important than the end or the start, I have been looking up for inspiration in foreign countries and former Portuguese colonies! As a fresh pirate I will bring to the crew all the strength, motivation and passion that will help us overcome the hard times and make the good ones unforgettable! Ahoy!! =)
Andrea Bajnoková – Andrea is a brave pirate prepared to win all the battles! She was born in the small fairyland called Slovakia. Even though, she loves her country, she decided to move to the Netherlands. As still a pirate-baby, she needs to get more knowledge and life experience and therefore she decided to study in a wonderful student city of Groningen. Currently, she is half-way her bachelor program with a major in International Business and Management. Besides the university, she is involved in organizing very interesting events in both Groningen and Slovakia. She loves when she can connect her passion for entrepreneurship, traveling and meeting other brave pirates. That’s why she is sure the Lisboa event will be unforgettable!
Bashara Hinnawi – I was born in Jaffa, Israel. A small town that was populated by mostly the arab community. Having studied in Tabeetha School (Church of Scotland), I had the opportunity to build friendships with people of many nationalities, religions and cultures. During my career, I have worked in many functions, I worked in pizza delivery, sold ice-cream then I moved to an accountancy role and office management. Later on, I opened a business with my two brothers. We specialized in wine and alcoholic beverages. We have imported wine from various countries and where one of the pioneers to import top quality wine from Portugal. We had the business for about 6 years when I decided that I wanted to go to live in Portugal with my wife and two children, where I opened a business for programming and internet applications. This is my 4th year in Portugal, currently working at Cisco Systems through LivingBrands (SellByTel). All through my career, whether as an employee or as a manager, I proved to be an indispensable resource for ideas and improvements within the organization. Looking forward to the Startup Pirate experience. A place where ideas, talent and resource meet is the place to be.
Bruno Marques – My name is Bruno Marques and I was born in 1984 in Lisbon. I completed the degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer in 2010 on IST and masters degree will be completed in 2012. My areas of interest focus are on electrical machines design, especially for traction applications with a view in electric mobility, and variable speed drives. I also have interest in energy markets and decentralized production of renewable sources. In the past, I did theater for four years, radio announcer and played soccer for 5 years. I am also a DJ / producer. I was involved too in the most recent formations that BEST Lisbon organized on Project Management and this year I’m part of the organization of JEEC XII (Conference on Electrical Engineering and Computer 2012).
Carolina Granado Pinto – I’m a creative nomad and a social entrepreneur who moves the world boosting synergies. I’m graduated with a MA in international tourism and development. During the last years, I had the opportunity to collaborate with projects in Mexico, Peru, Spain, USA, England, North Cyprus, India, Costa Rica, Chile, Indonesia and Portugal. I’m the founder of mobapi, a movement to awake the capacity to aspire and generate a chain of creative synergies, contributing to a better world. Creating experiences in which ideas, people and places intercept… Mobapi is generating small but meaningful waves of development.
Cláudia Campos – I’m an architect who formally studied in Lisbon and Barcelona and I’m still learning every time I travel and meet some new place and people. While getting in touch with ‘the real world’ by working in an architectural office I’ve accomplished some fulfilling freelance work as well, both architecture and art projects, loving all artistic expressions meanwhile. By working in multi disciplinary environments I’ve realized that exchanging ideas and experiences was always the key of success for the various projects I was involved in. And as I’ve always been driven by creativity I’m really curious about how it can help perform wonderful business ideas.
Daniela Fontes – My name is Daniela. I was born in 1990 in Coimbra. After completing the first three years of undergraduate studies at Universidade de Coimbra (Engenharia Informática/Computer Science), I embarked on a new adventure farther from home, so now I’m studying in Instituto Superior Técnico. I’m passionate about gaming and entertainment technologies. My latest accomplishments include the participation in the Ludum Dare Jam, an accelerated game development competition, on its 21th and 22th edition. Some of my hobbies are reading, touring museums, playing video games and board game sessions with friends, but I’m always looking forward to try new things, discover new places, like a pirate!
Daniel M. Medeiros – Daniel M. Medeiros is Brazilian entrepreneur. He graduated with a degree in physics at the University of São Paulo (USP). He founded with other students an entrepreneurship nucleus of USP. For his Passion for technology and entrepreneurship took him in a project at Agency for Innovation of USP. Today, he is leader of a Start-Up in the e-health area. He has great interest in development innovation technology in partnership with university. He likes learning languages and meeting new people and cultures.
Edmundo Ferreira – Born in 1985 in South Africa, Edmundo Ferreira is currently sailing towards the end of his masters in Aerospace Engineering at IST. While a student, he participated in different team competitions. Together with his friends, he built the first Portuguese hydrogen fuel cell prototype car for the Shell eco-marathon competition, where they were achieved 1253km with a liter of fuel. Ed defends that learning is as important in academy as in professional environment. He had several working experiences, ranging from IT technical support to advisor in a start-up company building non-tripulated airplanes. Besides working, pirate Ed enjoys playing basket or go biking across Lisbon in his free time. He is a deeply curious and motivated pirate, always looking for an adventure even if it means to walk blindfold along a plank in a red ocean of sharks!
Francisco Miranda – Francisco Miranda is a student of Industrial Engineering and Management at Instituto Superior Técnico. Francisco is currently a social entrepreneur with a project that aids teenagers on Portugal’s biggest slum. His passions are education, food and traveling. Recently he just joined a Pirate adventure.
Hugo Tavares – I am Hugo Bandeira Tavares, currently studying in Instituto Superior Técnico and I have a grant, working with Content Management. Throughout my life Music as been a major constant presence, such that today I play saxophone in a few musical projects. I also have some experience in communication, as I worked as a tour guide for the Museum of Electricity of Lisbon, done some mentoring with new coming students in my school, made an exchange program and won a competition of presentations about engineering. Also, I’ve done consulting and development work for web in a couple of public institutions. Right now, I want to create my own company in order to establish myself and to carry out my projects.
João Ferreira Loff – If you expect to know something about a Pirate, you can forget it. All the information provided by the pirates among me its just a decoy. A decoy for the Navy think we are normal people. A decoy for all the World to think we are normal people. But trust me, we are not normal people. We are an old specimen that not always can live out in the open. Some give up and live like mere mortals, others don’t. Others work hard to build something to be meaningful to a lifetime, and that’s the goal of this fellow Pirate. Build something that will last for many years to come. Is that too much? Maybe, but I am a Pirate, and I believe in it, no matter what, no matter who. Be free, be a Pirate.
João Remondes Ferreira – With a degree in Food Technology and Biotechnology I fell in love with marketing in a call-center, and we never parted. After working in Marketing & Sales for 8 years, I’ve took my family’s restaurant and got in the food business. Starting from scratch with only one store I soon managed to get into the B2B market and we sold the majority share after 6 months. I took on a new project in São Paulo where I helped build a marketing network for the newly arrived gift voucher category to the Brazilian market, where I would stay for 3 months. For the last 8 months, I analyzed and managed trade marketing activities in the Portuguese territory, as well as Spain, from establishing the proper KPI’s, monitoring them in order to increase profitability as well as market share. I’m a passionate and result driven seasoned marketer but my heart beats for entrepreneurship, starting new products and building new brands. That’s what truly inspires me.
Jorge Fonseca – If I had only 1 minute to live and had to tell the story of my life, what would I say? I could tell you about the hobbies I had, the things I’ve done, or even the jobs I worked in. But the thing is, if you think about it, they probably didn’t fulfill you, they were not the things that made you happy. I’ve been realizing more and more that the most important things in life, are not the things mentioned above, the most important things in life are: the family you have; the friends you keep; the experiences you have every day and the legacy you leave behind. Whatever you do, it should never be about the money, it should be about creating something that will improve peoples lives, and about the rush of playing the game (of life). So about me, I can say that I’m a student/friend/young entrepreneur that loves the rush of embracing new adventures by stepping into the unknown, that has the goal to create projects that will improve peoples lives.
José da Gama – Sailing on consultancy waves for the last years, this sea rover is discovering this new entrepreneurship wave. This passionate pirate’s willing to ride the wave up to the startup sea, aided by his experience, his strong will and a boat full of lads! And in the meantime, rehearsal his drum skills! Savvy?? ARRGGHH!!!
José Mendonça – Born in 1988, I am currently studying Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Instituto Superior Técnico. In 2008 I began working at the Electricity Museum (Fundação EDP) as a tour guide. Later I was tasked with preparing new tour scripts, exhibition material and evaluating the new guides. I currently work as monitor at SCDEEC, an IST free-use computer space. I’m also a board member of the ECE student organization, NEECIST, and I’m in charge of graphic design for JEEC, an yearly event organized by ECE students. I’m taking a course in analog photography and my interests include reading, painting and cooking. I’m always on the look for new challenges as a way to improve my experience in different areas.
José Rodrigues – José Rodrigues was born in Porto, 1987, lived in Vila Nova de Gaia until the age of 22 when he started his Master in Aerospace Engineering in IST, Lisbon. Before, he had studied Mechanical Engineering in Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, where he received the Bachelor of Science with an A classification. During his Master, he was a member of the team PSEMbyIST which designed a vehicle running on fuel-cells to participate in the Shell Eco-marathon, Germany, 2009. From the fall of 2010 till the spring of 2011, he moved to Israel and became a research student in the Turbo & Jet Engines Laboratory, Technion, Haifa, under the supervision of Prof. Yeshayahou Levy, where he worked mainly in the fields of energy, combustion and numerical modelling of fluid dynamics. This work was the basis for his master thesis, supervised by Prof. José Carlos Pereira, LASEF, DEM, IST. He graduated as a Master of Aerospace Engineering by the end of 2011. Nowadays he is a researcher at IN+ under the supervision of Prof. Edgar Fernandes and is currently engaged in other projects, one of them being the balua.org project by SSETI.
Lina Figueira – Ahoy Pirates! My name is Lina and during my life I’ve experienced different ways of learning and teaching. First as a primary teacher, a wonderful experience that teach me that in life, we should always make things with joy, passion, not being afraid to make it different, try new approaches, always learning, see the world colorful and most important always “keeping it simple”. Later on, as a consultant and trainer I use the same principles with adults, using creativity and innovation to solve problems and implement change. Recently, I´ve been feeling the call of social causes…and that´s what I want to focus on! I´m looking forward to meet the rest of the crew!! “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…”
Mark Melnykowycz – Mark be a guy from the lake-locked state o’ Michigan in the Americas by the port o Detroit. He once took up a task to design smart materials and decided to stay in land-locked Switzerland. Some say he be plagued by the curse of being an engineer with the mind o’ an artist, and a bird once said he’d wander the Earth till he found a way to set his science mind free – to marry with the artist inside, so he now seeks his future in a startup. Tis true that he once slept on a glacier, and once surfaced an avalanche, and that his fool wits always steered him true from the fingers o’ death. He plays with cameras, paints pictures, mixes videos, learns about augmented reality, and scribbles on his blog when he not be ‘a managing projects. Ye can find him on the webs, where he be also known as Boltzmann or AmericanPeyote.
Michal Monit – For the last couple of years Michael has been busy tracking down elusive, interesting things to do while studying and working on energy issues in Poland, Iceland, Japan, and Portugal. This has brought him to Lisbon, where he is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Sustainable Energy Systems, as a part of the MIT-Portugal Program. When not thinking about imaginary problems, he keeps himself busy by competing in university-level volleyball and cultivating his addiction to music; preferably with a coffee and a cigarette.
Miguel Ferreira – Miguel is a creative go-getter inspired by all the innovators & delusional dreamers out there challenging the status quo. Miguel wants to build things to solve problems that impact real people. That’s why he applied to join Startup Pirates. To pitch ideas, work in teams, explore creativity and to meet and be inspired by talented entrepreneurs & go-getters. Miguel is from Lisbon and has a degree in Business Administration from Instituto Superior de Gestão and a MSc International Marketing Management from University of Surrey. He is also the Founder of Gruv Lisbon, a crowdfunding movement for electronic music lovers in Lisbon, and author of The Hell Yeah Project.
Nuno Pinto da Costa – I’m a 24 year old Portuguese engineering student taking the course of Information Systems and Computer Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico. My main area of interest is Game Design and Game Development and I dream about starting my own Indie game company with a small bunch of fellows who are as excited and driven by it as I am. On my free time I love to hang out with my beautiful girlfriend, laugh with my family and friends, read a great book, sports, music, meet awesome new people, rant about MTV “culture” etc. Oh, and my life won’t be complete if I don’t get the chance to travel around Europe on a motorcycle.
Pedro Marques – My name is Pedro Marques and I am 23 years old. I live in Lisbon and I am graduating in Mechanical Engineering this year, in IST. My MSc area is Production and now that I am almost finishing my course, I want to contribute with my knowledge and learn from others as much as possible.
Pedro Pereira da Silva – Pedro is a Biomedical Engineering master student at IST and FMUL in Lisbon, where he also works within NEBM (Núcleo de Engenharia Biomédica do IST) and as a volunteer in NAPE (Núcleo de Apoio ao Estudante). Formerly, he also worked in many projects related to sustainability & the environment. He enjoys Science as much as Entrepreneurship: one of his dreams is to become a scientist and the other is to create a world-changing enterprise. Always searching for new adventures, this pirate will set sail from the Netherlands to arrive in Lisbon just in time… he is looking forward to meet his fellow pirates!
Rafael Duarte – Rafael Duarte is a self-confident and irreverent young man who loves people. Works as a computer technician for five years now but his true desire is to create and manage events related with the gaming and technology industry. He believes that his creativity, ability to communicate with others and to understand what the target public wants will help him to reach his goals and to be successful. As a volunteer, he possesses a few years of experience in the events managing business, but not only on gaming related events, which is where he wants to focus right now since that’s an industry that still will be growing ten years from now.
Rui Gil – Rui Gil career started when his primary school teacher said to him, “You will never be an artist !”, (after looking to a horse he drew), so he decided to pursue a career in Science, Engineering and Software. A traveler by heart, he already touched the five continents, and most of the oceans, and when he got to Instituto Superior Técnico, it was already his 13th school. This gave him the ability to speak several languages, and make friends to people from parallel universes. With a recurrent dream of starting his own company he set sail on the dot com boom, to sink a few months later on the dot com crash. A minor setback that made him work to an innovative company, doing bleeding edge work on software integration. As a conference speaker, he communicated the fundamental topics of business processes, and software integration to companies all over Portugal. He believes in the old saying that it is no measure of health to be adapted to a sick society. So for him, to be a Pirate, is a question of sanity! That’s why he has been collecting awards for his writing, photo, and movie making skills, (and secretly practicing drawing horses…) Because nobody tells him what he cannot be. Take that Mrs Elvira!
Sofia Almeida – Most of people call me Sofia. I was born in 1991 and I’m living in Lisbon. At this moment I’m attending the 2nd year of Marketing and advertising in IADE – Institute of Visual Arts, Design and Marketing. I like to meet, to learn and to evolve personally. One of my objectives is to gain experience and knowledge to apply in the future in a correct and efficient way. In my point of view personal grow it is always advantageous and rewarding. I’ve done volunteer work in the hospital and with non-governmental institutions. Also I volunteered for the EXD’11 in conferences. I am a person interested in many things, such as: friends, family, photography, music, cinema, discover, cultures, and others. I’m young and I still have much to discover and learn! Well, I’m prepared for this life journey that it’s just starting now.
Tiago Branco – Tiago was born in Lisbon, in 1987. At the age of 13, he became interested in technology and innovation, starting to program as a hobby. Later, he decided to take a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (IST), focusing on the production area. At the moment, he is working on his thesis, which consists of developing a software to study car crashes. His main areas of interest are product design and software development. When he is not working, he likes to play guitar to chill out.
Tiago Valente – Online Project Manager at Portugal Telecom and Co-Founder of Bananas Design, an online agency for freelance web design and social media. He took a degree in Mutimedia Engineer and have a Executive Master in Digital Marketing. Passionate about entrepreneurship, marketing, internet & digital world. Big fan of Ignite events. Recently, he had the opportunity to be a volunteer at Startup Weekend Lisbon. Now, he’s looking to build his own Startup, to make money while having fun enjoying the life, as the Pirates do!!
