How would you describe yourself?

I’m a simple person, humble, a good friend, focused on short, medium and long-term plans and loves to work on what I do. From a personal stand point, I love my family and friends, sports (futsal especially), travelling, going to the beach, etc. The usual.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Computer engineer

What advice do you give people who want to define their own path to success and how to deal with “no”?

The best advice I can give is to focus on your objectives, be resilient, persistent and patient. Know that for each “Yes” you will hear a “No” 200 times and you’ll quickly learn that getting rejected is part of the process. The road to success isn’t simple and it’s important to know you will fail, but learn from your mistakes and use that knowledge in the future.

How does being a father impact the way you look at the professional/personal life dichotomy? Is there a before and after Bruno?

Clearly. Becoming a father was the best experience of my life, it changed me considerably. Professionally, it affected my availability, which means an added amount of focus to get the same number of things done in less time. Personally, I look at life in a more responsible manner and it now feels I have half of my heart in someone else.

What’s the importance of visual aesthetics and branding for building a brand like BOLD?

It’s essential. I’d say it’s completely connected with being professional and credible. In BOLD’s case, our visual and branding evolution are connected to the company’s maturity.

Nowadays there’s a growing number of multidisciplinary teams spread out geographically. How do you see the future of companies and how they attract and maintain the talent?

The attraction and retention of talent are two of the most repeated words in companies, especially in IT. There’s a ways to go in both regards but I believe the future holds bigger and more complex challenges than those we currently face. On the other hand, the geographic distribution will help solve some issues related to attracting people because you have a greater pool of talent, while at the same time, companies will need to resolve issues with processes and procedures, as well as different strategies, as a way to maintain their efficiency and quality while at the same time retaining the talent in a more effective way because we’ll be playing a global game, very different from today.

Portugal being one of the great destinations for Nearshore, are we doomed to being simple service providers or will be able to become an entrepreneurial powerhouse? Can we become the Silicon Valley of Europe?

We have the potential to become the Europe’s Silicon Valley, but for that to happen we need the company side of the technological market to understand we need to promote our country for its quality and not for the financial aspect. Portugal is no longer one of the cheaper countries in Europe and although we know it’s still attractive financially, our drive needs to be for the added value we bring to our clients.

We need to focus on the clients and problem solving, especially internationally, as they look for experience and that cannot be connected to low prices. The day we can get that message out is the day Portugal is ready to become a worldwide tech Hub.

Is remote the future?

I’d say so, but with some caveats. I still believe in the power of onsite teamwork. Relationships and confidence are fundamental and though for many jobs there aren’t any barriers for remote work, there are others where looking people in the eye and creating a more personal relationship is important. I think it’s also possible to create a mix between both models, managing a balance between onsite and remote work.

At a time when companies like Apple and Google are hiring people with no higher education, do you think a degree is essential?

Higher education is important as it gives the student the basis but there’s an ever-growing number of opportunities in the market that don’t require a degree. Reskilling is getting more and more common and that shows us there are other ways of getting talented people and getting them ready for different areas. Obviously, depending on your ambitions (politics, more corporate companies, etc.) higher education can be essential to reach those goals. In short, it depends on what you want for your future, but thankfully there are many opportunities for all these different profiles.

Soft skills vs hard skills? What’s more important?

Depending on the job, both can be very important. Generically though, soft skills tend to be more important especially in more senior positions. In fact, it’s a deal breaker in those cases for me.

Anyone can create a business… the one you created became one of the best in Portugal. Is there a formula for success?

Work hard, party hard! :) As I said before, the biggest successes are connected to lots of hard work, resilience and persistence. Having winning teams, people who are good, besides being good at their jobs. You need a lot of focus and understand that more important than getting investors is finding clients and selling! And you need culture, vision, mission and values – I now understand their importance in having a successful business or company.

Who should we interview after you? What question would you like to ask them?

José Neves - Farfetch. Do you share my current vision?

Quick questions

Essential tech object?

Smartphone

Daily routine?

  • Wake up
  • Bath and personal hygiene
  • Breakfast
  • Drop my daughter at school
  • Work
  • Lunch
  • A game of FIFA (when I can)
  • Work
  • Dinner
  • Be with my daughter
  • Read articles related to my day-to-day
  • Watch a TV show
  • Sleep

Work time? Mornings, afternoons or nights?

Mornings

What company would you have liked to have founded?

BOLD! Google in second place.

App you would have liked to create?

Shazam

Method or chaos?

Method

Developer or designer?

Both! :)

iOS or android?

iOS

windows or mac?

mac

Jobs or Wozniak?

Jobs

Ronaldo or Messi?

Ronaldo

8. Best place to eat in Portugal?

My parents’ home.

One Movie?

Law abiding citizen

One TV Show?

Narcos

One book?

Jack Welch - Winning

One Song?

Dream On - Aerosmith