From Oporto, Portugal, Eduardo Covelinhas, the head of Explore & Hunt a Portuguese startup dedicated to tourism services and winner of the Tourism Innovation Competition kicked-off 2018 with the announcement of an investment of 350k € (depending on the achievement of certain KPIs) in Explore & Hunt. Eduardo was enrolled in The Lisbon MBA Executive Program (2011-13) and there met one of its business partners, Sérgio Cardoso.

The Magazine interviews Eduardo Covelinhas, Strayboots Europe Founder

After a year abroad, traveling through countries such as Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, North and South Korea, Russia, Fiji, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Mongol, among many others, Eduardo, returned home to start his own business idea. During The Lisbon MBA Executive (back then it was called The Lisbon MBA part time) program was the first time he started to think about launching his own business and, to kick it off, he started his application to the Tourism Innovation Competition. This was very beginning of what is today Strayboots Europe and its adventure as as entrepreneur and a whole lifechanging experience.

“Creating my own company isn’t a consequence of The Lisbon MBA program” he says but refers that “(…) the class of entrepreneurship contributed deeply to my interest in the startup ecosystem and was a very good experience start Explore&Hunt”. The Lisbon MBA gave him the tools he needed to begin his own company but the challenge of participating in the Tourism Innovation Competition represented the motivational challenge he was seeking. Explore & Hunt, won this competition receiving an investment of 100k € and it’s a project that promotes interactive tours, so its users can explore & discover cities, monuments and museums with their smartphones in what is called today “gamification”.

Portugal Ventures investment and Strayboots Europe

After winning the Tourism Innovation Competition, and some external contacts with the US market, Portugal Ventures reached an agreement to invest in Explore & Hunt were offered up to 350k € if all KPIs are achieved. With this investment, Explore & Hunt established a partnership with Strayboots United States which is present in more than 50 cities in the country and gave the opportunity to more than 350,000 people to play their game. This company participates in more than 700 events each year and are a worldwide reference.

Why Strayboots Europe? Why did you not pursue with Explore & Hunt? “The partnership with Strayboots allowed us to benefit from a solid tech infrastructure and money to implement this solution in our market more rapidly. As Strayboots Europe we are already in England and we’re about to seal deals in Ireland and Scotland. Within the next years, we expect to invest in Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy and Spain. Additionally, to this as Explore & Hunt and Strayboots United States have the same business we thought that would be a waste of time to have two companies offering the same service for the same target: B2B.”

Portugal Ventures investment in Strayboots Europe is crucial for the company for two main reasons according to Eduardo: in one hand the investment allowed us to reach the market way more soon and not only in Portugal but in all geographies, we want to reach. In the other hand, we will benefit with Portugal Ventures network companies which will help us necessarily to establish our own contacts and assist us in terms of local legislation.”

Our main benefit from Strayboots United States is related with the technological platform which is an extremely important asset to the company. With investment made, Strayboots United States, found a way to accomplish one of its objectives that is expand its activity to Europe.

What’s your opinion about the startup ecosystem in Portugal? Is it sustainable as it is? In Eduardo’s opinion, this is “a bubble that is a lot blistered”. “There is money, which is obviously interesting, but there are a lot of investments made that don’t have any kind of traceability or follow-up. We don’t have a mentor program or mentors, at all, and this is the main cause for the number of startups that fail.”, finishes.

Startup ecosystem tends to expand but the main challenge of it in 2018 is to develop more mentoring programs, more follow-up along entrepreneurs and startups and investing in the modernization of academic programs. Universities in Portugal tend to “have a typical teacher-to-student work basis but this is no longer valid.” According to Eduardo Covelinhas. To “keep up to date universities will have to start looking to what the market is doing and have a more practical approach instead of the classic theoretical approach.”, finishes.