S. meets the portuguese business angels.

like couple of weeks ago i came across an opportunity to know more of the Business Angels society of Portugal, as they were having a week long events all over the country. being an explorer, and curious of how the angels support works here, i signed up for the two of their events, first one in Lisbon and the second in Porto.

I have to say that the Lisbon event came too fast and too early in the morning the last week, the weather was  so unwelcoming to want to move or travel somewhere, so in the end I did not attend their presentation hours in Lisbon. And as the Porto event was the peak of the week, with many great topics and program for all afternoon long, then being there should to be enough of getting to know better the angels system and how it works.

so the last friday, i took my holiday, the one i did not have in monday the last week and went again for Porto. As more than once my inbox reached the message saying, that we should not be late for the business angels congress, as they will start sharply on time, i planned my trip well and arrived in Porto just in time. Perfect to pass by to drop bag at friends and make the lovely walk from St. Bento up the hill for the central building of University of Porto aka Reitoria da Universidade do Porto. It was a nice and pleasant to really indeed start on time, thank you.

have to say that being a women in Portugal seems to be way different than in Latvia, as here the man still like to dominate among the leaders and managers, and as well among the business angels society. It was clearly visible that during all the presentations and all the speakers, there was no single woman, even none of the start-up business idea stories, had any woman being there. Maybe it was just not the lucky day, and i`m very mistaken, however, with the other stories of past situation of being woman here, seems that Business Angels  has still a way to go and to think of improvements within here. If looking on the audience, luckily i was not the only one, and could count some more of the women there, like to say that around one fifth of all may have been  the females there.
Last but not least, while being there and hearing the presentations and speakers, I was very happy to see that indeed the idea of my own business that I hold already for some time, it has the future. Lets see how the changes can happen and I turn the idea into actions. Happy and big thanks. Thank you for such a nice opportunity.
Stay cool,
S.