Blog Marketing and LoQUo Lisboa

It’s not possible to mesure the impact of a couple of blogs anouncing the launch of LoQUo Lisboa. They’re are only a few but have certainly helped LoQUo in this first few days.

He was the first one to post on the idea that a Loquo Lisboa was being prepared in the underground. After that I touched the subject lightly and Pedro mentioned how the translation was doing.

A week later and after tunning work with Ubaldo, LoQUo Lisboa was launched and some blogs helped spread thee word. Again, Pedro posted on the launch and then I followed him. A few days later Ubaldo also posted.

The next 2 days more blogs joined us and posted on the launch helping us and LoQUo to gain some brand awareness. Ivo and Pedro described LoQUo very well while others opted for simplicity. To all of you a big thank you!

I hope you can all benefit from LoQUo community.
You’re already a part of it.

September 27, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Presentation at the Entrepreneurship Course

I was honored to be invited by Maria Jose to make a presentation regarding my experience as a Business Plan Competition winner. Last year I was a student at VectorE. VectorE is an Entrepeneurship Training and a Business Plan Competition for Engineering Students organized each year by the Technical University of Lisbon Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research Group.

My experience was very enriching at many levels. I was able to get contact with technology investment, venture capital, new business development and intelectual property. Included in the course were some visits to companies that had passed through the process of going from an idea to having a complete working business. During the course all the students where also invited to present a business idea and based on that a business plan. In the end there was a competition where all the students presented their “Elevator’s Pitch”.

My Elevator’s Pitch worked very good and I won the contest. The board was made of Teachers, Consultants and Industry people from whom I received very good critics on the work done on the idea.

During last year I told some people about the course and 2 of these made their subscription . Gladly Pedro is one of them and I’ll be happy to see how he is going to get through this experience.

I recommed this course to all engineering students because I think it is very important to get some knowledge of entrepreneurship before creating your own technology-based company. It will for sure save you a lot of headaches.

September 25, 2004 | | Leave a Comment 

LoQUo has launched!

After some work together with Pedro and Ubaldo we’ve finally launched LoQUo Lisboa.


LoQUo is a local community website where you can search, sell or simply list things in Lisboa. One of LoQUo’s strongest features is it’s usability-oriented development that we think it will help users use the service with no frills. You can read more about LoQUo in this post.

September 25, 2004 | | 9 Comments 

New blog engine

I changed the blog engine from movabletype to wordpress. I’ve used wordpress in the past when it was called b2. Now I’m back testing this new engine. It seems to be much more stable and with lots of new (and useful) features. The template I’m using is kubrick which is very simple to customize. Until now everything seems to be going smooth. Installation is a breeze and google should pick it up by tomorow.

September 24, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Keith Harring during company lunch

I’m still on vacations but I wouldn’t miss the oportunity to lunch with them. Even more since Pedro has organized a special art lunch. Instead of the usual meal we had a few chicken sandwiches and fruit on the park and headed to Cultugest to see an exibition from Keith Haring.
Great idea Pedro and very cool lunch!

September 10, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Busy (but happy) end of vacations.

The trip to France was very good. Like I wrote we (me and Beatriz) went to the Loire Valley and spent a few days there. The area is beautifully green and the weather temperature was very confortable with a few clouds and no frequent rain. Lot’s of small villages with big castles, old farms and interesting art galleries and museums.

(Niki Saint Phalle sculpture at the Musée des Beaux Arts d’Angers)

On the way back we spent a few hours in Paris and decided that we’ll definitely be coming back soon. So much to explore in such an interesting city. But I’ll tell more about the vacations and post more pictures soon.

Back at home in the early days of september we had a very busy life. House packing, cats surgery and exam studying. We had a few problems with the three: had to buy a few boxes since we had more stuff than we antecipated; the cats are recovering ok but the surgery wake up is a stressful moment; teachers were on vacations so I had to start studying without being sure if the exams (the 2 last exams of the degree finally) were this week or next (it’s next week, thankfully).

The good news is that everything is running smoother now. Tomorow we’ll be moving in with Patricia and Pedro (thanks for the support guys!) until our new home is ready for us, the cats are almost recovered and will move with us and the study is going in the right direction.

By the way, since we’ll be moving in nearer to Pedro I think Carlos might just be right about this.

September 10, 2004 | Tags: | 2 Comments