Delivering technology from Serra da Estrela ?? ?

One year and an half I decided to leave the big city of Lisbon, after 30 years living, working and creating companies in this crowded city, and moved to a small city of Portugal′s inland, called Seia, geographically called Serra da Estrela, the highest point of continental area of Portugal.

Seia is a town in Beira Alta, belonging to the so-called Beiras region. As a mere historical curiosity, Seia was founded 2400 years ago by the Túrdulos, a pre-Roman people. Curiously I live in a village near Seia, a few metres away from a Roman bridge over the Seia river, where, according to the local people, Julius Caesar's entourage used to pass. Of very remote foundation, this pleasant town is located on the western slope of Serra da Estrela. A few kilometres away we have the only ski resort in Portugal, which delights skiers and those who appreciate the white mantle that presents us with every winter.

To enrich this vast historical panorama, it is worth highlighting the most genuine features of this region: fertile water, land of pastures, mild springs and stunning landscapes, which contribute to its remarkable natural and cultural heritage. People settled here quickly and pastoralism goes back to the beginning of time. Human resilience is simply admirable. A land of traditions, with a history in the textile industry, in gastronomy, with its unique and tasty Serra da Estrela cheese and D?o wine!

All this caught my attention, not only through the lens of an entrepreneur, but also through the lens of a desired and already much desired healthier life, balanced, in total harmony and connection with nature, uncrowded place!

To undertake business in an extraordinary place like Seia, we can only do it with our heart and soul full. Because business is the soul of its entrepreneur, its creator, its life values, filled with a purpose that goes far beyond the business dynamic itself.

My move, was perhaps my biggest 'leap of faith' and, believe me, I've taken many. This one included a total change of geography to live in and believing that I could bring totally unthinkable contributions to this part of our country.

In all my entrepreneurial and personal life endeavours, I have always been guided by a mission to leave a better world, especially for those around me. I found in entrepreneurship the path to a certain "spirituality" and purpose in life. Entrepreneurship in which co-creation is how to bring to life, ideas, concepts, businesses that will allow people's lives to improve, which, genuinely, can only be done with true soul and even some altruism.

Seia is beginning to take the first steps to transform itself in the next 10 years, into the city of innovation, of the digital and where technology is exported to anywhere in the world. The mountain villages project with the opening of its mountain coworks in several historical villages is just the tip of the iceberg.

It is in one of these coworks, a cooperative space in Lapa dos Dinheiros, that the implementation of the first technological start-up, Go IT Concept, of which I am co-founder, began. Go IT Concept is a new concept for doing technology based on three fundamental pillars of the future of work and life: #remotefirst #worklifeintegrators and #backtonatureapproach. We help companies who choose this magnificent city to create extensions of their technology teams or create new ones, to address new services or products and we, bring the necessary technology talent.

Today's customer has changed from a purely material consciousness to an intangible one, where the emotional where the act of buying has or should have purpose or emotional and intrinsic goals. What does Go IT embody?

It embodies the idea of locating the company in a hinterland geography, without any tradition or history of technology-based companies; it embodies the idea of diversity and inclusion (we recruit from all over the world, whatever the culture, race, ethnicity, sex, orientation or gender - the new paradigm of talenship); The idea of multiculturalism in the traditions and experiences of the mountain people; the idea of new people contributing to reduce the desertification of the region; the idea of how technology will be the driving force to achieve all these ideas, allowing for higher retention rates, reduced turnover and agility and quality of delivery.

We want the GO IT brand to resonate with this new intangible consciousness in such a de-characterised and dehumanised industry and thus result in integral satisfaction for customers and employees on a material, mental and emotional level.

The transforming legacy in the region will be unquestionable, namely, with an impact on local and regional development, respecting the diversity of cultures, traditions and know-how, promoting inclusion and equal opportunities, with authenticity and a genuine sense of belonging to the whole ecosystem that will become the city of Seia.

Welcome to Serra da Estrela!