ABOUT YOU

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Who are you?

I am, at my core, a tech guy, an engineer, a geek but I have also been exposed to what it takes to run a business as well as creative industries such as the film industry so I am keeping that part of my brain alive.

I am an entrepreneur, I have built 6+ start ups - some have been successful some have failed.  

And, later on became an investor. 

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For me when you are an entrepreneur you are an investor anyhow.

You may not feel like that because you are not necessarily putting money down but you are putting your time down and that is your most valuable currency.

Any startup is a contribution of various capital investments: investment of cash of course - financial capital, but also time, which is human capital.

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I grew up in India where I attended college and met my wife. We got married in 1988 and moved later that year to New York and attended graduate school together. 

We moved to California in 1991 and we have lived there ever since.

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What should our community know about you?

I have fallen in love, in a very rational way,  with Portugal, its culture and people. So I try to spend as much time as I can here, 4 or more months a year.

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I remember very clearly when I launched my first company. No one in my family has ever started a business to the point that I hid it from my grand-mother. She would have been so unhappy with the idea that I am quitting my job. 

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Not only was I inexperienced but also I was very unaware of what it takes.

This was back in the mid 90’s in silicon valley and people would come out of nowhere to help me and they would ask for nothing in return. That’s quite different now in Silicon Valley. 

Supporting entrepreneurs has become itself a business, it’s sometimes very explicitly transactional in a way that I don’t think it used to be. 

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I am very appreciative of those days where people realized I was clueless and needed guidance. They spent time and connected me to relevant people. There was (and still is today) an organization in Silicon Valley called TiE - The Indus Entrepreneurs was critical in getting me comfortable and educated in the entrepreneurial experience through selfless mentoring and demystifying the startup world for me. None of my successes would have happened without those people that were more successful than me and yet felt the urge to help me, asking nothing in return. 

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So now I am 60 and I am at a point in my life where I am committed to giving back.

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ABOUT YOUR MISSION

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What do you do and what drives you today in your early 60’s?

In Portugal I am focussed on 3 activities.

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First, I work with a university in Leiria where I am guiding a research project with professors at the department of computer science at IPLeiria.  

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Second, I am building in Leiria as well. We have created what we refer to as a Venture Lab with Joao Mota, the CEO of one of the most successful Tech Companies in Portugal - VOID Software. This lab aims to partner with and support entrepreneurs with foundational technology to address their challenges (raising money, expanding, …), . We currently have a portfolio of about 10 companies . 

As an entrepreneur you learn quickly that the original idea isn’t really worth much: ideas are free, execution is everything. 

We want to provide these companies with competitive advantages, identifying their challenges, helping them move quickly and suggesting solutions to their specific challenges.

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The third thing I am working on is advising and supporting a Venture Studio in Lisbon. To bring other foundational assets (i.e. other than technology) on the creation and nurturing of start ups. 

The aim is to prepare start ups to reach for the next stage (getting government support, legal and corporate assistance, raising funding, growing their business, establishing the proof point expected, …). 

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Both ventures are meant to support entrepreneurs that have a strong entrepreneurial drive, have an idea and conviction of their capabilities to execute on those ideas but lack some other foundational assets. They are all fairly early stage startups.

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I have observed, first hand, how Silicon Valley works. There is very little that Silicon Valley does that, in theory, couldn’t be replicated elsewhere. And yet it almost never is. The real question is Why? No one knows for certain what the answer is, yet that doesn’t really mean that you do nothing. You have to try. Every country needs to support their entrepreneurs in the best way they know how and maybe you'll end up creating a Silicon Valley, maybe you won’t but it is worth trying and is a worthy goal in and of itself that has nothing to do with replacing Silicon Valley as Number One. 

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I am really hopeful that Europe will be the source of innovation for a lot of the AI stuff. I’m encouraged by efforts such as EU-INC.

China is another great example. Nobody believed that they would be able to compete with the US but if you objectively look at the quality and efficiency of technological success that rose from China in AI it’s undeniable that they have done it more efficiently than Silicon Valley has. 

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India is also an amazing example in the level of innovation. There are technologies I hear of coming out of India that are potentially transformational for the whole world, not just for India. These include AI, Health Care, Clean Air, Defense, delivery logistics and many more. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but the level of innovation and activity is undeniable and very exciting.

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What would make you proud long term?

I would be most gratified if people felt that I helped them achieve things that they believe they couldn’t achieve by themselves. I want people to realise that they are more powerful than what they think they are particularly in situations where they feel they are powerless.

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Nothing irritates me more than a big company being successful simply because they are big.

Nothing offends me more than a bully being successful. Of all the negative character traits in humans, I think being a bully is one of the most despicable.

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ABOUT REDBRIDGE

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And how does bridging the US and Portugal make sense to you?

When I first came to Portugal and met the entreprenarial ecosystem it really reminded me of the Silicon Valley that I knew and loved in the 90’s. 

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There is a spirit of working on hard problems and helping  each other succeed and collaborate even if there is some competition involved. There is a sort of, and I am saying this in a positive sense, naivité- where not everything is transactional. I also appreciate the emphasis on playing the long term game rather than focusing on the short term, for immediate benefit.

And also I have noticed much less thinking of “what’s in it for me now”.

I like the  idealistic commitment to what excited them in the idea.

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To give you an example I have a small investment in Musiversal. The founders were startup-savvy but what made me fall in love with them was how they have combined their commitment to running a business with the passion for what they were doing - and not being embarrassed by that passion.

That’s a unique and essential component of a successful entrepreneur.

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I believe authenticity and alignment between a passion and the business are key elements of success..

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To the contrary, in the US I have met countless people who want to be entrepreneurs for the sake of being entrepreneurs. They don’t really care whether they are selling tee-shirts or medicine online. They are looking for some “magic” shortcut formula. 

They don’t necessarily have conviction about their product. And that makes me a bit sad.

And consequently I have seen an entire industry develop around this pattern: Growth Hacking, how to find the best subject to write a book about so that you can sell it on amazon etc …

Whereas for some people these services are fantastic since they have ideas and they need that business support, but alas they are not the only target of this industry. And it's doing them a disservice since it suggests that conviction and passion for the idea aren’t as important as business metrics.

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Unlike some entrepreneurs that like to take risks I am actually very risk averse, I hate risk but as an entrepreneur I was willing to overcome that aversion because of the idea I was believing in. It may be one of the resonances with the scene in Portugal as well.

The conviction, the long term commitment, the authenticity, that I find here in this ecosystem.

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Where does Redbridge land in your story, what does it represent for you?

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I am convinced that when you launch a business or a project you need people and places through which to connect to the ecosystem. 

Connections are the enabler because it acts not only as a way to plug in but it converts rapidly into a support system.

To be successful you need an ecosystem of validation around you to support and validate your convictions. This is why it is so difficult for families who don’t have any entrepreneurs to support their children as entrepreneurs. 

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And that’s the power of a network like Redbridge that provides you a validation and support ecosystem  that you don’t have otherwise. It’s particularly critical when you are new to a place.

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In my particular case, when I considered Portugal in 2022 and was connected to the Redbridge community I found a deep generosity and genuine support and connection network. Expecting nothing in return - which is rare as I was mentioning earlier. I was really touched by the people I connected with and joined the club and look forward to nurturing this community.

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Where do you see the synergies between the US - Silicon Valley and Portugal?

It worries me to see some of the opportunities for growth and the support of growth being squandered by actions or inactions in Portugal.

Because you can never predict which ideas are going to be successful and which are not, you need to make it easy to take risks and not stigmatize failure. Even the most successful stories at some point went through a point where they wouldn't have been distinguishable from other failures. That applies to Apple, Microsoft, or NVidia - they all have gone through that phase where things looked bleak and survival was very much questioned.

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How do you help companies go through that phase ? By not getting in the way, for one.

Building an infrastructure so that delicate, young and fragile companies can survive is very important. Which I feel is more difficult here in Portugal than in California.

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On the other hand, the willingness to play the long game, not being so transactional (which has been lost in California) is still true in Portugal. I recently met the CEO of a Portuguese company that is working with key major players in the film industry in the US. It’s a fantastic company with fantastic products and technology. Very committed to the technology, they are not willing to compromise their vision and product innovation for faster growth. Instead they have decided to let the growth take care of itself. And I deeply admire that.

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Your last word for Redbridge Community (invitation, call to action)?

Find ways to give back!

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Share what comes naturally to you, things that you might find not very challenging are actually a source of challenge to somebody else, and vice versa. 

If you know what you can do with ease and that it comes naturally to you, find someone for whom it’s a challenge and see if you can help them. 

Do not undervalue a skill that you have that you think is easy to you. It may be very difficult for someone else. 

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Follow Vijay Vaidyanathan on Linkedin 

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Interview by Aurélie A. Vincent,  Founder of Embody Agency

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