04 Dec 2020

Team

Youcanvent super talented team. 15 years of event experience in all event industry sectors.

António Trincão

Co-Founder, CEO, Web-Developer

"(...)If you want something that you never had, you've to do something that you never done.(...)" Musician, Sports Addict, Philanthropist, Organic & Healthy Foods, Design, 80's groove, Events and Entertainment visionary.

João Raminhos

Co-Founder, COO, Sales Director

"Life is just one. Regreat of what you didn't made. Never regreat for the mistakes that you had while you tried to do." Gammer, NextFlix & Chill, Loves his girlfriend.

Jason Jones

Sales & Event Manager New York City

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Alysson Cordeiro

Full Stack Developer

Senior Java Developer, Software engineer, managed more than 4 software teams for one the biggest IT consultants, Stefanini.

Thiago Martins

UI / UX / Graphic Designer

Brazilian designer Working has a designer since 2010, developing more than 100 communication projects. Currently student of Digital Experience Design.

Olis Do Carlo

Sales & Event Manager Barcelona

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Filipe Zuzarte

Customer service & Vendors Management

Fast is the new fast. Master Degree: Management Nova Busines School

Interviewing the Founders - Youcanevent foundation story

Youcanevent – From Braga to New York, on the pathway to success.

 

Youcanevent is a Portuguese startup that was born in Braga, in the academic environment of the University of Minho and springboarded from Startup Lisbon to success in the USA. Today, it has offices in Lisbon and local representatives in New York and Barcelona with the ambition of being ranked as one of the leading companies in the events industry of the global digital sector.

 

“This story starts with three university friends, from different fields of study, all part of Azeituna”, recalls António Trincão. António and two other friends joined Azeituna (www.azeituna.pt)  - the “Tuna Académica Association of the University of Minho” “throughout the 5 to 6 years that we were a part of this organization, we went through practically every step of a startup: lack of financial capacity to hold events; difficulty in getting sponsorships; shortage of elements in the team”. But Antonio Trincão highlights that despite all the adversities, they maintained the association active and organized international tours.

At the end of this “adventure”, together with a fourth element, also part of Azeituna, the idea of creating a startup for events in which they could continue the work carried out in the “Tuna” (means romantic musical group), germinates. In February of 2015 they created WIC (Will Interpersonal Corporation), a platform conceived of as a marketplace, where each client could buy services for events online. Of the 4 founders, António Trincão (current CEO) had been Commercial and Show Director of Azeituna, while João Raminhos, (Current COO) was President of the Tuna for various years.

The first version of the platform was made public in June of 2015 and it only took four months to undertake. The first experience started with an incubation period at the Entrepreneur Institute of Minho where they obtained a “base” and logistic support. This allowed them to concentrate on generating suppliers for the “catalogue” of services of the platform.

After a successful campaign and hundreds of suppliers held in portfolio, they joined “Startup Lisboa”(www.startuplisboa.com)  for another spurt of growth. The move to the largest national incubator meant not only relocation, but an adjustment to the team, reducing the founding group to three elements.

The accelerating impulse achieved in Lisbon also made them change their perspective: to continue to grow, they’d have to entertain the international market. So in November of 2015, António and João flew to the US to start a new phase. They needed to rake in American suppliers and expand the platform to the north-American market sector.

In America, says António Trincão, they were surprised by the “ability to think global” and, above all, the challenge to define “a strategy with milestones measured in millions”. “The constant desire and obsession to sell ones product from its inception until it’s on the market” gave them the urge to seek new horizons. In Los Angeles, at the LA Startup Week, they made connections that opened doors to other events of startups in Las Vegas, San Jose, San Francisco and Silicon Valley. But it was in New York that they decided to take a giant leap. In the Big Apple they developed new partnerships and opened their first international office, recruiting Jason Jones as Sales & Event Manager of the company in America.

 

New Name, New Strategy

During this period, in January 2016, the third element of the team, that was in Portugal, decided to leave the project. João Raminhos and António Trincão recall that it was one of the hardest times for the founders of WIC. “With an online platform and a huge community of suppliers in Portugal, the company didn’t have a physical presence in the country. A change in the project was imminent”.

Marketplace ceased to exist and in its place a directory was now available, with suppliers all over the world and where clients could negotiate and speak in real-time with the suppliers. At this time, WIC’s slogan was “you can event”, that quickly became popular among all the clients, B2B and B2C. “It was the feedback from our clients that lead us to change the company’s name, Antonio Trincão explains. In August 2016, WIC became known as Youcanevent.

A few months later, with the support of the University of Minho, a group of students helped develop the project. Among them was Marco Costa, whose willpower and motivation helped him get a place on the team and he’s now Sales & Event Manager for Portugal.

With the directory ready, a new name and a growing team, Youcanevent applied for the Road2WebSummit Competition, and it was at the Web Summit of Lisbon that they met Olis do Carlo, co-founder of the Startup FestivAll, who immediately accepted to join the team and become Sales & Event Manager for Barcelona, consequently emerging another city on the expansion map of this Startup.

After the Web Summit, Youcanevent received another business urge, thus focusing on the creation and provision of services and abandoning its role as mediator, which was part of the initial Marketplace project. “We’re not going to continue with the initial structure, but we are going to launch a new version that stems from the same idea of marketplace, in April 2017”, reveals Antonio Trincão.

With partnerships such as Nespresso, TechMeetups, Heineken and eSolidar, the company is asserting itself as the number one startup in the events industry in the digital panorama and moving to New York or Los Angeles for HQ creation is a must have. As António Trincão explains, “On a worldwide scale, it’s the prevailing city for events and entertainment, generating 25 billion dollars a year”.

Behind, are left the initial steps of entrepreneurship that took place in Braga. To other entrepreneurs, the founders of Youcanevent recommend “read a lot and choose the best for your team”.

“Don’t choose a logistic or bureaucratic structure or telecommunication services when starting a company without having your first client”, advises António Trincão “read a book or two on the entrepreneurial universe and startups, preferably American, because in this sector, they’re the best in the world” I suggest Traction book or Hooked”. But most importantly, António Trincão recommends, “be obsessive, from the beginning, in finding elements with value to work for your team”. These are the secrets of those who are starting to ride the crest of success.

 

Team past work

Olis Do Carlo on “momondo - the DNA Journey”

CELTA music fest. Planned by João and António

Will, success nightclubbing brand by António

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