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What is the role of leaders as drivers of Your Cross-Pollinator facet led you to
innovation?
Essential, especially if we are talking about
medium and large companies. If you have a
leader who gives people time and support to
“think outside the box,” they will get out of the
box. But if you don't give them time, if you
don't give them money... it's not going to
happen.
I think it takes very strong leadership to
ignite innovation because we know how to
measure sales, marketing leads, and the
things that are tangible and will generate
money. But we're not so good at measuring
something completely new that could be
bigger than what you already do.
Within the scope of my RedBridge initiative
I've seen some prominent people who have
told me “it's impossible”, “we can't do that”,
and “no, no, no”. But since I am a strong
entrepreneur, when I hear that from a certain
person I know I must have something really
good (laughs). What happens is that it scares
the establishment.
And what about knowledge-sharing
initiatives open to society, like the Q-Day
Conference?
Well, we are still talking about cross-
pollination. This is a conference that inspires
and invites collaboration. Here in Silicon
Valley, we have a concept we call serendipity,
constantly looking for surprises. Having a
meeting when it is not directly relevant to
your work if the person is interesting and
intelligent. This is something that doesn't
happen in Germany or in Spain, but it's
starting to happen in Portugal.
This idea that the only way to grow is to
forget yourself for a moment and connect
with someone radically different is
extraordinary, and so I think this is a
wonderful initiative carried out by Quidgest.
found RedBridge, a project that connects
Lisbon to San Francisco and combines
entrepreneurship, talent, mindset, and
ambition.
Yes, last October, I began collaborating
with Hugo Antonelo of the branding and
advertising marketing company Funnyhow in
Lisbon, his colleague Paulo Gaspar, my
colleague Filipa Pinto de Carvalho, and
Nathan Hadlock, an American living in
Lisbon.
Together we came up with this idea. Why?
Because in the last ten years San Francisco
and Lisbon have been establishing a very
close connection in terms of startups – we
have Feedzai, TalkDesk, Anchorage Digital,
and many other unicorns nearby.
Adding that many Californians are
passionate about Portugal, we had the vision
of the RedBridge metaphor, alluding to the 25
de Abril Bridge and the Golden Gate, which
are both red, and two cities that also have
hills and cable cars. Since April, we started
having cross-border events and we were
surprised how many people from California,
Seattle, New York, and Portugal were looking
forward to this project.
I am very happy and proud because
Redbridge is for me the opportunity to
put into practice this concept of
innovation and entrepreneurship at a
human collaboration level.
Not all Portuguese people understand that,
but entrepreneurship in San Francisco and in
Silicon Valley is very human, very much
based on whom you meet, how you present
yourself, and whom you connect with. That's
why I'm so happy to be collaborating with
great people and building this “bridge” in
Lisbon.
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