This Tuesday, ScaleUp Porto organized an online session dedicated to the challenges, strategies and opportunities related to the phase that technological companies face in the context of the pandemic. Rui Marques, Sofia Matos and Luís Neves were the special guests.
The ScaleUp Porto municipal initiative, dedicated to boosting the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, promoted a discussion session dedicated to professionals from technology-based companies, this time in a webinar format (online conference).
This session, focused on the theme “Trying to maintain normality and performance”, included the online presence of Rui Marques, CEO of 7Graus, Sofia Matos, responsible for Human Resources and Culture at Infraspeak, and Luís Neves, president of the Porto Tech Association Hub. For an hour, the guests discussed the challenges, but also strategies they have in place and were available to answer all questions from the public, who had the opportunity to watch the session broadcasted online, which they can review at the end of this article.
The main concern of these companies at the moment, is to respond to the anxiety and uncertainty felt by employees, while maintaining the possible activity in organizations. But the concerns extend to sales, the constant connection with customers and the maintenance of operations.
According to Rui Marques, the “moment of uncertainty” that we are experiencing has been “an excellent opportunity for the e-commerce sector”, which has been registering an exponential increase in the number of sales.
“It is practically one of the only business models that continues to function fully. The challenge is to maintain the quality of the service provided during peak consumer inflows. We have been experiencing a kind of black friday with no end in sight ”, said the founder of 7Graus, a company that is also currently developing a simpler and easier to implement solution that will soon serve businesses that can benefit from take away services or with home delivery.
Sofia Matos reported the times of change at Infraspeak: “We have tried to keep our operation active, without dismissals, and with the same quality of service provided to the customer. That has been our biggest criterion. However, we would like the government to announce measures for all companies that are adjusting and keeping their businesses running. This would be a relevant measure for all of us: entrepreneurs, suppliers and customers ”.
Luís Neves, responsible for Porto Tech Hub, which aggregates 26 technological companies, underlined the firm response that is being given by startups and technological companies in Porto, having highlighted the rapid adaptation to teleworking, thus privileging the health of hundreds of employees ecosystem.
With regard to the economic impact that the current situation may have in Portugal, Luís Neves calls for “serious measures” now and not in the next quarter.
“The measures announced may seem positive, at first, but in truth there is not one that will help us to solve the problem we face. When we talk about access to credit, we talk about debt, at a time when we already have companies with a lack of liquidity. It is important that there is European coordination in solving this serious problem, but in Portugal the situation will have to be solved by us and in accordance with our rules”, he concluded.
