Case · Community
351 Startups: Portugal's largest startup community, built from nothing.
I started 351 as a one-person effort in 2019. Today it is Portugal’s largest startup community, run by volunteers, funded by partners, and delivering hundreds of initiatives a year.
The situation
Volunteer organisations have a hard ceiling. They run on the energy of a few people, and when those people move on, the knowledge leaves with them. Most never get past a handful of events a year.
We had a national ambition, a growing membership and no way to hire.
The approach
Treat volunteers as an operating system, not as helpers: defined roles, written playbooks and real ownership, so any recurring initiative runs well without me and a new volunteer can take over by reading, not shadowing.
What I built
- Governance and an operating model with clear decision rights, so nothing waits on one person.
- Playbooks for every recurring format, so each new edition starts from a working template.
- A team of 80 volunteers, large enough that no single departure threatens continuity.
- A partnership engine that took revenue from zero to €300K+ with no sales team, with partners including OVH, Make, HubSpot and MEO, funding the programme instead of membership fees.
- Impact measured all year, published in an annual impact review.
Results
- 3,000+
- members, Portugal’s largest startup community
- 300+
- initiatives in 2025, in 20+ cities, reaching 50,000+ people
- €300K+
- partnership revenue, from zero, with no sales team
Related
03 · StartupsWorking with startups, for corporates and cities