I just spent an intense month in Portugal, leading the internationalization of a Brazilian technology company on European soil. It was not a tourism trip (far from it) or a remote analysis of reports about the European market. It was a month living day to day, visiting several municipalities and counties, sitting at negotiation tables, talking with local accountants and lawyers, understanding how Europeans think and, most importantly, how the Portuguese do business.
I return to Brazil carrying a heavy load of lessons, but with the certainty that I will need to go back in just a few days, such are the opportunities in that country. This market requires close monitoring. And the opportunity taking shape in the partnership between Brazil and Portugal is too significant to be handled from a distance.
The first cultural shock you feel is not the language, but the way it is used. Brazilians are masters of reading between the lines, of workarounds, of going around the point. We soften words to avoid friction. The Portuguese, on the other hand, are direct and literal. If the answer is no, it is no. No detours, no empty promises like "let's grab a coffee sometime". At first, this objectivity catches the Brazilian executive off guard, someone trained to read invisible signals. But after a few days, you recognize the efficiency in it. Portuguese directness saves time, energy and aligns expectations with crystal clarity. It is an important lesson about how business communication should be: clear, objective and free of noise. After all, we talk so much that we need this, but in practice we are trained to "break the ice" and take the long way around before getting to the point. And it is not a matter of rudeness. A direct conversation is respectful, because it respects what each person holds most precious: time.
OK, but what do we Brazilians bring with us and apply successfully there? Our resilience and capacity for rapid adaptation. We have always been shaped by an unstable, complex and highly competitive market. When a Brazilian technology company lands in Portugal, it brings operational agility and a hunger for innovation that shakes up the local environment. We know how to scale solutions quickly, something the European ecosystem, often more rigid and cautious, admires and needs. If conversations in Portugal are more direct, actions tend to move more slowly than we are used to.
And here comes a point that caught my attention: Smart Cities. Since the technology solution I came to implement involves Urban Intelligence, I needed to study the market. When we look at the global IMD Smart City Index ranking for 2026, we see Zurich, Oslo and London at the top. Portuguese cities like Lisbon and Porto, despite all their charm and the startup boom (there are already more than 5,000 in the country), still struggle to enter the elite of truly smart cities. Why? Because Portugal still suffers from legacy infrastructure bottlenecks, bureaucracy in the adoption of urban technologies and an implementation pace that does not keep up with the speed of innovation being born within its own technology hubs.
But to my surprise, I found an enormous catalyst on the horizon that will change this scenario: the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Portugal will co-host with Spain and Morocco. Stadiums such as Luz and Alvalade in Lisbon, and Dragão in Porto, will become global stages. And this is where our Brazilian experience is worth its weight in gold. We lived through the 2014 World Cup. We know exactly what works and what turns into a "white elephant". We learned the hard way about temporary urban mobility, about the need for robust mass connectivity and about cybersecurity at mega-events.
Portugal will experience, over the next four years, a massive injection of investment for urban modernization. It is the golden opportunity to make a definitive leap in the Smart Cities concept. And who is better positioned to supply technology, software infrastructure and data intelligence for this moment than Brazilian companies that have already been through it?
The partnership between Brazil and Portugal can be much greater than the simple migration of talent. Know that today there are already more than 200,000 Brazilians living there. Portugal is our most strategic gateway into the European Union. Brazil brings the market scale and execution agility that Portugal needs to validate technologies before expanding across the continent.
I leave this first month of living alongside the Portuguese with a genuine sense of welcome and with many possibilities for lasting partnerships and business. I saw firsthand that our technology is not behind European standards. I am confident because our execution capacity is a real competitive differentiator. Internationalizing is not about opening a CNPJ (or NIPC here) and expecting everything to unfold on a conveyor belt of progress. It is about building solid bridges, working hard, establishing connections to be accepted by the Portuguese community, understanding the other side's directness and being present when the opportunities of 2030 begin to take shape today. If you are thinking about bringing your business to Europe, here is my advice: start with Portugal. But do not come alone, relying only on boldness and courage (you will need both, too). Count on specialized consulting, which can save you from a few hard falls and a great deal of money.
I will say it again: there is no vacuum in business. Every entrepreneur with a mature product faces, at some point, the same crossroads: either you take what you have already proven to places it has not reached yet, or you create something new for those who already trust you. Both directions have logic, have risk and have reward. What has no logic is standing still, assuming that the market where you operate today will always be enough. If your product has the strength to compete in Europe, someone will occupy that space. The question is not whether it will happen. It is whether it will be you or your competitor. I always prefer to be the first to arrive.
Article originally published on GazzConecta.
