This story is how I met Adriaan, how I got into a meeting with the manager of a pornographic business from the Netherlands, how I started growing my hair and why the main lessons are “hire slow, fire fast” and “trust your red flags”.
So much happened in 2021. This year was so transformative that I even let my hair grow.
It was still during the COVID quarantine when I moved to Lisbon, even though for me it felt like freedom. Cyango™ had won an international startup competition sponsored by Unicorn Factory Lisboa (former Startup Lisboa) and the opportunity to start living at CASA (their entrepreneurs residence) came up. I was one of the first guests to enter after they emptied it because of the pandemic. It felt like I was starting a new life - and I was.
Two months earlier some random guy sends me a message via WhatsApp saying he wants to work at my company. He saw Cyango's website and Cyango Cloud Studio and it was the perfect fit for him.
I said "sure let’s meet 🤷🏻"
We jumped on a call and he told me his story: he had quit his job to buy a 360 camera and start offering freelance services around the world, then decided to travel from the Netherlands to Lisbon in a caravan called "Clitoris"
His story touched me, because I did a similar thing when I started my company (will write about it here in the future).
We talked about an hour straight and we felt the vibes.
But then he asked me if I could give him a job. I took the emotional decision of saying yes, even without knowing his real expertise and even without any future incoming job for him.
I knew this was gonna be an expensive mistake, a foolish decision, but somehow I felt this was fate. I wanted to increase the odds of serendipity.
After hiring him, we only met personally after two months when I arrived to Lisbon. We had already discussed so many ideas about future projects, how we could leverage 360º video for storytelling virtual tours, it got exciting!
But weeks later he and his girlfriend broke up. She expelled him. He didn't have much money at the time, as he just started receiving his salary...so...he asked me for salaries in advance...
I always cared about my team. Their well-being was critical to be productive in the company. So my culture was to give them full freedom and accountability, and use the company as a tool to achieve their personal and professional goals.
I followed that logic, and said: "Yes I can give you salaries in advance, but you got to put yourself together man!".
He spent days looking for a new house in Lisbon, but its almost impossible to find any affordable bedroom...so I had the brilliant idea of letting him rent a bedroom in my residence. And the best of luck, it was next to mine. 🙃🙃
If you're thinking this was a bad idea, you're right, it was a bad idea. We started being close friends and this somehow breaks the authority relation in a company environment.
It sounds good to be close friends with your employees, but most people don't have enough emotional intelligence to separate the subjects.
After one month he found a bedroom in a street nearby, what a relief. As we lived right in the center of Lisbon hanging out at the bars was easy. So me and Adriaan decided to have some drinks. At the bar he suddenly started rolling a joint and drinking way too fast. But I thought: “He’s dutch, be open minded Joao!”.
That same night I found out myself drunk at 3 a.m carrying him totally f*cked up to his new bedroom he didn't even remember where it was.
This was just the start.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this "Breaking Bad" series 😂
(two weeks)