Charles, Elliot and Ianis are three French citizens who moved to Portugal to live. Now they publish stories about Lisbon and the country in their magazine Lisboète. Getting the magazine off the ground required the adventure of starting a company in Portugal.
The company they started now publishes and prints Lisboète, a quarterly which covers social events, food and culture, in French, for francophones and other readers looking to learn more about Portugal. It also carries the features written by Ianis Periac and Charles Mathieu-Dessay, the two staffers.
Charles is a man of many tasks at the magazine. He is in the newsroom, on the board and deals with marketing and selling publicity. This jack-of-all-trades personality proved crucial for the next phase of the project: starting a company in Portugal for a small business which depends on the energy of friends with a common background in journalism back in France.
He and Ianis Periac tell the stories which make up the publication. “Finding the subjects to interview and writing” are some of the tasks undertaken by Ianis at the Lisboète. As for readership, according to Ianis “they are mostly French and other francophones”, but also Portuguese who read French.
The challenge of starting a company in Portugal
“Starting a company [in Portugal] is easy”, recalls Elliot Schmaltz, the third element which makes up the Lisboète team, and who arrived in Portugal six years ago. “In two and a half days, provided you have people who know what they are doing, you can get things done”, he explains.
Even though he started doing odd-jobs in Portugal, which left him better prepared, Elliot eventually developed a website which led to joining forces with Charles and to the work which is now developed by the magazine. “I began to like the city – which I found seductive – and finding out more things about it. I became a tour guide and used the side to provide directions. After that I began to gather people to provide content for the site”.
They all share a love for the city. “Life in Lisbon is good”, says Ianis Periac. He still remembers Paris, but thinks that “Lisbon is sunnier than Paris, it is beside the ocean and there is a sweetness to living here”.
If you want to know more about starting a company in Portugal, we help walk you through all the steps to starting your own business, like these three Frenchmen did with Lisboète.
