About
The story
nobody tells.
I lost €250,000 in two years. Every penny I had saved over 15 years of consulting. Gone.
I was 45 years old. In a foreign country. With no network that could help. Starting from zero.
This is how I rebuilt. And what I learned about the only real safety net.
2005-2024
20 Years of Building
10 years building for others. Nokia, SAP, Fortune 500s. Learning what makes large organizations tick — and what makes them break.
Then 10 years building my own company. Consulting, training, speaking. 5 books. 50+ organizations transformed across 3 continents. Faculty at Porto Business School.
By every external measure, I was successful. But late at night, staring at another corporate transformation project, I felt empty. I was always helping other companies scale. Watching other founders take the risks while I played it safe with consulting contracts.
I kept saying “someday I'll build my own thing.” But someday never came.
2020-2023
The Fall
In 2020, I was invited to Saudi Arabia to work with the CEO of the country's biggest digital bank. The kind of opportunity you don't say no to. Then COVID hit. I left.
In October 2023, I came back. This time with €250,000 in savings and a plan to land consulting contracts. Do corporate transformation work like I'd done for 15 years.
The entire country was being built from scratch. The main industry was startups. Nobody wanted digital transformation consultants.
Everything I planned was wrong for the market. I watched my savings disappear. Business setup costs. Living expenses in a foreign country. Marketing that didn't work. Pivots that went nowhere.
I reached out to hundreds of people I'd met during my career. Colleagues. Clients. Conference “friends.”
Three people. Out of hundreds. That's how many actually helped.
Late 2024
The Darkness
There were nights I couldn't sleep. Mornings I didn't want to get up. The voice in my head asking: “What's the point? You're 45. You failed. It's over.”
No safety net. No fallback plan. No one to call at 3am. Complete isolation with the consequences of my decisions.
But something shifted in that darkness. When everything was stripped away — reputation, money, network — I was left with just myself.
Then one of the founders I had mentored in a Saudi accelerator program showed me Claude. Taught me what AI could actually do. The person I had helped was now helping me. And everything changed.
Early 2025
The Gift
With no money left, I came back home. Back to Portugal. Back to my parents' house. And I picked up where my friend in Saudi had left off — building with AI.
My parents — age 83 — bought me a €220/month Claude subscription because I couldn't afford it myself. They have no idea what I'm building. But they believed in me.
The most expensive lesson of my life — and the most valuable.
That was the last money I was willing to waste. Failure was no longer an option. It was no longer allowed.
January 2025 - Present
The Build
New businesses
Methodologies
Months alone
Built with AI
I dropped enterprises and turned to entrepreneurship. FIKR Space. MVP Builder. Unicorn Builder. MACHINE. Software built with AI. Methodologies refined with AI. Everything, with AI.
Not because I'm a genius developer. Because I learned how to make AI build production software. And then I built the methodology to teach others how to do it too.
From nothing to an entire ecosystem — alone.
12 months straight. I sacrificed my body, relationships, mental health. I don't recommend it. But I didn't have a choice.
The Only Real Safety Net
When you lose everything, you learn what actually matters.
Not your savings. I lost €250,000.
Not your network. 3 people helped from hundreds.
Not your resume. 20 years meant nothing.
Not your reputation. It evaporated when I couldn't pay rent.
The only real safety net is the ability to build.
To create something from nothing. To ship. To solve problems. When everything else is stripped away, that's what remains.
3 Methodologies. 3 Problems.
BUILD — for non-technical founders who want to build real software with AI. The exact system I used to build everything. Now taught through MVP Builder Studio.
SCALEUP — for funded startups hitting growth walls. Enterprise best practices minus enterprise bloat. 7 pillars for scaling from 10 to 100 people. Powers Unicorn Builder.
MACHINE — for service business founders stuck as the bottleneck. 7 pillars based on what worked and what failed in my own consulting business. The system that gets you into the 4% that scale past the founder.
Each methodology was born from a real problem. Each one powers a company. Each company serves a different founder.
2025 & Beyond
4 Companies. One Ecosystem.
FIKR Space →
The startup platform. 7 integrated products replacing 15+ disconnected tools. Startups run operations, accelerators manage programs, investors discover deals. All feeding an intelligence layer.
MVP Builder Studio →
For non-technical founders who want to build real software with AI. Academy, bootcamps, workshops, and the Exit Accelerator. Powered by the BUILD methodology.
Unicorn Builder →
For Series A founders who need to execute, not just raise. 6-month accelerator with capital and a fractional C-suite. Powered by the SCALEUP methodology.
The Vision
Success isn't about how much you make helping big companies. It's about how many founders you help build, scale, and systematize their businesses.
Sometimes you have to lose everything to find what you're really meant to build.
When you have nothing left to lose, you build differently. You build to survive. And then you build to help others do the same.
The Proof
Businesses Built
Methodologies
Books Published
Years Experience