External communication strategies for startups

In the world of startups, external communication should be a strategic pillar, fundamental not only to attract potential customers, but to position the brand among the most diverse stakeholders. Understanding its different dimensions allows a startup to stand out, create perceived value and build lasting relationships. It is crucial to develop the brand voice, considering its alignment with the mission and values, the target audience, consistency across every channel, the capacity to adapt and evolve, as well as authenticity. At bottom: how, and what, is the story the startup communicates?

These are what I consider to be the five key stages in the process of defining external communication.

1. Identifying the target audience

The first step towards effective communication is to know the intended audience deeply. Long gone are the days when knowing gender, geography and age bracket was enough. The economy is competitive and there are multiple products and services meeting the same needs. It is therefore necessary to understand the real aspirations of the audience we want to reach. What makes the consumer wake up in the morning? What are their urgencies and pains? Their routines and values? Understanding the behaviours and expectations of the target audience allows us to develop personalized messages that resonate directly and have emotional impact, translating into a higher conversion rate.

2. Diversifying the communication channels

Diversifying the channels and adapting the messages to the specifics of each platform are essential steps for a successful external-communication strategy. This effort ensures that the brand voice stays consistent, relevant and impactful at every point of contact with the audience. The choice of each channel depends on the type of message to be conveyed and the peculiarities of each audience and market. Content for TikTok is not suited to Facebook, email marketing does not work on LinkedIn, and a motorway billboard should not carry a QR code, who is going to scan it? Integration between channels is also an effective strategy. An Instagram post can direct followers to a blog article, while an email-marketing campaign can promote a webinar on LinkedIn. This approach ensures the message reaches the audience in various forms and at different moments, increasing its impact.

3. Creating content of value

Creating valuable content is one of the most effective strategies to capture and hold attention. This content should be relevant, useful and engaging, addressing the needs, challenges and interests of the target audience. A good starting point is creating a blog where articles, case studies, tutorials, interviews with experts in the field and other forms of educational content are shared. A technology startup can write about the latest trends in its sector, offer tutorials on how to use its solution, or share success stories of customers who used its product. Webinars, podcasts and e-books are other possible formats. It is also crucial to ensure the content is optimized for search engines (SEO). Using relevant keywords, creating attractive titles and meta-descriptions, and ensuring quality and originality are practices that help improve visibility in search results. This way, the startup can attract organic, qualified traffic, growing its base of potential customers.

4. Constant engagement and interaction

Effective communication is not one-directional. It is crucial to establish a constant dialogue with the audience, humanizing the brand. That means responding to comments and messages on social media, taking part in online discussions and encouraging feedback. Live events, such as workshops and conferences, are also excellent opportunities to interact directly. Beyond that, a startup can use Q&A sessions on platforms like Instagram and YouTube or, although I am not particularly a fan of this approach, create forums or online discussion groups where people can share experiences and exchange ideas. Platforms like Reddit, Discord or even Facebook groups are excellent for this kind of interaction. It is equally important to monitor brand mentions on social media and other online channels. Using social-listening tools makes it possible to identify what is being said about the startup and to give feedback, showing that it is attentive and cares about the audience's opinion. Finally, never underestimate the power of negative feedback, which is a valuable source of information for improving products and services. The startup should respond empathetically and professionally to all criticism, showing a willingness to solve problems and improve the customer experience. This kind of response can turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal advocate of the brand.

5. Monitoring and continuous improvement

No communication strategy is effective without monitoring and quick adaptation to results and feedback. Beyond traditional tools such as Google Analytics and native social-media metrics, it is beneficial to adopt more advanced platforms such as SEMrush, Ahrefs or HubSpot. These tools offer detailed, comparative analyses, helping to better understand communication performance and to identify opportunities for improvement. It is also essential to gather feedback directly from the audience, with satisfaction surveys, for example. In addition, running competitive analyses is fundamental. Tools such as SimilarWeb or Sprout Social can help analyze competitors' online presence and identify sector trends. Finally, it is essential to document all processes and results, allowing an efficient periodic review and facilitating informed decision-making. This also serves as a guide for future strategies, letting you learn from both the successes and the challenges.

Implementing a successful external-communication strategy requires a balance between meticulous analysis and bold creativity. By understanding the target audience, diversifying the communication channels, creating content of value, engaging constantly and monitoring the results, a startup can build a brand that is solid and relevant in the market.

Europe has to give companies a reason to stay

I refuse to move Simplifyer's headquarters to the United States, but I understand why so many European companies do. Europe has to give companies incentives so their head offices stay here, and pay their taxes here.

The gap is real, and it's widening. Europe spends roughly €270 billion a year less on research than the United States. Only four of the world's fifty largest technology companies are European, and just 7% of new AI patents come from here. In the US it's easier to enter and easier to sell; in Europe, an excess of regulation pushes investors away.

Founding a company is hard for anyone, and much harder without wealthy parents behind you. Too much of today's entrepreneurship is built for the children of rich parents who can bankroll them. The hardest part isn't the idea; it's the running costs in your head. You start paying the day you open the door, before you've invoiced a single euro. There should be more support at exactly that moment.

Our labour law is completely out of step with reality and needs a structural change, not another patch. And in politics, I'm a municipal councillor in Loures, we govern in four-year cycles with our eyes on the next election, when what we owe people is a plan for the future.

None of this is a reason to give up. It's a reason to build here, on purpose. My advice to anyone younger is simple: dream, but make it real. Don't just wait for someone else to do it for you.

Data is the oil of the next century

Controlling our own future is only possible if we control our information, and the access we allow the technology giants to have. That is why I keep saying data is the oil of the next century.

The risk isn't abstract. We hand over personal data constantly and accept every cookie policy without thinking. That uncritical acceptance is exactly how sensitive information ends up somewhere it shouldn't.

So we need a far broader debate, now, and at the conferences still to come, about what can actually be done with our personal data, and with the data being generated every day by companies and by people.

The dangers are already concrete: digital fraud, fake accounts, artificial intelligence used to imitate voices and deceive people. Society still isn't very aware of how dangerous the internet can be when it isn't used well.

And there is still resistance to women in this field. Mostly, men think we don't deserve to be in that room, not all of them, but there's always one. Explaining that we're there on merit, and that it's worth it, is an interesting process every single time.

The value we throw away

We produce enormous amounts of consumption data every single day, and almost all of it is invisible to the people who generate it, and barely actionable for those who sell, study or build for them.

A receipt is the clearest example. It records a real decision: what was bought, where, when, at what price. And then it is thrown in the bin, forgotten in a drawer, or lost in an inbox. We treat the most honest record of our own behaviour as rubbish.

Structure that information ethically and intelligently and you create value on two fronts at once. People start to understand their own financial habits. Brands and retailers get a far more faithful picture of what is actually purchased, and why. Neither side has to lose for the other to win.

That is the thesis behind Simplifyer, and the reason I keep returning to one idea: clarity is not a feature bolted onto a product. For the person who has it, clarity is power.

Innovation shouldn't be reserved for the big

I've been involved in local politics since I was eighteen, and working in municipal life since twenty-four, in parallel with an international career in entrepreneurship and innovation.

That proximity taught me something that rarely makes it into startup discourse: even small public decisions land directly on people and places. You feel the consequences in the street, not in a spreadsheet.

So I don't accept that innovation should be reserved for the big centres or the big companies. It should be a tool for local economic development, for inclusion, for quality of life, usable wherever people are, not only where the capital already is.

Entrepreneurship and the public sector are not rivals. When they actually work together they produce better policy and real opportunities for the people who want to build. For me that isn't a side project. It's a mission.

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution

The advice I give founders most often is also the least glamorous: spend real time understanding the problem before you fall in love with the solution.

After that, the rest is discipline. Surround yourself with people who are better than you in the areas that matter. Be ruthless about execution. And learn to communicate well, with customers, with investors, with partners. Most startups don't fail for lack of ideas; they fail for lack of clarity.

Portugal has excellent talent and an ecosystem maturing at a good pace. But success still comes down to the same three things: resilience, focus and strategic clarity. There is no shortcut around them.

Some sectors add a further demand on top. In fintech and consumer intelligence you also need technical rigour, regulatory compliance and, above all, trust, because in data, trust is the central asset. Lose it once and the product no longer matters.

Closing Portugal's early-stage gap

There is a clear gap in Portugal between a validated idea and the rounds that follow, made worse by rounds that are, in general, smaller than in comparable markets.

Closing the first ticket remains hard, in part because the market still has few instruments genuinely designed for early-stage risk. The result is a natural misalignment between the stage a startup is at and the mandates of the capital available to it.

I'd like to see more early-stage capital with a real appetite for risk, and better incentives on both sides, for investors, as the UK already does, and for startups themselves, including the participation and equity mechanisms our law still doesn't allow us to offer employees.

Most of all, I'd like a closer dialogue between startups, incubators and regulators, with sandboxes and room to experiment responsibly. We can innovate without stalling growth. We just have to decide to.