A little over two years ago, in November 2022, while I was trying to decide where to move and already had my own startup, I applied for Portugal’s startup program. I filled out the form as it was, without polishing or embellishing anything, mainly because I did not seriously consider Portugal as a place to run a business, partly due to high taxes and bureaucracy.

Once I sent the application, over the next six months I received most of the rejections from incubators that had no interest in some Estonian startup relocating to Portugal. I accepted this pretty easily, kept developing Fullyst, made the product better and forgot about all kinds of startup visas entirely.

So you can imagine my surprise when today, on December 19, I got an email from IAPMEI, the government body that reviews startups for the startup visa. The email said that one of the incubators had shown interest in Improvy and was ready to act as a sponsor for the invitation.

I did know that Portugal is all about a laid-back, unhurried lifestyle. After a year and a half here, I have understood and even to some extent accepted this. But getting interest from an incubator two years later is something completely new to me.

I am of course not going to use this opportunity to move Improvy fully or partially from Estonia. Despite the very friendly residence permit terms, the fast issuance of the card and its long validity, Portugal’s taxes for startups simply cannot compete with Estonia’s. Still, the fact that we were approved is definitely nice.