Talkdesk: “Porto has a lot of talent with excellent universities nearby”
Talkdesk is one of the most relevant companies in Porto’s tech scene and it’s dedicated to an “enterprise cloud contact center platform that helps IBM, Shopify, and 1,400 other enterprises improve customer satisfaction and agent productivity.” Pedro Torres is the Engineering Director of a company that almost needs no introduction and he is also our first interviewed.
What is Talkdesk story?
Talkdesk has started in 2011 with two co-founders, Tiago Paiva (CEO) and Cristina Fonseca that is no longer at the company. These two entrepreneurs were trying to search and develop a new idea and suddenly they found the Twiliocon, a hackathon from Twilio. They decided to participate and three steps later the Talkdesk draft project won the contest. After that, they were invited by 500Startups to develop the idea in S. Francisco and Tiago stayed in the US while Cristina went to Portugal to build the engineering team. Since that moment, it’s crystal clear for us that the U.S. team would be for the sales and marketing management and in Portugal, we would have the engineering team. Both Tiago and Cristina studied in Técnico (Lisbon University) and so their first choices for the initial team were engineers that once studied with them and some of Técnico’s best students.
Was Lisbon the Talkdesk starting point?
Yes, Talkdesk was born in S. Francisco and Lisbon.
Why did you create the engineering team only in Portugal?
We didn’t. We did make an experience of creating an engineering team also in S. Francisco, but we failed for two reasons: on the first hand, we had very much higher salaries. It was not feasible to support that. The other reason was the competition. In the U.S. we had no chance to compete with companies like Facebook or Google and attract employees for our company.
I see… And what about Porto? When did it all start?
It’s a very funny story indeed. After the summer of 2016, I received a call from Talkdesk telling me that they want me to join its team in Lisbon. I’m from Porto but I once had lived in the capital, so I didn’t have a problem with that. In the last step of the interviews process, I finally met Tiago Paiva. He knew I was from Porto and for my surprise, he asked me if I really wanted to go to Lisbon. “I don’t”, I replied, and Tiago proposed me to create an office in Porto. He also told me that it was a previous wish from Talkdesk to open an office in this city because of the wish to hire some engineers and attract some talents. That opening would facilitate that. We started in a small UPTEC room and three months later, with the office full of people, we moved to Trindade and we actually are moving now to a 2000 square meter space in Anselmo Braancamp street. Talkdesk has played its cards on Porto. Today there are 50 teammates in Porto, but we wanted to reach the 100/200.
Why Porto? What did Talkdesk find in Porto that made it stay?
Tiago Paiva has always had that idea to create an office in Porto and even today he wants to have a company full of people, a big company with thousands of workers. Today, after six years of existence, are already more than 300. And so one of the paths to increase our team was to create another office in Portugal. Porto has a lot of talent, excellent universities nearby like FEUP, ISEP, Minho and Aveiro, and besides that, when in comparison to Lisbon, Porto has not only the services and consulting business, but it has also the product development area. So here you can find more easily talent and know-how for both areas.
And what can the Porto Startup Scene expect from you?
There at least two things that Porto Startup Scene can expect from us. The first one is a major support to Porto’s community. Even in our first small office, we were hosts for many local communities like NetPonto and with this new office, one of our main goals is to host a local community, at least once a month, and let them give some talks and make community meetings more dynamic in order to develop Porto’s tech scene. The other thing we want to do is give the opportunity to software development lovers with talent to work with us. We can offer them the chance of working on a global scale with huge challenges ahead.
Lots of companies/startups are looking at the Porto region as a location for their next office. Based on your experience so far, what would you like to tell them?
First of all, I would recommend them to think if it is really Porto they want to install their business. The point is not to discourage the investors. I’m from Porto and I love all this diversity. But the truth is that the tech scene isn’t the same as it was a few years ago. In 2014 everyone in the city wanted to work in BLIP, today there are so many players that it is difficult to choose one. You have Feedzai, you have BLIP, you have us, you have Farfetch, you have HostelWorld, you have so many companies recruiting engineers that is not easy for a new company to find the employee you want. In addition, you have obviously higher salaries and also the supply is growing in excess of demand. And I’ve recently heard about the coming of a new player to the city, Amazon. So it’s getting more difficult to attract talent to Porto. I remember how it was in Dublin some years ago and the working conditions were much better than in Porto. So, my first advice is to think if it is Porto they really want, and my second advice is the choice of the office location. Our workforce is the millennials and they don’t want to buy a car or a house because tomorrow they could be working in another country. So, they don’t want a big commitment and so the office should be near the people. The fact that we had our office in Trindade was a huge attractiveness for our workers. Trindade is the main transport hub of Porto and that could be a huge key factor. The new office will be in the downtown as well.
Speaking of that… A personal and last question for you. What’s your favorite part of the city?
Oh, I have a funny story about that. I was born in Porto and I lived here until 25. Then I’ve been to Lisbon and London and I came back in 2013. Until then my favorite area in the city was my living area, Antas, and I love that part of Porto. But since the time I work in the downtown (three years ago), I started identifying myself with that part too. I didn’t even know before the main street names and now I have my working place in downtown and so many meetings there that I’m in love with Porto’s “Baixa”.
By FES Agency
