Founder Journey
Global Founder Trajectory
2024–2025 · San Francisco · Stanford · Paris · EuroTech
Founder rooms across San Francisco, Stanford, Paris, and EuroTech — the chapter where João's builder network stopped feeling adjacent and started compounding.
- YC Startup School
- Paris 2025
- EuroTech
- Founder network
- Global builders
Period
2024–2025
Significance
A compounding founder chapter where João's builder identity became increasingly international, social, and high-leverage.
Why it matters
This is where João stopped feeling adjacent to the global startup ecosystem and started building genuine network presence inside it.
Story arc
How this chapter unfolded.
- 01
Entry
From technical ambition to founder rooms.
The first shift was environmental. After Stanford and YC Startup School SF 2024, João started entering spaces where builders, founders, and technical operators were the default. The network became part of the work.
- 02
Density
Paris made the network visible.
YC Paris Startup School 2025 and the surrounding founder circuit gave the chapter its strongest signal: badges, rooms, conversations, international peers, and the feeling of belonging around elite startup energy. Around 30 new LinkedIn contacts in a weekend; builders adjacent to the founders of well-known infrastructure companies in those rooms.
- 03
Compounding
Relationships became leverage.
Through Stanford, YC Startup School, EuroTech Federation, and adjacent international builder circles, João's trajectory became less local and more globally connected — a foundation for how he now approaches Speco and the YC S26 application currently in review.
Curated media
A few moments that tell the story.
Paris 2025 — the founder-room moment that anchors this chapter. YC-adjacent energy, badge on, network compounding in real time.
Portrait from the weekend João's founder identity became less aspirational and more lived.
Room density from YC Paris — the kind of weekend that turns into ~30 LinkedIn contacts and a sharper sense of who actually shows up when serious infrastructure builders gather.
Venue context — the buildings, halls, and courtyards where the conversations actually happened.
Atmosphere from the chapter where international builder identity stopped being aspirational and started feeling like home turf.
Proof and links
External signal.
Continue the arc