In 2020, Matthew Price, CEO of the highly specialized technology company Cloudflare, accused António Costa’s government of “incompetence” due to bureaucracy and even threatened to “stop investing” in Portugal. Four years later, with the country in the hands of a new executive and the opening of new facilities in Lisbon, the criticism continues. And they were carried out under the watchful eye of Pedro Reis, Minister of Economy, who was present at the inauguration of the office.

Matthew Price argues that there are three problems that “hold Portugal back”: the immigration system, the Lisbon airport and the difficulty of hiring product managers. Starting with the first, which according to him is the “biggest,” the Cloudflare leader gives a concrete example to explain how it affects the company: “One of the most senior members of our team is from a country that does not automatically grant a visa. when [um cidadão] arrives in Portugal. Two and a half months ago we started the visa application process. He is an incredibly successful person. […] But we couldn’t get him into the country, not because he wasn’t qualified, but because the process and bureaucracy took too long.”

Next, Cloudflare’s CEO challenges Portugal to improve the immigration system, especially for “highly qualified candidates,” and promises to bring “back more Portuguese diasporas who left the country.” Minutes later, in conversation with the Observer, Matthew Price states that he remains optimistic that there may be improvements, however, he considers, “it seems that the country is not making much progress in this area.” “And that is holding us back. There are people who wanted to come to Portugal, to work from here, but we couldn’t get a visa. And that’s why we have to send them to the London office,” he continues, highlighting that over the years the company has learned “all kinds of tricks” to address these concerns.

If we have a good lawyer in Portugal, many things are done. “Now we have better lawyers than in 2020,” the businessman jokes, adding that one of the solutions implemented was to take the workers to Madeira, where the process is faster, to obtain a visa.

Still, it is still not the ideal system. “This is money we have to spend on air travel that we could spend on salaries or other investments or hiring more people. And it is the same country. It is absurd that we have to transport people to an island to get a job that, if they were not qualified, they would not have,” he argues.

For Overcrowding at the airport, a criticism that made those present in the room laugh.Matthew Price considers it a “problem that has a solution” and maintains that “just after the bridge there is a very good airport that can be used to transport some of the cargo from Lisbon and make this a reliable place to do business.” .” “It can be a hassle if we arrive a few hours late for our vacation, but if we are going to use the airport as a business center, it is not acceptable that the average plane delay is 2h30,” he points out.

[Já saiu o terceiro episódio de “A Grande Provocadora”, o novo podcast Plus do Observador que conta a história de Vera Lagoa, a mulher que afrontou Salazar, desafiou os militares de Abril e ridicularizou os que se achavam donos do país. Pode ouvir aqui, no Observador, e também na Apple Podcasts, no Spotify e no Youtube. E pode ouvir aqui o primeiro episódio e aqui o segundo.]

Regarding the difficulty of hiring product managersThe Cloudflare CEO begins by acknowledging that Portugal did an “excellent job of training some of the best engineers” he says he has ever seen. However, he maintains that the educational system has failed to train product managers. To support his opinion, he made the following analogy: “Engineers are like members of an orchestra. The product manager is the driver. And we lack drivers.”

Living in Portugal for two months, after selecting the country as Cloudflare’s European hub several years ago, Matthew Price assures that “he will continue investing” in the country. In 2019, the technology company had 14 workers in Portugal. Currently, the team already has more than 350 employees, a figure that will increase as the company wants to hire another 400 people over the next three years. But the CEO is confident that things will not stop there. “If I had to guess, I think we will get through this. [esta estimativa]. I think it is a very conservative objective,” he says, ensuring that if the problems are resolved he will be able to “easily hire twice as many people.”

Minister of Economy, Portuguese talent and a “nirvana for nomads”

Before the speech by Matthew Price, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Pedro Reyesdid the honors and began the inauguration of the office. Among the thanks to the company for continuing to invest in Portugal, the government official stated that the executive believes “in the private sector as an engine of change” and considered “foreign investment as a key to internationalization.”

“I see that investors, companies, talents who choose our country know that through Portugal they have access to strategic markets. I believe that Portugal, in a very volatile world, is increasingly considered a safe haven and this is a key factor in attracting investments,” defended Pedro Reis, highlighting that another important point is the “efficiency of the country’s “infrastructure.” “We will continue to invest in this, not only in logistics, but also in communications,” he added.

The Minister of Economy also recalled that “in Portugal you can find talent that goes far beyond the fact that, in the last decade, we have promoted 4,000 startups and six unicorns and the Web Summit” and what he called “a nirvana for nomads.” . “I think there is something here that is not in our value proposition, that is not circumstantial, nor temporary. We made the connection between societies, talents and young people, where they want to be and what they want to obtain not only from their work, but from their existence,” he guaranteed.