5.0
(11 reviews)
8+ Years Building Startups | Helping Early-Stage Founders Validate, Launch and Raise
Portugal
Speaks English and Portuguese
Active today Usually responds in a few hours

Services

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MentorCruise summary

Joana is a startup founder, advisor, and angel investor with more than eight years of experience building ventures. She has launched and developed Clynx, Lampsy, and Gleedot, with work spanning technology, health, education, and culture. She helps early-stage founders validate markets, set product and growth priorities, and prepare for fundraising.

Based on 7 verified mentee reviews

  • Several reviewers praise her insightful business guidance, including strategy advice and impactful suggestions.
  • Two reviewers value her proactive, hands-on involvement in helping them move their work forward.

About

Building a startup can feel overwhelming when every decision appears urgent: validating the market, defining the product, finding customers, building a team and preparing for investment.

I help early-stage founders identify what matters most, challenge assumptions and turn uncertainty into a clear and actionable strategy.

Over the past 8+ years, I have built and led ventures at the intersection of technology, health, education and culture. Alongside my work as a founder and operator, I mentor entrepreneurs, advise startups and evaluate investment opportunities as an angel investor.

My experience combines the founder, operator, mentor and investor perspectives. I have launched and developed ventures including Clynx, Lampsy and Gleedot, worked with founders across multiple industries, supported startup and innovation programmes, and assessed early-stage companies through angel-investment networks.

I can support you with:

– Market and problem validation
– Business model and positioning
– Go-to-market strategy
– Product and growth priorities
– Pitch decks and investor storytelling
– Fundraising strategy and investor readiness
– Founder decision-making and accountability

My mentoring style is practical, direct and highly personalised. I will not simply agree with your ideas—I will help you test them, identify blind spots and leave each session with clear next steps.

This mentorship is particularly relevant for first-time founders, early-stage teams and professionals transitioning into entrepreneurship.

What mentees say

5 out of 5 stars

Joana is very knowledgeable and helpful. Proactive in creating solutions for my marketing needs. Look forward to continuing to work with her.

Carrie

Carrie

Standard Plan • 3 months

5 out of 5 stars

Joana was the perfect mentor for my stage of entrepreneurship. She consistently pushed back on my assumptions in a gentle but firm manner, which made a real difference. Compared to my previous product ideas, I honed in on something people cared about much more quickly. One example: I pitched an idea and described my small set of beta users who were willing to test it. Joana encouraged me to talk to at least 10 users first. After those conversations, I landed on an idea with significantly more market pull—evidenced by the fact that several players were already in the space, whereas my original idea had none. I would hire Joana again without hesitation.

Traun

Traun

Lite Plan • 2 months

5 out of 5 stars

Joana was great a mentor, super insightful and helpful! A great thought partner!

Chris

Chris

Standard Plan • 10 months

Chris wrote 1 more review for the same mentorship

5 out of 5 stars

Joana is a great mentor! She's really helpful and insightful about health and is great with formulating strategy.

Chris

Chris

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Mentees who work with a mentor for 3+ months reach their goals 2x faster than those going it alone. Long-term mentorship means fewer false starts, more focused sessions, and support that builds week after week.

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