The Road That Brought Me to Valencia

My story begins with my father. He grew up in a humble family in Recife, in the northeast of Brazil, , and eventually built his own company in São Paulo, where my two sisters and I were born. After selling it, he decided to give his daughters something he hadn’t had growing up: the chance to see the world.

He wanted us to speak different languages, experience different cultures and understand the world. For two years we travelled together, studying along the way, living in New York, Paris and Cascais. I learned English, a bit of French and, without really noticing it, the skill that would shape the rest of my life: how to adapt.

I grew up hearing him say: “We can become anything we want, believe and dare to be.” Believing in yourself matters, he always reminds me, but daring is the most important part.

Eventually, we returned to Brazil. But the seed had already been planted. I had become a traveller with a true nomadic heart.

Finding my own way

At 21, I started travelling on my own. Living and studying in Fremont and Palo Alto introduced me to Silicon Valley’s world of innovation and entrepreneurship, and changed the direction of my career. I was passionate about marketing and music, so I started a project: a social network to connect the music industry.

🏆 Award-winning in Silicon Valley 

That idea took me to startup competitions and eventually, back to Europe. First I went to Cologne for a master’s in Intercultural Management and International Trade. Then I moved to Berlin, where I worked with an accelerator connecting large corporations with impact ventures. 

That was when I discovered the word that probably best describes the essence of what became my profession: a facilitator. Connecting people. Developing ideas. Creating the conditions for something new to happen.

I later spent several years in corporate strategy & innovation at Zurich Insurance, designing innovation programmes and helping teams and startups turn problems into solutions.

But through all of it, one dream was quietly sitting in the background: Berklee Valencia.

The city I had been dreaming about for eight years

In 2014, while living in Silicon Valley and developing my music project, I discovered Berklee College of Music’s Valencia campus and its master’s in Global Entertainment and Music Business. It brought together many parts of who I was. It was everything I wanted to study.

Meanwhile, life happened. Germany, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Insurance all happened… Eight years passed… But, I never completely forgot about it.

During the pandemic, my father gave me an idea. After watching a speech by Queen Elizabeth II, he suggested that I combine her message “better days will return” with Queen’s We Are the Champions (Queen + Queens) and compose a song for Zurich Insurance to bring strength to my fellow coworkers (Zurichers) during such a challenging time. And so I did.

Check the video below:

That song sparked an unexpected chain of opportunities, from becoming a finalist at the global EFMA-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards in workforce transformation, to ultimately receiving my dream scholarship at Berklee – shortly after receiving an award as a finalist of the global Zurich Innovation Championship in Switzerland.

🏆 Award-winning in Switzerland

Arriving in Valencia

It gives me chills to remember the feeling of arriving for class, looking at the City of Arts and Sciences and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, and thinking: Wow. My eyes still get watery when I pass by.

In this life I learned to always trust the process: “Aim for the moon, because even if you miss, you’ll still be among the stars.” (right?) But what I didn’t know is that it would actually happen. There I was, literally where stars are born. A funny coincidence is that, at one point, scenes from Andor 2, the Star Wars series, were even filmed right on campus. It felt like I was, quite literally, among the stars.

Leaving Valencia made me understand Valencia

After graduating, curiosity took me to Barcelona to learn the legal side of the music business, rights and royalties, at a music distribution company. It’s an extraordinary city, but I missed Valencia. After six countries and 15 cities, I had found a place I wanted to come back to.

So I returned, and went back to what has always moved me: innovation, ecosystems and bringing people together. One meetup led to another, and I became more and more involved in Valencia’s innovation ecosystem.

Eventually I became Head of Community & Events at València Nomads Hub and the GenAI Community.

Being the Bridge

Valencia has a rare balance between past, present and future: the historic centre and the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences, the Mediterranean way of life and strong connections to the rest of the world. It attracts highly qualified professionals from everywhere. 

These professionals bring an extraordinary collective intelligence: their own stories, experiences and ideas. But they often arrive without knowing how to connect with the local innovation ecosystem, that’s where we come in.

My job today is to be that bridge: to connect these professionals with what is being created in Valencia, and to create opportunities for knowledge to flow in both directions. Our Hub is the connecting point.

Over the past year we’ve had over one thousand people sign up to join our events, representing at least 50 different nationalities, 70 one-on-one calls with Nomads already living in Valencia, and community partners – and I’m always happy to meet every single one of them.

I’ve studied at 10 schools and 5 universities, in 5 languages, and started over more times than I can count. Along the way I learned that what makes a place meaningful isn’t how long you stay. It’s how connected you feel and what you can contribute. That’s what I see in our community every day. Whether you’re here for one month or six months, what matters is to choose to participate, share your story, share what you know, exchange, and build something meaningful with the people around you.

Being able to contribute to this community through València Nomads Hub, together with the ecosystem around València Innovation Capital, is both a privilege and an honor.

Thank you for teaching me to dare, Dad. ❤️

And that’s exactly what brings me to the Linkers.

Welcome, Linkers!

This new chapter of València Nomads Hub is about giving our Nomad Community a voice.

A bunch of really cool people who dare to make it work, no matter where they are or where their plot twists take them.

Through Linkers, members of our community will share their own stories: what brought them here, the connections they’ve made, what they’ve discovered in the city and what they’ve brought to it.

The stories on this blog won’t tell you what the stereotypical international professional in Valencia looks like, because I don’t believe there is one. If anything, they’ll make you rethink what being a nomad really means.

I can’t wait to rediscover Valencia through your stories.

Welcome, Nomads. Welcome, Linkers. 💙