One Page Summary

Menos is a social organization born with the mission of engaging communities in fighting unemployment through micro-entrepreneurship.

We combine technology, design and a network of local mentors to bring the best practices of technology startups to conventional businesses, so that unemployed individuals without prior knowledge but with ideas and motivation can create their own opportunities.

We have run 5 acceleration programs, capacitating 50 unemployed entrepreneurs, structuring 35 business ideas, which more than 30% are operational and generating income after 6 months of the program.

The businesses launched range from a senior academy (AgiArte), one of the first meditation program for the corporate sector in Portugal (Bloom), bricolage premium service (DoubleFix), customized art dolls company (Pateferie), home organizer services (Alinhar), a platform for refugee integration (RefugeesWelcome), consultancy services for nursing homes (Lulu) amongst many others.

To make this possible, we use technology and design to offer two complementary platforms.
The first platform is called multiplication platform and makes available digitally our acceleration program and content to anyone, in any part of the world, who wants to replicate our methodology in their local communities. We recruit individuals or organizations that replicate the model which are called multipliers and it works like a social franchising.

The second platform is called subtraction platform and it is a digital network of local mentors. When the local unemployed entrepreneurs finish the acceleration program, they apply for the mentorship program. We recruit individual volunteer local mentors who want to be engaged with their communities while using their own expertise and benefiting from an international network of local mentors, entrepreneurs, and partners.

On top of both platforms, we offer our network of local and global partners that provide content, workshops, discounts, exclusive events and help in promotion through exclusive channels.

Our goal is to create a strong and supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem through our platforms to every fragile group of society in any part of the globe and use entrepreneurship as an inclusion tool to foster a more dynamic and solid local economy everywhere.