I am...
My name is Diogo de Mello Caiado. When I was little, Caiadinho... People consider me a natural entrepreneur. I started my first company when I was 25. I see myself as a traveller, having spent several months on six continents, learning about other cultures. I start each day afresh by trying to be humanistic and respectful of others. I have real social concerns and dream of a less anachronistic and more prosperous Portugal, governed seriously.
How your business came about?
My corporate career lasted just over two years, but it was intense, allowing me to work in other jurisdictions. There I realised that the wine category was evolving towards products with a modern identity, capable of attracting new consumers who were looking to choose in a different way and create a connection with the product, in contrast to more traditional products consumed by the general market. So I decided to create macro brands orientated towards markets or themes, which could also coexist with traditional consumer choices. In one month, I started registering around 30 brands, including Corcovado, orientated towards Brazil, Imbondeiro, Angola's national tree, or País das Uvas (which in Mandarin means Portugal), among others. This accumulated experience in trademarks and patents would lead me to other challenges in other industries. That was the beginning.
What is Adhoc Wine?
The company in question is Abraito, which owns Adhoc Wine, the umbrella brand for the wine category, and which currently produces in the Alentejo and has production partnerships inside and outside Portugal.
Any curiosity?
In 2016 I entered the hospitality business with the creation of the Eating Bear concept, food to share with wine pairings. The knowledge I've accumulated in wine has allowed me to create routes of flavours, with 4 dimensions of dishes, to harmonise the 4 great dimensions of wines: mineral, citrus, fruity and intense. We have them in Lisbon, in Rua da Madalena, in Curitiba and in development in China, benefiting from having created a company in Macau in 2018.
About the Alumni Business Hub, its importance and why you decided to take part?
The reality is that I'm immensely grateful to the school. The level of difficulty that once made me almost cry (this is obviously an exaggeration) now makes me laugh, because the ease of solving problems is fantastic. I can see it in my classmates. I always feel humble around them. The hub also allows me to get closer to these friends, for whom I have real admiration and with whom I've shared unforgettable moments.
One of the conditions for participating in the Alumni Business Hub is the creation of a special offer for Alumni. What is your offer to the community?
An offer that Alumni can feel tangibly: discounts at our public spaces in Lisbon: Eating Bear, The Lisbon Walker and Shoes N' Booze Cocktail Bar.
Exclusive Offer
Eating Bear, Shoes N´Booze Bar and The Lisbon Walker has created an offer for the entire Alumni community:
- Eating Bear - 50% discount on food dishes
- Shoes N' Booze Bar - 30% discount on drinks
- The Lisbon Walker - 30% off shoes
To take advantage of these offers, check all pages on Alumni Connect, here.
Dreams:
Every year since the beginning, I have organised a social project within my company. I'd have lots of stories here. But I'd like to learn more about social impact and create something unique in this space that changes people's lives.
What moves your heart:
Keeping my family's identity solid in values, willingness to learn and ability to create and build interesting alternatives that allow us to start again each day with a smile in our eyes.
Greatest Achievement:
My eldest son and I have asthma. Our pulmonologist said to me: ‘Caiado, if you wear masks it's going to be a problem. Why don't you go somewhere?’. I took my family and travelled around Covid between Florida, the Bahamas, southern Brazil and other places for a year and a half! During this time, I taught my children to swim, to read, to speak English, to run on beaches and in jungles, while trying to abstract myself from my business, which was rushing towards bankruptcy. Thanks to creativity, I completely reconfigured the processes and managed to save the companies... I didn't lose any, but I wouldn't change a thing even if I lost them all.
Biggest Challenge:
Maintain integrity and never cross the line of ethics and honesty. Because when you're navigating the small economy, someone comes along every week to cheat you or propose the wrong schemes. Portugal is clogged with these schemes, with a parallel economy that takes advantage of failures and externalities. But right is right, even if nobody does it, and wrong is wrong, even if everybody does it.
The most difficult question:
Why are human beings so selfish that, even in the face of the flow of information and the generation of collective knowledge, for the sake of the self-interest of groups and nations, they allow themselves to see millions of other human beings die or be killed by hunger, war, pollution or diseases that should have been treated a long time ago?
A book that struck you and why:
Reading goes hand in hand with travelling. In this category, I would highlight ‘From the Holy Mountain’ by William Dalrymple, which tells the story of an orthodox monk's journey during the fall of the Byzantine Empire. As well as being absolutely intelligent and humorous, it shows a man's ability to make decisions as he watches the world he knew fall around him.
A quote that inspires you:
I would like to highlight a phrase that teaches us to incorporate change, whether it brings happiness or sadness, as part of us: ‘No man can bathe twice in the same river... for the second time the river is no longer the same, nor is the man...’ by Heraclitus of Ephesus.