Tenho Média Pa'Isto
Built Portugal's leading education podcast — 600k+ views helping a generation choose their future.
600k+ views
12.3k subscribers
67 episodes
4.98 Spotify
Created and led a 5-person team for 2.5 years.
Leandro
Duarte
Portuguese founder. Builder. From selling vegetables to shipping AI.
5 ventures
1 exit at 20
600k views
3:34 marathon
Featured Projects
Sonant AI
2nd engineer at an AI startup. Raised ~$5M. Moved to San Francisco. Built the product from zero.
Role
5th person in. Full codebase ownership: Python, FastAPI, LLM logic, TTS/STT, agent workflows.
Silicon Valley
Lived at Stanford campus. Worked from Pear VC office. Company raised ~$5M.
Impact
43% staff productivity gain. 8X ROI in 30 days. Featured in Forbes.
Centro de Explicações Online
Spotted a gap during COVID. Built an online tutoring platform. Sold it within a year.
20+ tutors
100+ students
<1yr to exit
20 years old
COVID lockdown hit. Every tutoring center in Portugal had a terrible website and suddenly needed to be online. The podcast started as marketing for this business — a hack that became its own thing. Now operates as Portal da Sabedoria.
Now
Bootstrap & sell Early stage & scale Series A & learn Found my own thing
Mimo
AI Engineer · Series A · Stockholm
AI Engineer at a Series A fintech that raised €18M+. Building AI workflows for accounting automation in Go, Node.js, and Python. 30-person team across Stockholm and London.
MSc Data Science
KTH Stockholm + UPM Madrid · EIT Digital
Double degree. GPA 4.6/5 at KTH, 8.8/10 at UPM. Innovation & Entrepreneurship minor. GenAI for Startups summer school at University of Glasgow.
Ithaca
Legal Tech AI · Founded 2025 · EIT Digital Venture
Next: founder.
I grew up selling fruits and vegetables at village markets since I was eight. No one dragged me to tech. I wanted to lead and be the best at something. So I built five ventures, sold one at twenty, went to Silicon Valley at twenty-four, and I'm not done.
Questions I Get Asked
What have you actually built?
Online tutoring platform — built, scaled, sold at 20.
Educational podcast — 600k+ views, led 5-person team for 2.5 years.
Web3 gaming startup — Web Summit 2022, Draper University, full MVP.
Legal tech AI platform — EIT Digital Venture Programme.
AI voice product at Sonant — full-stack from zero, company raised $5M.
What makes you different as a founder?
Not a typical tech background. Came from selling vegetables, earned every step.
The progression: bootstrap and sell, then early stage and scale, then Series A and learn. Ready to found.
Strong friendships are the asset. I already have a shortlist of people to build with — co-founders, growth, sales, design.
What was your hardest period?
Three years ago. Finishing a mathematics bachelor at IST, selling the tutoring center, 42 School, running the podcast, starting Hash Game Store, helping the family business. Five or six things at once with no safety net. It kind of went well.
Competitions and awards?
JUNITEC: Junior Enterprise of the Year — European Excellence Awards 2024 and 2025.
Web Summit 2022 Alpha Startup.
Draper University Silicon Valley programme.
Portuguese Youth Parliament Finalist (2015, 2018).
Football District Champion (2015, 2018). KTH captain, Rome 2024.
Education
All done in parallel with ventures and full-time work.
2024 — now
MSc Data Science
Double degree: KTH Stockholm + UPM Madrid. EIT Digital programme. GPA 4.6/5 (KTH), 8.8/10 (UPM). Innovation & Entrepreneurship minor.
2019 — 2023
BSc Mathematics & Computation
IST, University of Lisbon — the hardest maths programme in Portugal. GPA 15/20.
2021 — 2023
42 Network School
Lisbon. Selected 50 out of 150 applicants. Peer-to-peer coding. Done alongside bachelor.
2023
Deep Learning & MLOps
DeepLearning.AI + Google. 160 hours. Andrew Ng.
2022 — 2023
Azure AI + Data Scientist
Microsoft Certified. 120 hours.
2018 — 2019
BSc Applied Mathematics
FCUL, Lisbon. GPA 18/20, top student. Transferred to IST for a harder programme.
Timeline
2005
Started working in family business, age 8
2015
Football District Champion
2015
Youth Parliament Finalist
2018
Started BSc Mathematics at FCUL — GPA 18/20
2019
Transferred to IST — hardest maths in Portugal
2020
COVID → Founded Centro de Explicações Online
2021
Sold tutoring center — first exit at 20
2021
Created Tenho Média Pa'Isto podcast
2021
Entered 42 School — selected 50/150
2022
Founded Hash Game Store
2022
Web Summit 2022 — Alpha Startup
2022
Joined JUNITEC — Junior Enterprise
2023
Graduated BSc from IST
2023
Podcast ends — 600k+ views
2024
Master's at KTH Stockholm
2024
Joined Sonant AI — 5th member
2024
Seville Marathon — 3h 34m
2025
San Francisco — Stanford + Pear VC
2025
Founded Ithaca
2026
Joined Mimo — Series A
Let's build
something.
If you're a founder, investor, or builder — I'd love to hear what you're working on.
© 2026 Leandro Duarte Built from scratch