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Interview by Ievgeniia Rodionova, Co-founder of ProBusinessMedia, The School of Senses, marketing expert and mentor for entrepreneurs
We met Nicola in one of the expat founder chats in Portugal. It took just a few voice notes to realize we speak the same language: burnout, transformation, working with archetypes, body-based practices, soul-aligned marketing. All of it is part of both our journeys. This conversation isn’t just about startups; it’s about what happens when your business becomes an extension of your nervous system, your values, and your healing.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): Nicola, thank you for joining us. Let's start with your entrepreneurial journey. Can you share your short story?
Nicola Telford: Of course. I stumbled into my first business around 22 or 23, fresh out of university and trying to figure things out. Traditional jobs just didn't align with my desire for creativity, flexibility, and freedom. So, I took on a freelance gig, then another, and before I knew it, I had more work than I could handle. I quit my job, and with a friend, we grew that into a marketing agency of about 12 people at its peak. I was only 25 and learning on the fly!
After some time, I felt a strong pull to work in impact spaces – businesses focused on doing good. I exited the agency to raise funds for a marketing platform that rewarded advertising engagements with impact funding or donations to charity. It was an ideal concept: advertisers gained engagement and goodwill, consumers contributed to good causes just by their attention, and charities received funds. However, I learned some harsh truths along the way, and ultimately, we had to close it. That experience led to a significant burnout because I had subscribed to the idea that I had to suffer to make it a success.
Alongside that, I was also building a community for impact marketers – people grappling with the tension between making money and doing good. I found a real need for a space where they could openly share these struggles.
After the burnout, I took about a year off. I became a yoga teacher, spent time by the beach and in the jungle, healing and reflecting on what I truly wanted to contribute. This period of slowing down was crucial, and it led me to where I am now: building The Startup Playground, a venture studio, in Lisbon.
Unexpected Paths and Unapologetic Confidence
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): What's something unexpected that shaped how you approach business today?
Nicola Telford: When I stopped doing anything, that's when I truly started to find progress. It sounds counterintuitive, but slowing down allowed me to find more alignment for myself and contribute much more meaningfully to my work. Racing around had been my default, so that was quite unexpected.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): If we met you at 23, when you were starting your first company, what would surprise us most?
Nicola Telford: My confidence was kind of off the charts! Looking back, the bold things we did, how we approached new clients – I had no shame, no fear. I was just so, "Let's try everything." I still just want to play and experiment. I think that can be surprising for a young woman.
Lessons from Success, Failure, and Fading Ventures
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): You've founded three companies. What's the biggest lesson you learned from each – the successful one, the failure, and the one that faded away?
Nicola Telford: From the marketing agency, the biggest lesson was that success doesn't always equal the right place for you. The business was thriving, but it wasn't right for me anymore. It taught me the importance of knowing when it's the right time to move on, even if it's doing well.
From the failed marketing platform, I learned that I can't do everything. I need truly great people around me. Also, it was a crucial lesson to find investors who genuinely and deeply support you as a person, not just as a founder. We didn't have a great fit with some of our investors, and that's a very important lesson I'm applying with The Startup Playground now.
And from the Impact Marketing Club, the biggest lesson was how much people genuinely desire to connect and share openly and honestly, especially about the guilt or tension they feel in their work. Someone once suggested calling it "The Guilty Marketers" because people were truly struggling with the capitalist/impact tension. It reinforced that, despite all the technology, authentic human connection, safe spaces and open sharing remain the most important things.
The Philosophy of Play and Lisbon's Allure
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): Your current venture is The Startup Playground. What does that name mean, and can you describe its philosophy?
Nicola Telford: The Startup Playground has been a long time in the making, and it's still a big experiment. The philosophy is rooted in the belief that business can be fun. Our core hypothesis is that when you optimize for founder well-being and creative freedom, you get better businesses that last longer and create more meaningful impact. We believe that creativity flows when we have the right conditions, and that experimentation and curiosity can extinguish pressure, building more meaningful businesses that founders can actually live in and grow sustainably for a long time. Our definition of success is our own; we decide what good looks like.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): Who are your clients, and what kind of change do they experience with The Startup Playground?
Nicola Telford: Currently, The Startup Playground is focused on incubating and creating our own businesses internally, so we don't have external clients in the traditional sense yet. We're building extraordinary and impactful businesses with founders actually enjoying the process. In the next year, we aim to support other founders. This might involve onboarding founders for innovation and incubation, or corporate innovation, bringing a startup's innovative energy into larger corporations that might be feeling stagnant. We're also in discussions with universities about supporting their innovation goals. The core, however, is that we're building the businesses ourselves, and the studio is the hub for these ventures, all built on the philosophy of playfulness.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): You moved from London to Lisbon, with a year long stop in Sri Lanka. When you arrived in Lisbon, did you already have a clear business plan, or was The Startup Playground created here?
Nicola Telford: It's truly a Lisbon baby! It was an embryo, an idea that had been following me around, but it hadn't felt ready. Then, in Lisbon, it just clicked. The energy here, especially the entrepreneurial spirit, is amazing. I felt so inspired. People genuinely want to get involved; it's like I haven't had to push much at all. The vision resonated, and people wanted to help and contribute. We're even getting investors on board here. Whilst we’ll work globally, it's a very organic, Lisbon-born project.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): What was most helpful, and what perhaps blocked you in Portugal? What surprised you, for better or worse?
Nicola Telford: The most helpful thing has been how readily available and helpful people are in Lisbon. Everyone is willing to grab a coffee and chat about what you're working on. As someone new to living here, I felt incredibly welcomed by the ecosystem. For example, I've reached out to top people at Nova Business School, and they're just like, "Yeah, let's have a coffee." In London, people are often much less approachable.
On the other hand, navigating the bureaucracy of taxes and setting up the business has been difficult. It's not my area of expertise, and I've found myself hitting a wall with the paperwork and knowing exactly where to go and who to speak to. So, friendly people, annoying bureaucracy!
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): If friends from London were considering moving to Lisbon to start businesses, what would be your advice?
Nicola Telford: I would absolutely tell them to come here! Firstly, it's a fantastic test country if you're thinking of building globally. It's a brilliant, relatively small country where you can start and then quickly expand into Europe. It's also incredibly English-speaking friendly, which is a huge plus for expats. I've networked entirely in English, but I am learning Portuguese because that feels very important to me too!
Crucially, the lifestyle here allows you to build in a healthier way. There's an energy that encourages building a business that aligns with the lifestyle you want. You have easy access to the ocean, beaches, and hills – amazing natural resources. My life in London felt miserable in comparison. So, if you like sunshine and can handle the heat, definitely come!
Sustaining Founder Energy and Connecting Communities
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): Nicola, as someone who also led my own marketing agency for 10 years in Ukraine and experienced burnout, I deeply resonate with the need for energy management. What do you think helps founders connect with their energy when the business starts to feel heavy?
Nicola Telford: That's a great question. I think it has a few parts. There's the preparation phase: the internal work we need to do to be high performers. This means knowing how to regulate our nervous systems, understanding our triggers, and being so in tune with ourselves that we know what we need at any given moment. This preparation is essential because stress and tension are inevitable.
When things start to feel heavy, you honestly need to ask yourself some big questions, and to do that, you need to step away from the business entirely for a period – whether it's a day, a week, or even a month. Reconnect with yourself and your truth. Then, consider where the tension points and misalignments are.
Crucially, get into your body and out of your head. The head is rarely helpful in these scenarios. Go outside, do whatever it needs to do to process that heaviness. It's different for everyone, and it comes back to knowing oneself and what feels good. Only return to the business when you feel re-resourced.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): I'm very interested in archetypes, and I saw your recent post about money archetypes. Which money archetype do you see most often blocking business growth?
Nicola Telford: That's actually a question best suited for my wonderful friend, advisor, and investor in the studio – that's his whole area of expertise! We're collaborating on an event series, and that's why I'm talking about it.
However, I can share my own experience. It's amazing how little we consider our relationship with money. We often just carry on without examining it. I've done his archetype test and worked through it, looking at where I want to be, how to balance things, or if there's any money trauma shaping my approach and ultimately blocking me. It's astounding that this kind of work isn't more mainstream. Looking back at my early career, I was constantly worried about asking for too much or doubting my value. Now, after doing this work, I understand the high value of what I offer, and I'm confident in charging for it. There's some truly fascinating and impactful work there.
Tips for Expats and Entrepreneurs in Portugal
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): As a marketer and entrepreneur who has lived in both London and Lisbon, can you offer some suggestions for expats and entrepreneurs looking to succeed in the Portuguese market?
Nicola Telford: That's a tricky one, as I'm not actively working as a marketer right now. However, what I've noticed in the Portuguese/expat ecosystem is a lack of integration between the two. There are many Portuguese groups and many expat groups that tend to stick together.
If you genuinely want to embed yourself in the Lisbon ecosystem, you need to be a bridge between these two groups. Don't just stick with expats because it's comfortable. There's incredible work happening in Portuguese businesses, even if they operate differently from an expat mindset. Actively seek out Portuguese connections and try to understand the local ecosystem. People here are incredibly willing to work with and support you.
Often, expats focus on getting clients from France or the UK and just living in Lisbon, but there's a lot of local activity that could allow for in-person collaboration. So, I highly recommend actively getting involved in Portuguese spaces. And I feel silly saying this as I'm still terrible at it, but learning Portuguese is also important. I'm trying really hard, not just to be another expat who comes along and builds their business here but builds it in somewhere else.
The Startup Playground: Ready to Play?
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): Nicola, I'm very excited about your project! Perhaps you'd like to share more about The Startup Playground, its vision, and what you're currently looking for?
Nicola Telford: Absolutely! I'd love to share about our upcoming series of events called Founder Life Labs. It's an ongoing series, starting with four workshops exploring alternative ways of being as a founder. We have workshops on pleasure, breath, relationships, and our relationship with money. They're led by brilliant experts, two in Lisbon and two online. We're keeping sessions small and intimate, with a maximum of 24 people, to facilitate mini-transformations. We're eager to reach founders interested in these more alternative approaches to entrepreneurship.
Regarding The Startup Playground, we are a venture studio that creates extraordinary and impactful businesses while founders actually enjoy the process. Our philosophy centers on founder well-being and creative freedom, believing these lead to more sustainable and meaningful businesses. We're assembling a team of "playmakers" – advisors who are dedicated to this philosophy, including a multi-exit technical founder, an innovation culture designer, and a startup growth experiment expert.
We are currently looking for a funding partner who understands and aligns with our vision. We're seeking an impact-focused investor, UK or Europe-based, who believes business can be a force for good and that founders thrive when they enjoy the journey. This partner would be interested in early-stage innovation that proves a better way to build businesses and realize good returns, while caring about sustainable practices and founder well-being.
What we offer is strategic involvement without micromanagement, early access to our innovative approach to venture creation, and studio returns from both our service arm and equity appreciation from our portfolio companies. You'd gain personal growth and network building, connecting with like-minded founders, investors, and operators.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): To wrap up, what's one question every founder should ask themselves before starting a new company?
Nicola Telford: The question that immediately comes to mind is: "Why am I starting this?" It's about getting incredibly clear on your personal alignment. If it's coming from a place of trying to prove something to someone, to remedy an old failure, or to validate yourself, then you need to seriously ask if it's truly worth it. You want it to genuinely come from a place of deep care for what you want to build and the problem you're trying to solve. So often, we start from a place of trying to prove something else. That would be my question if I were starting something again.
Ievgeniia Rodionova (ProBusinessMedia): Thank you, Nicola. Thank you so much for your energy; you are a very inspiring person!
Nicola Telford: Thank you!
