One Foot in the Old World: João Pontes on Going All In on Independence

"Trying something is different to deciding that this is your path"

João Pontes decided to join ERA Group in under an hour, at a franchise fair in New York. It took him a couple more years to stop keeping one foot in the corporate world. After a corporate career in operations at fast moving consumer goods companies including PepsiCo and Mondelez, João moved into independent consulting in 2014 and went on to become a senior partner and area developer with ERA Group in Portugal.

In this episode of Your Second Curve, Dr. Arnd Halbach, author of Your Second Curve, talks with João about what drove the decision, what the early years of independence were really like, and the moment he stopped treating it as an experiment. They also cover winning a first client without a commercial background, growing from working alone to a team of six, how AI is changing consulting work, and what he would tell anyone standing at the same window of opportunity.