Movingto is a marketplace to compare and review visas, law firms, accounting and other services
Please introduce yourself and your startup Movingto to our readers!
I’m Ana Ibanez, a product designer and digital nomad who has lived in many different countries. I help companies build industry-leading products that delight and inspire users. However, this time I build my own Movingto,
A comparison website for ex-pats and digital nomads to help them move abroad. Remote work is an on growing trend that is here to stay.
We compare visas, law firms, tax numbers and more to make moving countries simpler and cheaper than ever before. At the moment we are only focusing on Portugal but planning to expand to other countries very soon.
How did you get the idea of Movingto?
My husband and I were both living in London and decided that we wanted to move to Lisbon with our newborn child and found the whole process slow, expensive and stressful. We wanted to create a better way for more people to enjoy this amazing country. We decided to create moving to remove the stress, expense and mistakes that most people make when moving to Portugal.
Why did you decide to start with Movingto?
After we moved to Portugal in April I started to do a lot of research and benchmarking. Then I did some wireframes and the design system in Figma. I have a developer who helped me to build the site so by June it was up and running.
Since then I have changed lots of things from the site, we are still learning what works and what doesn’t by checking Google Analytics. Every day we learn and iterate.
What is the vision behind Movingto?
There are lots of things you need to move to another country but the most important is your visa to be able to live and work.
Also, Portugal has a NIF number also non as a tax Payer number. Without one you can’t do anything in Portugal, not get your Visa, rent a place, or open a bank account. The list goes on. There are lots of companies that do NIFs also the law firms that can do your Visa can do NIFs but the price range is huge.
We made some tables where you can compare all the companies that offer to do your NIF by price, turn around and review rating.
You can see very quickly what is best for you. My husband and I spent weeks doing research just to get the best company
How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?
The biggest challenge at the beginning is to keep working when you see very little growing.
Who is your target audience?
Digital nomads and ex-pats from around the globe
What is the USP of your startup?
Movingto is a marketplace to compare and review visas, law firms, accounting and other services to enable people to move freely around the world.
Can you describe your typical workday?
Currently, I’m working on adding more law firms and companies to the site, reviewing them and comparing them on our tables.
I also have a writer who helps me with all the content. We try to write about trending searches on google like ‘How to move from the US to Portugal?’, ‘What is the NHR tax regime?’, or “is Portugal a crypto tax-free heaven’?
Where do you see yourself and your startup Movingto in five years?
Opening to at least 5 other countries. We would like to do Spain, Australia and Indonesia next.
What 3 tips would you give to founders?
1. Don’t give up, everything you do everyday compounds and one day without realising you have a business running on your hands
2. Fundraise wisely, not every startup needs funding, this is very controversial advice. MailChimp was purchased for $12B by Intuit. they build the business without ever taking venture funding.
3. Think like a user, If you really want to build a delightful product that gives value to users and solves a real problem.
Thank you Ana Ibanez for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
