Become a Member

The cooperative's mission has two pillars. The first is to contribute to the wellbeing of our members and the success of their projects — this is our priority. The second is the transformation of the Viana do Castelo district through technology. Members are at the intersection of these two objectives: through their professional activity, they create value for themselves and for the local community.

The cooperative is for technologists — not just software engineers or programmers, but anyone involved in technology projects, especially those with a scientific or ESG component. What matters is alignment with the cooperative's values and objectives, and a genuine will to contribute. The best way to find out is to take part in the cooperative's events and get to know how we work.

We have independent professionals who want to work on projects aligned with their values. We have professionals employed elsewhere who want to collaborate on side projects. We have residents abroad who want to support the cooperative and participate occasionally. We have foreigners living in the district who want to connect with the territory through their expertise. For startups, we have a cooperative incubator — an autonomous branch governed by the startups themselves, with access to shared resources and administrative support.

Membership is by application. We usually already know applicants — from events, initiatives, or working together on projects. All applications are submitted to the General Assembly and approved by qualified majority. If an application is rejected, the Assembly is required to justify the decision in writing.

The best way to get to know the cooperative is through our events and activities. Participate — you don't need to be a member to get involved. For startups, contact us to learn more about the incubator.

The fees aren't the main source of funding for the cooperative — our financial sustainability comes from the projects we develop. However, economic participation is a cooperative principle we take seriously, which is why involvement requires this contribution. It's valuable support for covering fixed costs. Our expectation is that with more members, we can pool more resources and offer more benefits.

Capital titles represent your share in the cooperative's equity. They're not a financial or speculative investment — they're how we ensure that control of the cooperative is distributed among those who are active, engaged, and take on responsibilities. That's why we have two engagement levels: you can start as an Associate (no titles) and move to Full Member, with capital participation. The specific amounts are shared during the application process.

Yes. The titles are refundable when you leave the cooperative, as long as there are no outstanding debts.

It means developing projects with a common legal, administrative, and institutional framework, access to shared infrastructure, and the possibility of collaboration between members. The cooperative exists to organize collective work, reduce operational friction, and create conditions for projects that benefit from scale, diversity of skills, or continuity.

Projects developed in the cooperative are framed within its activity and managed with common administrative and contractual support, including invoicing, expenses, and accounting. The cooperative handles this operational component to reduce friction and allow members to focus on work and project growth. The value generated by projects goes mostly to the members involved, according to the cooperative model and each person's contribution, with a cooperative fee applied to fund common services and the structure's sustainability.

Ideas and projects can be submitted through the cooperative when aligned with its mission and activities. The proposer takes on the role of project steward, leading the application and execution with operational and budgetary autonomy, within the cooperative's institutional framework. The cooperative ensures contractual, administrative, and financial management of the project, retaining a cooperative fee that funds common services and the structure's sustainability. Depending on the project's evolution, it may continue integrated within the cooperative, or give rise to a spin-off, which may be incubated and supported by the cooperative.

Full Members have access to a dedicated workstation. For other tiers, we provide hotdesk access based on availability, through a token system.

n8n, Windmill, Cal.com, Wallos, Formbricks, Open WebUI, Snipe-IT, SonarQube, Rancher, Plane, Outline, NocoDB, Invoice Ninja, Croodle. We can add new tools as needed. These tools are available to everyone.

SIGO is the cooperative's internal management system. It enables exchanges between members, digital membership card, visibility of internal cooperative funds, and assembly information. A mobile app version and other features are planned for the future.

Currently we have: drone, 3D printer, laptops, 4 VR headsets, among others. If you have needs that could be collective, let us know — we can acquire equipment for shared use. To learn more, get in touch.

Currently we're focusing on two branches: "collective" — for professionals — and "incubator" — for startups. Having companies and other organizations as members would be interesting in the future, but it's something that needs to be carefully considered at a different scale to retain our autonomy and independence. For now, representatives from these structures can join as cooperators. Meanwhile, we're very interested in collaborating as partners with companies whose vision aligns with ours — we can participate in joint projects or provide services. Get in touch.