Chronology
2014
Seaventy is created by Nuno Tavares and Bernardo Castro with strong support from his father Fernando Ribeiro e Castro, then general secretary of the Business Forum of Economy of the Sea. Opens activity as a Maritime Tourism operator to facilitate access to the Sea by individuals, companies and travel agencies and events.
20th March – First Seaventy event that coincides with the death of Fernando Castro. Another 3 events take place in the following days, between the wake and his funeral.
June – After the incubation period at the office in Parque das Nações, Nuno Tavares passes the full responsibility of the company to Bernardo and Rita.
Rita was responsible for the administrative and financial areas. Bernardo was responsible for everything else: marketing, sales, and operation. To help in these roles they hired their good friend Jorge who already had an experience of working with Bernardo in previous adventures. The three of them work at the couple’s house in Linda-a-Velha, in one of the rooms turned into an office.
13th September – Inês is born, the second daughter of Bernardo and Rita
2015
Despite the good sales of the first year, there is a need for funds and 3 investing partners come in: Joan, Javier, and Nuno (all doctors with connection to recreational boating). Later, Pedro enters as the 4th investor.
Dazzled by the money raised, Seaventy moves to an office and increases its team to 12 elements and diversifies business into areas such as restaurant and boat decoration. Despite the significant increase in revenue, the results were very weak. All the workers leave, staying only Samuel (Bernardo’s younger brother), Paula and Jorge.
30th November – Helena is born, Bernardo and Rita’s third daughter.
2016
Due to the weak results and incompatibilities between Bernardo and the partner Pedro, this leaves the company and the other partners also take the opportunity to leave. Three years later, Joan and Javier are once again partners with Bernardo in another Sea investments company.
Paula introduces her great friend Rui to Bernardo, who has no doubt that he has to hire him, which happened a few months later.
The opportunity to relaunch the ship “Lisboa Vista do Tejo” comes up, after being acquired by Confeitaria Nacional.
This agreement justifies the hiring of Cláudia, that Bernardo met on one of the first visits to an agency in the first months of Seaventy.
In that year, Seaventy doubles the results, reaching the € 500,000 mark, largely supported by the “Lisboa Vista do Tejo” business – both, private events and regular ticket sales.
2nd December – Rui’s two twin daughters, Carmo and Constança, are born very prematurely. Rui stays at home for 2 months to give support to his family.
6th December – Carminho is born, the first daughter of the future partner Miguel.
2017
The year begins with a partnership of two new board members. Rita and Bernardo meet Alícia and Miguel in their Team of Our Lady movement. They rapidly notice they share common interests and both are invited to become partners and workers of the company. While Alícia replaces Rita during her maternity leave, Miguel is placed as the Operation Director, after his vast background and experience in some of the most reknown hotels in the world.
April – After years of several conversations with the former owner of Barco Evora, a opportunity arises for Seaventy to acquire the boat after an unexpected encounter with a potential investor. Bernardo introduces Barco Evora to Mr. Rui and he immediately shows his willingness and interest to help Seaventy invest and acquire the boat. The deal was closed that same day.
After the acquisition of the historic Barco Evora, a major renovation was made and in only one month the intervention surprises everyone who knew the boat. Captain João and Technician José, both former crew members of Barco Evora join Seaventy, later on Daniel joins the crew as a trainee who shortly after becomes a sailor.
22nd June – Maria do Mar was born, the fourth daughter of Rita and Bernardo.
In between great regattas, team-buildings, corporate and private events in Lisboa Vista do Tejo Boat and Barco Evora, Seaventy almost doubles its turnover this same year.
2018
The year begins with a challenging New Year’s Eve at Barco Evora, where practically everything went wrong.
Upon identifying the reasons why the New Year’s Eve went wrong, we decided to change our catering supplier to “Horas Felizes”and our animation partner to Dj Divenitto.
Barco Evora goes to it`s first shipyard of Seaventy`s history. Miguel and crew members work daily on the boat`s intervention .
11th March – Aurora was born, Alicia’s first daughter
The New Year’s nightmare became the subject of an AESE-Business School “Case Study” that began to be used in the recruitment process to measure the candidates’ good sense, one of only 2 requirements for working at Seaventy (the other is having a good heart).
Francisco passes with distinction and joins the team as Miguel’s right-hand .
The company goes into cruising speed keeping its team stable.
Despite several attempts to get Barco Evora to sell tickets for boat trips over the summer, none of them worked.
November – Barco Evora is hired for a specialized job of transferring military personnel from an American aircraft carrier that was anchored off the Tagus river. It is at this time that Aléssio completes the crew as an effective sailor, alongside with Daniel.
This job gave an important financial boost in the low season and relaunches another attempt at selling tickets for boat trips at Barco Evora. This began in the following month in the middle of winter.
December – Bernardo convinces Célia, a longterm friend of his older brothers, to join this new project. Célia is a tour guide who becomes a friendly host of the boat trips that take place every Thursday, Friday and Saturday on the Barco Evora.
The year ends with a remarkable growth in the quality of events that passed the average value of € 4,000 per event, instead of € 700 in the first year of activity.
2019
The number of sales of these regular boat trips from December to March are encouraging, as well as all the feedback and guest reviews on the different platforms. Seaventy decides to maintain this operation with the high commitment of Célia, the Crew, Miguel and the support of the entire team. Throughout the year, the number of boat trips increased, reaching a peak in July and August with 20 cruises per week.
11th January – Luz is born, the fifth daughter of Rita and Bernardo.
Samuel, the person responsible in the company for small groups, leaves the company to open his own business, restaurant Focus, which became an immediate success. Having a vacant position for this market segment, and upon the standard recruitment process, João, a young “millennial” with only 21 years old stands out and takes this place. Since he arrived, he embraced all kind of functions and all of them with great pride and dedication.
20th March – Seaventy celebrates it’s fifth anniversary and renews the brand with a new logo, new image and a new website with the help of a professional designer and image manager, Margarida – responsible for the company “Eléctrico 28”, with the assistance of website developer André – responsible for “Doublebond”.
17th August – Felipe, Alicia’s second son, is born.
4th October – Francisco and his fiancee Mariana, get married and offer their guests a unforgettable wedding party at Barco Evora.
After an excellent beginning of the year with a monthly sales increase of over 50% until September, the last quarter was plagued by adverse weather conditions and Seaventy closed the year with sales slightly above the previous year. The boat trips of Barco Evora had an overall weight of 10% in sales and remaining 90% was from private events, which increased its average value to € 5,000 per event.
2020
Despite the final quarter of the previous year and especially the last quarter, Seaventy maintains the entire team and takes the opportunity to improve all processes during the expensive low season.
January – Barco Evora is taken to the shipyard to go through a major renovation intervention which represent a huge investment. The ship is impeccable and ready for a successful season of boat tours and many private events.
27th January – Caetana is born, Cláudia’s first daughter.
3rd March – António, Miguel’s second son, is born.
20th March – Seaventy celebrates its 6th anniversary in the middle of the Coronavirus or Covid-19 crisis. It is a real deluge of modern times that will only save companies that truly serve people and the nation.
With 6 years made, we are just getting started!
To be continued…
