Simon began his career as a designer in 1997, working for German startups with his own interactive agency. He has invested in about 50 angel- and seed-stage companies and In 2011 he co-founded Factory, a campus model for Startups, launching the very first of Europe´s mega-campuses. Whilst hosting the world's first Policy / Startup conference Startup Europe Summit with the European Commission from 2015 to 2019 and speaking publicly regularly, Simon and team Factory launched their second Berlin Campus "Silicon Allee” in 2017. Factory Lisbon started construction in Lisbon in 2019 as the anchor of Câmara Municipal de Lisboa's "Beato Innovation District", which opened in June 2022. Simon was founding President of the Portuguese Initiative for Entrepreneurship Startup Portugal until 2021, served as member of the investment committee of the public venture fund 200M and is currently President of the global startup association Allied for Startups, and co-initiated the EU-Inc Petition recently.
