I moved to Lisbon after burning out in my tech job. I’m less lonely and more active. [Video]

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Charlie Baron, 30-year-old founder in Lisbon, Portugal, about moving from London. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I moved to Lisbon, I was burned out and lonely from working from home for a tech startup I’d co-founded.

One week in November 2022, I barely left the house. I needed to change my lifestyle. I’d been thinking about moving to another country for a while. Moving abroad would push me to meet new people and live a more fulfilling life.

I co-founded a startup

I’ve always been entrepreneurial and worked on little projects from a young age. In 2012, I went to Loughborough University to study business. When I left university in 2016, I joined Tesla in their London sales team. I had always wanted to work in tech.

While there, I started a side business helping inventors launch their products on crowdfunding platforms like …