Academic. Practitioner. Startup coach. Podcast host. Born in Tehran. Based in Porto since 2016. Nearly two decades spanning the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Three businesses started. Two of them failed.
The beginning is Tehran. A degree in English Language from IAU. The sense that the wider world was where the real work was. Study abroad followed — an MBA that took Marco first to the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, then to EBS Universitat in Germany. Two institutions, two cultures, one degree that opened a career in markets he was still learning, in languages he was still mastering.
For nearly two decades, the work took him across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Technology companies. ICT. Luxury interior design. Retail. Building brands, developing markets, sitting across the table from clients who needed to be convinced by someone they had never heard of. Being the outsider in the room taught him something that no course had: credibility is not given. It is built — one decision, one conversation, one clearly stated value at a time.
There was a career he was good at and a purpose he had not yet found words for. That gap between the two — between what he was doing and what he believed mattered — is where the real searching began.
Three businesses. Two of them failed. The failures were not dramatic. They were quiet and expensive in the way that most failures are — not a collapse but a slow realisation that the foundation had not been laid right. The right idea, badly communicated. A strong product, aimed at the wrong person. The problem, as it turned out, was almost never the idea itself.
The decision to stop and ask the question properly took seven years. Marco enrolled in the doctoral programme at the University of Minho in Portugal with one central question: why do some founders build something people genuinely believe in while others with equally good ideas never gain traction?
Seven years of grounded theory research produced the Brand Navigator Pyramid — a framework examining how startups build brand credibility and legitimacy from the very beginning of their existence. The thesis was classified Good with Distinction. The research is currently in final preparation for submission to Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.
The answer had almost nothing to do with the product and almost everything to do with the founder's ability to say clearly what they believed in, who they were building for, and why it mattered to that specific person.
The research confirmed what the failures had taught. The problem was not the idea. The problem was the articulation. The founders who built credibility early were the ones who could tell the story before the story was finished — who could say, with conviction and precision, what they were building and why it deserved to exist.
That insight is the foundation of every Academy workshop and every podcast conversation.
Marco has been living and working in Portugal since January 2016. The classroom became the place the research became real. At ISAG-European Business School and IPAM Porto, he teaches entrepreneurship, marketing strategy, and personal development to students from more than 35 nationalities.
He directs the Bachelor in Management programme at ISAG and built the ISAG Business Hub from scratch — a university-based incubation ecosystem connecting students, faculty, and companies through mentoring, business challenges, and structured support.
The students who made the most progress were consistently the ones who could articulate what they were building and why before they had anything built. Not the ones with the most experience. Not the ones with the best ideas. The ones with the clearest founding statement.
He coaches startup founders through North Star Advisors on brand positioning and go-to-market strategy. He is a Research Affiliate at CICET-FCVC (FCT). His paper on AI as a strategic equaliser for immigrant, women, and minority founders was accepted at the SEJ Paper Development Workshop, Coimbra, 2026.
The Academy, the podcast, and North Star Advisors are not three separate projects. They are three expressions of the same observation. Nobody helped Marco think through what he was building when he needed it most.
The first time he tried to build something of his own, he could not clearly answer the most basic question: what am I actually building, and why does it matter? Nobody helped him think it through. He had the notes app and the friends who were excited. He had the idea and the energy. What he did not have was a framework, a room, and a facilitator who had done the research.
The Academy is what he wishes had existed then. The podcast is the conversation he wants to be having publicly. The coaching is the one-on-one version of both.
Values Beyond Time launched in 2025 and became the #1 English-language podcast in Portugal on personal development, marketing, and entrepreneurship. The first Academy workshop runs in Porto on 18 September 2026.
Every session connects theory to a real decision someone in the room is trying to make. Every framework is tested against a real business context. Students from more than 35 nationalities have put this to work across three continents.
These are not academic citations. They are the books that changed how Marco teaches, and the values behind them are the foundation of every workshop exercise and every podcast conversation.
Marco has always been a very professional colleague, engaged with the teaching activities, and also very supportive of the students. Marco has also been acommitted member of the academic community at IPAM. In the academic year 2019/2020, I invited Marco to teach in the Global Master in Marketing, where I was the Course Coordinator at that time. Students were delighted with his lectures and assessed his work with a 4.9 out of 5 in the Global Business Simulator unit. Marco is very competent, and students highly praised his in-depth knowledge of the marketing and entrepreneurship fields.
Marco Bagheri was an MBA student of mine over 15 years ago at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. He was always one of the brightest in the class and had a searching mind. Marco´s enthusiastic nature is infectious, you can learn much from him.
I met Marco at DISPLAX (the world leader of Ultra Large projected capacitive multitouch technology manufacturer) where he was the marketing manager. We have been colleagues while lecturing at IPAM Porto and worked very intensively as the academic supervisors for the bachelor thesis and internship for students of Global Bachelor in Marketing. In all we have done together, Marco Bagheri has always demonstrated a high level of intelligence, quality, integrity, capability, and commitment. He is a pleasure to work with even when the situation is stressful. He has always shown how intelligent and sharp he is, with a very humble and constructive approach when (hard) challenges come his way. His open-mindedness to listen, share, discuss and work with others, is remarkable, and clearly shows he is always aiming for the best possible outcome. This highlights another set of important characteristics that make him a truly outstanding professional and individual. l am very glad to know and to work with Marco and I believe you will be too.
Marco is a thoughtful coach with a passion to support individuals in the pursuit of their goals. I wish him all the best in this new endeavor.
Knowing Marco as I do, I know the course will be a great mixture of pragmatism, insight, and road map to follow for success. I happily endorse Marco who manages to get his practice and theory in balance and teaches accordingly well.
We have known Marco since 2009. Our friendship with Marco over the decade is more like a mentor to a student or a son. We were impressed by his tenacity to succeed, to put into action what he felt was doable even if the chance of succeeding was challenging. It is this resilient trait in him, always looking out for solutions that went against the grain, that brought Marco to what he is today. The journey to his current state is all self-financed and it is an understatement to say how proud we are to know and mentor him. I remember in 2013 while our company was looking for a collaboration to upgrade our website and a marketing campaign to bring more awareness to our company's brand, Marco, although a new MBA graduate, impressed us with his well-thought proposal, which we thought could only have been produced by someone with a number of years of experience. Marketing is Marco's forte while compassion is his heart. The world is now his oysters.
I had the opportunity to work with Marco on a couple of startup projects. Based on our cooperation and the achieved results, I can say that Marco has a sharp eye to see things differently, detect market opportunities, and propose practical ways to test business ideas quickly. His approach to marketing and entrepreneurship and the way he could mold a raw idea into a working product or solution in something that you could count on and benefit from. I strongly recommend working with Marco to turn your idea into a business.
I have known Marco since 2016 when I met him during his PhD studies. Marco is an excellent professional in the areas of entrepreneurship and marketing, with very acute knowledge and research capabilities that enable him to get things done. I would like to recommend him not only for his outstanding personal qualities but also for his unique working capabilities and autonomy, which are extremely important for succeeding in the consultancy services industry.
I first met Marco at the University of Minho in Portugal, where we read PhD in Marketing and Strategy as colleagues. Marco is a talented and creative person who is determined to change situations for the better. Marco is analytical, dynamic, and has the ability to focus on any objectives or goal he sets for himself. He is a good listener, a good learner, and a genuine facilitator with a lot of skills and competence in marketing and entrepreneurship. He has a lot of practical entrepreneurial ideas and can help unlock the potential of others. If you work with Marco, you can easily turn your ideas into businesses.
Marco Bagheri is an innovative and enthusiastic consultant and trainer. And, I must add, he is a very good person and an entrepreneur! The great impact of his training in the lives of like-minded entrepreneurs is not unexpected.
The clarity you are looking for does not arrive on its own. The first step is a conversation.