Occitanie, France — since 1989

Nicolas
Porta

Serial entrepreneur, self-taught and visionary. A path that runs through automotive mechanics, construction, finance and deep tech.

Never on the path laid out in advance.

The journey

— Global

OpenIncome.ai

OpenIncome.ai proposes a universal flexible income funded by a tax on AI consumption, redistributed to humans in the transition toward a world where machines do the work. Designed from day one as a 100% AI-native company: autonomous agents at the core of the product and operations.

— France

AI-native side projects

With the rise of AI, launched several side projects in parallel to explore concrete verticals, all designed AI-native from day one: a retirement scam detector, a smart calculator, a gastronomy companion, and a fitness coach.

— France

Mecavin → Mecalife Group

Solo launch of Mecavin in 2018. Traction arrives. Co-founders join, fundraising, creation of Mecalife Group: proprietary VIN-based vehicle identification technology, ultra-precise valuation service, and maintenance history. Now profitable (break-even reached), the group is pivoting to an AI-native model with agent-driven maximization: Mecavin is 95% automated, the remaining 5% is being optimized by AI agents, and marketing & sales are shifting to autonomous agents, targeting 100% automation by end of Q2 / early Q3 2026. The entire stack is now full-stack: no-code, heavily used in the early days, has been permanently banned.

— France

BoxEverywhere

Launched in parallel with Mecavin, an online directory of CrossFit boxes. Mecavin gained traction, BoxEverywhere did not. Set aside to focus on what was working.

— France

HappyDriver

Pivot from TyreMatcher to HappyDriver, an automotive maintenance management service for individuals and professionals. Wound down after a year with the co-founders, then continued for another year with other partners. No product-market fit.

— France

TyreMatcher

Co-founded an online used-tire retail company. One year of operations to learn the fundamentals of e-commerce, then pivoted to a new model.

— Toulouse

Ethicard (concept, never launched)

Member of associations around basic income and local complementary currencies in Toulouse. Designed Ethicard: a payment card redistributing a percentage of transactions as flexible income to the entire community. Envisioned as a DAO on a zero-fee blockchain. Too idealistic, too early, without technical skills. Never launched.

— Online

Forex copy-trading (ZuluTrade)

Self-taught in finance through documentaries and research. Raised roughly €30,000 from investors to copy professional traders via ZuluTrade. Accounts managed with modest success, honest exit after a loss on one account.

— Occitanie

Hotel reception and first web projects

A hotel reception job opened up time and space to turn toward entrepreneurship. First steps in self-learning, first thoughts about online projects.

— Occitanie

Construction trades

Electrician, mason, locksmith. Four years of physical work that forged rigor and grounded fundamentals. A discipline that would stay anchored in every project to follow.

— Occitanie

Automotive training

Vocational diploma in motorcycle repair, professional baccalaureate in automotive repair, then started a higher technical diploma in automotive maintenance. Dropped the final year to pivot toward construction trades.