Friends, Tetuanees, Countrymen! Lend me your ears!
At the beginning of February we launched the first edition of Startup Spain Angel School, with a lot of buzz on the media. Our goal was to brain-wash them wallet-holders and get them all crazy about investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs in Spain. And it worked! But you know how this things work. Lots of cool startups are looking for funds, so we want to help prepare more Business Angels to support them! Therefore we’re launching a 2nd edition of Startup Spain Angel School, the one day bootcamp for potential angel investors to learn how to squander their fortunes by getting into internet startups.
Now seriously. Today, none can deny we’re living in a digital revolution. This is the time to build the future standards of information and communication technologies. And either we make an all-in now, or we’re going to be dropped behind for ages.
The Tetuan Valley Crew has been promoting entrepreneurship, investing and facilitating venture capital deal over the past 4 years, launching the first pre-accelerator program and the first Pan-European accelerator. We’re absolutely committed with relaunching Spain and we’re on a quest of Death or Glory for it. And we’re not alone, an awesome vibrant entrepreneurial community stands behind us, most of the top investors in Spain do aswel, and last but not least we have affiliated with Kauffman Foundation (ultimate global organization in entrepreneurship research and promotion) as part of their Global Partner Network.
Our colleagues at Madrid Emprende have decided to back us in this project, hosting it in their awesome facilities at Madrid International Lab.
The first edition was a blockbuster. 65+ participants, top-notch guest speakers and startups. But the 2nd… it’s gonna be even cooler. Ran by the Tetuan Valley Squad Team, it will offer precious insights into the process of investing in internet startups to investors throughout Spain.
Nast Marrero, here! Last week we launched Startup Spain‘s first program: the Angel School. Our take is: it’s been a great beginning for Startup Spain. We had more than 60 attendees of which more than 2/3 were potential investors.
This is an unusually large display of interest in the Spanish investment arena, where most events see no more than 20 or some participants maximum. Mentoring Angel Investors to better navigate their deal analysis is a keystone in fostering ITC startups in Spain. The program was a real marathon: 10+ hours of training (don´t worry we let them stop for lunch . Thankfully, our first group of graduates proved to be up to the challenge, taking advantage of all the different elements of the day.
Missing from the program were the typical made-up miracle cures and formulas. We strived to keep the content practical, following the Tetuan Valley Way with hands-on exercises and significant mentors’ experiences
The event was hosted @ the awesome facilities of Madrid International Lab and kicked off by Iñaki Ortega, Director of Madrid Emprende, and one of the main forces behind Startup Spain. In his opening speech, Iñaki brought up the importance of joining private and public efforts to facilitate and develop entrepreneurial activity, and the key role those efforts will play in the long-run global competitiveness of Spain.
Two roundtables with rockstar speakers cherry-topped the program: one from Investors already Angel Investing and another from Entrepreneurs. Each of them gave invaluable insights on what it is they look for, value, and ask during an early stage investment.
The investors’ roundtable was moderated by our very own Alex Barrera (co-founder of Tetuan Valley & CEO of Press42), and formed by:
Both roundtables aimed to give participants a overview of the ecosystem, showcasing startups from their seed stage through founders that have already made an exit, with similar ranges of experiences coming from the Angel investors, from managers that were just launching their first investment through those who have been in the game for a while.
Given the success and the of the program and the importance we place on such event to foster investment culture we’re already iterating on the feedback from the first event to run a LEGENDARY second edition of Startup Spain Angel School on March 22nd. Wanna get your tickets? Check here!
We had the pleasure of following all the twitter interactions of the event through Zoomry, now in it´s beta stage. The product is awesome and if you check #AngelSchool Social Media @ AngelSchool.Zoomry.com… You can see for yourself they’re up to something big!
You might want to check the slides of our presentations in our slideshare or check the pictures in our flickr group.
@StartupJedi here! Today tons and tons of news and breaking ones. First of all were on the COVER of OnMadrid (El País)… How coooool is that?! @jmcobian and @Timpik_com‘s Camilo rocking the news! As I told you previously, last Wednesday we had an awesome night of romance at Okuri Spaces: Speed-Dating Startups (#datingstartups). Around 60 daters showed up all well dressed and perfumed looking for their co-founding soulmate.
Last week, our friend Mario Lopez de Avila, was planning to set “The Bit and the Bizz” with Wayra in February to get bizz guys and bit guys acquainted, but when they caught wind of Tetuan Valley Entrepreneur Speed-Dating realized that this was no solo job. Thanks to them we all joined efforts and applicants to make this night a success. It was really heart-warming to see how a lot of friends from the startup community expressed their interest to push a common event.
So, to the event: First of all you HAVE TO check the coolest social media summary of the event done with Zoomry’s beta. It’s maaagic! All the tweets, RTs and noise surrounding SpeedDating have been broken down, even MBAs can understand it! Check it now and here!
Cobi kickstarted the event with a lot of news about what is going on in Okuri (the Tetuan Valley mothership):
Speed-Dating-Startups: this kind of events add value for everyone in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and we are set to join-efforts with our peers to make it a common cause and tour it around our different headquarters. Next session will probably be @ Wayra‘s house
Orange Wednesdays: every week there’s something awesome going on at Okuri Spaces on Wenesday evening. Next Wends 25th January 2012 – 19:00, Okuri Talk: “Emprender con Sentido” by Juan Carlos Arrese, a great StartupBootcamp mentor and executive coach that will lead on how to hone your mindset for success. Tickets here
Kauffman Global Partnership Network: Okuri has been selected as inaugural partner of Kauffman’s global network. Meaning we’re in the game with the greatest organization on entrepreneurship research and support
Startup Spain Angel School: with our shinny brand new logo and Madrid Emprende as four first sponsor we are launching Startup Spain Angel School: THE workshop for those people wanting to get into internet startup angel investing. It will be hosted by Madrid Emprende @ Madrid International Lab, 9th February 2012… Get more info about it
The webs of Startup Spain and Tetuan Valleyare looking for web-design geniuses to perform some serious plastic surgery. If you’re up to this epic challenge… tweet us or ping us.
WOoOOOW! That was a hell of an infomercial… eeuuughh… But lets get back to yesterday’s event. There was a lot of interesting people hanging in the Hackers’ Guild. As Mario tweed:
@nodosenlared: At TV Entrepreneur Speed Dating! 94 registered, 33 Bits, 61 Bizz… Let them kiss!
We ended up with more than 60 people here! By the looks on some of their faces as they were leaving I’d say they really got their money’s worth… Actually, the event was free, but you know what I mean.
Let me mention some of the peers that have supported the event and helped us hustling it around the cloud to make it such a blockbuster:
Some weeks ago we launched a brand new program to train investors on the secrets of Angel Investing in internet startups. We proudly baptized it Tetuan Valley Angel School.
Our colleagues at Madrid Emprende have decided to back us in this project, sponsoring some student seats of the program and hosting it in their awesome facilities at Madrid International Lab. What’s that mean? Reeeelocation! We also decided to reflect this change in the name, now patriotically called: Startup Spain Angel School.
We truly believe the program like this ran by the Tetuan Valley Squad Team, can offer precious insights into the process of investing in internet startups to investors throughout Spain.
Today we also launched some tweaks in Startup Spain‘s site with a brand new coooool logo praising the quixotic nature of entrepreneurship. The logo is a gift from our great alumni and friend Eduado Pola (Creative Lead Linkovery).
Then let’s wrap it up. An Okuri Ventures production. From the creators of Tetuan Valley Startup School:
Startup Spain Angel School
When? 9th February 2012, 10.00 am
Where? Madrid International Lab, c/ Bailen 41, 28005 – Madrid
I know I’m one month late with this post, but I had an epic fight against the video codecs and Vimeo. But I’m a stubborn jedi… therefore I won!
In this season finale session Cobi told us about some critical stuff to keep in mind for your startup, your career as an entrepreneur and for live: the startup mantra, how to optimize your work flow by maximizing not value, not revenue, but happiness.
Later on Cobi touched a subject I find of utmost interest: the shared valued mindset. The traditional business school mantra is: “the ultimate goal for a business is to maximize shareholders’ value”, but even Michael Porter (the Biz Management Guru and Harvard Professor) is working lately in another model to analyze organizations mission. By the Shared Value model, Porter implies that the ultimate goal of any organization is to “maximize stakeholders’ value”. Stakeholders is a much wider concept than shareholders, and it implies that companies should focus on create multilevel value for shareholder (of course) but also for their community and their environment. But enough with the biz school preaching!
Our rockstar mentor for the day was…
Jose Cabiedes (do I really need to tell you who he is?!), he’s one of the most active biz-angels in Spain. Gave a very interesting speech on how his lean venture capital fund works and what are the key issues entrepreneurs shall keep in mind when they’re raising money. After his speech he engaged in a very interesting Q&A with our tetuanees and then… Startup Pizza time.
Jose Cabiedes grabbed our clown hammer when he started the Q&A and was all the time helping him self from throwing a blow to the people seating in the first row… hehe
Peaching Preaching Pitching!
But the real rockstars here are our entrepreneurs. Once again they jump to the stage gave great pitches… Absolutely impressive how far these guys have made it in just 6 weeks. We even had an awesome surprise when TooRisk dropped they had raised founding to launch…
Referama even made a really funny prototype. Pen and paper one for everyone of us.
Guys, thank you for letting contribute to these amazing stories you are writing in the Book of Life.
. Thankfully, our first group of graduates proved to be up to the challenge, taking advantage of all the different elements of the day.
