Tag Archives: spain

Last Month in Spain – April

Posted by Julie on 16/05/2012 None comments

These series of posts are a compilation of what has happened in the spanish startupsphere within and outside our borders. As part of our efforts to promote Startup Spain movement, we want to increase the exposure of the our startup ecosystem. If you want to contribute, please do not hesitate to ping us on Twitter @startspainwith any news you want us to feature here. Thank You!

If you want to learn more about what has happened lately in Spain, you can read last month’s post HERE.

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For most people, April in Spain has been mainly famous for its concerning news regarding its national public debt risk premium, the “rapid” implementation of several austerity measures by the central government and the TWO different hunting accidents in TWO different occasions by TWO different members of the Royal Family (One of them, being the King of Spain himself). Yet, in the startupsphere, we don’t have much time for supra-national economical mumbo jumbo, political smoke-screens or outrageous (and quite karmic) gossip about our Royal Family. We have more important things to do!!

If you want to keep reading this post, click HERE.

If you want to know all about these great spanish entrepreneurs and want to be updated on the evolution of the Spanish startup ecosystem, you can Follow us on Twitter @StartSpain, Like us on Facebookand/or Subscribe to our NewsLetter

If you feel that we have left out of this update any important deal that is worth mentioning or you have any feedback regarding these series of blogposts, please let us know in the comments section below. We would gladly update the post with your inputs as fast as we can.

Stay tuned for next month’s update!

Startup Spain supporting La Red Innova 2012

Posted by Nast Marrero on 26/04/2012 None comments

Dear tetuanees, we are happy to inform you that La Red Innova is coming out with a great new edition this year and as they are one of the best tech conferences in Spain, we’re glad to join them once more as one of their supporting organizations. This year, La Red Innova is back to startup the community again, so make sure to book your tickets for: 14th – 15th June 2012 at the Circo Price. Check out for more info and get your discount codes here.

Stay on Target

Posted by holoholo on 25/04/2012 None comments

These series of guest posts are written by the teams attending the Tetuan Valley Startup School 2012 Spring Edition. This post is from the holoholo team, formed by Jay Hum, Gonzalo Calle and Joaquín Grech

Since becoming a member of the Tetuan Valley Startup School 2012 Spring Edition, which started on March 7, we have pitched at least once, sometimes twice a week. In addition to the formal three, five, or seven minute pitches to professors, mentors, entrepreneurs and potential investors, we have given spontaneous one minute elevator pitches to people we’ve run into or just happened to meet at various networking events. We have also recorded a pitch and posted it online as part of the application process to some accelerator/incubator programs.

Before each pitch, we spent at least a couple of hours refining the slide deck, rehearsing the presentation, and preparing answers for the Q&A session. After each pitch, we received a lot of feedback from various sources. Some feedback was positive, which was good because it validated that we were on the right path and the audience understood our product. Some feedback was negative, which was also good because we then knew that we had a gap to fill or had to describe something more clearly. Finally, some feedback was contradictory, which is not good because it leaves us wondering which direction should we take in the pitch and/or product. There is nothing worse than hearing from someone that he/she clearly sees the product/market fit and the huge upside, and then turning to someone else and seeing a confused look on his/her face.

Yesterday morning, we had a 15-minute meeting with an individual from the US who has been on both sides of the table. He has been an entrepreneur and is now a Managing General Partner and Managing Director for two venture capital funds. After we gave him the elevator pitch, he said: “Right, so it’s like a combination of X and Y, but with Z.” He immediately got the concept and said that he really like the idea. Since he understood the product so quickly, the rest of the meeting was used to discuss customer acquisition strategy and costs.

Contrast this to yesterday afternoon, when we had a five-minute pitch to a VC from Israel. After given the same pitch that has been refined over the past month and a half, the VC started the Q&A session with “I don’t get what your product is or what you are trying to do.” Something you never want to hear from a VC! Needless to say, we were shocked and taken back by this feedback, which was completely unexpected.

The more you talk to people about your idea and the more you pitch, the more feedback and opinions you are going to get. It is always much easier to criticize and knock something down than it is to build something of value that lasts. Net net, there comes a point where you have to ignore all the noise, focus on the core of you idea and product, and stay on target.

Heaven, Hell and Spanish Entrepreneurship

Posted by Incentivalia on 24/04/2012 None comments

These series of guest posts are written by the teams attending the Tetuan Valley Startup School 2012 Spring Edition. This post is from the Incentivalia team, formed by Jorge Bestard and Magd Kudama.

Everytime I help or advise one of my fellow startups, I sometimes get a question which to this day shocks me… “What do you want in return?” People have a hard time understanding my answer “Nothing”.

The best way to understand what we have learnt in Tetuan Valley I feel is best expressed through the “Allegory of the long spoons” which can be found in the Bible. It goes something like this:

A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord said to the man, “Come, I will show you hell.”

They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was famished, desperate and starving. Each held a spoon that reached the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arm that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible.

“Come, now I will show you heaven,” the Lord said after a while. They entered another room, identical to the first — the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons. But there everyone was happy and well-nourished. “I don’t understand,” said the man. “Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room and everything was the same?”

The Lord smiled,“Ah, it is simple,” he said. “Here they have learned to feed each other.”

...the soldier next to you, makes you stronger

Spain is going through hell right now. Greed, deceptive business practices, speculation etc. have haunted Spain for the last decade, and the results are obvious: Spain is on the verge of disaster. We’re in hell right now and we can stay here, or we can fight our way back.

The allegory of the long spoons,shows us that either we die as individuals or we succeed as a group. That is a message that more entrepreneurs in Spain each day are living by. Entrepreneurs are helping eachother out in a society that does not understand them, with government that bashes them with absurd laws, and with the huge uncertainty and mental anguish that characterizes our practice. Little by little, with these collaborative efforts, we are Starting up Spain, and creating an atmosphere of creativity, productivity and talent much needed today.

Entrepreneurial Motivation

Posted by stuff4share on 09/04/2012 None comments

These series of guest posts are written by the teams attending the Tetuan Valley Startup School 2012 Spring Edition. This post is from the www.mituyuu.com team, formed by Carolina V. Rojas, Chandini Jeswani and Ángela M. Rojas

Embarking on your own business can have some very important advantages. You can choose your way and set your own pace with your own goals, this is the freedom of the entrepreneur; to make their own decisions based on their own judgments.

This takes you away from different pressures that sometimes generate a gap with the businesses objectives in the private sector. Having to always follow the boss´s decisions regardless of your opinion can be frustrating, making salary the only motivation. But at the time of launching a new business, especially at the beginning where money shines for its absence, the motivation to work on your ideas should be different. It must come from your ideology: to develop an idea according to your ideals. Facing a challenge you want to achieve, it is about a dream to fulfill.

Self-coaching is a booming issue that in some way tries to teach you how to think so that you are conscious of what makes you happy and helps you achieve your goals. In the business side it searches for ways to enhance your best skills and encourage you to develop your weaknesses. Apart from fashion therapies such as coaching, continuously reinforcing your interest in achieving the goals you set out is vital for the success of a project. Some methods that could be followed are related with the sources of motivation:

Think about the impact of the idea you want to develop, whether making money, making life easier for people or world peace, those will be your long term goals.
You already have a challenge for which to fight. Probably, as in climbing, when you face a great mountain at first you do not know where to begin. It’s time to split the final objective into well-defined small blocks that allow you to reach the top. This way you will define short term goals which are easier to plan and to achieve.
After that the effort will mark the result. Even if during working you only see the close results in time, think that your development will dictate whether or not you reach the goal. Plan your short term goals but work focusing on the final goal.

Although the road is slow and some times disconcerting………when you have an idea and a dream it is time to face fears, go ahead and think that everything is possible!