Rodolfo Carpentier from digital assets deployment

On Friday, our last session of "Managing the Tech Start-up" was Rodolfo Carpentier. He is founding member, Chairman and CEO of DAD – Digital Assets Deployment, a new incubator in Madrid.

We went through a real business case based on Watch-Fit, Parisa's business. Though sometimes he pointed out her plan strictly, it was really practical and gave us a significant learning for start-up through this business case.


The key lessons I have learned is
● There are a large number of projects/business plans which do not need for funding from VCs and attractive for VCs.  But, there are some projects actually work well, even if they are not attractive.
● Don’t get in a venture, where all partners get equally. It will not work 
● Online Advertisement business is really tough to get funding because it is too competitive and most of them are not attractive models for VCs.
● Do not use the word of "Plat Form"
● For start-up entrepreneurs, they need to devote most of their time to their business. Keep in mind.
● If we copy some other business models, in that case, we need business managers who have enough experience to lead the team. For young entrepreneurs, innovative business models are required because of lack of management skills.
● Do not try too many things at the same time. Firstly, we should focus on our main/core business.
● If we have enough money for start-up, it would be better for us to start because it shows the commitment to our company.
● If we start B to C business, firstly we need to get potential customers as many as possible.
● If we start a niche business, it must be global one.
● Before starting business, firstly we need to test it.
● We have to get customers who have the same profile/preference because it would be easier.


It was really nice&exciting class. I was impressed so much and he was eligible for the last session of my MBA class. Great thanks Enrique & Rodolfo!!

Pablo Larguía from La Red Innova

Last Wednesday, Pablo Larguía, founder of  Bumeran, Weemba, DoctorSIM, La Red Innova, and many other ventures in the arts areas, spoke in "Managing the Tech Start-up class" in session 11.
After selling Bumeran, job search site in Latin America, to Terra/Telefonica, he started to entertainment industry which provides movies and theater shows. 
In a RedInnova, he organize  on tech entrepreneurship　conferences. In this conference, he takes care about to provide at least 3 take aways for participants to differentiate from other tech-related conferences.

His presentation was funny and unique. 
First, he had read our blogs before the class and started comments.
Second, he spoke his ambitions as an entrepreneur passionately and described us his business ideas with writing on white-board.
Finally, he finished his presentation about 50 min and ran out of the room. ( I know he must be busy. Thanks for nice presentation in busy situation.... )


What impressed points from his speaking was...
- Respect for team and customers
He placed a emphasis on team work. If we want to become great entrepreneur for start-up, firstly we must find food business partners. We will spend most time with partners( This will be more than family ), so if the relation ships is bad, the business itself would be go down even if it is unique and nice concept. 
Regarding customers, they give us business insight and opportunity for expanding. Hence, we should respect for them and keep good relation ships.
- Find boy/girl friends before start up
Entrepreneur has always hectic schedule. If we launch business as entrepreneur, we have to devote almost our lives to working. We do not have enough time to go to the party and find nice boy/girl friends. So, we have to find them before starting, otherwise, we will end up spending single life for a long period.
- Be confident and create magic
When we create business, we have to make it unique. Business is selling ideas/products, which is every one mostly cares about. Therefore, we have to be confident of our unique business ideas and have passionate for expanding them.


I was able to have a profitable time in this session. Thanks Enrique and Pablo!!

Roberto Saint-Malo from Adara Venture Partners

On Friday, Roberto Saint-Malo from Adara Venture Partners gave us lecture in Managing the Tech Start-up class. Though many entrepreneurs have spoken in this class so far, it was first time that the VC guy lectured and it was really fresh.

During the class, he stressed 2 important insights.

● Respect for imitator

As a successful entrepreneur, we do not always have to come up with new innovative business ideas, as Google and facebook do. Imitating the existing business model and applies it to a different market segment, such as expanding geographically, are also successful elements for attracting VCs.

Certainly, creating innovative & new business idea which have a great potential to make money and contribute society might be an ideal pattern for entrepreneur, but we can not always come up with innovative business ideas/technologies ; not every entrepreneur can become Larry Page or Sergey Brin…

● Professional background/MBA is not required

Every entrepreneur who attracts VCs is not always necessary to have professionals back ground. I mean, we do not need from Consulting or Banking sectors to become an entrepreneur.

In addition, MBA is not necessarily required to become an entrepreneur. It is sad story but it might be true in a certain point. Successful entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates and Steven Jobs, do not have MBA degree. Actually, some of my successful entrepreneur mates do not have MBA….

However, I do not want to say MBA is useless for future entrepreneur because MBA life, especially IE, gives us many opportunities to cultivate entrepreneurship and contact with many successful entrepreneurs.

Kibo ventures investment takes only 8 weeks – that is too short cycle because normal VCs take 4-6 months.

Kibo invest in 3 types of ventures.

Type1)   Proven model optimization

Type2)   Early stage investments

Type3)   International opportunities

The following are the Kibo’s criteria for investment

●  The characteristics of entrepreneur

●  Good Team

●  Business model / business opportunity

●  Low capital at the beginning

10 sessions have already passed. Through this class, I have learned a lot as entrepreneur focusing on technology business. After the MBA, I will join Internet search engine company in Japan and would like to create new service in the future by reference to the enlightenment that I have learned in this course.

Ronald Friedlande from review Pro

Last Wednesday was the session of Ronald Friedlande from review Pro, which provides hotel reputation service through the Internet.

In this site, review Pro manages the reputation of various kinds of hotels and provides this information to customers in cheap prices, targeting at long-tail markets.

In 2008, review Pro was founded in Barcelona and there are 30 members. Now, the number of clients is more than 1,000.

This service significantly important in that not only giving useful information to travelers in the world, but also improving hotel service/capacity according to customer reputation for hotels, so this service is innovative.

The business chance of reputation management is mentioned by Warren Buffet.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently”

Business policy

At an early stage, review Pro did not spend so much money on SEM/SEO tools, such as Google Adwords and Google Analytics, instead it focused so much on cutting-edge technology which suits to customer needs & wants. I think it is to the point and ideal business strategy. Nowadays, most companies are really focusing on how they promote their services through on-line marketing without thinking too much on what they provide their service/products. Although marketing activity is important with using such tools, providing services/products what customers want/need is much more important.

Funding

With regard to funding, not only Ronald invested his own money, but also government funded, which is fresh idea because most entrepreneurs are funded by their own cash, VC, business angel.

Lastly, Ronald gave us insight suggestions.

● Be different and give innovative service to the customers what they want

● Pick up appropriate business partners

● Keep good relationship with customers

Thank you for exciting lecture Enrique & Ronald !!

Pedro Jareño from Minube

The last Monday, in Managing the tech start-up class, Pedro Jareño, co-founder of Minube, gave lecture to us. 

Minube is travel social network company running in Spain. He founds that although there are some travel social network companies focusing on travel planning, there is no social network companies focusing on inspiration & sharing memories. Most travelers firstly decide to which areas they travel according to their inspiration, but no companies offered this kind of service. Also, tourism is changing as technology is changing.

Then, he detected a business opportunity and launched Minube.

He explains to us the traveling process – 1) inspiration, 2) planification, 3) Comparation, 4) Booking, 5) Traveling, and 6) Sharing memories. ( See the following picture )

Travel social network and web service is not unique, but he founds the niche market in this kind of business. This gives us great learning that we can find business opportunity seemingly existing business.

Now, Minube’s achievements are

- 1,500,000 users per month

- Leaders in social travel in Spain

- Global project

- 125,000 registered users

- Approximately 900,000 pictures

- Approximately 200,000 real experience

- 20 staffs( 10: tech staffs, 1 designer, the rest is commercial & marketing staffs )

Following is the idea of Minube’s building business opportunity

1) Target Identification

- Look for travel bloggers

- Social Media Research

2)  Get users

- Contests to attract travelers 

- Create a friendly brand

3)  Dynamization( Proactivity )

- Be the first user

- Conversation

- Contests

4)  Fidelization( Loyalty )

5)  Public recognition( Prizes, gratitude )

His lecture was really passionate and inspires me that detecting business opportunity, launching it, and leading to success are quite exciting!!

Thanks Enrique & Pedro!!

lberto Torron Rodriguez from Todotaladros.com

Friday’s gurest speaker was Alberto Torron Rodriguez, founder of Todotaladros.com. He started business from his personal problem – to pay tax….

Firstly, he launched a small web-shop on e-bay( first sale was in August 2009 ), and through this experience, he found the great opportunity of e-commerce business.

He started e-commerce site which sells different lines of products. The base capital was 40,000 euros and nowadays sales are 1,000 euros/day. Although their business is small, they are growing steadily. The key points their success are…

- Quick response

After getting order from customers, they try to send products as soon as possible. As amazon does, shipping early is an important factor for success.

- KISS( Keep it Simple, Stupid )

He emphasized on getting a great deal of benefits from simplicity. The Jesús Encinar, founder of idealista also emphasized on the same story.

- Technology

He makes use of sophisticated web business tools - Google Adwords / Analytics and analyze numerically their business/service and promote their business well.
Also, on their web-site, he uses cloud service to keep the cost-of-owner ship low.

- Cheap price

They offer their products with cheap price to customers, which attracts many customers.

- Guaranteed

If customer does not satisfy what they bought after getting products, they can ask for refund.

Thanks!! 

Jesús Encinar from Idealista.com

Yesterday’s “Managing the tech start-up” class was about Idealista.com, which is the most famous real estate web site in Spain.

Jesús Encinar founded Idealista.com in January 2000. Actually, when I looked for my apartment in Madrid after arriving, I used to browse this web site and contact landlord through it. Therefore, I am familiar with this company.

Before his launching Idealista.com, most people looking for apartment got the information through newspaper which is plain text-base and has no picture.

When he decided to launch Idealist.com, there were a plenty of competitors (25 websites in Spain ) and internet technology was still on a learning curve( It was before Google came in ). His approach to build initial database was unique and to the point. His team walked around 10,000km in Spain, cold called more than 25,000 calls, and asked agency to get advertisement in idealista.com. It seems to be excessive amount of time, but he did it.

He started this business in small (Initially focused on Madrid) and then expanded other areas in Spain, such as Barcelona and Valencia.

Now, Idealista.com is expanding its business internationally – Portugal and Italy. In Italy, it has around 45 employees and is still competing with local players and has reached break-even point. In Portugal, it has only call center and no employees.

To create web site in initial phase, he ordered Andersen consulting to design IT architecture & system, but he was not satisfied their work. Then, he decided to rework it and created today’s idealista.com. He taught us that it is important to give away something if it does not match to our requirement. (The courage to abandon is important.)

In addition, he recommended that having simple web site is important: simple is best. It should be easy for customers to navigate and get required information. Standing the customers point of view and designing web site is extremely important.

I sympathized with his homespun approach… Though thinking about some business strategy on a desk is important, his homespun behavior is the most important skills as great entrepreneur.