The Startup Accelerator Business Model And The Emergence Of Venture Builders — vídeo y transcripción

[00:02] [Music]
[00:15] 
[00:15] welcome  to  the  ethnic  podcast  and  my
[00:17] 
[00:17] name  is  Sandra  Holland  today  we  will
[00:19] 
[00:19] discuss  the  differences  between  startup
[00:21] 
[00:21] accelerators  incubators  and  venture
[00:23] 
[00:23] builders  if  they  work  for  startups  and
[00:25] 
[00:25] if  so  what's  the  success  factors  and
[00:27] 
[00:27] we're  super  lucky  to  have  with  us  some
[00:30] 
[00:30] great  people  we  had  angle  Garcia
[00:32] 
[00:32] director  of  startup  bootcamp  IOT  data
[00:34] 
[00:34] and  cybersecurity  was  a  Patricio  Hunt
[00:37] 
[00:37] managing  partner  of  intellectual  and
[00:39] 
[00:39] also  the  ethnic  president  Pernod  Ferraro
[00:41] 
[00:41] welcome  to  you  all  thank  you  be  here  so
[00:46] 
[00:46] to  start  off  with  young  he'll  you've
[00:50] 
[00:50] been  involved  with  startup  bootcamp  for
[00:52] 
[00:52] a  while  now  couple  years  you  also
[00:54] 
[00:54] invested  in  a  couple  of  the  projects
[00:56] 
[00:56] yourself
[00:58] 
[00:58] what  is  it  that  you  find  so  interesting
[01:00] 
[01:00] with  with  this  type  of  program  compared
[01:03] 
[01:03] to  just  regular  seed  funding
[01:05] 
[01:05] well  I  finished  our  different  things  I
[01:09] 
[01:09] mean  city  funded  our  cellar  a  toes  and
[01:10] 
[01:10] incubators  there  are  a  lot  of  animals
[01:12] 
[01:12] probably  we're  going  to  discuss  it  in
[01:14] 
[01:14] the  during  the  podcasts  are  completely
[01:17] 
[01:17] different  things  Anthony's  a  serratus
[01:19] 
[01:19] are  to  some  extent  trying  to  prepare
[01:22] 
[01:22] these  teams  sometimes  even  don't  even
[01:25] 
[01:25] companies  these  teams  to  be  some  kind  of
[01:28] 
[01:28] investable
[01:29] 
[01:29] company  or  an  investable  startup  right
[01:32] 
[01:32] so  we  are  early  I  think  in  the  in  the
[01:36] 
[01:36] process  of  the  funding  so  I  don't  think
[01:38] 
[01:38] that  we  have  to  compare  such  investment
[01:40] 
[01:40] with  celery  toes  or  a  complete  different
[01:42] 
[01:42] animals  the  things  that  we  are  looking
[01:43] 
[01:43] for  our  different
[01:45] 
[01:45] I'm  probably  something  that  we're  going
[01:47] 
[01:47] to  discuss  today  right  right  what  are
[01:50] 
[01:50] you  finding  appealing  with  with  these
[01:52] 
[01:52] kind  of  programs  what  what  are  the  big
[01:53] 
[01:53] pros  for  you  well  as  a  personal  level
[01:58] 
[01:58] accelerator  is  something  that  you  are
[02:00] 
[02:00] really  much  more  deep  into  the  people  I
[02:04] 
[02:04] mean  it's  a  lot  about  the  personal
[02:07] 
[02:07] relationship  I  mean  really  helping  in  a
[02:09] 
[02:09] day  to  day  basis  to  these  guys
[02:12] 
[02:12] son  invested  I  mean  you  take  some
[02:13] 
[02:13] distance  right  them  is  much  more  a
[02:15] 
[02:15] financial  investment  it's  also  a
[02:17] 
[02:17] financial  investment  foreign  selector
[02:19] 
[02:19] but  these  are  other  much  more  personal
[02:21] 
[02:21] factors  I  mean  you  mean  you're  gonna
[02:23] 
[02:23] really  try  to  help  these  guys  to  make
[02:27] 
[02:27] the  dream  a  reality  right  this  is  you
[02:29] 
[02:29] are  going  to  the  personal  level  so  it's
[02:32] 
[02:32] something  much  more  much  more  personal
[02:34] 
[02:34] that  when  you  are  I  get  an  investor  then
[02:36] 
[02:36] you  start  to  have  your  legal
[02:37] 
[02:37] implications  and  your  financial
[02:39] 
[02:39] rules  and  this  kind  of  thing  so  you're
[02:42] 
[02:42] moving  to  a  different  level  I  think  that
[02:44] 
[02:44] both
[02:45] 
[02:45] elements  are  necessary  in  an  ecosystem
[02:49] 
[02:49] but  are
[02:51] 
[02:51] doing  different  things  and  act  in  a
[02:54] 
[02:54] different  stage
[02:56] 
[02:56] and  petitio  you  have  a  different
[02:59] 
[02:59] approach  more  than  like  a  traditional
[03:01] 
[03:01] accelerator  with  a  six  month  program
[03:03] 
[03:03] right  tell  us  a  little  bit  about  your
[03:06] 
[03:06] approach  to  startups  and  how  startups
[03:07] 
[03:07] approach  you  well  we  have  different
[03:09] 
[03:09] models  actually  because  we  running  the
[03:12] 
[03:12] tech  stars  startup  next  program  which  is
[03:15] 
[03:15] a  traditional  program  or  you  have  a
[03:18] 
[03:18] selection  process  in  the  beginning
[03:19] 
[03:19] applicants  that  are  interested  in  in
[03:23] 
[03:23] getting  in  etc  and  that's  a  batch
[03:25] 
[03:25] process  and  we  do  it  twice  a  year  and
[03:28] 
[03:28] then  we  have  our
[03:30] 
[03:30] let's  say  our  own  boutique  accelerator
[03:34] 
[03:34] which  is  Internet  tube  and  there  we  do
[03:36] 
[03:36] whatever  we  think  is  best  for  our
[03:38] 
[03:38] company  and  depends  a  lot  in  the
[03:41] 
[03:41] context  of  the  company  the  team  the
[03:44] 
[03:44] stage  of  the  company  our  interest  in  the
[03:48] 
[03:48] company  as  well  so  we  do  a  very
[03:50] 
[03:50] different  thing  there  we  usually  do  one
[03:53] 
[03:53] or  two  companies  every  year  only  that
[03:55] 
[03:55] we  really  do  a  let's  say  we  do  a  custom
[04:01] 
[04:01] fit  program  and  we  just  concentrate  on
[04:04] 
[04:04] what  the  team  really  needs  and  it's  a
[04:06] 
[04:06] very  different  approach  so  why  did  you
[04:09] 
[04:09] choose  this  approach  instead  of  as  you
[04:12] 
[04:12] are  affiliated  with  the  tech  stars  the
[04:13] 
[04:13] more  traditional  program  what  did  you
[04:15] 
[04:15] choose  to  do  this  kind  of  thing
[04:16] 
[04:16] basically  we  are  doing  things  us  as  we
[04:21] 
[04:21] see  there  require  in  the  rhythm  is  not
[04:25] 
[04:25] something  that  we  have  a  device  in  a
[04:28] 
[04:28] very  specific  way  we  are  always  sort  of
[04:32] 
[04:32] innovating  on  the  periphery  of  the  of
[04:34] 
[04:34] things  and  we  are  looking  finding
[04:38] 
[04:38] exactly  what  are  the  best  opportunities
[04:41] 
[04:41] that  we  have  there  and  we  go  behind
[04:43] 
[04:43] those  opportunities  at  the  same  time  for
[04:45] 
[04:45] example  last  year  we  founded  a  mobile
[04:48] 
[04:48] venture  builder  because  we  thought  there
[04:51] 
[04:51] was  a
[04:51] 
[04:51] perhaps  a  more  interesting  model  for  us
[04:55] 
[04:55] and  it  was  probably  a  model  that  was
[04:59] 
[04:59] better  for  our  skills  so  now  we  are  very
[05:03] 
[05:03] focused  on  that  program  as  well  and  we
[05:06] 
[05:06] are  doing  things  as  they  are  coming  to
[05:09] 
[05:09] us  and  taking  opportunities  mostly
[05:11] 
[05:11] rather  than  how  very
[05:13] 
[05:13] let's  say  focus  strategy  based  on
[05:16] 
[05:16] exactly  things  that  we  think  are
[05:20] 
[05:20] that  we  have  to  do  I  mean  we're  more
[05:23] 
[05:23] open  to  innovation  rather  than  designing
[05:26] 
[05:26] what  we  want  to  exactly  and  talking
[05:29] 
[05:29] about  venture  builders  but  not  you  used
[05:32] 
[05:32] to  be  ethnic  used  to  be  a  very
[05:34] 
[05:34] traditional  accelerator  used  to  call  it
[05:36] 
[05:36] the  hacker  accelerator  once  but  but  it
[05:39] 
[05:39] changed  a  bit  the  last  time  can  you  tell
[05:43] 
[05:43] us  about  what  has  to  change  and  when  you
[05:45] 
[05:45] speak  to  people  now  what  do  you  call  it
[05:47] 
[05:47] Nick  hmm  so  we  never  meant  to  be  a
[05:49] 
[05:49] traditional  accelerator  so  that's  why  we
[05:51] 
[05:51] call  it  the  hacker  accelerator
[05:54] 
[05:54] but  basically  what  we  did  what  we  did  in
[05:57] 
[05:57] our  short  span  of  life  is  experimenting
[06:00] 
[06:00] so  we  tried  different  models  and  we
[06:03] 
[06:03] experimented  and  we  reached  to  the
[06:06] 
[06:06] conclusion  that  a  fixed  program  with  a
[06:11] 
[06:11] set  of  mentors  with  a  certain  amount  of
[06:13] 
[06:13] resources  devoted  to  each  project  and
[06:16] 
[06:16] with  the  need  of  having  to  do  n  number
[06:20] 
[06:20] of  projects  every  n  number  of  time
[06:23] 
[06:23] was  not  possible  for  us
[06:26] 
[06:26] we  studied  the  mother  we  analyzed  it  and
[06:29] 
[06:29] we  realized  that  it  was  not  possible  at
[06:31] 
[06:31] least  for  us  and  so  we  decided  to  move
[06:35] 
[06:35] away  from  this  model  and  and  start
[06:37] 
[06:37] companies  and  commit  about  committing
[06:40] 
[06:40] the  companies  that  we  were  growing  so
[06:42] 
[06:42] increasing  our  participation  and  our
[06:44] 
[06:44] effort  in  smaller  companies  instead  of
[06:47] 
[06:47] doing  a  model  based  on  quantity  time
[06:51] 
[06:51] statistics  so  we  we  tried  to  focus  on
[06:55] 
[06:55] smaller  projects  on  a  small  number  of
[06:57] 
[06:57] projects  and
[06:59] 
[06:59] then  commit  on  these  projects  forever
[07:02] 
[07:02] not  just  for  a  period  of  time  but  making
[07:06] 
[07:06] sure  that  if  we  are  something  and  we
[07:10] 
[07:10] take  something  out  of  this  project  it
[07:12] 
[07:12] will  be  along  with  the  other
[07:14] 
[07:14] enterpreneurs  that  are  that  are  doing  it
[07:16] 
[07:16] so  we  we  take  big  bigger  stakes  in  the
[07:20] 
[07:20] companies  that  we  work  and  we  take  full
[07:22] 
[07:22] responsibility  we  don't  look  for  winners
[07:24] 
[07:24] we  make  them  and  we  make  winner  teams
[07:27] 
[07:27] and  winner  projects  we  are  continuously
[07:30] 
[07:30] striving  to  find  the  greatest  talent  and
[07:35] 
[07:35] we  take  responsibility  of  funding  the
[07:37] 
[07:37] projects  of  of  the  success  of  the
[07:39] 
[07:39] project  in  the  long  term  hmm  so  that's  a
[07:42] 
[07:42] difference  in  the  mother  we  then  we
[07:44] 
[07:44] don't  participate  in  a  bad  way  in  a  very
[07:45] 
[07:45] early  stage  in  a  short  amount  or  close
[07:49] 
[07:49] amount  of  time  and  we  take
[07:51] 
[07:51] responsibility  almost  forever  in  the
[07:54] 
[07:54] projects  right  then  okay  you  have  been
[07:57] 
[07:57] sorry  to  campus  is  one  of  the  more
[07:59] 
[07:59] successful
[08:00] 
[08:00] accelerators  in  Europe  one  would  say  and
[08:03] 
[08:03] but  but  the  business  model  business
[08:06] 
[08:06] model  itself  as  Bernard  says  they  went
[08:08] 
[08:08] away  from  it  that  was  their  own  choice
[08:11] 
[08:11] but  but  how  are  you  looking  at  the
[08:13] 
[08:13] business  model  do  you  find  it  successful
[08:16] 
[08:16] itself  or  is  it  too  early  to  say  what  do
[08:17] 
[08:17] you  think
[08:19] 
[08:19] it's  a  very  good  question  because  the
[08:21] 
[08:21] thing  that  the  other  day  I  was  speaking
[08:23] 
[08:23] well  I  don't  remember  what  it  was  but  he
[08:25] 
[08:25] was  talking  about  the  salah  laid  off
[08:27] 
[08:27] right  and  i  did  some  kind  of  research
[08:29] 
[08:29] about  and  i  find  out  that  what  it  was  at
[08:32] 
[08:32] angel  is  that  there  are  two  thousand
[08:34] 
[08:34] accelerators  in  the  world  which  is  not
[08:36] 
[08:36] true  it's  not  true  which  is  true  is  the
[08:40] 
[08:40] there  are  2,000  companies  or  entities
[08:42] 
[08:42] that  are  claiming  to  be  an  accelerator
[08:44] 
[08:44] because  at  the  end  of  the  day  I  mean  you
[08:46] 
[08:46] take  a  look  to  all  these  two  thousand
[08:48] 
[08:48] websites  and  all  of  the  necessary  half
[08:50] 
[08:50] workshops  I  have  mentors  and  I'm  gonna
[08:52] 
[08:52] move  you  to  the  next  level  and  blah  blah
[08:54] 
[08:54] blah  blah  blah  but  at  the  end  the
[08:57] 
[08:57] reality  is  that  most  of  them  they  are
[08:58] 
[08:58] starting  today  and  in  two  years  from  now
[09:01] 
[09:01] and  and  windier  for  now  they  have  to
[09:02] 
[09:02] rethink  about  the  model  because  the
[09:04] 
[09:04] model  is  not  sustainable  yes  by
[09:06] 
[09:06] definition  means  you  are  trying  to  have
[09:07] 
[09:07] some  tables  and  chairs  and  if  you  are
[09:10] 
[09:10] not  don't  have  enough  money  in  order  to
[09:12] 
[09:12] deliver  enough  value  so  you're  trying  to
[09:15] 
[09:15] make  money  with  the  equity  that  you  are
[09:17] 
[09:17] taking  in  these  companies  but  at  the
[09:19] 
[09:19] same  time  you  have  enough  resources  in
[09:21] 
[09:21] order  to  deliver  enough  value  to  these
[09:22] 
[09:22] companies  well  it's  trying  to  do  a
[09:26] 
[09:26] circle  with  that  square  it's  gonna  be  a
[09:28] 
[09:28] challenge  I  think  that  there  are  some
[09:32] 
[09:32] players  out  there  I'm  not  saying  that  we
[09:34] 
[09:34] are  better  or  not  but  we  have  a
[09:35] 
[09:35] different  model  I  mean  we  have  these
[09:37] 
[09:37] corporations  support  in  our  province  and
[09:39] 
[09:39] I'm  talking  not  only  about  to  start  a
[09:40] 
[09:40] boot  camp  but  also  techstars  of  black
[09:42] 
[09:42] and  play  or  the  guys  from  Y  Combinator
[09:44] 
[09:44] of  all  500  starters  in  the  US  that  we
[09:48] 
[09:48] have  these  corporations
[09:50] 
[09:50] investing  or  supporting  our  programs  in
[09:53] 
[09:53] order  to  have  access  to  innovation  and
[09:55] 
[09:55] that's  what  makes  our  business  model
[09:58] 
[09:58] sustainable  I  mean  there  are  few  solar
[10:00] 
[10:00] leaders  in  the  world  that  they  have  been
[10:01] 
[10:01] in  the  market  for  more  than  six  seven
[10:03] 
[10:03] years  around  the  ones  that  are
[10:04] 
[10:04] describing  and  of  course  that  we  are
[10:07] 
[10:07] changing  things  internally  but  we  have
[10:09] 
[10:09] find  out  is  way  a  sustainable  business
[10:12] 
[10:12] model  that  if  you  look  around  is
[10:16] 
[10:16] it's  not  in  others  always  have  to
[10:18] 
[10:18] rethink  about  different  ways  to  do  it
[10:21] 
[10:21] different  ways  to  find
[10:24] 
[10:24] sources  of  finding  in  order  to  be  able
[10:27] 
[10:27] to  get  money  back  from  this  equity  stake
[10:30] 
[10:30] that's  the  set  before  I  mean  we  don't
[10:32] 
[10:32] have  enough  resources  to  invest  in  these
[10:33] 
[10:33] companies  the  likelihood  to  get  a  lot  of
[10:35] 
[10:35] money  from  this  equity  stake  is  right  so
[10:37] 
[10:37] very  poor  right  so  we  have  been  doing
[10:40] 
[10:40] other  things  sorcery  changing  things
[10:42] 
[10:42] focusing  more  and  more  in  the  vertical
[10:44] 
[10:44] thing  right  that  probably  we  are  going
[10:47] 
[10:47] to  speak  later  I  mean  is  one  of  the
[10:48] 
[10:48] futures  of  accelerators  trying  to  be
[10:50] 
[10:50] much  more  specific  in  something
[10:53] 
[10:53] but  again  everything  that  we  have  this
[10:55] 
[10:55] specific  business  model  that  allows  our
[10:57] 
[10:57] to  provide  or  deliver  at  least  more
[11:01] 
[11:01] resources  and  we  believe  that  more  value
[11:03] 
[11:03] that  little  players  in  the  market
[11:05] 
[11:05] positio  you  have  also  been  involved  with
[11:08] 
[11:08] this  traditional  type  of  programs  but  as
[11:12] 
[11:12] we  talked  about  like  the  accelerate
[11:14] 
[11:14] accelerate  that's  all  only  been  around
[11:16] 
[11:16] for  a  couple  of  years  it's  a  fairly  new
[11:19] 
[11:19] new  thing  so  when  when  can  we  say  that
[11:23] 
[11:23] accelerator  is  the  success  at  what  time
[11:26] 
[11:26] is  it  too  early  or  is  it  in  the  future
[11:29] 
[11:29] what  do  you  think  I  think  that  like  who
[11:32] 
[11:32] was  saying  there  are  many  type  of
[11:34] 
[11:34] accelerators  and  you  can  call
[11:36] 
[11:36] accelerators  really  just  a  few  of  them
[11:40] 
[11:40] so  basically  I  think  those  that  are
[11:43] 
[11:43] focused  on  verticals  will  probably  be
[11:47] 
[11:47] more  successful  in  the  long  term  also
[11:50] 
[11:50] the  first  accelerators  the  world  ones
[11:54] 
[11:54] that  are  more  consolidated  like  Y
[11:56] 
[11:56] Combinator  tech  stars  start  at  bootcamp
[11:58] 
[11:58] and  a  few  others  probably  because  they
[12:02] 
[12:02] were  the  first  to  market  and  because
[12:03] 
[12:03] they  have  this  effect  of  being  able  to
[12:05] 
[12:05] select  the  best  companies  all  over  the
[12:07] 
[12:07] world  those  are  probably  going  to  stand
[12:10] 
[12:10] out  and  going  to  continue  in  a  success
[12:13] 
[12:13] for  the  rest  what  you  have  to  do  to  see
[12:16] 
[12:16] if  you  can  find  a  specific  model  that
[12:20] 
[12:20] may  deliver  some  special  value  to  the
[12:24] 
[12:24] companies  that  you  are  looking  for
[12:26] 
[12:26] specifically  but  should  be  like  a  very
[12:29] 
[12:29] very
[12:31] 
[12:31] let's  say  focused  group  of  companies  and
[12:36] 
[12:36] I  guess  those  ones  are  the  ones  that  are
[12:39] 
[12:39] going  to  prevail  right  right  for  us  the
[12:43] 
[12:43] model  let's  say  in  our  case  we've  been
[12:46] 
[12:46] going  from  the  hybrid  custom-fit  sort  of
[12:50] 
[12:50] program  that  we  deliver  we  only  do  that
[12:52] 
[12:52] as  I  said  before  just  for  a  couple  of
[12:55] 
[12:55] companies  perhaps  each  year  and  then  we
[12:59] 
[12:59] also  Bernard  was  saying  we  found  out
[13:02] 
[13:02] these
[13:04] 
[13:04] along  many  years  and  looking  for  well
[13:07] 
[13:07] whatever  the  best  thing  for  us  to  do  and
[13:10] 
[13:10] finally  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a
[13:12] 
[13:12] company  will  there  was  in  our  case  the
[13:15] 
[13:15] best  thing  to  to  concentrate  our
[13:18] 
[13:18] deliberate  efforts  on  the  other  hand  as
[13:22] 
[13:22] I  was  saying  also  you  have  to  remain
[13:24] 
[13:24] sort  of  open  to  innovate  on  the
[13:27] 
[13:27] periphery  so  if  they  come  to  us  a  couple
[13:29] 
[13:29] of  teams  every  year  that  we  see  that
[13:32] 
[13:32] they're  really  good  and  we  can  help  them
[13:34] 
[13:34] we  do  that  I  mean  we  help  them  in  the
[13:37] 
[13:37] way  that  they  need  and  in  the  way  that
[13:39] 
[13:39] is  better  for  them  to  eat  we  have  but
[13:43] 
[13:43] our  deliberate  efforts  now  are  just
[13:45] 
[13:45] focus  on  the  company  wielder  which  we
[13:48] 
[13:48] see  that  is  the  best  model  for  us  in
[13:50] 
[13:50] order  to  build  companies  it's  a  kind  of
[13:52] 
[13:52] model  perhaps  it's  more  closer  to
[13:54] 
[13:55] whatever  nut  is  doing  we  we  select
[13:58] 
[13:58] further  we'll  go  all  the  other  way  I
[14:01] 
[14:01] mean  we  select  the  space  in  which  we
[14:03] 
[14:03] want  to  innovate  we  look  for  a  company
[14:07] 
[14:07] that  would  validate  our  concept  then  we
[14:10] 
[14:10] select  the  technology  we  build  the
[14:13] 
[14:13] technology  we  get  traction  in  the  market
[14:16] 
[14:16] and  if  we  get  real  traction  then  we'll
[14:19] 
[14:19] go  and  try  to  find  that  team  that  would
[14:21] 
[14:21] be  able  to  take  this  to  a  success  or  to
[14:24] 
[14:24] a  spin-off  that  could  be  successful  in
[14:26] 
[14:26] the  long  term  so  this  is  a  completely
[14:28] 
[14:28] different  model  we  believe  in  in  our
[14:31] 
[14:31] case  in  particular  that  this  is  the  best
[14:33] 
[14:33] for  us  to  we  believe  that's  the  model
[14:36] 
[14:36] where  we  can  be  more  successful  and  this
[14:39] 
[14:39] is  why  we  do  that  yeah  I  have  a  question
[14:43] 
[14:43] related  to  that  yes  no  please  please  go
[14:46] 
[14:46] ahead  and  I  think  it's  interesting  to
[14:49] 
[14:49] analyze  what  we  define  as  sustainable
[14:51] 
[14:51] and  how  sustainable  is  a  goal  by  itself
[14:55] 
[14:55] so  is  it  is  it  not  profitable  the  goal
[14:58] 
[14:58] of  any  business  so  shouldn't  we  create
[15:01] 
[15:01] profitable  business  but  still  and  I
[15:05] 
[15:05] would  like  to  understand  how  an
[15:07] 
[15:07] accelerator  can  be  sustainable  and  and
[15:10] 
[15:10] how  an  accelerator  can  be  profitable  on
[15:12] 
[15:12] what's  a  ball  and  what's  the  time  span
[15:14] 
[15:14] needed  for  that  so  I  think  that  those
[15:16] 
[15:16] are  the  biggest  questions  I'd  realizes
[15:19] 
[15:19] in  the  world  even  the  first  accelerators
[15:21] 
[15:21] in  2005  Paula  Hammond  started  Dominator
[15:25] 
[15:25] think  tech  stuff  was  one  year  later  no
[15:27] 
[15:27] something  like  that  2006  and  these  are
[15:30] 
[15:30] the  old  examples  the  oldest  from  them
[15:33] 
[15:33] many  accelerators  appeared  as  you  said
[15:36] 
[15:36] and  but  I  think  none  of  them  are  still
[15:39] 
[15:39] or  have  enough  track  record  today  to  say
[15:42] 
[15:42] that  they  are  profitable  business  models
[15:44] 
[15:44] even  Y  Combinator  so  to  say  they  are
[15:48] 
[15:48] profitable  you  have  to  set  and  expect  an
[15:50] 
[15:50] expectation  at  some  point  and  you  have
[15:53] 
[15:53] to  fit  this  expectation  but  Y  Combinator
[15:55] 
[15:55] grow  so  big  that  they  get  increasing
[15:58] 
[15:58] their  expectation  so  now  they  even
[16:01] 
[16:01] expect  to  be  way  more  weak  and  they  are
[16:04] 
[16:04] getting  the  best  deal  flow  in  the  world
[16:05] 
[16:05] so  when  it's  an  accelerator  well  when
[16:08] 
[16:08] can  we  call  an  accelerator  a  sustainable
[16:11] 
[16:11] business  model  or  a  profitable  business
[16:13] 
[16:13] model  is  it  mean  does  it  mean  that  you
[16:15] 
[16:15] have  a  source  for  investment  that  keeps
[16:18] 
[16:18] coming  or  or  whatever  you  mean  to  your
[16:21] 
[16:21] uncle  for  example  or  a  sustainable  model
[16:24] 
[16:24] is  something  that  you  can  keep  in  the
[16:25] 
[16:25] time  right  something  that  you  can  keep
[16:27] 
[16:27] doing  for  a  lot  of  time  sure  and  I  think
[16:29] 
[16:29] all  these  models  are  clearly  sustainable
[16:32] 
[16:32] because  they  have  been  in  the  market  for
[16:33] 
[16:33] a  lot  of  period  of  time  don't  thing
[16:35] 
[16:35] about  that  the  model  is  only  to  make
[16:37] 
[16:37] money  with  the  equity  in  the  companies
[16:39] 
[16:39] they  are  also  making  money  with  the
[16:40] 
[16:40] corporations  and
[16:42] 
[16:42] but  I  think  the  the  the  best  way  to  look
[16:45] 
[16:45] at  that  I  mean  these  guys  have  been  in
[16:46] 
[16:46] the  market  for  a  long  time  all  the  guys
[16:48] 
[16:48] are  not  longer  in  the  market  so  there
[16:51] 
[16:51] are  guys  that  are  sustainable  the  guys
[16:52] 
[16:52] are  not  sustainable
[16:54] 
[16:54] and  we're  talking  about  all  these  guys
[16:57] 
[16:57] in  the  market  it's  a  big  group  nearly
[16:59] 
[16:59] 2,000  accelerators  yeah  you're  trying  to
[17:02] 
[17:02] get  the  best  talent  to  startup  bootcamp
[17:04] 
[17:04] every  year  or  every  a  for  every  program
[17:06] 
[17:06] doesn't  it  make  it  harder  for  you  guys
[17:09] 
[17:09] to  attract  the  best  companies  when
[17:11] 
[17:11] you're  competing  with  suddenly  thousands
[17:13] 
[17:13] of  other  people  around  around  the  world
[17:15] 
[17:15] what  does  it  is  make
[17:17] 
[17:17] it's  it's  becoming  a  very  crowded  space
[17:21] 
[17:21] it's  true  I  mean  only  in  our  last  call
[17:24] 
[17:24] this  year  we  analyzed  something  like  a
[17:26] 
[17:26] hundred  50  startups
[17:28] 
[17:28] in  the  IOT  and  data  space  only  domain  I
[17:32] 
[17:32] mean  it's  a  significant  number  of
[17:34] 
[17:34] startups  of  course  out  of  the  850  we
[17:37] 
[17:37] easily  find  that  half  of  these  probably
[17:39] 
[17:39] is  not  are  not  fitting  in  what  we  are
[17:42] 
[17:42] looking  for  but  I  think  that  this  year
[17:44] 
[17:44] we  spoke  and  we  change  information  with
[17:47] 
[17:47] around  350  400  startups  from  a  lot  of
[17:51] 
[17:51] countries  all  around  the  wall
[17:53] 
[17:53] then  we  nail  down  the  database  and  we
[17:56] 
[17:56] try  to  so  the  point  is  that
[17:58] 
[17:58] the  space  is  so  crowded  as  I  said  before
[18:01] 
[18:01] and  sometimes  for  entrepreneurs  so
[18:03] 
[18:03] difficult  to  understand  which  is  the
[18:05] 
[18:05] right  choice  for  me  right  I  mean  in  some
[18:07] 
[18:07] times  they  are  much  more  focused  in
[18:09] 
[18:09] trying  to  understand  how  much  money
[18:10] 
[18:10] these  guys  are  going  to  offer  to  me  any
[18:12] 
[18:13] change  of  how  much  equity  right  not
[18:16] 
[18:16] paying  attention  in  order  to  understand
[18:17] 
[18:17] what  they  can  get  from  the  program  right
[18:21] 
[18:21] the  reality  is  that  becoming  more  and
[18:25] 
[18:25] more  difficult  to  attractive
[18:28] 
[18:28] especially  there  are  locations  are  very
[18:30] 
[18:30] crowd  like  London  or  Berlin  to  move
[18:33] 
[18:33] teams  and  waved  on  these  kind  of
[18:35] 
[18:35] locations  it's  very  difficult
[18:38] 
[18:38] but  at  the  end  eme  were  provided  the
[18:40] 
[18:40] point  is  that  you  have  to  devote  much
[18:43] 
[18:43] more  efforts  I  mean  you  have  to  put  many
[18:45] 
[18:45] more  resources  this  year  we  have  like
[18:48] 
[18:48] 780  sculptors  working  for  four  months
[18:50] 
[18:50] trying  to  find  the  best  things  because
[18:53] 
[18:53] you  have  to  get  in  contact  with  these
[18:54] 
[18:54] teams  there  are  in  Poland  or  in  Russia
[18:57] 
[18:57] and  you  have  to  explain  then  the  value
[18:59] 
[18:59] that  you  can  provide  to  them  because
[19:01] 
[19:01] it's  for  them  as  I  said  before  it's  very
[19:03] 
[19:03] difficult  you  take  a  look  to  the  website
[19:04] 
[19:04] of  Loretta  Sullivan  looks  at  same  thing
[19:06] 
[19:06] so  but  this  is  a  very  economical  deal
[19:09] 
[19:09] for  us  right  I  mean  it's  well  but  it's
[19:11] 
[19:11] not  about  this  I  mean  it's  about  all  the
[19:13] 
[19:13] things  I  mean  where  are  the  resources
[19:14] 
[19:14] that  you  are  gonna  get  which  about  the
[19:16] 
[19:16] program  what  you're  gonna  do  during  the
[19:17] 
[19:17] 90  days  who  are  the  guys  that  are
[19:19] 
[19:19] involved  in  the  simulator  with  your
[19:20] 
[19:20] background  so  all  the  things  to  share
[19:22] 
[19:22] with  these  themes  but  it's  an  effort
[19:24] 
[19:24] that  you  have  to  do  in  order  to  be  able
[19:27] 
[19:27] to  share  with  these  guys  and  help  them
[19:29] 
[19:29] to  take  a  decision  and  this  this  again
[19:32] 
[19:32] does  something  with  the  business  model
[19:33] 
[19:33] as  well  you  know  when  you  can't  find
[19:35] 
[19:35] enough  great  companies  to  enter  your
[19:37] 
[19:37] accelerator  and  the  oil  companies  are
[19:39] 
[19:39] just  divided  all  over  Europe
[19:42] 
[19:42] how  will  this  evolve  you  know  in  the
[19:44] 
[19:44] next  years  if  two  gets  it  gets  harder
[19:46] 
[19:46] and  harder  and  harder  to  attract  good
[19:48] 
[19:48] companies  how  will  what  do  you  think
[19:50] 
[19:50] Patrizio  well
[19:52] 
[19:52] if  you  look  at  what  we  do  really  we  are
[19:55] 
[19:55] reactive  in  terms  of  intellect  amid  self
[19:59] 
[19:59] we  are  reactive  if  we  find  a  team  that
[20:01] 
[20:01] we  feel  it's  the  right  team  and  they
[20:03] 
[20:03] have  the  right  product  then  we  invest
[20:05] 
[20:05] resources  but  as  Bernardo  say  we  don't
[20:08] 
[20:08] have  a  specific  number  of  startup  that
[20:12] 
[20:12] we  are  looking  forward  to
[20:13] 
[20:13] accelerate  or  incubate  each  year  so  we
[20:18] 
[20:18] are  open  to  find  an  opportunity  and  then
[20:21] 
[20:21] invest  on  that  opportunity  on  the  other
[20:24] 
[20:24] hand  since  that  is  a  reactive  strategy
[20:28] 
[20:28] then  we  decided  to  come  up  with  a
[20:30] 
[20:30] venture  wielder  because  that's  a
[20:32] 
[20:32] deliberate  strategy  for  us  so  there  we
[20:35] 
[20:35] don't  wait  for  capturing  talent  or
[20:38] 
[20:38] acquire  in  Thailand  we  just  go  behind  a
[20:41] 
[20:41] company  or  create  in  a  company  that  we
[20:43] 
[20:43] will  live  in  because  we  see  that  the
[20:45] 
[20:45] trend  is  correct  the  technology  is  the
[20:47] 
[20:47] right  time  to  invest  technology  etcetera
[20:49] 
[20:49] etcetera  so  in  that  regard  we  are  not
[20:51] 
[20:51] waiting  for  we're  not  scouting  to  find
[20:55] 
[20:55] the  right  talent  with  the  right  idea
[20:57] 
[20:57] which  is  a  more  difficult  thing  to  find
[21:00] 
[21:00] I  mean  we  are  first  developing  idea  then
[21:03] 
[21:03] we  are  finding  the  talent  but  if  you
[21:05] 
[21:05] want  to  find  both  all  together  that's
[21:08] 
[21:08] what  it's  becoming  more  and  more
[21:10] 
[21:10] difficult  so  what  we  do  is  we  bring
[21:13] 
[21:13] together  both  and  we  are  very  good  and
[21:15] 
[21:15] we  can  be  very  good  we  live  and  we  are
[21:18] 
[21:18] doing  some  some  progress  in  that  we  are
[21:20] 
[21:20] creating  the  opportunity  finding  the
[21:23] 
[21:23] talent  it's  a  different  thing  we  think
[21:25] 
[21:25] we  can  do  it  as  well  but  if  we  do  this
[21:28] 
[21:28] in  a  separated  way  we  think  we  can  be
[21:31] 
[21:31] more  successful  and  it's  going  to  be  for
[21:33] 
[21:33] us  easier  to  deliver  a  sustainable
[21:37] 
[21:37] business  model  in  time  right
[21:39] 
[21:39] you're  not  scouting  scouting  at  all  for
[21:42] 
[21:42] companies  anymore  how  are  you  picking
[21:45] 
[21:45] because  I  venture  builder  like  how  are
[21:48] 
[21:48] you  picking  your  projects  how  are  you
[21:49] 
[21:49] getting  in  touch  with  entrepreneurs
[21:51] 
[21:52] so  we  don't  get  in  touch  with  inter  we
[21:56] 
[21:56] used  to  do  it  in  the  past  and  we  devoted
[21:58] 
[21:58] a  lot  of  resources  to  listen  to  projects
[22:01] 
[22:01] and  to  meeting  enterpreneurs  and  that's
[22:05] 
[22:05] a  full-time  job  and  it  gets  it  requires
[22:08] 
[22:08] a  lot  of  reserve  time  and  it's  one  of
[22:10] 
[22:10] the  most  important  parts  of  any
[22:11] 
[22:11] accelerator  because  it's  were  you  get  in
[22:14] 
[22:14] contact  with  your  deal  flow  and  where
[22:17] 
[22:17] you  can  select  well  and  an  accelerator
[22:20] 
[22:20] it's  all  about  tilt  flow  and  selecting
[22:22] 
[22:22] so
[22:24] 
[22:24] it's  a  very  important  part  so  we  don't
[22:27] 
[22:27] we're  no  longer  an  accelerator  so  we
[22:29] 
[22:29] don't  don't  devote  resources  to  to
[22:32] 
[22:32] screen  projects  or  see  enterpreneurs
[22:34] 
[22:34] anymore  so  what  we  do  is  we  spend  some
[22:38] 
[22:38] time  investigating  markets  and  we  do  we
[22:42] 
[22:42] plan  with  the  business  plans  with  your
[22:43] 
[22:43] experiments  on  exit  which  is  very  easy
[22:45] 
[22:45] and  and  then  we  study  we're  continuously
[22:50] 
[22:50] connected  and  studying  the  opportunities
[22:52] 
[22:52] around  the  world  without  raising  money
[22:54] 
[22:54] that  are  trendy  for  some  reason  and  we
[22:58] 
[22:58] try  to  extrapolate  it  in  other  markets
[23:00] 
[23:00] so  that's  where  we  are  spending  our
[23:03] 
[23:03] resources  right  now  we  are  analyzing
[23:05] 
[23:05] market  and  of  course  from  evening  and
[23:08] 
[23:08] what  we're  trying  to  do  is  we're  trying
[23:11] 
[23:11] to  attract  talent  but  not  talent  of
[23:13] 
[23:13] interpreters  a  ton  of  people  who  can  do
[23:17] 
[23:17] things  so  we  love  techie  people  we  love
[23:20] 
[23:20] developers  we  love  marketers  we  think
[23:24] 
[23:24] that's  a  hard  thing  the  hard  thing  is  to
[23:26] 
[23:26] be  able  to  do  things  by  yourself  and
[23:29] 
[23:29] then  anyone  can  become  an  entrepreneur
[23:31] 
[23:31] one  day  so  the  idea  is  not  a  hard  thing
[23:34] 
[23:34] but  finding  people  that  can  actually  do
[23:36] 
[23:36] it  exactly  so  so  so  we're  not  focusing
[23:38] 
[23:38] anymore  on  the  idea  at  all  so  we  don't
[23:41] 
[23:41] want  ideas  we  don't  want  projects  we
[23:43] 
[23:43] don't  want  Beach  no  and  we  want  people
[23:47] 
[23:47] that  it's  interesting  that  they  can  do
[23:48] 
[23:48] things  and  we  are  analyzing  the  markets
[23:52] 
[23:52] because  there  are  so  many  opportunities
[23:53] 
[23:53] out  there  so  at  some  point  we  try  to  mix
[23:56] 
[23:56] them  together  and
[23:59] 
[23:59] Anthony's  is  very  important  not  only  for
[24:02] 
[24:02] accellerate  or  benji  builder  and  any
[24:04] 
[24:04] kind  of  player  that  we  want  to  help  to
[24:08] 
[24:08] set  up
[24:10] 
[24:10] business  from  intrapreneurs  with
[24:12] 
[24:12] startups  to  have  a  pretty  good
[24:14] 
[24:14] understanding  of  the  market  I  mean  is  we
[24:16] 
[24:16] are  in  a  very  dynamic  market  things  are
[24:18] 
[24:18] changing  so  fast
[24:20] 
[24:20] so  have  good  understanding  and  devote  a
[24:23] 
[24:23] lot  of  resources  a  lot  of  time  in  trying
[24:25] 
[24:25] to  understand  what's  next  why  this  is
[24:29] 
[24:29] next  is  really  relevant  and  at  the  end
[24:32] 
[24:32] of  the  day  we  also  need  excellent  people
[24:35] 
[24:35] in  order  to  execute  these  kind  of  things
[24:36] 
[24:36] but  it's  very  important  to  understand
[24:38] 
[24:38] the  space  or  the  domain  that  you  want  to
[24:41] 
[24:41] play  exactly  then  when  you  deploy
[24:43] 
[24:43] started  from  from  sort  of  bootcamp  after
[24:46] 
[24:46] like  a  finished  program
[24:49] 
[24:49] do  you  look  at  it  you  know  three  months
[24:51] 
[24:51] happy  or  a  year  after  and  say  this  was  a
[24:53] 
[24:53] success  this  was  a  success  acceleration
[24:56] 
[24:56] or  do  you  have  to  wait  until  you  see  an
[24:58] 
[24:58] exit  or  an  extras  acquisition  or  well  a
[25:01] 
[25:01] deep  at  the  end  is  ready  with  the
[25:03] 
[25:03] startups  depends  how  you  measure  success
[25:05] 
[25:05] right  that  could  be  most  of  the  people
[25:08] 
[25:08] used  to  say  how  much  money  does  it  start
[25:10] 
[25:10] to  raise  and  we  have  pretty  good  numbers
[25:11] 
[25:11] you  can  go  to  our  website  or
[25:13] 
[25:13] how  many  customers  or  how  successful  the
[25:16] 
[25:16] company  from  the  sales  point  of  view
[25:19] 
[25:19] for  me  that  is  another
[25:21] 
[25:21] great  or  another  number  that  is  very
[25:24] 
[25:24] good  is  how  many  of  the  starters  that
[25:27] 
[25:27] have  gone  through  our  programs  after  X
[25:30] 
[25:30] many  years  are  still  alive
[25:33] 
[25:33] and  we  have  a  number  that  are  in  our
[25:36] 
[25:36] website  that  eighteen  right  now  is  82
[25:38] 
[25:38] percent  of  the  350  or  whatever  startups
[25:42] 
[25:42] that  have  gone  through  our  programs  our
[25:44] 
[25:44] life  it's  an  average  but  after  seven
[25:47] 
[25:47] eight  years  there  is  a  big  number  of
[25:49] 
[25:49] starters  that  are  alive  and  and  I  think
[25:52] 
[25:52] that  this  is  a  combination  of  a  lot  of
[25:54] 
[25:54] things  probably  number  one  is  is  the
[25:56] 
[25:56] selection  with  Julia  I  mean  we  spend  a
[25:58] 
[25:58] lot  of  resources  in  trying  to  bring  the
[26:00] 
[26:00] best  guys  mainly  the  best  guys
[26:03] 
[26:03] number  two  is  the  program  I  mean  our
[26:07] 
[26:07] program  has  been  growing  I  mean  we  have
[26:09] 
[26:09] been  learning  when  you  are  doing  this
[26:11] 
[26:11] for  a  lot  of  years  you  understand  the
[26:13] 
[26:13] things  that  we  have  to  do  and  the  things
[26:14] 
[26:14] that  you  don't  have  to  right  but  the
[26:16] 
[26:16] main  goal  for  our  paren  is  to  really
[26:17] 
[26:17] help  these  startups  early  stages  start
[26:20] 
[26:20] after  they  already  have  some  product  or
[26:21] 
[26:21] maybe  some  initial  traction  this  is  what
[26:24] 
[26:24] we  are  looking  for  to  really  find  the
[26:26] 
[26:26] product  feet  on  the  market  feet  what  we
[26:28] 
[26:28] are  trying  to  do  most  of  the  starters
[26:30] 
[26:30] they  fail  because  they  are  not  able  to
[26:32] 
[26:32] find  the  product  via  the  market  fit
[26:34] 
[26:34] right  then  they  then  they  have  a  lot  of
[26:37] 
[26:37] friction  in  order  to  get  sales  or
[26:39] 
[26:39] revenues  or  users  so
[26:42] 
[26:42] friction  no  significant  traction  so  no
[26:45] 
[26:45] investor  trust  you  because  you  don't
[26:47] 
[26:47] have  significant  traction  and  then  good
[26:49] 
[26:49] game  over  okay  so  our  main  goal  during
[26:51] 
[26:51] the  program  that's  why  I  use  a  word
[26:53] 
[26:53] processor  or  a  structure  but  also  our
[26:54] 
[26:54] big  network  of  contacts  is  to  help  these
[26:57] 
[26:57] guys  to  move  your  assumptions  to  a  real
[27:00] 
[27:00] product  feed  market  feed  company  and
[27:04] 
[27:04] because  at  the  end  of  the  day  you
[27:06] 
[27:06] wouldn't  start  up  I  mean  you  have  your
[27:07] 
[27:07] network  you  are  your  co-founders  your
[27:11] 
[27:11] network  of  10  15  people  around  you  and
[27:13] 
[27:13] you  are  trying  to  base  the  in  basing  the
[27:16] 
[27:16] assumptions  or  what  you  believe  what  you
[27:18] 
[27:18] think  and  the  people  around  you  that
[27:20] 
[27:20] unfortunately  is  not  you  know  right
[27:22] 
[27:22] because  you're  trying  to  build  something
[27:23] 
[27:23] that  pretend  to  be  disruptive  or  pretend
[27:26] 
[27:26] to  captured  a  big  portion  of  the  market
[27:28] 
[27:28] well  the  likelihood  that  you  and  your
[27:31] 
[27:31] small  group  is  going  to  be  able  to  do
[27:33] 
[27:33] the  so  is  a  chance  so  we  we  put  then  in
[27:37] 
[27:37] our  process  we  allow  them  to  have
[27:39] 
[27:39] contact  with  a  lot  of  people  with
[27:40] 
[27:40] paraphilias  people  in  order  to  validate
[27:42] 
[27:42] all  these  assumptions  and  do  this  Lean
[27:45] 
[27:45] Startup  and  test  and  to  iterate  and  to
[27:47] 
[27:47] change  a  lot  of  things  in  order  to  by
[27:49] 
[27:49] the  end  of  the  program
[27:51] 
[27:51] hopefully  having  then  much  more  close  to
[27:53] 
[27:53] the  bottom  feeder  market  because  you
[27:55] 
[27:55] have  a  much  better  for  the  feeder  market
[27:57] 
[27:57] feed  well  you  might  be  kind  of  super
[28:00] 
[28:00] great  company  or  not  but  the  chances  on
[28:03] 
[28:03] the  likelihood  to  be  to  stay  in  the
[28:05] 
[28:05] market  it's  gonna  be  much  more  high  yeah
[28:07] 
[28:07] and  Barcelona  as  a  city  we're  all  in
[28:10] 
[28:10] Barcelona  we're  all  operating  from
[28:11] 
[28:11] Barcelona  a  city  that's  growing  very
[28:14] 
[28:14] rapidly  in  terms  of  startups  innovation
[28:16] 
[28:16] and  also  accelerators  incubators  and
[28:19] 
[28:19] venture  builders  but  not  what  do  you
[28:21] 
[28:21] think  is  it  a  good  thing  for  a  city  in
[28:24] 
[28:24] itself  to  have  a  lot  of  these  players
[28:27] 
[28:27] active  when  I  talk  to  people  at  events
[28:30] 
[28:30] and  around  the  city  people  saying  oh  I
[28:33] 
[28:33] didn't  know  it  was  so  many  accelerators
[28:34] 
[28:34] here  like  this  is  a  very  positive  thing
[28:36] 
[28:36] but  for  the  accelerators  itself  probably
[28:39] 
[28:39] you  would  want  to  be  the  only  one  that's
[28:41] 
[28:41] here  right  so  what  what  do  you  think  do
[28:43] 
[28:43] you  think  it's  it's  a  good  thing  or  I  do
[28:46] 
[28:46] think  it's  a  good  thing  for  society  in
[28:49] 
[28:49] general  and  for  for  enterpreneurs  of
[28:51] 
[28:51] course  they  have  bigger  choice  so  I
[28:54] 
[28:54] think  it's  good  that  there  are  2,000
[28:55] 
[28:55] accelerators  and  and  if  there  were
[28:57] 
[28:57] 20,000  it  would  be  better
[28:59] 
[28:59] another  thing  is  that
[29:02] 
[29:02] accelerators  are  sustainable  and
[29:04] 
[29:04] profitable  business  models  that's
[29:05] 
[29:05] another  separate  issue  but  I  think  it's
[29:07] 
[29:07] very  good  that  we  give  resources  to
[29:10] 
[29:10] people  that  is  thinking  on  starting  an
[29:13] 
[29:13] idea  and  they  have  no  clue  whatsoever
[29:15] 
[29:15] where  to  start  from  and  so  any  kind  of
[29:18] 
[29:18] help  you  can  give  to  these  people  at
[29:20] 
[29:20] these  stages  it  it  helps  a  lot
[29:24] 
[29:24] yeah
[29:27] 
[29:27] you  you  are  moving  more  out  over  to  the
[29:30] 
[29:30] boutique  kind  of  doing  an  acceleration
[29:32] 
[29:32] or  as  a  venture  Bueller  as  you  call  it
[29:34] 
[29:34] and  all  the  accelerators  are  basically
[29:37] 
[29:37] they  have  different  type  of  programs  but
[29:40] 
[29:40] they  look  kind  of  similar  from  from  the
[29:42] 
[29:42] outside  do  you  think  more  accelerators
[29:45] 
[29:45] will  you  know  evolve  into  this  venture  a
[29:47] 
[29:47] builder  thing  or  how  do  you  see  in  the
[29:49] 
[29:49] next  five  years
[29:51] 
[29:51] well  it's  funny  because  you  have  here
[29:53] 
[29:53] two  different  two  different  people  that
[29:57] 
[29:57] started  in  sort  of  different  ways  but  I
[30:00] 
[30:00] think  we  are  both  going  to  the  same
[30:02] 
[30:02] model  but  not  on  myself  on  there  Hannah
[30:06] 
[30:06] hell  started  up  with  a  different  model
[30:08] 
[30:08] but  with  a  better  branding  and  better
[30:11] 
[30:11] well-known  company  all  over  Europe  so
[30:14] 
[30:14] and  and  he's  very  niche  oriented  very
[30:16] 
[30:16] vertically  oriented  so  I  think  those  are
[30:19] 
[30:19] the  two  models  are  will  probably  prevail
[30:21] 
[30:21] I  don't  think  there  is  the  traditional
[30:26] 
[30:26] accelerators  that  just  bring  mentors
[30:29] 
[30:29] into  the  companies  I  don't  think  that
[30:31] 
[30:31] could  be  sustainable  over  time  unless
[30:34] 
[30:34] there  are  migrating  towards  helping
[30:37] 
[30:37] companies  develop  their  own
[30:40] 
[30:40] in  in  company
[30:43] 
[30:43] programs  which  is  for  example  what  what
[30:46] 
[30:46] connector  is  doing  I  think  that  would
[30:48] 
[30:48] help  a  lot  with  sustainability  for  for
[30:51] 
[30:51] them  but  I  think  in  the  end  in  my
[30:55] 
[30:55] perspective  is  that  the  best  model  for
[30:58] 
[30:58] some  type  of  people  for  example  in  our
[31:01] 
[31:01] case  or  a  case  of  permit  is  the  company
[31:04] 
[31:04] wheeler  I  mean  we  feel  more  comfortable
[31:07] 
[31:07] with  that  model  we  believe  that  we  can
[31:10] 
[31:10] create  a  lot  of  value  with  that  model
[31:12] 
[31:12] and  well  our  progress  so  far  is
[31:16] 
[31:16] make  me  make  me  think  that  we  are  on
[31:19] 
[31:19] there  on  the  right  track  right  and
[31:22] 
[31:22] there's  always  a  lot  of  developers  and
[31:24] 
[31:24] entrepreneurs  watching  and  listening  to
[31:27] 
[31:27] this  podcast  and  I'm  he'll  do  people
[31:30] 
[31:30] that  are  thinking  should  I  enter  an
[31:32] 
[31:32] accelerator  is  this  the  right  choice  to
[31:34] 
[31:34] me  in  your  opinion  what  kind  of  startup
[31:37] 
[31:37] what  what  do  you  need  to  have  to  apply
[31:41] 
[31:41] for  an  accelerator  what  do  you  think
[31:44] 
[31:44] well  as  we  said  before  I  mean  there  are
[31:46] 
[31:46] different  types  of  a  Cerritos  I  think
[31:48] 
[31:48] the  first  thing  I  will  I  will  tell  the
[31:51] 
[31:51] entrepreneurs  is  to  do  the  homework  I
[31:53] 
[31:53] mean  to  understand  the  stage  that  they
[31:55] 
[31:55] are  right  now  to  understand  any
[31:58] 
[31:58] accelerator  what  they  are  looking  for
[32:00] 
[32:00] their  oscillators  or  incubators  that
[32:02] 
[32:02] they  are  targeting  pre  acceleration
[32:03] 
[32:03] companies  or  pre  idea  or  idea  state  so
[32:07] 
[32:07] there  are  different  states  at  these
[32:09] 
[32:09] early  days  of  the  companies  they  have  to
[32:12] 
[32:12] understand  what  they  are  in  because
[32:14] 
[32:14] different  accelerators  are  targeting  to
[32:16] 
[32:16] different  kind  of  teams  or  the  different
[32:18] 
[32:18] kind  of  companies  so  the  first  thing  is
[32:20] 
[32:20] to  do  your  homework  try  to  understand
[32:23] 
[32:23] which  are  the  cell  raters  incubators  or
[32:26] 
[32:26] venture  builders  that  are  really  fitting
[32:28] 
[32:28] in  what  you  are  right  now  second  thing
[32:31] 
[32:31] is  trying  to  understand  how  these  guys
[32:32] 
[32:32] are  going  to  help  me  I  mean  it's  to
[32:34] 
[32:34] really  the  same  way  that  the  when  you
[32:36] 
[32:36] are  trying  to  raise  money  you  try  to
[32:38] 
[32:38] understand  more  and  more  the  investors
[32:40] 
[32:40] do  the  same  thing  with  the  cell  rate  or
[32:41] 
[32:41] try  to  understand  who  are  the  guys
[32:43] 
[32:43] behind  rado  behind  incubator  behind  the
[32:45] 
[32:45] venture  builder  what's  your  bag  down  how
[32:47] 
[32:47] are  you  planning  to  help  me  be  very  soft
[32:49] 
[32:49] stick  with  that  because  it's  some  kind
[32:51] 
[32:51] of  Mario's  most  of  these  relationship
[32:54] 
[32:54] ends  with  an  equity  a  change  so  it's
[32:55] 
[32:55] going  to  be  your  partner  it's  not  going
[32:57] 
[32:57] to  be  for  the  next  three  months  it's
[32:58] 
[32:58] gonna  be  forever  so  do  your  homework  and
[33:01] 
[33:01] and  to  be  honest  I  mean  the  teams  are
[33:03] 
[33:03] much  more  successful  where  the  teams  are
[33:05] 
[33:05] were  much  more  demanding  at  the
[33:07] 
[33:07] beginning  right  being  very  why  you're
[33:10] 
[33:10] gonna  help  me  what  are  the  things  that
[33:11] 
[33:11] you're  gonna  me  can't  you  this  kind  of
[33:13] 
[33:13] list  of  things  is  something  that  you
[33:15] 
[33:15] believe  that  we  can  achieve  within  the
[33:16] 
[33:16] program  trying  to  understand  what  are
[33:18] 
[33:18] the  outcomes  of  the  program  it's  not  yes
[33:20] 
[33:20] go  to  website  apply  online  I  mean  try  to
[33:23] 
[33:23] have  these  one  on  one  interviews  and  in
[33:26] 
[33:26] my  experience  the  best  things  are  the
[33:28] 
[33:28] ones  are  much  more  demanding  trying  to
[33:30] 
[33:30] understand  what  are  gonna  be  the  outcome
[33:31] 
[33:31] of  the  stellarator
[33:33] 
[33:33] and  is  there  any  like  misconceptions  of
[33:36] 
[33:36] startups  applying  that  they're  thinking
[33:40] 
[33:40] that  you  can  can  give  them  something
[33:41] 
[33:41] that  you  can't  give  them  there  are  a  lot
[33:43] 
[33:43] of  misconceptions  and  I  think  this  is
[33:45] 
[33:45] one  of  the  issues  of  the  of  the
[33:48] 
[33:48] accelerators  I  mean  I  agree  with  Bernard
[33:51] 
[33:51] saying  that  as  much  as  we  can  it's  going
[33:53] 
[33:53] to  be  great  it's  as  far  as  all  of  them
[33:56] 
[33:56] can  deliver  enough  quality  value  because
[33:59] 
[33:59] this  is  at  the  installation  that  is  not
[34:01] 
[34:01] a  clear  definition  right  Nessa  said
[34:03] 
[34:03] before  I  mean  most  entrepreneurs  are
[34:04] 
[34:04] confused  what  doesn't  mean  I  mean  it's
[34:06] 
[34:06] gonna  be  a  table  and  one  mentor  coming
[34:09] 
[34:09] two  days  a  week  or  whatever  is  gonna  be
[34:12] 
[34:12] like  we  do  30  workshops  15  people  really
[34:16] 
[34:16] helping  me  every  day  plus  80  mentor
[34:20] 
[34:20] whatever  so  it's  not  clear  so  I  mean
[34:23] 
[34:23] it's  good  to  have  a  lot  of  a  straight  or
[34:24] 
[34:24] Sieben  in  Barcelona  as  far  as  most  of
[34:27] 
[34:27] think  and  deliver  enough  level  of
[34:29] 
[34:29] quality  because  if  not  intrapreneurs  are
[34:31] 
[34:31] joining  this  straight  to  the  may  be  is
[34:33] 
[34:33] not  delivering  enough  level  of  quality
[34:34] 
[34:34] and  there  is  a  bad  feeling  right  and
[34:38] 
[34:38] this  is  then  affecting  the  others  that
[34:40] 
[34:40] we  are  trying  to  do  in  a  proper  way
[34:42] 
[34:42] right  right
[34:45] 
[34:45] we  are  not  talking  about  model  here  that
[34:48] 
[34:48] is  a  pre  accelerator  which  is  what  start
[34:52] 
[34:52] narrator  is  something  where
[34:55] 
[34:55] entrepreneurs  can  come  and  come  be  there
[34:58] 
[34:58] for  at  least  six  weeks  can  have  an
[35:02] 
[35:02] exposition  to  Mentors  but  we  are  not
[35:04] 
[35:04] requiring  any  equity  from  them  or  any
[35:07] 
[35:07] kind  of  payment  in  any  kind  of  mining
[35:10] 
[35:10] right  so  basically  we  are  just  giving  to
[35:12] 
[35:12] that  yeah  so  that's  how  good  thing  for
[35:15] 
[35:15] them  I  mean  for  entrepreneurs  in  order
[35:17] 
[35:17] to  for  the  less  experienced  people  to
[35:21] 
[35:21] take  and  to  have  a  first  feeling  of  what
[35:24] 
[35:24] it  is  to  win  in  an  accelerator  so  I
[35:28] 
[35:28] think  this  kind  of  program  is  also  a
[35:30] 
[35:30] good  thing  for  people  with  without
[35:33] 
[35:33] experience  but  if  you  have
[35:36] 
[35:36] some  more  experience  and  you've  been
[35:39] 
[35:39] already  into  a  pre  accelerator  or  some
[35:42] 
[35:42] other  experience  which  could  help  then
[35:45] 
[35:45] it's  a  matter  of  finding  out  exactly
[35:47] 
[35:47] what  is  that  you  are  going  to  be  given
[35:50] 
[35:50] from  that  program  in  particular  and  see
[35:53] 
[35:53] if  it  really  matches  what  you  really
[35:55] 
[35:55] need  and  you  have  some  success  stories
[35:58] 
[35:58] as  well  like  also  like  it  it  Megan  and
[36:01] 
[36:01] startup  bootcamp
[36:03] 
[36:03] what  are  like  the  factors  within  these
[36:06] 
[36:06] companies  that  that  you  call  them
[36:08] 
[36:08] success  stories
[36:09] 
[36:09] well  it  depends  also
[36:12] 
[36:12] it  begins  by  the  entrepreneur  by  the
[36:15] 
[36:15] entrepreneurial  team  I  think  it's  one  of
[36:17] 
[36:17] the  most  important  elements  the  other
[36:19] 
[36:19] element  is  the  the  sector  in  which  they
[36:22] 
[36:22] are  in  and  the  time  in  which  they  got
[36:24] 
[36:24] into  that  into  that  sector  we  have  a
[36:27] 
[36:27] very  good  experience  in  e-commerce  there
[36:29] 
[36:29] was  a  company  that  was  astir  have  five
[36:32] 
[36:32] years  ago  and  we  have  a  also  very  bad
[36:36] 
[36:36] story  on  another  ecommerce  company  that
[36:39] 
[36:39] started  like
[36:41] 
[36:41] two  years  or  three  years  ago  so  the
[36:44] 
[36:44] thing  is  three  years  ago  for  a  fashion
[36:47] 
[36:47] equivalence  for  example  was  too  late  and
[36:49] 
[36:49] there  was  a  that  thing  was  very  rude  but
[36:52] 
[36:52] the  opportunity  we  probably  wasn't  there
[36:54] 
[36:54] anymore  because  solando  was  already
[36:56] 
[36:56] there  with  a  huge  investment  and  asus
[37:00] 
[37:00] was  already  the  UK  so  it  wasn't  anymore
[37:03] 
[37:03] an  opportunity  despite  the  team  was  I
[37:06] 
[37:06] would  team  deliver  you  know  what  they
[37:08] 
[37:08] had  to  deliver  so  I  guess  if  you  take  a
[37:12] 
[37:12] look  at  those  two  issues  you  probably
[37:14] 
[37:14] have  fifty  percent  of  the  issues  you
[37:17] 
[37:17] need  to  take  a  look  already  there  then
[37:20] 
[37:20] there  are  other  other  issues  like  for
[37:23] 
[37:23] example  the
[37:24] 
[37:24] capability  of  the  team  to  get  investment
[37:26] 
[37:26] which  is  obviously  something  very  very
[37:29] 
[37:29] important  as  well  but  I  would  say  those
[37:32] 
[37:32] three  issues  are  probably  the  most
[37:34] 
[37:34] important  ones  in  my  case
[37:36] 
[37:36] it  is  clear  everybody  is  saying  in  all
[37:39] 
[37:39] levels  of  the  chain  right  intrapreneur
[37:42] 
[37:42] is  the  most  important  thing  right  but  I
[37:44] 
[37:44] think  it's  much  more  important  in  this
[37:46] 
[37:46] kind  of
[37:47] 
[37:47] vehicles  we're  talking  about  when  you
[37:50] 
[37:50] build  the  roster  orators  to  have  someone
[37:54] 
[37:54] open-minded  I  mean  flexible  and  with  the
[37:58] 
[37:58] ability  to  listen  the  ability  to  because
[38:01] 
[38:01] his  cell  rate  or  some  bunch  of  business
[38:04] 
[38:04] all  about  that  I  mean  this  is  that  is
[38:05] 
[38:05] now  initial  business  plan  that  is  going
[38:08] 
[38:08] to  be  made  so  the  things  are  gonna
[38:10] 
[38:10] change  so  and  things  are  going  to  change
[38:12] 
[38:12] much  better  if  you  are  listening  and  you
[38:14] 
[38:14] are  learning  from  what  you  are  getting
[38:15] 
[38:15] so
[38:17] 
[38:17] you  ask  him  be  forming  with  it  what  you
[38:19] 
[38:19] have  to  look  at  the  decelerator  or  a
[38:21] 
[38:21] venture  builder  when  you  are  looking  for
[38:23] 
[38:23] I  also  mean  they  also  have  to  take  a
[38:25] 
[38:25] look  inside  and  so  if  they  are  ready  to
[38:29] 
[38:29] really  go  through  this  kind  of  process
[38:31] 
[38:31] because  I  mean  is  there  are  people  I  you
[38:33] 
[38:33] know  listening  I  mean  these  people  are
[38:35] 
[38:35] saying  I'm  listening  you  but  they  are
[38:36] 
[38:36] not  listening  me  right  and  it's  not  that
[38:39] 
[38:39] we  have  to  take  your  decision  but  you
[38:40] 
[38:40] have  to  be  open-minded
[38:42] 
[38:42] open  to  change  flexible  those  are  very
[38:47] 
[38:47] important  skills  that  you  should  have  if
[38:50] 
[38:50] you  want  to  be  part  of  one  of  one  of
[38:52] 
[38:52] these  companies  of  process  right  and  how
[38:56] 
[38:56] is  it  for  you  to  because  but  not  said
[38:58] 
[38:59] that  we  are  interested  in  getting  talent
[39:00] 
[39:00] like  developers  marketers  the  best  ones
[39:02] 
[39:02] but  but  you  usually  start  with  my  idea
[39:04] 
[39:04] right  you  usually  start  with  the
[39:06] 
[39:06] entrepreneur  when  you  take  people  in  how
[39:08] 
[39:08] do  you
[39:09] 
[39:09] I  make  sure  that  they  have  the  right
[39:12] 
[39:12] kind  of  talent  already  inside  the  team
[39:14] 
[39:14] all  it's  a  combination  of  a  lot  of
[39:17] 
[39:17] things  and  something  that  you  developed
[39:18] 
[39:18] from  time  to  time  to  really  understand
[39:22] 
[39:22] yes  for  you  to  put  an  example  during  our
[39:24] 
[39:24] selection  process  I  mean  as  I  said
[39:27] 
[39:27] before  I  mean  we  start  with  a  big  thing
[39:28] 
[39:28] a  big  database  and  we  nail  down  and  at
[39:31] 
[39:31] the  end  we  finish  with  inviting  20  teams
[39:34] 
[39:34] to  parcel  enough  to  stay  for  the  week
[39:36] 
[39:36] with  us  from  this  year  we  have  20  teams
[39:39] 
[39:39] fronting  was  12  different  countries
[39:41] 
[39:41] Australia  Hindi  and  so  on  so  with  these
[39:44] 
[39:44] two  days  we  do  a  lot  of  things  for
[39:46] 
[39:46] instance  one  of  the  things  that  we  do  is
[39:47] 
[39:47] to  have  some  psychologist
[39:49] 
[39:49] interview  in  these  these  people  I  mean
[39:52] 
[39:52] is  what  something  that  we  learn  from
[39:54] 
[39:54] this  period  is  trying  to  understand  if
[39:56] 
[39:56] because  someone  could  be  a  good
[39:58] 
[39:58] entrepreneur  but  at  the  end  we  need  a
[39:59] 
[39:59] team  is  that  in  gonna  be  able  to  work
[40:01] 
[40:01] together  well  it's  another  layer  of
[40:03] 
[40:03] information  in  order  to  validate  this
[40:05] 
[40:05] make  sense  or  not
[40:07] 
[40:07] right  and  but  not
[40:10] 
[40:10] for  many  when  I  speak  people  venture
[40:13] 
[40:13] builder  is  something  a  bit  cryptic  it's
[40:15] 
[40:15] a  bit  new  and  a  venture  builder  it's  not
[40:18] 
[40:18] given  that  everybody  knows  what  that  is
[40:20] 
[40:20] right  away  but  we  just  started  a  new
[40:23] 
[40:23] company  at  evening  is  called  factorial
[40:26] 
[40:26] can  you  tell  us  a  bit  the  process  I
[40:29] 
[40:29] guess  this  is  a  process  that  you  haven't
[40:31] 
[40:31] done  yet  but  like  how  do  you  plan  to
[40:34] 
[40:34] help  this  company  within  it  Nick  how  do
[40:35] 
[40:35] you  plan  to  support  a  new  company
[40:38] 
[40:38] because  it's  a  bit  special  we  start
[40:40] 
[40:40] something  right  now  so  you  say  Ben  to
[40:43] 
[40:43] build  it  is  cryptic  it's  because  we  give
[40:45] 
[40:45] fancy  names  to  things  yeah  it  used  to  be
[40:48] 
[40:48] a  group  of  companies  right  it's  a  growth
[40:50] 
[40:50] companies  and
[40:52] 
[40:53] so  how  do  how  does  it  work  it  doesn't
[40:56] 
[40:56] have  a  fixed  way  to  work  and  that's  why
[40:58] 
[40:58] we  don't  have  a  program  or  you  know  and
[41:00] 
[41:00] so  we  try  to  look  for  talent
[41:02] 
[41:02] continuously  to  work  in  our  startups  and
[41:05] 
[41:05] we  do  events  with  the  workshops  with  our
[41:08] 
[41:08] kind  of  stuff  like  other  accelerators
[41:10] 
[41:10] would  do  and  but  our  goal  is  to  find
[41:13] 
[41:13] talent  to  work  in  our  startups  and  then
[41:16] 
[41:16] since  we  start  the  relationship  with
[41:19] 
[41:19] these  people
[41:20] 
[41:20] a  professional  relationship  in  in  in  all
[41:23] 
[41:23] of  our  startups  we  start  understanding
[41:26] 
[41:26] how  do  they  perform  and  how  do  they  work
[41:29] 
[41:29] in  marketing  in  development  whatever  and
[41:33] 
[41:33] then  when  once  we  know  these  people  we
[41:35] 
[41:35] know  how  to  perform  we  know  how  do  they
[41:38] 
[41:38] work  in  their  teams  then  we  are  in  a
[41:40] 
[41:40] better  position  and  to  think  of
[41:43] 
[41:43] investing  on  those  people  so  that's  your
[41:45] 
[41:45] final  or  final  stats  through
[41:48] 
[41:48] professional  relationship  we  work
[41:51] 
[41:51] together  and  then  we  consider  why  don't
[41:54] 
[41:54] we  start  a  company  together  so  it's  the
[41:57] 
[41:57] opposite  way  right  so  we  try  to  look  for
[41:59] 
[41:59] performance  people  who
[42:01] 
[42:01] do  worse  you  know  and  then  we  at  the
[42:06] 
[42:06] same  time  we  analyze  markets  and  we  come
[42:08] 
[42:08] up  with  ideas  and  we  have  limited
[42:10] 
[42:10] resources  we  cannot  be  starting
[42:12] 
[42:12] everything  in  the  world  like  maybe
[42:14] 
[42:14] drugget  internet  -  no  hmm  so  we  try  to
[42:18] 
[42:18] the  boat  or  small  resources  to  the
[42:21] 
[42:21] biggest  opportunities  we  find  and  that's
[42:24] 
[42:24] how  it  works  we  also  get  in  contact  with
[42:27] 
[42:27] our  with  a  network  of  investors  that
[42:29] 
[42:29] that  are  very  related  to  -  to  what  we  do
[42:33] 
[42:33] and  they  invested  a  cleaner  companies  so
[42:36] 
[42:36] we  never  we  never  wanted  to  raise  money
[42:40] 
[42:40] in  it  Nick  so  we  would  have  a  problem  a
[42:44] 
[42:44] conflict  of  interest  because  then  we
[42:45] 
[42:45] would  have  to  accept  projects  and  look
[42:48] 
[42:48] for  projects  and  and  we  would  have  to
[42:51] 
[42:51] enter  projects  in  a  certain  amount  of
[42:53] 
[42:53] time  so  we  try  our  investors  -  we  tell
[42:58] 
[42:58] our  investors  to  invest  directly  in  our
[42:59] 
[42:59] companies  and  we  are  focused  solely
[43:02] 
[43:02] completely  on  growing  our  companies  and
[43:06] 
[43:06] and  growing  or  companies  as  a  business
[43:08] 
[43:08] because  that's  you  talked  before  about
[43:10] 
[43:10] misconceptions  I  think  one  of  the
[43:12] 
[43:12] biggest  misconceptions  is  that  getting
[43:14] 
[43:14] funded  is  growing  your  business  and  this
[43:17] 
[43:17] happens  a  lot  with  mental  builder  and  an
[43:20] 
[43:20] accelerator  so  we  have  a  sort  of  a
[43:22] 
[43:22] conflict  of  interest  here  because  and  we
[43:25] 
[43:25] think  that  our  business  model  ultimately
[43:29] 
[43:29] is  is  exiting  companies  and  having  two
[43:32] 
[43:32] turns  and  equity  so  and  we  push
[43:36] 
[43:36] sometimes  companies  to  get  funded  two
[43:39] 
[43:39] three  value  and  to  get  revalued  and
[43:43] 
[43:43] raise  the  value  of  the  company  and  then
[43:46] 
[43:46] or  returns  an  equity  are  bigger  but  for
[43:49] 
[43:49] business  to  make  sense  I
[43:51] 
[43:51] the  purpose  is  to  grow  as  a  business  so
[43:55] 
[43:55] to  make  the  business  sustainable  but
[43:58] 
[43:58] also  scalable  and  and  that  should  be  the
[44:00] 
[44:00] ultimate  goal  not  finding  and  over
[44:03] 
[44:03] funding  and  over  funding  which  is  what
[44:06] 
[44:06] is  happening  and  sometimes  and  it
[44:08] 
[44:08] creates  sort  of  small  bubbles  in
[44:09] 
[44:09] different  sectors  so  I  think  that  the
[44:12] 
[44:12] purpose  of  a  business  is  to  grow  with  as
[44:14] 
[44:14] little  resources  as  possible  and  with  as
[44:16] 
[44:16] little  dilution  as  possible
[44:19] 
[44:19] great  that  was  everything  we  had  time
[44:22] 
[44:22] for  unfortunately
[44:24] 
[44:24] forty-five  minutes  go  by  fast  but  let's
[44:27] 
[44:27] stay  tuned  for  our  next  podcast  in  in
[44:29] 
[44:29] December  remember  that  you  can  catch  the
[44:32] 
[44:32] highlights  from  from  this  podcast  in
[44:33] 
[44:33] video  form  on  on  ethnic  blog  and  or  on
[44:35] 
[44:35] our  Facebook  and  everywhere  we  are
[44:37] 
[44:37] online  thank  you  again  uh  elevation  but
[44:41] 
[44:41] not  for  coming  I  really  appreciate
[44:42] 
[44:42] taking  your  time  you  are  all  very  busy
[44:44] 
[44:44] so  I  really  appreciate  it  and  my  name  is
[44:47] 
[44:47] Sandra  oblong  and  I  remember  to  follow
[44:49] 
[44:49] ethnic  for  for  more  quality  tech
[44:51] 
[44:51] discussions  also  in  the  future
[44:53] 
[44:53] [Music]