Archivo de febrero/2014

Queremos inaugurar en esta sección una seríe de entrevistas realizadas a los proyectos finalistas de la 3ª edición de Pasion>ie, en este caso entrevistamos a José Ignacio Bescós, CEO de Unobrain Neurotechnologies http://www.unobrain.com . Detrás del proyecto están también: Javier Sánchez que se encarga del desarrollo de negocio y marketing, Marisa Fernández, neuropsicologa senior y Juan Miguel Diago, CTO.

¿Cómo funciona vuestro producto/servicio? Unobrain es el primer club de Brain Fitness online en español. Los suscriptores tienen acceso a completos entrenamientos cerebrales diseñados por neuropsicólogos, una suite de control del estrés basada en el neurofeedback y sendos módulos de acompañamiento en neuronutrición y ejercicio físico.

¿Cómo surgió la idea? Seguimos desde hace tiempo y con mucha atención los avances en neurociencia y nuestra experiencia en el lanzamiento de productos digitales nos indicó hace un par de años que había llegado el momento de acercar esos tremendos avances al gran público con el fin de que pudiera mejorar su estado cerebral, algo muy importante, sobre todo desde un punto de vista preventivo

¿Cuál es vuestro modelo de negocio? En una primera etapa los ingresos provienen de la venta de suscripciones, individuales o colectivas. A medio plazo, el contar con una gran base de capacidades cognitivas presentará oportunidades de explotación de ese “big data”.

¿Cuál es el estado de la Startup ahora? El servicio lleva unos 15 meses vivo. Unobrain tiene ya más de 60.000 usuarios registrados y vende una cantidad decente de suscripciones diarias, tanto en España como en Latinoamérica.

¿Qué tipo de inversores tiene la empresa actualmente? Hasta ahora somos los emprendedores los que hemos financiado el desarrollo de Unobrain.

¿Cuál es el rol del equipo de emprendedores dentro de la Startup? Por fuerza nos toca cubrir la mayor parte de las tareas. Desde las reuniones con representantes de sociedades médicas hasta la resolución de un problema puntual de registro de un usuario. Desde la colaboración con medios reputados hasta bajar a comprar jabón de manos.

 ¿Cuál es el mayor aprendizaje recibido de vuestra experiencia como emprendedores? El que se atribuye el mérito exclusivo del éxito es un idiota. El que se atribuye el demérito exclusivo del fracaso, un masoca.

¿Qué es lo que más os motiva/emociona de vuestro proyecto? Los testimonios de usuarios satisfechos. Normalmente vienen de personas sanas que practican Brain Fitness de manera preventiva. Pero, de vez en cuando, alguien con problemas se acerca y nos cuenta cosas como esta: “Creo que valdría la pena promoverlo a las personas que están pasando por un proceso de quimioterapia, sobre todo para leucemia, ya que a mí en lo personal me ha servido para darme cuenta que mi cerebro a pesar de los tratamientos y un trasplante de médula ósea, no está tan mal…  porque los químicos y el proceso te desgastan muchísimo, pero Unobrain me ha levantado mucho el ánimo, así que felicitaciones por la creación de esta herramienta y comparto con vosotros que no sólo la parte física del cuerpo necesita entrenarse ”.

¿Qué es lo más complicado de vuestra experiencia como emprendedores? El poco respeto que el emprendedor encuentra entre ciertos estamentos corporativos y administrativos.

En vuestra opinión, ¿qué rasgos de personalidad son los más importantes para ser un emprendedor de éxito? En un grupo en el que caben Zuckerberg, Amancio Ortega y Oprah Winfrey nos confesamos incapaces de sacar un denominador común. Más que una personalidad determinada, lo que hay que tener es ganas. Y talento.  Y mucha, mucha suerte.

Si pudierais volver atrás en el tiempo, ¿qué hubierais hecho diferente? Habríamos hecho alguna contratación con algo más de tino.

¿Qué factor o aprendizaje ha supuesto un mayor impacto o cambio en vuestro plan original? Las diferencias en velocidades de crucero y tolerancia al riesgo de los potenciales socios operativos y del propio Unobrain son demasiado importantes como para esperar a decisiones ajenas.

¿Qué consejo le darías a potenciales emprendedores? Que no se dejen deslumbrar por las historias de éxito. Este es un entorno en el que, estadísticamente, lo normal no es el triunfo. Si no se va a ser capaz de sobrellevar la dureza del camino emprendedor y a relativizar un probable fracaso, mejor no intentarlo. Pero si se intenta, hay que estar listo para darlo todo.

Author: Laura Ibañez

Cocinario is the first social network for cooking fans in Spanish. It is a website devoted to anyone that cooks at home, either experts or novices. It works as a truly vertical social network, as users c an share content, follow other users, like recipes or ingredients, publish comments and send private messages.

The revenue model is based on the sale of advertising and other ways to monetize the segmented Cocinario´s community and audience.

WHERE DID YOU GET THE IDEA TO DEVELOP COCINARIO?

The idea emerged because I was a fan of digital business, social networks and cooking and I realized  there was a lot of participation on the Internet about cooking but there wasn’t any useful and easy-to-use platform that allowed mid and low profile internet users to share their recipes and interact.

So I thought that there was a space for a website that could democratize the ability of sharing this kind of content. Until then, anyone that wanted to publish and share their recipes or cooking knowledge on the Internet had to publis

h their own blog or write in forums or other confusing platforms where the recipes weren’t correctly indexed nor easily found.

Besides, I had been learning about the market of ad selling on the Internet and I knew about some publicity-based businesses that were going well and I also knew about some others that weren’t going so well, because the costs of producing and distributing the content were too high. Cocinario is a 100% user generated content website, so the costs are lower and the business model makes sense.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON THIS IDEA?

More than one year passed from the moment when the idea emerged to the moment that we launched the website. No one was fully dedicated to Cocinario then, so it took us a bit longer than expected (as usual!).

When the website was ready to be launched I decided to fully support the project, so I left my “comfortable” job to dedicate myself full time to Cocinario. I had been working for DHL in a managment positions for 13 years and I was doing really well there, but I needed to do more things and I felt  pigeonholed. It was time to reinvent myself.

Now, with less than one year of life, Cocinario already has 2.000 recipes published by its more than 5.500 registered users.

HOW DOES COCINARIO WORK?

Cocinario is a 100% user generated content website, and the content is open to anyone that visits www.cocinario.es Registered users can also enjoy Cocinario’s useful features:

• Publish recipes very easily, that can also be shared in other social networks
• Follow other users, to be aware of the content they publish
• Like a recipe, that will be automatically filed in your own personal cookbook
• Like an ingredient, to be aware of  new recipes published with that ingredient

It is very useful platform for a wide range of people:

• Cooking fans who want to share their recipes and cooking knowledge but don’t have the time or technical knowledge to have their own blog. In Cocinario they can publish their recipes very easily and they can share them with whoever they want
• Cooking bloggers that want to interact with other cooking fans or that just want to promote their blog
• People that have to cook at home even if they don’t know how to do it or maybe even don’t like it. They can find practical day to day recipes in Cocinario

WHAT IS COCINARIO’S BUSINESS MODEL?

The income comes from advertising sales, e-mail marketing and other ways to monetize Cocinario’s community and audience.

Basically, the business model is the same of any traditional media or internet media (TV, radio, press, magazines, etc.). It consists of having an audience and finding advertisers that want to reach this audience. In this case, the audience is very segmented, so it is much more attractive for certain advertisers.

In a user generated content website like Cocinario, we don’t have to pay for the content. Instead, we have to provide an engaging platform, so that users want to use it and share their content there because they find it useful and enjoyable.

Cocinario is built with a high level technical development. The website is complex on the inside, to make it simple and easy to use it on the outside, so that the users find it very intuitive and friendly.

WHAT KIND OF INVESTORS OR FINANCING DOES THE COMPANY HAVE?

Founders investment and ENISA.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHALLENGES AT THE MOMENT?

On one hand, we are focused on having a fast paced growth in terms of content, users and visits. On the other hand, now that we have grown to a very decent size, we are managing to access better Internet advertising platforms or even direct advertisers that allow us to monetize the product better.

IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS NEEDED TO BE A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR? 

First of all, I think an entrepreneur has to be a responsible and organized person. It may sound obvious, but it is not always the case. It is also crucial to be enthusiastic, positive and have a strong bias for action.

I also think that it is good to have some previous experience working for others and ideally with responsibility over a business.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO POTENTIAL ENTREPRENEURS?

I would recommend anyone to follow his/her dreams, of course. But also I would recommend to try not to excessively fall in love with the idea. I mean, try to be realistic. Think about how the business will work, what do you need to convert your idea into something real and what resources you need to have it operating on a daily basis once it is launched. Do some numbers to see if it can be a profitable business. If not, your idea may be beautiful and even something very nice and useful but… is it a BUSINESS idea? It is an important nuance.

Try to learn as much as you can, about the market you want to step in and about businesses in general. Introduce yourself in the market you want to compete in and understand how it works. Watch competitors or substitutes of the product you want to launch, their suppliers and customers, etc.

For the first steps of an entrepreneurial project, I think it is crucial to test the idea with simple market research and a prototype or MVP.

I also would recommend to try to find a mentor with experience in the market you want to compete in and/or in other startups.

I wish you tons of luck!!

Ashoka, the Zermatt Summit Foundation, Fondation Guilé, DPD and Boehringher Ingelheim are launching an unprecedented online collaborative competition, Social & Business Co-Creation: collaboration for impact to source, highlight and catalyze innovative Co-Creation projects in Europe led by social-mission organisations, traditional businesses and public institutions.

They are looking for projects that illustrate new forms of interaction between social and business to create shared social and economic value at scale, contributing to the common good. To do this they need your help!

Competition entries can cover a wide range of solutions, from innovative job creation schemes, to the development of new products and services to address essential needs of underserved populations or “last mile” solutions to make these accessible to all. At the core of each project should be the potential to create a more inclusive and human economy, change organisational structures and enable professionals at all levels to become engaged changemakers who turn problems into opportunities.

Join IE Venture Network Thursday, 27^th February 2014!

The Venture Network is a weekly pitch slam is an invaluable resource for early stage entrepreneurs, a forum for engaging the entrepreneurial community, promoting your startup, and at best securing an investment from our Investors in Residence. The Venture Network is unique in that it is a very informal gathering where startups can meet investors in an informal setting over beers and snacks and focus on what’s important; building relationships. The Venture Network is a great way to perfect your pitch, get feedback on your product, and meet the local startup community.

The Venture Network´s resident panel of startup experts include:

. Liz Fleming, Deputy Director Venture Lab
. Andrew Stott, Business Angel
. Juan Carlos Rosique, Co-Founder 50Invest Global Solutions
. Manuel Muñiz, Yamimoto

The three startups that will present their project in 7 minutes will be:

Mohamed Ayman, Teamin.com

Teamin.com is a sports matchmaking platform, helping casual athletes find sports partners. Users can create sports events, search & join events around them or even form their teams and challenge others. Matchmaking is based on sport, location, time/date, as well as skill level.Organize sports events with your friends, or reach out beyond your social circle with Teamin.com.

Miguel Bassa, Sleeve Wrapping Group

Sleeve Wrapping Group is a new company specializing in manufacturing sleeves to decorate all types of packaging. We also make promotional packs that can be die cut and adapted to the costumer’s chosen shape providing the very best presentation. Warranty seals also give products added value and to complete our services, we can also offer packaging machines and shrink tunnels. We are equipped with a demonstration room and a technical service to help customers out whenever necessary.

Jorge Martínez, Vibook

Have you ever wondered where all the actors, artists, dancers, models, etc. come from? We see them on TV shows, advertisements, films, events, theatre, and, increasingly, on hundreds of audiovisual content we see on YouTube. We see them everywhere. The demand is growing. Vibook arranges, selects and helps to find them, thanks to its powerful search-engine. It is like, for example, searching for a house on a real-estate seeker

Register your attendance here!   http://entrepreneurship.ie.edu/venture-network

Authors: Fernando Dal Re & Cristina Barranco

The fields of medicine and science never stop moving forward, and neither should health care professionals. Continuous medical education (CME) is the tool doctors and other healthcare professionals use in order to stay up to date in their specialties.

But CME faces two main problems:

1. Up to 95% of all the CME activities are held offline, requiring health care professionals to invest too much time and effort to stay updated on their profession.
2. Offline courses are expensive, and this is the reason why CME has become too reliant on industry funding, tending to narrow the focus on the products and to neglect provisions of a broader education on areas not covered by pharmaceutical products.

At Pupilum, we believe that health care professionals should be able to choose the CME they need, and to enroll in these activities investing less time and money.

That is why we launched Pupilum in September 2013. Pupilum is a learning platform that offers online CME courses, taught by experts in all medical fields at a discount of up to 80% of the cost of offline alternatives.

Where did you get the idea?

Before launching Pupilum we had created Neomed, the largest social network for doctors in Spain. In our conversations with doctors we found a common complaint which was the rising cost of CME in both money and time. We decided to learn more about the topic and found that 95% of the market was still offline and there was a non served huge demand for online alternatives.

How long have you been working on the idea?

The first courses started in September 2013. We had conceived the idea at the beginning of 2013 but it wasn’t until the summer when we decided to build it.

How does the business work?

It’s a 4 step process:

1. We discover education necessities among healthcare professionals and group the demand for those necessities.
2. We then locate and partner with expert teams in those medical fields and create a course that addresses that need.
3. We send the course for accreditation to national entities so that the courses help the students to meet the requirements for maintenance of licensure, membership in professional societies and other professional privileges.
4. When the course is accredited, we sell it online at a discount of up to 80% of the usual price.

What is the business model?

We sell the courses we create to doctors, nurses, psychologists and other healthcare professionals.

What kind of investors does the company have?

Founders, family and friends have funded the company so far. We also received a loan from ENISA and are now closing our Seed Series.

What is the stage of the project now?

We have launched 9 courses so far and more than 800 healthcare professionals are taking part of them.

What have you learned from your experience as entrepreneurs?

We learnt that you must find product/market fit as fast as possible, and then scale and grow even faster!

What are you most excited about the product?

We are receiving great reviews by both educators and learners, and as a result of those reviews, word of mouth is spreading and we are growing fast. That’s something to be proud of, and also something to always keep working hard on.

What are the most difficult parts of being an entrepreneur?

There isn’t a single one. It feels like having a very difficult problem to solve, only to find right after it another problem to solve even bigger that the one before. But at the end of the day, you make progress by solving those problems, and when you look back you can see that those difficulties are gone and that the positive results of the hard work remain.

In your opinion, what are the most important personality traits to be a successful entrepreneur?

You need to be an excellent salesman, as you will always be selling your vision, your product and even your company…

And then you need to be resilient, because if one thing is true is that this path we chose is an emotional roller coaster!

Is there anything you would go back and do differently if you had the chance?

If I had no further info, I’d probably go back and do everything the exact same way…only faster! Speed is key in this business.

What new understanding since you started has had the most impact on your original plan?

A sell never happens spontaneously, it requires a very well defined process and execution. The sooner you find the best process and the faster you execute it, the better for the company.

What advice would you like to give to potential entrepreneurs?

I’d like to give three:

– Dedicate significant time to self assess if you are up to all the hard work you will put and all the setbacks you will suffer. If you are ready…go for it, and do it fast.

– Spend very little time on the business plan compared to what you invest in talking to prospective customers.

– Have I said already that you need to go fast? 😉

Virtual Master Class – Social Entrepreneurship: Business Solutions for the World’s Most Pressing Issues

IE Business School would like to invite you to the upcoming Virtual Master Class for future Social Entrepreneurs: Business Solutions for the World’s Most Pressing Issues, led by Prof. Conchita Galdon.

If you hold an MBA or an IE Master and are interested in learning more about Entrepreneurship we invite you to participate in this Virtual Master Class where you will also learn how you can obtain a certificate in Entrepreneurship by joining an on-going MBA program of IE Business School. This program includes a Social Business course aims to assist would‐be social entrepreneurs in developing projects that enable their organizations to become sustainable, scalable and deliver measurable social value.

Save the date!

Tuesday, 22^nd April 2014, at 13:00 (GMT+1) – Register

Tuesday, 29^th April 2014, at 18:00 (GMT+1) – Register
(you can check here your local time)

If you need additional information about the Virtual Master Class or about the Specialized Module in Entrepreneurship, contact us at welcomeback@ie.edu. We will be more than happy to assist you.

Kind regards,

IE Admissions Department

Virtual Master Class  – Wake up and go for your own business: fail as fast and as much as you can on your first time

IE Business School would like to invite you to the upcoming Virtual Master Class for future Entrepreneurs: Wake up and go for your own business: fail as fast and as much as you can on your first time, led by Prof. Marcos Eguillor.

If you hold an MBA or an IE Master and are interested in learning more about Entrepreneurship we invite you to participate in this Virtual Master Class where you will also learn how you can obtain a certificate in Entrepreneurship by joining an on-going MBA program of IE Business School. This course provides every aspiring entrepreneur with the tools to develop a successful business model and to understand the key factors and drivers for the success of a new company.

Save the date!

Thursday, 17^th March 2014, at 13:00 (GMT+1) – Register

Thursday, 17^th March 2014, at 18:00 (GMT+1) – Register
(you can check here your local time)

If you need additional information about the Virtual Master Class or about the Specialized Module in Entrepreneurship, contact us at welcomeback@ie.edu. We will be more than happy to assist you.

Kind regards,

IE Admissions Department

Join IE Venture Network Thursday, 20^th February 2014!

 This Week  @VN :  We are counting on the participation of Tetuan Valley

Tetuan Valley is an organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs. One of their main activities is the Tetuan Valley Startup School, a completely free training program for wannabe entrepreneurs that has already trained more than 350 alumni. This spring they will host the 10th edition in both Madrid and Barcelona. The selection process is open until 23rd of march on F6s.

The Venture Network is a weekly pitch slam is an invaluable resource for early stage entrepreneurs, a forum for engaging the entrepreneurial community, promoting your startup, and at best securing an investment from our Investors in Residence. The Venture Network is unique in that it is a very informal gathering where startups can meet investors in an informal setting over beers and snacks and focus on what’s important; building relationships. The Venture Network is a great way to perfect your pitch, get feedback on your product, and meet the local startup community.

The Venture Network´s resident panel of startup experts include:

. Liz Fleming, Deputy Director Venture Lab
. Francisco Maroto, OIES Consulting
. Gonzalo Tradacete, Faraday

The three startups that will present their project in 7 minutes will be:

Alfonso Sainz de Baranda, Dinaru

Dinaru is a web financial advisor that helps you take control of your money and reduce your expenses without sacrificing your lifestyle. Using bank aggregation and semantic categorization, Dinaru protects all your accounts and expenses from overdraft fees, unknown bills and makes sure you are always paying the least.

Clément ARNAUD, Data2Content

«Data2Content solution relies on a semantic technology developed by Syllabs. It turns your database into actionable content. The technology is multilingual and based on artificial intelligence.Your data is automatically analyzed, enhanced and processed to create exclusive content for e-tourism and e-commerce Websites. The generated texts are of human quality, SEO friendly and unique.»

Luis Santos, Inkee

There are plenty of awesome platforms to share moments, but all of them are terrible at something we all need: storing memories. Inkee connects the digital and real worlds to set our memories free, so we can touch them again, inside and outside screens.

Register your attendance here!   http://entrepreneurship.ie.edu/venture-network

Author: Ramon Granero,  Fik Stores co-founder

One of the advantages of working in Area31 is a critical mass of people thinking about the same things. Just recently my startup, Fik Stores, was preparing our first press release towards our imminent launch. Then all of a sudden here comes journalist Juanma Romero, with more than 30 years of experience in national media, to explain to us how to efficiently  reach out to a journalist, from a journalist point of view. So valuable!

During the session Comunica con Carisma (Communicate with Charisma), Juanma gave us some important tips about obtaining a presence in the media, writing press releases, managing relationships with journalists and most important how to get  journalist attention. For a startup like ours, this was critical feedback from a customer/partner segment we usually do not take into account, but which is able to leverage our marketing efforts in early stages: the Media. It helped us understand how and what kind of value we can provide to them, and how can we increase LTV in attention terms for such a segment.

I would highlight two tips from the session: You are providing information, not advertising and target many local media  outlets instead of few national ones for increased effort efficiency. Approaching  small communication channels, where you can get higher visibility with less effort is always a good idea for a startup!

MIERCOLES 19 FEBRERO 2014, 17:00-19:00 @ AREA 31

Un encuentro con algunos de los más destacados profesionales del ámbito del Emprendimiento en España, para hacer un breve repaso del ‘estado del arte’ de las metodologías asociadas al enfoque Lean Startup.  La sesión sirve también de marco para la presentación del libro ‘España Lean Startup 2013’.

Agenda

• Presentación del encuentro, Conchita Galdón, Directora Área 31, IE
• “España Lean Startup 2013: un experimento”, Mario López de Ávila Muñoz, presidente Agile Entrepreneurship Spain [AES]
• “Entrevistas, Experimentos y Pivotes: la mecánica del Customer Development”, José Antonio de Miguel, Presidente AFICE, @yoemprendo
• “Las Claves del Crecimiento en el Diseño de Modelos de Negocio”, Javier Megías, Co-Fundador y CEO de Startupxplore
• “Emprendedor Social, Emprendedor Lean”, May Escobar, Co-fundadora UEIA
• Turno de preguntas y debate