BarcelonaVentures Blog

En esta video entrevista el fundador de Teambox (ahora Redbooth) Pablo Villalba nos explica su experiencia y nos da una guía sobre qué es necesario para alzar fondos en USA, principalmente en la zona de San Francisco que es dónde ellos consiguieron $7M! Sólo necesitas darle al 'play'

Suerte Pablo en tu nueva aventura en 8fit !

Hi again! It's Àlex, and you might know me from previous posts "First connections in SF" or "Embarking as an entrepreneur in SF"!

Last week I attended 2014's Startup Grind Annual Summit. It was the first big entrepreneurial event for both MarsBased and I. A very big opportunity for both parties, indeed: global exposure, first-class speeches, loads of networking...

However, I found out that the biggest oportunity was nor for MarsBased neither for me. It was for Barcelona. Let me tell you why.

The concept: Startup Grind

First of all, let me introduce you to the Startup Grind. The Startup Grind is a monthly event that aims to create community amongst entrepreneurs. It started in 2010 in the Bay Area with only 9 attendees in their first edition, and nowadays it's being held in 75 cities, in 30 different countries, all around the globe. And, lo and behold, it's being backed by Google for Entrepreneurs!

A video is worth (more than) a thousand words: 

Some weeks before the start of the event I had been learning about the event's philosophy: this is not a common start-up meet-and-greet event, meant only to network and generate business. Simply put, the Startup Grind promotes the values of collaboration, friendship and altruism which defy the ever-changing, incredibly competitive and aggressive entrepreneurial scene of the Valley.

The principles of the Startup Grind are:

Give, don't take.

Make friends, not contacts.

Help others before helping yourself.

In other events I would have met Rallyware, 3DLT, Chopdawg, Tripscale, DocSend, but in this one I met Jake, Jeet, Mykhail, Ada, Kristof, Ryan, Sarah, Kingsley, Russ and a bunch of other names that I will not forget. I didn't meet companies, I met people. I met friends. I have already met a couple of them after the event and plan to visit many more in the coming weeks.

The more I read, listened and learnt, the more I saw an opportunity for my beloved city. I SO wanted to bring this event and culture to Barcelona.

The city: Barcelona

Barcelona has got everything to become one of the top European cities for entrepreneurs. It's got an awesome clima, a business-oriented mentality, first-class working spaces and it's well connected to Europe.

Barcelona has also been for a bunch of years now the home of the Mobile World Congress. The MWC garners celebrities, investors, big corporations and lots of interesting ideas, bringing them all together to Barcelona. Why can't we dream of building something similar for start-ups?

There's heaps of interesting start-ups from Barcelona: Social Point, Goodorama, The Social Coin, Redbooth (formerly known as Teambox),Softonic, Onebox, Icebergs... and many others that just landed here because they too think that Barcelona is an awesome city to live and work in.

However, I have the feeling that there's not enough sense of community.

The latest trend of creating co-working spaces and Meetup groups is definitely pushing the community a step forward. In fact, I do know them very well myself: I created one circle of start-ups and collaborate with a couple of groups, and my feelings are that most of them are creating micro-communities, instead of getting to know one another.

The challenge: Bringing Startup Grind to Barcelona

So I requested a Startup Grind Chapter for Barcelona. And hooray for me: my petition was accepted!

Chapters are the local representation of Startup Grind in other cities of the world. There are chapters in Chicago, Berlin, Los Angeles, Paris and so on. Moreover, in the Startup Grind world map there's no pin in Spain, and it pains me beyond reason to see Barcelona devoid of such an opportunity.

But I can't do this alone. For this project I will need a loyal team to commit to the task of changing the Barcelona start-up scene for the better.

It is not an easy task. We will have to endure rejection, loads of work, no economical support whatsoever and most of all, getting our hands dirty with tasks we've never done before.

On the other side, we will learn a lot. We will grow together, as startup grinders and as persons. We will meet amazing people and we can do whatever we enjoy the most and do best.

In essence, it is like creating a start-up. Welcome to entrepreneurship.

If you're interested in collaboration, shoot me an email at abacardit at startupgrind dot com and welcome onboard!

Hi everyone, it's Àlex again. Remember the Martian who wrote this post some weeks ago? That's me, and I am here to write the second part.

For first-time readers, here's my long story short: quit my job in Barcelona. Landed in San Francisco. Started a new life. Life is being awesome so far.

As promised, in this entry I will tell you how did I get connected to the most thrilling entrepreneurial scene in a jiffy.

Before that, I would like to announce that I will be representing MarsBased in the upcoming Startup Grind 2014.

All hail the glory of Meetup

Meetup.com might be terrible for some things: you get s***loads of e-mails of recurring events, multi-group events will land multiple times in your inbox, it tries to hard to be a social network while lacking critical features, and it's got a slow and not very intuitive mobile app.

But it's an awesome tool to get to know new people. Trust me.

I spent a good couple of hours in my first day in SF just researching groups that were strictly related to my field of work: start-ups, development, growth hacking, entrepreneurship, hackathons, etc. Not only did I sign up for all the events, but I also jumped in the most random stuff Meetup suggested I check. Just for the fun.

And it turned out to be the best decision.

As a matter of fact, my first event was a Dinner Crawl (eat 4 courses in 4 different restaurants) and my second one, the Beer Olympics. None of them were tech-related even in the slightest. Yet in these two events I mingled with Project Managers at Cisco, Interns at Twitter and other sorts of tech-related people. After all, we're in the capital city of innovation, so no wonder that such events are populated by the most brilliant minds.

Thus, for the last month, I've been hitting all sorts of events. Some tech-related, some just crazy stuff. It's not about the event itself, it's about the people who you meet there, and what you make out of it.

Eventbrite to help you focus

In order not to get distracted with so many multi-disciplinar events, I use Eventbrite.

Eventbrite is more business-oriented, and it's got a ticketing system. So even if you're using it to promote a party, at least you know there's something slightly well prepared behind it. It can either be a free or a paid event, but you still need to RSVP as if you actually bought a ticket.

In an ideal order of preference, Eventbrite events get my attention more often than Meetup events. But it's a matter of taste and by no means a general rule. And, of course, there are other sources of events outside of Meetup and Eventbrite that I might not even be aware of.

Cold e-mail: Marketing-style!

Eventbrite and Meetup are great for joining the scene and getting started, but they can be very disperse. Often times you might want to focus on meeting someone special, or talk to that particular company.

For that, I used cold e-mail. For the non-marketers, cold e-mail is the art of sending someone an e-mail introducing yourself trying to get something out of it.

In a city where no one knows where's the next Twitter / Snapchat / Whatsapp / etc going to spring up from, it's very common to send & receive such e-mails. And it's also very common to read them, answer them and politely agree on a meeting.

So right after getting my basic needs covered (accommodation-wise, mostly) on my first week, I started cold e-mailing everyone. I shot e-mails to CEOs of companies I would like to talk to, thought leaders, investors and mostly important people whose contacts I might need. Of course, I was bringing some kind of value to them. While everyone will agree on meeting you, it's not advisable to make them lose their time. So make sure your elevator pitch is ready to be used on a daily basis. You've got ten or thirty minutes to impress them. Afterwards, they might be gone.

Be brave. Try it. You'll be surprised of the outcome.

Contacts of contacts

Last, but not least: the traditional way. Get referred, for whatever thing you might want to do here. It's a shortcut to getting to know the right people. People who otherwise would put off reading your e-mail for next week, are more likely to read your e-mail if you're referred by someone they trust. It's sensible: I would do that as well, and so would you, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure that everyone has got an amazing network of contacts here, and so far, everyone has been kindly sharing it with me.

This might have to do with the fact that San Francisco is a major destination for immigrants in the US. Thus, everyone has surely had someone to help them previously, and now it's their turn to give their help back.

In a nutshell: this is not a "do this and you'll get results immediately". This is my personal experience and meant to be taken like that, like a story.

By the way, I'd love to hear your experiences as well. Comment here or drop me a line at [email protected]. Who knows, I might be able to help you somehow :)

Después de encontrarnos en San Francisco el pasado mes de octubre en un evento organizado por un VC, le pedimos a Steve Willmott, CEO de 3scale, si nos podía explicar su experiencia en el viaje emprendedor desde Barcelona a alzar 5 millones de dólares de VCs en EEUU. En diciembre pudimos encontrar un hueco y le hicimos la siguiente video entrevista. Le agradecemos su generosidad y amabilidad.

Esta es la primera entrega de entrevistas que vamos a hacer a emprendedores de éxito surgidos en nuestro ecosistema y que están triunfando en Silicon Valley. En nuestro objetivo de ofrecer recursos para incrementar las posibilidades de éxito de las startups en EEUU, que mejores consejos que los de alguien que ya lo ha conseguido! Abajo la video entrevista. Gracias Steve!

Entrevista a Steve Willmott - Parte 1:

Hi everyone,

I'm one of the three Martians that founded MarsBased, an offshore development start-up highly specialized in Ruby on Rails applications. Truth be told, however, my name is Àlex and I am from the beautiful city of Barcelona.

I quit my job on the 20th of December to pursuit one of my biggest dreams: travel overseas and get to know San Francisco. This way, I could learn about the city, the country, and expand the MarsBased gospel. I will stay here until the 1st of March. I am collaborating with Barcelona Ventures on its blog.

Because there might be other people like me, I'd like to give them some advice. I had little to no time to plan anything before coming, and that might as well be your case. Just make sure you read this blog entry on the plane, at least.

There are three big tasks you need to do in your first days. You can do all of them at once, or you can do them sequentially, depending on how good are you at multi-tasking. Here's my two cents on how to tackle them.

First task: get the essentials

While you can technically secure a room from overseas, don't rush it. It's going to be cheaper to find it from here. Crash at a friend's or else book a hostel room for some days. We'll talk about this later.

In order to start working your way up from the very first day you need a phone. Use this tool to find your ideal voice&data plan according to your needs. Why relying on asynchronous communication (E-mail, AirBnB messages...) when you can just call someone while you're actually heading towards your destination? 

As for moving around, get your Clipper Card. It's the San Francisco public transportation pass. Depending on your needs, you might want to acquire the monthly pass, which ranges between 60-70 dollars.

Full disclaimer: compared to some European countries, SF public transportation is very slow. Has a great coverage around the city and can get you everywhere, but just be aware that it might take more time than you thought. However, Google Maps is you best friend here: the public transportation estimations are really accurate.

If you're travelling on a broader budget, you might want to take a look at these two fantastic apps: Uber and Lyft. They are carsharing apps that solve perfectly one of the main problems of this city: it's difficult to find a cab when you need it.

Second task: house hunting

Once you're up and running, you can devote all your efforts to look for a place to stay.

I mostly relied on these three sources:

* Circle of friends (of friends)

* AirBnB

* Craigslist

Before I flew to SF, I did a small research through my Facebook contacts to check whether I had friends or close contacts that I might contact. Came across a couple of them, and send out some e-mails.

It was through a fourth grade connection that I found my private room in the quiet neighbourhood of Noe Valley.

I haven't got much to say here: just be super-nice. Be yourself and tell them your story. Chances are, everyone has a friend which knows someone who's friends with someone whose neighbour is looking for a flatmate. Just make sure you're that flatmate.

As for the sites, AirBnB provides a nice selection of flats but a little more expensive than Craigslist. Just choose your target.

Be aware that San Francisco is one hell of an expensive city. As a matter of fact, SF is the most expensive US city for rent.

Prices for a private room downtown start from 1500 dollars a month. That is, four times more than what I'm paying for my room in Barcelona.

If you are looking for something cheaper, you can either take a look in more residential districts (further from the city center) or else in Oakland or Berkeley. These two smaller yet cozy cities, lie on the other side of the Bay. Depending on your needs, they might suit you.

Third task: get connected

This is a pretty hectic city. Everything happens very fast, and you've got to get used to it. It's not that they rush things, it's their rhythm. Love it or hate it, you can still take your "un espresso" or "una siesta", but you might be missing out on important events.

My advice here is technology is your best friend.

From day zero, scrutinize Meetup and join loads of groups. Participate in all the events that might interest you even in the slightest. You never know where your best contact may spring up from.

From start-up stuff and entrepreneurial contests, to beer pong competitions (they call beer the social lubricant for a reason), there's a Meetup group for everything.

On a more professional level, Eventbrite will get you other sort of events. Just choose your preferences and jump in.

However, it's not only about joining events. Take a minute to talk to everyone you meet. Everyone has got a couple of minutes to chat with you, and will most likely hear your story.

In a city where everyone has worked for Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and many big others, you'd probably expect them to ignore small fish like you. Quite surprisingly, it couldn't be farther from the truth.

Everyone is extra-nice around here and will introduce you to their group of friends. Act accordingly.

Ok, got it. Now what?

In my next blog entry I'll highlight the best events I have attended so far and which ones I look forward to.

Yes, we did it. Yesterday, on June 11, it was held the 1st Barcelona Ventures Forum.

We lined up 5 Silicon Valley investors, VCs Javelin Venture Partners and DoubleRock among them, in a meeting with 6 made-in-Barcelona tech startups. But the entrepreneurs did not have to go to San Francisco to meet with them, the meeting was in Barcelona saving lots of time and money, we connected with the investors in SF through Cisco Telepresence. Great technology, great rooms, great solution. Each company presented its investment opportunity in a 4 minute pitch and got invaluable feedback from the investors.

It was not a mere pitching event, not even a pitching event between cities where a group of entrepreneurs pitch their projects to a panel of judges, it was an investor meeting. The pitching companies are actually looking for funding and want access to American investors. And investors showed their interest directly within the feedback time. In Barcelona Ventures we are innovating the process to get funding in Silicon Valley.

It took us a long time to get to this point. From now on we want to be a bridge for European tech companies seeking funding in SV.

We want to thank the people who made ​​it possible: