During the ESADE Alumni Entrepreneurship Day, ESADE and Banco Sabadell presented the award for the Best Start-up of the Year to Wallapop, which was collected by the company’s CEO, Agustín Gómez. Whilst receiving the award, Gómez thanked the investors for their commitment to his project and said that the company now had the resources and support necessary to compete with the market leaders. “We are the latest wave of brave Spanish start-ups and we’re aiming for the global premier league of business.” In reference to the city where the company was created, he said, “the talent here is on a par with that of Silicon Valley.”
How to retain talent
The ESADE Alumni Entrepreneurship Day brought together leading entrepreneurs from a variety of sectors who agreed on the importance of retaining talent and the need for clear goals and expectations to ensure successful buyouts.
“In a buyout, you must define the assets and negotiate”, said Javier Andrés, founder and CEO of Ticketea which was bought out by the Germany firm TodayTickets. “The strategy will vary depending on the buyout”, he added.
César Isern, co-founder together with Albert Pereta and CEO of Iceberg, a start-up bought out by Pinterest, highlighted that in their particular case, “they bought talent and vision”. “At that time, Pinterest had not yet invested in content management tools - and that’s what we had to offer”, explained Isern, who has since moved to San Francisco.
Juan Carlos Riveiro, CEO and co-founder of Gigle, was very proud of his “chaotic and entertaining buyout” by Broadcom Corporation, “In the end, we managed to get $31 million with just one power point presentation” he said, and added, “If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re always thinking about selling your company, you’re on the wrong track because start-ups are never sold, they’re always bought.”
As regards the globalisation of start-ups, Pere Vallès, Scytl CEO, highlighted that “the globalisation of software companies is cheap in comparison to other industries, and trial and error is the best method.”
“Spend whatever is necessary on lawyers when financing a start-up”, said Oscar Macià, CEO of Force Manager, who agreed that “the second round of finance is never easier than the first.”
Entrepreneurs stress that a company’s DNA must evolve, but without losing sight of its origin. “Unchanging core values are a mistake”, pointed out Vallès, Ticketea CEO, but in his opinion, “There’s a lot of talk about funding, but the complicated part is team leadership and the human element.”
Firms must experiment more
“We have little culture of experimentation in companies and we have to make up lost ground”, said the innovation expert, founder and CEO of Infonomía, Alfons Cornella, at the latest Matins ESADE talk sponsored by Ernst & Young in conjunction with La Vanguardia, which marked the start of the ESADE Alumni Entrepreneurship Day.
During the conference, Cornella addressed the importance of science and explained that “the way ahead involves turning science into business, into a saleable product and into more imagination.” “Imagination is essential”, he emphasised and added, “The world to come is a combination of several components from different countries.”
Importance of innovation
The founder of Infonomía and former ESADE professor explained that “there is no innovation standard”, and that it was essential, “to understand what value is, even though it doesn’t have a scientific definition, and understand its value for the customer.”
“Innovation requires direct contact with people. A company that wants to innovate must invest in understanding customer psychology and the human brain better”, he mentioned in reference to neuromarketing, a very important subject. However, as he said, “innovation must, above all, solve problems.”
“The problem with problems is that we don’t realise that they are problems until someone solves them.” Even so, Alfons Cornella highlighted that “there is a risk of over-innovation, a phenomenon found in the sphere of FMCGs.”
Award for the best start-up of the year
Wallapop is an app based on geolocalisation that acts as a market place for second-hand items between private individuals. It was founded in Barcelona in mid-2013 by Agustín Gómez (CEO) together with former ESADE student Miguel Vicente (ex-Lets Bonus) and Gerard Olivé (Be Republic). They originally approached ESADE BAN, the business angel network run by this university’s alumni association in October 2013, and had an investment round with Antai Business Angels, Caixa Capital Risc and other investors from ESADE BAN itself which totalled some €650,000, following which the start-up has held more rounds for higher amounts.
At the present time, it has it has 10 million downloads and remains in the top ten apps with the most downloads for iOS and Android since it hit the market. In addition, Wallapop currently has more than 21 million product references in its catalogue and handles 7,000,000 transactions a day between users. Wallapop is present in Spain, France, England and the USA.
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