Barcelona's entrepreneurial ecosystem is permanently in effervescence. For years, the city has emerged as a hub for startups; so much so that it has consolidated itself as the fifth largest entrepreneurial ecosystem in the EU, only behind Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, and Amsterdam. The engine of this ecosystem are the founders; the fuel is investment, and it is precisely in access to financing where entrepreneurs find one of their biggest handicaps.
In this context, Aticco Lab has launched for the first time a program that focuses on new investors with tickets ranging from about 2,000 to 5,000 euros, with intensive training to delve into this field with method, criteria, and connection to the ecosystem. "We often find early investors who invest blindly, due to a mix of trust and ignorance, but you have to train yourself to have criteria and minimize errors," highlights the co-founder and general partner of Aticco Lab, Adrián Escabias, after having invested in about 60 startups in more than ten years.
And what should be taken into account to avoid investing blindly and by intuition? "First, you have to look at the team, because in reality you don't invest in startups, but in people," according to Escabias. "Then you must verify that a market problem is actually being solved, and that the team has knowledge about that market," and a fundamental factor that many new investors often overlook comes into play: the contractual part. "What you sign determines all the conditions. Everything is in the partners' agreement."
The program, which will start on June 11, focuses on all these keys to filter opportunities, understand legal terms, and articulate a diversified portfolio of startups —"diversifying is key to reducing risk"—. It will do so from within the ecosystem itself, with the help of active professionals and investors.
In addition to Escabias, names such as the CEO and co-founder of Aticco Lab and director of the Barcelona Finance Hub, Quino Fernández, along with the head of Venture & Ecosystem at Stellar, Amélie Mariage; the founder of UpBizor and general manager of Lanzame Capital, Jordi Altimira, and the co-founder of Successful Capital and Media Digital Ventures, Daniel Romy, as well as the venture partner of Encomenda Mario Brassesco; the CEO of Premoney and limited partner at BackFund, Alberto Hospital; the tax law expert Mayte Rodríguez, and the lawyer and head of Corporate at Letslaw, Alberto Zuñiga.
Through these voices, the program seeks to provide tools for investing embedded in the Aticco ecosystem, the communities of its coworking spaces and, especially, Aticco Lab, which acts as a startup accelerator and a driver of the entrepreneurial ecosystem from various angles, now targeting early investors.
However, to prepare for investing, it is not only key to access training and tools, but also the investment community, as Escabias highlights. "You have to surround yourself with people who have done it before" —also through the Aticco Lab Investors Club, which is accessible for six months with the training—. All of this, to be able to share doubts and experiences and get answers from within the ecosystem itself: "The best way to make fewer mistakes is, when in doubt, to have someone to ask."
And just as the investor benefits from this ecosystem, the ecosystem also benefits from every small investor who starts betting on entrepreneurial initiatives, adding to innovation, and also to employment: "It is not just a monetary issue, but about the jobs that emerging companies create through these investments."
Thus, the program aims to provide tools to know which startups to bet on and how to do it, generating a new pool of investors. In this way, it acts both as a facilitator for new profiles to enter the world of investment, and as an agent for professionalizing this network, training a new generation of investors and boosting a Barcelona entrepreneurial ecosystem that continues to strengthen.