"An entrepreneur is a businessman who doesn't make money"; this is how Jordi Romero, co-founder of Factorial, sees it, and with this realistic humor he explained it to 200 young entrepreneurs gathered by Pimec Joves. Be that as it may, entrepreneurs are a key piece for the economy and innovation, as defended by the president of Pimec Joves, Gemma Roy: "The entrepreneurial spirit must be recognized, accompanied and reinforced."
In the second edition of the Congrés de Joves Empresaris i Empresàries, prominent figures from the Barcelona business and entrepreneurial scene have recounted their adventures —and misadventures—, focusing on their successes and also their mistakes, with different points of view but with common elements: purpose, coherence and learning through trial and error. "Young entrepreneurs seek to generate shared value and promote projects aligned with sustainability, social welfare and the technological revolution," defended Antoni Cañete. The president of Pimec said this in a conversation with the general director of Youth of the Generalitat, Clara Quirante, who advocated for "working on an administration reform, to make it easier and so that whoever wants to undertake, can do so."
In this learning on the entrepreneurial path, "not having ego" must be promoted, as defended by the co-founder of Talkual, Oriol Aldomà, awarded during the gala along with Marc Ibós in the Entrepreneurial Initiative category. In the Innovation award, the co-founder of Honest Chefs, Júlia Pastor, was recognized, who shared her recipe for entrepreneurship: "Understand what societal need you are covering and be able to adapt your idea to cover this need in the best possible way." To all this, Mariona Masnou, with the Generational Relay award at Recuperacions Masnou, added her ingredients: innovate and be resilient: "There isn't a day when there isn't something to solve."
In this path of innovation and resilience also walks Jordi Romero. The co-founder of Factorial reviewed his journey before young entrepreneurs, leading a startup that has become a unicorn and a European technological benchmark. It all started long ago, when his schoolmates began playing video games on computers, while he played at disassembling them to see how they worked. He started programming to automate tasks he performed to help his father, an architect, and then opted to study Computer Engineering at UPC, where he discovered that "it was not only fun to make software, but also to sell it to companies."
But Romero's great learning was not in his degree, but by embarking on an entrepreneurial adventure with a colleague of his, which led them to Silicon Valley in search of funding. "There I discovered that an entrepreneur from Barcelona in Silicon Valley is worth the same as an entrepreneur from Silicon Valley in Silicon Valley." And so they managed to raise funding, up to a total of 20 million, until the board of directors decided to sell the company: "They offered us 20 million, and we rejected it; then it was 40, and we rejected it; then it was 80, and we rejected it again. In the end, we sold it for 20, the same amount we had raised in investment." And he returned to Barcelona "with a suitcase full of learnings but not a penny." With all this learning and together with Bernat Farrero, they launched what is now Factorial, with a purpose: to solve companies' management problems through software: "We continue to look for problems to solve them."
Purpose is also key for companies like Vallformosa, Joncake and Two Poles. Despite coming from such diverse fields as enology, cheesecakes, and cosmetics, the three companies have something in common: purpose in their DNA. "You cannot simulate a purpose if you don't have one. For me, it is something intrinsic to the company and must be shared with the entire team," defended Marta Vidal, CEO of Vallformosa: "Success is that the people on the team share this purpose."
In the case of the founder of Two Poles, Anna Fuster, "the purpose came long before the brand and the product." And it is that she, then a financial consultant at Mango, began to dedicate a lot of time to researching cosmetic and dermatological solutions, with the aim of treating her daughter's atopic skin. As a result of that research, she found ingredients and formulas with great potency, and ended up deciding to study dermopharmacy. Then an Instagram account arrived and, later, Two Poles.
The impulse of social networks is also a point that she shares with Joncake, in addition to the purpose. That of its founder, Jon García, boosted his business with a clear purpose: "The project was born from the intention of making the best cheesecake in the world." Now, the queues at his premises are a good indicator for this objective. "In the end, the purpose is born before the brand. When I started the project, the idea was to break with what was the usual cheesecake, to do something different in which I could feel identified at a creative and culinary level." Based on passion and coherence, the rest came along.
This coherence is essential to reach the public from any field, as highlighted by the co-founder of Vicio, Aleix Puig. "There must be coherence in everything that is done. You must be coherent and have your tone, also based on your roots," defended the winner of MasterChef in 2019. Now with more than 40 Vicio locations, the company started "more with an ecommerce philosophy than a restaurant." Thus, Puig added Oriol de Pablos to the founding team to boost a digital company. And he closed his intervention with a claim: "It has always been outsiders who have taught us how to eat hamburgers, and now a young brand from here does it."
And from coherence, to innovation as a driving force, as in cases like Smart Lollipop, a medical device in the shape of a lollipop to collect saliva for analysis. As its co-founder and CEO, Diana Ballart, explained, the idea was born in 2017 and precisely now they have just received the certification they need to enter the market, while conducting a clinical study at Sant Joan de Deú: "The first or second quarter of next year we will be on the market," she guaranteed. In this path, the role of the team is key, according to the co-founder and CEO of Blindstair, Marta Rodríguez: "Team members should be encouraged to have their say and try new ideas," always in favor of innovation.
This innovation is also the driving force behind Bookline, which has developed a voice assistant for restaurants, hotels, and taxis. Its general manager, Quique Roca, highlighted that the project recently closed a 3.5 million round. "It has been months of meetings and we have received many noes," he detailed to the young people of Pimec. In this regard, Ballart also focused on the problems of finding investment: "Investors do not bet enough on real innovation. As a country, we have a lot of room for improvement, but at the same time, we are lucky that we are a motivated and entrepreneurial society, and thanks to that, innovation moves forward."