28
de Març
de
2017
Act.
28
de Març
de
2017
Christian Rodríguez (Barcelona, 1984) hopes that by the time you get to the last page of his first book you will be ready to begin a business adventure in which everything will be much easier. "Entrepreneurship is not an add-on, it is our profession, it cannot be a means, it has to be an end in itself," argues the founder of ByHours in the book Despegar(Profit Editorial, 2017).
Based on his personal experience, Rodríguez covers the different stages all entrepreneurs go through: the idea for the business, the cofounder, the team, the MVP, the investors, the market, the environment... Founder of companies in different sectors like Northweek, WashRocks, Urban Secrets, Netip, Spotbus and ByHours, the first online platform that allows users to book a hotel room by the hour, with 2,500 hotels around the world already, he does not consider himself a professional investor even though he does not rule out the possibility of investing in other projects.
Is going into business really as hard as you make it out in the book?
In a way yes. It is risky but also tremendously attractive. Starting a business demands a lot of patience, but as happens with surfing, when a good wave comes along, the surfer knows that the wait was worth it. So yes, starting a business is tough but also brings contentment.
The validation of the idea is the key issue and the first chapter of Despegar. How do we know when an idea is good?
I am a great defender of the idea, but I also know that an idea alone is not enough; it needs validation in the feedback from people who know what they are talking about, and these people are not always the ones you think they are. If everyone who has an idea were to heed the feedback given them, they would never go ahead with any projects. Large projects tend to introduce disruption that at the start always provokes instability. It is also true that you can have a bad idea but with a good team you can make it work.
Is it essential to have a cofounder even if it only be a marriage of convenience?
The cofounder is totally necessary, they provide energy and confidence to continue facing the challenges and difficulties. In fact, the title of this book came last, as my initial idea came from the title 'you are alone', based on the concept of the loneliness of the entrepreneur. There are a lot of decisions to take, you almost never have precedents to go on, you need this support from a person who has the same interests and aims as you. The entrepreneur who begins without a strong partner has a weakness. I have felt this solitude at one time or another, even with a cofounder; it is a painful solitude that accompanies you as an entrepreneur but that makes you stronger.
Can you lose this partner along the way?
Yes, it is one of the situations you have to avoid but you can lose them easily, there are a lot of factors that affect the project. However, a cofounder is not only someone who comes into the project from the beginning, the cofounder can enter later on. The important thing is that cofounder's rights are the same as those of the founder. A good team is the variable that conditions the project the most.
Photo: Àngel Bravo
What is the story of ByHours?
I specialised in qualitative market trends and I saw that one of the trends that affected a lot sectors was personalisation. What's more, the travel industry, the sector that does the most business online, had still not undergone this transformation; something as basic as integrating payment for use in hotels did not exist. And that was how we came up with the idea for ByHours: payment for use in the travel sector.
It is a sector with some big players... Did you go into it as a disruptive element?
No, we went into the sector with a collaborative narrative, bringing added value. Everyone understands that going to a hotel and paying for the hours you need is interesting and makes sense. At the beginning perhaps there were reservations from people who did not believe that we could change the logic of the market or that it would be difficult to bring the hotel sector on board. In our case, we tried to introduce a very specific modification: booking a hotel for a few hours, in a very large market full of big players. It is positive disruption that improves the sector and helps hotels to make more revenue and in the end the concept was very well received. One of the features of the models that work is this, that in the end you favour supply and demand for all the players.
In the book you explain that all entrepreneurs go through eight stages and that there are only three possible outcomes: close, continue or sell the company.
Yes, there are only three paths. It is true that there is a collective fable about creating a company, selling around the world, becoming global and being bought out for many millions, but this is a situation that only one out of a thousand companies go through. On the other hand, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who begin a project because they want to live from it without these expectations. In other words, not all entrepreneurs begin wanting to sell their idea, while there are also those who do. However, I would find it hard to understand the case of an entrepreneur who would not sell their company if they have a really good offer on the table.
What stage is ByHours at?
In all the projects we are working on, including ByHours, as you progress through the stages you enter into a process of constant innovation within the project. From changing investors and therefore changing the way you manage and understand the company, to changing markets. I am aware that ByHours is an all-or-nothing project; we are not a company that has come to create a local model, we are a company capable of selling a hotel room anywhere in the world and, in fact, today we have 20 people in an office merely devoted to hotel acquisition that can contact hotels all over the world and in a matter of hours find a room.
And bearing in mind the three possible outcomes, which would you choose?
Our company is destined to be sold, to be acquired by a big player in the sector that will allow us to grow exponentially. In fact, the more hotels we have around the world, the faster we can go. Yet, we won't go crazy if we are not bought; in fact, all our operations are to make us larger, more profitable and interesting, because the more independent a company can become, the sexier it is for a buyer.
Photo: Àngel Bravo
Based on his personal experience, Rodríguez covers the different stages all entrepreneurs go through: the idea for the business, the cofounder, the team, the MVP, the investors, the market, the environment... Founder of companies in different sectors like Northweek, WashRocks, Urban Secrets, Netip, Spotbus and ByHours, the first online platform that allows users to book a hotel room by the hour, with 2,500 hotels around the world already, he does not consider himself a professional investor even though he does not rule out the possibility of investing in other projects.
Is going into business really as hard as you make it out in the book?
In a way yes. It is risky but also tremendously attractive. Starting a business demands a lot of patience, but as happens with surfing, when a good wave comes along, the surfer knows that the wait was worth it. So yes, starting a business is tough but also brings contentment.
The validation of the idea is the key issue and the first chapter of Despegar. How do we know when an idea is good?
I am a great defender of the idea, but I also know that an idea alone is not enough; it needs validation in the feedback from people who know what they are talking about, and these people are not always the ones you think they are. If everyone who has an idea were to heed the feedback given them, they would never go ahead with any projects. Large projects tend to introduce disruption that at the start always provokes instability. It is also true that you can have a bad idea but with a good team you can make it work.
Is it essential to have a cofounder even if it only be a marriage of convenience?
The cofounder is totally necessary, they provide energy and confidence to continue facing the challenges and difficulties. In fact, the title of this book came last, as my initial idea came from the title 'you are alone', based on the concept of the loneliness of the entrepreneur. There are a lot of decisions to take, you almost never have precedents to go on, you need this support from a person who has the same interests and aims as you. The entrepreneur who begins without a strong partner has a weakness. I have felt this solitude at one time or another, even with a cofounder; it is a painful solitude that accompanies you as an entrepreneur but that makes you stronger.
Can you lose this partner along the way?
Yes, it is one of the situations you have to avoid but you can lose them easily, there are a lot of factors that affect the project. However, a cofounder is not only someone who comes into the project from the beginning, the cofounder can enter later on. The important thing is that cofounder's rights are the same as those of the founder. A good team is the variable that conditions the project the most.
Photo: Àngel Bravo
What is the story of ByHours?
I specialised in qualitative market trends and I saw that one of the trends that affected a lot sectors was personalisation. What's more, the travel industry, the sector that does the most business online, had still not undergone this transformation; something as basic as integrating payment for use in hotels did not exist. And that was how we came up with the idea for ByHours: payment for use in the travel sector.
It is a sector with some big players... Did you go into it as a disruptive element?
No, we went into the sector with a collaborative narrative, bringing added value. Everyone understands that going to a hotel and paying for the hours you need is interesting and makes sense. At the beginning perhaps there were reservations from people who did not believe that we could change the logic of the market or that it would be difficult to bring the hotel sector on board. In our case, we tried to introduce a very specific modification: booking a hotel for a few hours, in a very large market full of big players. It is positive disruption that improves the sector and helps hotels to make more revenue and in the end the concept was very well received. One of the features of the models that work is this, that in the end you favour supply and demand for all the players.
In the book you explain that all entrepreneurs go through eight stages and that there are only three possible outcomes: close, continue or sell the company.
Yes, there are only three paths. It is true that there is a collective fable about creating a company, selling around the world, becoming global and being bought out for many millions, but this is a situation that only one out of a thousand companies go through. On the other hand, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who begin a project because they want to live from it without these expectations. In other words, not all entrepreneurs begin wanting to sell their idea, while there are also those who do. However, I would find it hard to understand the case of an entrepreneur who would not sell their company if they have a really good offer on the table.
What stage is ByHours at?
In all the projects we are working on, including ByHours, as you progress through the stages you enter into a process of constant innovation within the project. From changing investors and therefore changing the way you manage and understand the company, to changing markets. I am aware that ByHours is an all-or-nothing project; we are not a company that has come to create a local model, we are a company capable of selling a hotel room anywhere in the world and, in fact, today we have 20 people in an office merely devoted to hotel acquisition that can contact hotels all over the world and in a matter of hours find a room.
And bearing in mind the three possible outcomes, which would you choose?
Our company is destined to be sold, to be acquired by a big player in the sector that will allow us to grow exponentially. In fact, the more hotels we have around the world, the faster we can go. Yet, we won't go crazy if we are not bought; in fact, all our operations are to make us larger, more profitable and interesting, because the more independent a company can become, the sexier it is for a buyer.
Photo: Àngel Bravo