19
de Desembre
de
2016 - 01:45
Act.
22
de Desembre
de
2016 - 22:51
There are trains that when they pass by, they have to be taken. This is the case of Francesc Font, the founder of Nubelo, a marketplace for freelance professionals that has just been acquired by the Australian firm Freelancer. However, this sale is not a classic case of a successful entrepreneur getting out of the business to retire.
In this interview with VIA Empresa, Font explains how the offer arrived at the right moment to offload a project. Nubelo's team will now concentrate its efforts on Bandit (@we_bandits), the new brand that takes over the recruiting division, which was started a year ago and which has become the project's new driving force.
What is the story?
We had two business unit. The B2C is the one we began with, the original Nubelo. It is a marketplace in which people could find projects for freelancers, such as making a logo or a translation, and which worked for all Spanish-speaking countries.
And the second business?
A year ago, seeing that there was a lot of demand for digital talent and that the traditional portals for finding jobs were not working, people came to us looking for talent. Programmers, usability designers, marketing people, and so on. We decided to set up a B2B division that allowed us to take off, it went really well. We decided to focus on the B2B, the recruiting marketplace, where we feel more comfortable.
So you gave up on the original idea to concentrate on the new one.
Instead of doing an investment round, all the money we earn we invest into the European expansion of the new brand. We are setting up a new portal, Bandit, where we will create a vertical for the white collar segment.
What will now happen with Nubelo's original work?
All of this integrates directly into Freelancer, which in the end is the biggest marketplace there is.
Are you looking for a more personal manner with Bandit?
In the recruiting part we aim to understand and analyse all the information we have about the candidate very well, so as find the work best suited for them. They are also very high tickets. It is a marketplace in which we take a commission on the gross annual salary, which means we are competing with the recruiting industry, which right now is highly inefficient. That is what we have come to change after seeing a giant opportunity.
And with the aim of expanding...
Many ask me if we laid off a lot of people and the opposite is true; we are taking people on all the time! We are expanding the team and will do so more next year with the expansion. We have now opened in Madrid and in the first quarter we intend to open new offices in Colombia and Mexico. And in the second quarter, in Europe: in Paris and Berlin.
How was the transition?
It has been tough. Making the transition from one marketplace with so many users and operations is technically complicated. At the same time we had to create a new brand and platform. We had to do it in eight weeks, knowing we were lowering one shutter only to open another.
How does it feel to be a founder who has just sold the company, even if it is only a part of it?
It wasn't easy, but in the end you shouldn't feel so much affection for the project, but rather for what is working best. It is true that this was the original idea, which we have been working on for the past four years. However, when we told the company everyone was very happy and saw the logic in it. Nubelo is fine, but what we set up a year ago is growing so much that it is an even more exciting challenge. It is also true that it is not the end of any era. All of the partners and employees are continuing. We decided with the investors that there would not be any cash out, but rather that the revenue would serve to grow in Europe. There is no end about which I can evaluate my feelings. All of us are continuing with the project but with a different focus.
Should the sale of the company be the objective for the founder of a startup?
No, not at all! I am very critical of those whose objective is to sell the company. That is totally the wrong attitude. The objective has be to create value. Whether the company is later sold or not is less important. What I hope is that companies are profitable, that they provide dividends if necessary, that they bring value. When you see companies with zero turnover that they try to sell... I think that does a lot of harm to the market. Perhaps there are those who would be against that opinion, but in the end a certain pattern of creating businesses to sell them has appeared and I think that it is harmful. The message that we are sending to the entrepreneurial community is that this is the way to do it, and not the other way. Companies have to be set up to make money. Not to be sold and then who cares what happens. The one who pays the salaries has to be the client, not the investor. In the end, if there is no one willing to pay for a service, tt means you are not providing value.
How do you know when it is the best moment to sell the company?
At the beginning of a market a lot of companies appear and it is all about who will go the furthest. But there ends up being a concentration, it is a business rule because they have to look for economies of scale. So, when the market is beginning to mature and you see that someone is winning the game, it is the moment to go to them and say: "here, you win".
It can't be easy negotiating an operation like that when you are the smaller party...
If you see that the sector is becoming concentrated and you cannot compete by being different, you have to avoid having a single potential buyer. Because then it becomes a specific investment and you have no alternative, you are highly penalised when it comes to negotiating.
In this interview with VIA Empresa, Font explains how the offer arrived at the right moment to offload a project. Nubelo's team will now concentrate its efforts on Bandit (@we_bandits), the new brand that takes over the recruiting division, which was started a year ago and which has become the project's new driving force.
What is the story?
We had two business unit. The B2C is the one we began with, the original Nubelo. It is a marketplace in which people could find projects for freelancers, such as making a logo or a translation, and which worked for all Spanish-speaking countries.
And the second business?
A year ago, seeing that there was a lot of demand for digital talent and that the traditional portals for finding jobs were not working, people came to us looking for talent. Programmers, usability designers, marketing people, and so on. We decided to set up a B2B division that allowed us to take off, it went really well. We decided to focus on the B2B, the recruiting marketplace, where we feel more comfortable.
So you gave up on the original idea to concentrate on the new one.
Instead of doing an investment round, all the money we earn we invest into the European expansion of the new brand. We are setting up a new portal, Bandit, where we will create a vertical for the white collar segment.
What will now happen with Nubelo's original work?
All of this integrates directly into Freelancer, which in the end is the biggest marketplace there is.
Are you looking for a more personal manner with Bandit?
In the recruiting part we aim to understand and analyse all the information we have about the candidate very well, so as find the work best suited for them. They are also very high tickets. It is a marketplace in which we take a commission on the gross annual salary, which means we are competing with the recruiting industry, which right now is highly inefficient. That is what we have come to change after seeing a giant opportunity.
And with the aim of expanding...
Many ask me if we laid off a lot of people and the opposite is true; we are taking people on all the time! We are expanding the team and will do so more next year with the expansion. We have now opened in Madrid and in the first quarter we intend to open new offices in Colombia and Mexico. And in the second quarter, in Europe: in Paris and Berlin.
How was the transition?
It has been tough. Making the transition from one marketplace with so many users and operations is technically complicated. At the same time we had to create a new brand and platform. We had to do it in eight weeks, knowing we were lowering one shutter only to open another.
How does it feel to be a founder who has just sold the company, even if it is only a part of it?
It wasn't easy, but in the end you shouldn't feel so much affection for the project, but rather for what is working best. It is true that this was the original idea, which we have been working on for the past four years. However, when we told the company everyone was very happy and saw the logic in it. Nubelo is fine, but what we set up a year ago is growing so much that it is an even more exciting challenge. It is also true that it is not the end of any era. All of the partners and employees are continuing. We decided with the investors that there would not be any cash out, but rather that the revenue would serve to grow in Europe. There is no end about which I can evaluate my feelings. All of us are continuing with the project but with a different focus.
Should the sale of the company be the objective for the founder of a startup?
No, not at all! I am very critical of those whose objective is to sell the company. That is totally the wrong attitude. The objective has be to create value. Whether the company is later sold or not is less important. What I hope is that companies are profitable, that they provide dividends if necessary, that they bring value. When you see companies with zero turnover that they try to sell... I think that does a lot of harm to the market. Perhaps there are those who would be against that opinion, but in the end a certain pattern of creating businesses to sell them has appeared and I think that it is harmful. The message that we are sending to the entrepreneurial community is that this is the way to do it, and not the other way. Companies have to be set up to make money. Not to be sold and then who cares what happens. The one who pays the salaries has to be the client, not the investor. In the end, if there is no one willing to pay for a service, tt means you are not providing value.
How do you know when it is the best moment to sell the company?
At the beginning of a market a lot of companies appear and it is all about who will go the furthest. But there ends up being a concentration, it is a business rule because they have to look for economies of scale. So, when the market is beginning to mature and you see that someone is winning the game, it is the moment to go to them and say: "here, you win".
It can't be easy negotiating an operation like that when you are the smaller party...
If you see that the sector is becoming concentrated and you cannot compete by being different, you have to avoid having a single potential buyer. Because then it becomes a specific investment and you have no alternative, you are highly penalised when it comes to negotiating.