When four years ago the Catalan startup Infantium decided to enter the 4 Years From Now (4YFN) competition, it had no idea what awaited. It was the first edition of a fair that, alongside the Mobile World Congress, aspired to become a leader among international meeting points for entrepreneurs, investors and large corporations.
Participting in the Mobile Startup Competition meant a week at the Startup Embassy in Silicon Valley, financial and legal support, becoming part of the Banc Sabadell programme for entrepreneurs and, obviously, media coverage. As company cofounder and CEO, Karen Márquez, tells VIA Empresa: "It is a world recognised event and moreover it is held in Barcelona. Representing our city is an honour." One day later, the startup learnt it had become the winner of the first edition's prize. It is an award that has catapulted them to success and consolidated an educational product trusted by clients like McMillian, Cruïlla or Edebé.
Since then, three editions have taken place and the competition, known as the 4YFN Awards, has seen 60 finalists take to the stage to present their ideas. Some have been more mature, others more disruptive and others have left with different investors in their pockets, but all of them have shown that entrepreneurship is alive and well.
Validation of the product by an expert voice
Caravelo, a startup set up in 2010, was the winner of the Disrupted by Mobile category in the second edition of the competition. They arrived with a company that had already been around for almost five years, though with only 18 "relevant" months. That is how the startup's cofounder and CEO, Iñaki Uriz, remembers it, explaining that taking part in the 4YFN Awards was a way of be present at the fair.
At that time they had already completed a first investment round and were completely confident about the viability of the project to optimise plane tickets. "We knew we had an interesting idea and that it was attractive enough to get something out of," he points out, "you put your idea in the arena, in front of people with experience and next to other potentially interesting businesses." And if the project you enter ends up winning, as in their case, "it shows that it is one of the most attractive and that expert people consider it to be viable."
Beyond the prize in question, Uriz thinks that the experience was good for learning what was going on in each sector: "A startup does something that is already being done, but with a fresh view of it. Seeing what colleagues in other sectors are doing is interesting." Caravelo's collaborators are also startups, they look for young and disruptive projects like Kantox, for example, which makes it a great place for networking. What's more, soon after the competition, they managed to close a second funding round that has allowed them to grow so that they now have a turnover of half a million euros and a staff of 15 employees.
The most recent winner of the same category, ThingThing, has trod a similar path. Lifting the prize in 2015 allowed them to "validate the product, motivate the team and successfully close a round of investment," says cofounder and CEO, Olivier Plante, who insists that the fact of "being able to say 'we were there and we won' has a lot of power and influence in conversations with investors."
With these financial resources, ThingThing has expanded its team to nine people and has strengthened its marketing, UX and development departments to consolidate the project they are working on in Barcelona.
A boost to visibility
Caravelo and ThingThing can talk from the point of view of prizewinners, but the competition picks out 24 finalists chosen from among hundreds of applications. One of them is Braingaze, a participant in the 2015 edition and a company that cofounder and CEO, Laszlo Brax, defines as "unusual" because it makes a product designed for eHealth and is "a little at the limit of the Internet of Things." Although the IoT is now one of the maina reas of interest for investors, they were aware that they would not be so attractive as other projects.
Despite the obstacles, Brax recognises that participating in the competition has raised their visibility. "We have not generated the same interest as others, but there are companies that looked at our technology to see what it could do for them," he says, "without being finalists, they probably would not have noticed us." In a year, they have been able to pass the prototype stage and clinically validate the product, designed to diagnose problems of visual attention and perception, to make it ready for sale. According to Brax, they sell the tool in Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
A competition for every occasion
Are the 4YFN Awards just prizes and nothing else? For Uriz, from Caravelo, the answer is clear: "No, because it has a reach and is part of the Mobile World Congress." In the past few years, the number of competitions have been rising, a trend that some have begun to see as detrimental to the more established programmes.
Uriz is one of those who thinks that we have arrived at saturation point, which makes him recommend being "selective": "You cannot enter everything, you have to see where your company or team fits, what you have to do take part or whether it is worth it." From his point of view, entrepreneurs have naturally begun to distinguish between those opportunities designed more for startups at a seed stage and those aimed at more mature projects. At the same time, he also thinks that many of the prizes created in recent years will start to disappear due to not having enough weight.
To do business or not to do business in Barcelona?
If there is one opinion that the three entrepreneurs share is that Barcelona is a hub with potential. "It is not the most prominent at the moment, Berlin or London probably have more startups, but the situation will continue to improve," argues Uriz.
For the CEO of ThingThing, one of the negative things about the Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem is its tendency to copy successful examples. "You only have to look at all the delivery companies fighting it out in Barcelona, it reminds me of the dotcom bubble," he says, adding that "the key is giving support and nourishing the most innovative and disruptive projects, and to leave the clones to fight it out by investing in marketing until only one is left standing."
Continuing with the list of what is left to be done to make the Catalan capital into a genuine hub, Plante points to the role of investors: "The investment is lower than in other markets. Too many startups are doing a lot on very little, which in the long run damages the entrepreneurial ecosystem." And from his list of things to improve comes a direct appeal to institutions and bureaucracy, in which the policy on work visas is an obstacle compared to in cities like Berlin, Paris or London. "We cannot accept a period of three months to take someone on who is from outside the European Union and normally the best talent is to be found outside the EU," he concludes.
Participting in the Mobile Startup Competition meant a week at the Startup Embassy in Silicon Valley, financial and legal support, becoming part of the Banc Sabadell programme for entrepreneurs and, obviously, media coverage. As company cofounder and CEO, Karen Márquez, tells VIA Empresa: "It is a world recognised event and moreover it is held in Barcelona. Representing our city is an honour." One day later, the startup learnt it had become the winner of the first edition's prize. It is an award that has catapulted them to success and consolidated an educational product trusted by clients like McMillian, Cruïlla or Edebé.
Since then, three editions have taken place and the competition, known as the 4YFN Awards, has seen 60 finalists take to the stage to present their ideas. Some have been more mature, others more disruptive and others have left with different investors in their pockets, but all of them have shown that entrepreneurship is alive and well.
Validation of the product by an expert voice
Caravelo, a startup set up in 2010, was the winner of the Disrupted by Mobile category in the second edition of the competition. They arrived with a company that had already been around for almost five years, though with only 18 "relevant" months. That is how the startup's cofounder and CEO, Iñaki Uriz, remembers it, explaining that taking part in the 4YFN Awards was a way of be present at the fair.
At that time they had already completed a first investment round and were completely confident about the viability of the project to optimise plane tickets. "We knew we had an interesting idea and that it was attractive enough to get something out of," he points out, "you put your idea in the arena, in front of people with experience and next to other potentially interesting businesses." And if the project you enter ends up winning, as in their case, "it shows that it is one of the most attractive and that expert people consider it to be viable."
Beyond the prize in question, Uriz thinks that the experience was good for learning what was going on in each sector: "A startup does something that is already being done, but with a fresh view of it. Seeing what colleagues in other sectors are doing is interesting." Caravelo's collaborators are also startups, they look for young and disruptive projects like Kantox, for example, which makes it a great place for networking. What's more, soon after the competition, they managed to close a second funding round that has allowed them to grow so that they now have a turnover of half a million euros and a staff of 15 employees.
The most recent winner of the same category, ThingThing, has trod a similar path. Lifting the prize in 2015 allowed them to "validate the product, motivate the team and successfully close a round of investment," says cofounder and CEO, Olivier Plante, who insists that the fact of "being able to say 'we were there and we won' has a lot of power and influence in conversations with investors."
With these financial resources, ThingThing has expanded its team to nine people and has strengthened its marketing, UX and development departments to consolidate the project they are working on in Barcelona.
A boost to visibility
Caravelo and ThingThing can talk from the point of view of prizewinners, but the competition picks out 24 finalists chosen from among hundreds of applications. One of them is Braingaze, a participant in the 2015 edition and a company that cofounder and CEO, Laszlo Brax, defines as "unusual" because it makes a product designed for eHealth and is "a little at the limit of the Internet of Things." Although the IoT is now one of the maina reas of interest for investors, they were aware that they would not be so attractive as other projects.
Despite the obstacles, Brax recognises that participating in the competition has raised their visibility. "We have not generated the same interest as others, but there are companies that looked at our technology to see what it could do for them," he says, "without being finalists, they probably would not have noticed us." In a year, they have been able to pass the prototype stage and clinically validate the product, designed to diagnose problems of visual attention and perception, to make it ready for sale. According to Brax, they sell the tool in Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
A competition for every occasion
Are the 4YFN Awards just prizes and nothing else? For Uriz, from Caravelo, the answer is clear: "No, because it has a reach and is part of the Mobile World Congress." In the past few years, the number of competitions have been rising, a trend that some have begun to see as detrimental to the more established programmes.
Uriz is one of those who thinks that we have arrived at saturation point, which makes him recommend being "selective": "You cannot enter everything, you have to see where your company or team fits, what you have to do take part or whether it is worth it." From his point of view, entrepreneurs have naturally begun to distinguish between those opportunities designed more for startups at a seed stage and those aimed at more mature projects. At the same time, he also thinks that many of the prizes created in recent years will start to disappear due to not having enough weight.
To do business or not to do business in Barcelona?
If there is one opinion that the three entrepreneurs share is that Barcelona is a hub with potential. "It is not the most prominent at the moment, Berlin or London probably have more startups, but the situation will continue to improve," argues Uriz.
For the CEO of ThingThing, one of the negative things about the Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem is its tendency to copy successful examples. "You only have to look at all the delivery companies fighting it out in Barcelona, it reminds me of the dotcom bubble," he says, adding that "the key is giving support and nourishing the most innovative and disruptive projects, and to leave the clones to fight it out by investing in marketing until only one is left standing."
Continuing with the list of what is left to be done to make the Catalan capital into a genuine hub, Plante points to the role of investors: "The investment is lower than in other markets. Too many startups are doing a lot on very little, which in the long run damages the entrepreneurial ecosystem." And from his list of things to improve comes a direct appeal to institutions and bureaucracy, in which the policy on work visas is an obstacle compared to in cities like Berlin, Paris or London. "We cannot accept a period of three months to take someone on who is from outside the European Union and normally the best talent is to be found outside the EU," he concludes.
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