After our first pirate trip to London in January, the second edition of the Pirates On A Plane (POAP) series brought us to Barcelona. We had two great days meeting startups and investors from the local startup ecosystem. Also – as the whole group stayed in two big AirBnB apartments – we had lots of opportunities to deepen the network between us Cologne and NRW entrepreneurs.
Day 1
The first day started with a visit at Telefonica’s incubator Wayra. And we were quite impressed. Wayra offers a great model for promising startups to get started with their ideas. Last year they had a total of over 3,000 applicants to the program (around 400 of those in Barcelona) and out of these 400 only 10 made it in. They are based in an impressive office (right at the beach with sea view from the 11th floor) with lots of benefits and networking opportunities. The list of benefits includes 40,000 EUR in cash (paid in two batches depending on the metrics), free office space, training, mentoring, and access to the big Telefonica network.
Really great accelerator model at Wayra (Telefonica). One of the most promising I have seen so far. #poap [pic]: 4sq.com/11eccRU
— Alexander Peiniger (@alexpeiniger) 7. Mai 2013
All the startups of the current batch pitched in front of us and we saw some great ideas in a very early stage.
All startups need to pitch in front of the guests. #runningpitch need to adapt this in cologne @startplatz #poap twitter.com/matthiasgraef/…
— Matthias Graef (@matthiasgraef) 7. Mai 2013
Our next stop brought us to API management startup 3Scale where the COO (Mark Cheshire) and the CMO (Guillaume Balas) explained their business model, their company history, and gave us insights into the Barcelona startup ecosystem. Interesting was that they tried to get funding in Europe but could not find a VC. Just shortly after, they closed a Series A round of 4.2 million USD with US VCs. Subsequently, we discussed with them the differences between the US and European venture capital scene. 3Scale is a really great startup and its very astonishing what they have achieved with their funding in the past compared to their competition.
After having lunch, we went on to Nauta Capital, one of the big VCs in Barcelona with offices in London and Boston. While run by Spaniards, 60% of their investments are outside of Spain. Still affected by the investor discussion with 3Scale before, we had a lively meeting, discussing a lot of aspects a typical VC faces. From mistakes entrepreneurs make to the biggest challenges and on to their take on the Series A crunch.
#poap Next meeting @nautacapital #greatview twitter.com/matthiasgraef/…
— Matthias Graef (@matthiasgraef) 7. Mai 2013
As the whole day was pretty intense we moved on to a more relaxed environment. In the bar and startup meeting place Gran Foc we met with Robin Wauters (European Editor of The Next Web). Later on a lot of people from the Barcelona startup and tech scene joined. Four hours later, we had made some great contacts and could spread the word about what we are up to in Cologne and NRW.
We had a – for German standards – late dinner with Tapas. Afterwards, most of the crew went on to enjoy Barcelona at night.
Day 2
With a slightly reduced group (roughly at a share that typical VCs take from startups) we started the second day with the Startup Bootcamp pitches – some good inspirations but it also showed that we don’t need to hide.
Starting the second day with Startup Bootcamp pitches with a slightly reduced crew ![😉]()
#poap (@ Media-TIC) [pic]: 4sq.com/17L3RUp
— Alexander Peiniger (@alexpeiniger) 8. Mai 2013
After everyone was back on board we went on to Barcelona Activa, which is an incubator style initiative by the council of Barcelona. It was already founded in 1986 with the goal to decrease the unemployment rate, which is still very high and far above what we have in Germany. Currently they have more than 50 startups in their incubator building which is nicely splitted into many different modules, giving the startups their privacy while still providing a very open atmosphere to foster networking and exchange. They don’t provide this for free, but the startups pay a subsidized rent starting at about 9 EUR per square meter including all the services, which are offered onsite and through online channels. Their offering goes far beyond the pure office space, as also training courses and other learning opportunities are offered in addition to access to a lot of different investors. We got a great introduction about how Barcelona developed over the last years and what drives their success. Here in Cologne we would really need similar backing by the public authorities to support the already evolving ecosystem.
Government officials from Cologne: Visit Barcelona Activa. It’s a good example for what governments can do for the startup ecosystem. #poap
— Manuel Koelman (@manuelkoelman) 8. Mai 2013
80% of incubated businesses are still in operation after 4 years employing 4 people in general. Still a huge investment to build this #poap
— Matthias Graef (@matthiasgraef) 8. Mai 2013
The last stop of our trip brought us to yuilop, a free-to-all realtime communicaton app, where we met German co-founder and CEO Jochen Doppelhammer. He lives in Barcelona for many years and gave us great insights about his impressions of the local startup ecosystem. The key points here were that Barcelonas startup scene is mainly divided into the international startups and the local ones, as the language barrier is still very high and lots of Spanish entrepreneurs don’t speak proper English. We also touched on the cost of talent, which seems to be a lot lower in Barcelona, but – just like pretty much everywhere – especially IT people are very hard to find.
In total we had two really great days to dive into Barcelona’s scene and could deepen the relationships and network within our group. Its amazing to see what spirit you can create within such a group of entrepreneurs.
Superb trip, great agenda, nice speakers, interesting people. Thanks to @manuelkoelman for setting this up! #poap
— Matthias Graef (@matthiasgraef) 8. Mai 2013
We want to especially thank Hermés, Ruth and Manuel for (again) organizing a great trip. We cannot wait to board the next plane.
Very nice #poap BCN trip. Thanks again @hpique @manuelkoelman and @ruthcremer for organizing. ARR! ow.ly/i/24jl1
— Lars Haßler (@LarsHassler) 8. Mai 2013
Check dawawas for the full photo album of the trip.
