That’s right: when I was offered the chance to give a talk at Salón Mi Empresa 2014 I didn’t want to take any chances, so I’ll be playing the best cards I have to hand.
Instead of going there to talk about “my book” Quiero ser emprendedor, manual práctico para Torpes (“I Want to Be an Entrepreneur: A Practical Manual for Dummies”), I’ve chosen a round-table format so that you can learn from the best.
We’ll be in the “Business Creation” room, under the title “I’m no dummy: I managed to set up my own business”, and we’ll get to know in depth the business experiences of three good friends who are successful entrepreneurs and business owners.
I’m holding a straight: Joker, King and Queen 😉
Joker – The youngest on the panel, with the least business experience but an intense one: David Mateo Sagasta. I met David in December 2012, when he was a finalist in the AJE Madrid Young Entrepreneur Awards in the business project category.
After working for 10 years as an insurance loss adjuster, he decided to strike out on his own and launch an app that significantly cuts costs for car insurers and improves their customer service. In less than a year his ATP Automotive project has become a limited company (S.L.) and managed to raise a significant amount of seed capital for its development and launch. He’ll tell us about every stage he’s been through in a very intense year.
King – A businessman I’ve admired ever since he launched Minube together with Pedro Jareño and other collaborators. The story of Raúl and Minube is one of steady, sure progress, always striving for excellence in their product and taking great care of their community of travellers and of their suppliers too.
Raúl Jiménez is a great leader, the ideal CEO, because he’s always there, alongside his team, accessible to the media and the best ambassador for his brand wherever he goes to give talks and conferences.
They can boast of having kept going for five years on sheer lung power, practically without raising investment rounds, and then, once the company was more than consolidated, teaming up with Intelectium to go for a round and raise 1 million euros in December 2013 from leading investors. That’s seven years of good work now, so we’ll hear about every stage their company has been through, which have certainly not been easy.
Queen – The queen of online business in Spain, I’d say without fear of being wrong: Elena Gómez del Pozuelo. Ever since the light bulb went on in hospital with “La cigüeña del bebé” (“The Baby’s Stork”), she hasn’t stopped launching new projects, mainly online ones, with a 100% success rate.
Elena’s good work and her desire to contribute to the entrepreneurial and business ecosystem have taken her to the presidency of Adigital and to the CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations), among other positions of responsibility. She invests in several projects, is a mentor, is active in the main professional business and internet forums and is a great champion of women in management positions. You can find out more about her in a post I dedicated to her. We’ll certainly have a lot to learn from Elena.
See you at Salón Mi Empresa, where as well as learning from the best you’ll be able to do some great networking: there’ll only be more than 15,000 people over two days. Are you going to miss it?
Get your ticket here with the code SME2014. See you there!
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