Month: July 2016

Fund

Parkimeter Closed €250.000 To Make Sure You Never Have To Look For A Parking Spot Again

Jul 17, 2016 by Itnig Startup Ecosystem 0 Comments , , , ,
Never look for a parking spot for your car again with Parkimeter.

The itnig startup Parkimeter recently closed a new seed round of €250.000 to consolidate their market leadership in Spain, and to develop their product.

Parkimeter’s technology lets you book and pay for parking, in most big Spanish cities, but also many smaller towns around the country.

This is the second seed round for the startup that plan to raise another bigger round by the beginning of next year.

The two co-founders of Parkimeter, Jordi Badal (CEO) and Ferran Gatius (COO).

The Barcelona-based company have established a presence in more than 80 locations in Spain and will reach 500 car parks by the end of 2016.

50.000 parked cars

The latest round of funding was led by local business angels and will let Parkimeter continue to expand their network of locations.

Since its launch back in July 2013, the startup have parked a total of 50.000 cars.

With your phone through their app you can easily choose where and what kind of parking you want, either by price, location or additional services.

It’s also convenient for corporate parking and for freelancers, as you every month can receive a single invoice with all parkings made and unbundled VAT.

According to the company, there is a lot to save on using the Parkimeter, instead of normal parking. In some cases you can save up to 50 percent using Parkimeter.

Parking changed by technology

Parkimeter serves customers in eight different languages. It’s mostly Spanish users right now, but they also have international drivers using the service.

The parking sector has remained traditional, and almost unaffected by the huge digital transition most industries has been adapting to the last decade.

One of the founders Jordi Badal thinks the sector will be drastically changed by technology over the next years:

“How parking has been changed through technology, is similar to how the travel sector was disrupted 15 years ago.”

Parkimeter is also developing a brand new app, to make the process of finding, reserving and paying for parking even easier.

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Startups

3 years at Quipu: my lessons

Jul 9, 2016 by Itnig Startup Ecosystem 0 Comments

Dog years

As someone said, startups years are just like dog years.
So, 3 years might feel to be 21: you definitely have to assimilate fast and time is precious if you want to test and validate ideas.

In 3 years we’ve been invested 2 times and we are preparing a new one.
We built a great product from scratch and it gets better every day!
We’ve found profitable targets and we are experiencing some exciting new ones!
We became relevant players and we built a blog that is already a reference.
We also failed many times but we’ve just learned to deal with it.

“Everyone can do business in Internet” — the biggest lie ever.

The only fact is that entrance barriers are very low, but in the end, like any business you need money. And if you really want to build something notorious, you need to do relevant stuff, and stuff consume resources.

“The more stuff you make, the more good stuff you’ll make.”

Every extra dollar allows you to grow. Return can be better or worst but the only truth is that with an extra dollar you will grow (at least) a little bit more. This seems something obvious, but is not.

Build your team

The most important thing is to build an A-Team.
I need people around, much better than me. Better in marketing, better in sales, better managers, more skilled. Assume fast is not just about dealing with daily issues, is to learn as fast as possible from fabulous people.

And this is not (just) about seniority. Is about filling the blanks in your company with some skills that someone in your team is able to deal with it better than no one else.

Oh, by the way, you have to build a C-Team as well!

Love (and manage) your team

Nowadays I definitely don’t DO anything: I just try to empower my team.
I tell people that I will do many things but at the end is the people of my team that make them happen.

I try to provide appropriate — both professional and emotional — conditions to allow my team work as better as possible given scarcity.

That’s why I spend most of the time looking for people that will make Quipu grow so as managing and motivating my current team. Making them proud and happy to work with us.

Focus, please.

Because everything goes so fast, you have to be aware all the time where to put the focus on.
Time is scarce and you should focus on the REAL important things. I must avoid the “task-dealing” job.

At the end is all about guessing where to put the focus on

Your role changes every month and you should understand it, and act consequently.
You must assume that although you start doing every task into the company and you end up stop doing none of them.

Balance your emotions

People asks me, which is the most complicated thing you face? And definitely the most complicated thing is to balance my emotions.

You will face joy and disappointment: enjoy it.

Sometimes you’re the dog; sometimes you’re the hydrant. Try to balance it and always go ahead, there are lot of opportunities to reach.

For the last 3 years I’ve dedicated my whole life to Quipu and although some times is too much frenetic is worryingly addictive.