itnig exclusive: Talking with Olapic founder Pau Sabria after the $130 mill acquistion

Startups

itnig exclusive: Talking with Olapic founder Pau Sabria after the $130 mill acquistion

Aug 15, 2016 by Itnig Startup Ecosystem 0 Comments , , , ,
Pau Sabria from Barcelona co-founded Olapic which recently was sold to Monotype.

A couple of weeks ago Olapic was acquired by Monotype for $130 million.

For those of you that don’t know Olapic, is a startup that helps brands promote themselves with user-generated photos. Even though it’s not a registered Spanish company, the founders; Pau Sabria, Jose de Cabo and Luis Sanz, are all Spanish.

We sat down for a chat with Pau, which was quite relieved after the acquisition was final.

My co-founders and I are very excited about the next chapter for Olapic. It has been an amazing six years for us. At one point early on, we had a make-it-or-break-it moment, so to have come this far is quite satisfying.

Looking back, the three founders could not have chosen a better time to launch a user-generated photos startup.

We launched before Instagram even existed, so we really did not know what was in store for us. We were looking for a way to share photos after attending to a friend’s wedding. Fast-forward six years and we have shifted the way global marketing organizations are interacting with consumers and are influencing hundred of millions of transactions.

Not done with Olapic

None of the three founders are leaving Olapic after the acquistion.

We’re all staying on board to continue to build out the Olapic platform and to affect change in the marketing industry with the use of consumer-generated imagery. We are entering a new era of more authenticity in marketing and look forward to the next few years.

The three Olapic co-founders (From right to left) — Luis Sanz, Jose de Cabo, Pau Sabria.

He explains that there has been many sleepless nights, long days, endless travel and tough choices in the last years, and expects more of the same in the years to come as well.

An entrepreneur’s work is never done!

In total Olapic has raised around $21 million in funding since launching.

Apart from working day and night with Olapic, Pau recently got engaged, and will spend a fair amount of time planning the wedding.

Keeping an eye on Spain

Olapic is based out of New York, but Pau is always keeping an eye open for Spanish startups.

It’s always interesting to see how the business environment is growing and evolving in Spain. My family is still there and all of my siblings are also entrepreneurs, it’s in our family blood, so I do like to know what’s happening.

He thinks the biggest difference between Spain and the US is the rapid pace.

Being based in New York, I can say there is an intensity and a deep drive to create new things at a rapid pace. As Spaniards with a broader worldview, being based here allowed us to expand rapidly into Europe and build a global business.

Pau is confident that Monotype will develop Olapic and help the company to expand even further in the future.

Monotype will be able to expose Olapic to creative agencies, creative directors and designers who are increasingly looking at how to include user-generated content as part of the design mix.

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(Written by Sindre Hopland)

Entrepreneurship

On commitment

Aug 14, 2016 by Bernat Farrero 0 Comments

View of the Mallorca island early in the morning, after long hours of night sailing

The other day a friend was arguing why he would never accept money from an investor to start a company. That would make him responsible and he would feel stressed by having to report to that future shareholder, specially when things go south. He was better off being “free”, doing always “what he really wants” and “not having to answer to anyone” for his actions.

Unfortunately, that is a generally spread idea that prevents even greater initiatives from developing all the time. To me that is the fear of commitment.

We humans work better collaborating together, sharing and compensating strengths and weaknesses. In order to do so, we build relationships based on trust, honesty and respect. That has always been the relationship I tried to build with my shareholders. I’ve shared with them the opportunities and also the uncertainties and the risk. Those who wanted and properly understood them, have decided to join me, compromise some money and bet for the best.

However,

  • I’ve never given up my freedom for that. It is quite the opposite, in many regards thanks to my shareholders, I can do exactly what I want and enjoy the most.
  • I never promised results, instead I made a plan and promised to fight for it with all my effort and heart, and I’m still doing so.
  • I never said I would always be working on a project, I formally signed for 24 months every time. If I keep doing the same thing it is because it keeps thrilling me, and it keeps being my greatest opportunity all things considered.
  • When things don’t go as planned, I’ve been straight and shared it with my partners, along with my new ideas and actions to undertake. It is nothing any of us didn’t know it could happen.

Thus, I keep committing all the time and love to do so. I commit with my employees, my shareholders, my clients, my suppliers, … but also with my girlfriend, my family and friends. What’s so wrong about committing? Commitments are not a burden, but the tangible consequence of our own decisions.

Beyond our words, it is our commitment and our consequent action what truly defines who we are and how we will be remembered.

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.

Startups

Interview with Luke Miller, CEO @ Hitch

May 31, 2016 by Itnig Startup Ecosystem 0 Comments , ,

We had the opportunity to talk to Luke Miller, CEO @Hitch, a company that recently raised 700K€ to keep helping companies grow and manage APIs.

He explained to us what Hitch does, their target market, their take on the API market future, how they expect to massively acquire customers, how they convinced their VC to invest in Hitch, why they chose Connect Ventures, their plan to stay in Barcelona and wrapped the interview with some final thoughts.