NewCo: some of the leading startups in Barcelona

David Ayza Enero
October 30, 2017
Events
Startups

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NewCo 2017 in Barcelona

One more time, the 2017 NewCo event happened! It was such a wonderful time being surrounded by inspiring people and those interested in the industry, new ways of doing and just simple people who like to gather together and learn from each other.

Here at Apiumhub, our Marketing Department is very active and always keep themselves updated with the events and chances they have to sit-down and meet new people from the leading industry or companies with “start-up” type of philosophy.

Last Thursday, on October the 26th, we got the chance to visit some of the most inspiring leaders in Barcelona and Sant Cugat. Actually, they opened the door of their offices and headquarters and we got the chance to discuss some of the topics they presented us and listen to different ways of tackling problems and growing in the market. Throughout this “on paper” hour, in fact people were so into the talks and wanted to learn more and more, so most of the companies stretched their time to 2 or even 4 hours. We got the unique opportunity to listen to CEOs and executives describing their case studies and see how they develop their strategy inside the organisation and what decisions actually made them successful.

About NewCo

NewCo connects people with business on a mission through events, media, and unique partnership. Newco identifies, celebrates and blogs the engines of positive change in society.

The greatest feature about NewCo is that you get to choose which companies to visit, building your own agenda and avoiding those talks that are out of your interest area or simple not related to your business. That implies that the content and plug of the sessions can only get better and better!

Launched in San Francisco back in 2012, NewCo´s festival products encourage participants to “Get out to get in”. Throughout intimate, founder-led talks, NewCo event crates lasting engagement and strong connections.

About NewCo in Barcelona this year

Even though this year we visited less companies, the sessions were longer, more interactive and educative, the content keeps being just as rewarding.

1.Conector Startup Accelerator

Just as the name says, it is a startup accelerator with tech foundations specialised in digital projects ready to be launched.

We sat down with Sara Ylipoti – Director and Elisabeth Martinez – CEO along with more guys from there and they introduced us the company and the structure they have when working with entrepreneur´s ideas.

Lean software development & lean startup

They started by laying on the table the main difference between them (accelerator) and what other people tend to confuse them with (incubator). The goal of the company is to take an early idea and put it in a process where you can accelerate or speed up the process in order to became something tangible, with form and ready to be in the market. Incubator is used when a company has already a clear mission and vision of what the company needs and they help you to grow with it. For Accelerator, whereas Marketing department, Financial advice, Vision of the company… anything that your company might be lacking of, the guys from Accelerator – with the help from the Mentors – help you to improve it and bust your strategy. It must be said that the figure of the Mentor isn´t a religion or something that you MUST follow. Based on their previous experience and knowledge they recommend you or try to guide you through your journey. It must be said that, when you eliminate differences between companies (target, vision, what they do…) all companies must go through the same problems or issues in order to succeed in the market or industry (branding, position of your product, achieve a goal, target…)

Once they have selected you and assigned certain mentors for you, the process starts. Usually the acceleration time varies between 4 to 6 months. Being 5 the perfect spot for it, once they have help you create a strong foundation for your company, you are free and ready to face “the wild jungle” or what is usually known as The market. From that moment another stage in the company starts, that is when you start to build relationship with your audience, partners and your time to grow within the market takes place. It is up to you to take all those tools that were given to you, take advantage and increase your benefits.

In terms of Business model, the company gets the benefits from a % stablished by them and the entrepreneur, usually the mentors receives 1% and Accelerator a 10%.

Website: http://www.conector.com/

2. Cabify

Born in 2011 in Madrid, Cabify is a tech platform dedicated to efficient transport. Currently they are in Spain and South America, where the founder Juan de Antonio brings excellence and creates a new environment to the different types of transportation. In less than 1 year, they grew from 150 to +1000 employees.

We gathered together at their offices in Barcelona, right next to Glories and Oriol, the General Director there, spread his knowledge and vision within the company. One of the most educating dots discussed by him there was the emphasis that Cabify has on the customer experience. What makes Cabify different from other transport companies is that Cabify analysed their target and their market and gave theit customers what they wanted. And they achieve it with: Wifi in the car, Talking/or not with the driver, Water, Security…

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A simple structure of how the company works is:

Customer reaches to Cabify and Cabify has contracts with different partners or Transport supplier companies, whereas in terms of VTCs (license), Cars or Drivers.

Oriol divided the big picture of the company in 3 different aspects:

Vision, the goal of the company. Oriol made it clear that Cabify is a transport company and at this moment they are working with cars, but in the future they are opened to start introducing to their portfolio better Cars, Motorcycles and even Planes!
Product Market, knowing what the market wants. Basically what we discuss before, giving the people what they ask for.
Principies, HAVE FUN WORKING.

Website: https://cabify.com/en

3. Deliberry

Next stop in our Journey was Deliberry, online shopping company where the main value is that they do your shopping and ship it to you in 1h or less!

At Deliberry they introduced us the company and what they do. A person of Mama shopping goes to the market that you decide, selecting from the ones they already have contracts with, and does the shopping for you. After that a deliver goes and picks up the shopping bags and brings it to you in 1h or when you decide.

Currently Deliberry has agreements with the following Supermarkets: Caprabo, Mercadona, Superior, Did, Nespresso, Casa Ametlller, Escort Oliver, Veritas, La Sirena and many more.

What is good about Deliberry? You know who goes to which market and does your shopping list. Besides that mama shopping can call you at any time and check the list with you, recommend you products and customise your needs. Meaning, if you like better the old bananas or a certain type of strawberries, mama shopping gets it and brings it to you as it was you.

Currently they work in some areas of Barcelona and Madrid.

Website: https://www.deliberry.com/

4. HP

Friday was second and last day of the event. And what is a better place to finish it than the headquarters of HP, one of the best, if not the best, innovative company in Sant Cugat?

Our visit there was based on two parts, the introduction and presentation belonged to Alan Lobban, R&D director there in Sant Cugat.

He showed us the history behind all the innovative products they launched, what they are working on and what the future holds for the company.

Barcelona among leading startups hubs

In terms of Printing, there is a project they are working on that allows you to display the area where you want to post the pictures and insert the actual image or wallpaper. And in that order see what the room or wall would look like with the image on it.

In that order he explained us all the concepts behind the strategy of custom or unique printing that different cans or product have when using the HP technology, by setting a total of 24/25 different patterns, what the computer does is start playing and mixing them. The output is a big amount of different styles and colours forms that make your drink, suitcase, food envelope or any product different.

The second part of the day was run by Antoine Guyot, Business Development in the 3D printing side. And yes, he showed us some amazing features, applications and future steps that HP is working on within the 3D printing Market.

Some applications of the 3D printing are implemented in cars and planes. What 3D printing allows you to do is to have the same usability of a traditional tool plus the adding value of being much more lighter than the traditional one.

With the plane example a company could save millions of dollars, because of the less weight that the plane doesn’t´t have to carry, which means less gas.

Some of these applications with plains can be shift to F1 world. Imagine a car .5 kg lighter than the others. It probably doesn’t´t look much now, but if you give it the perspective deserved, that is a lot in the F1 championship. Where every single screw counts to develop speed.

Website: http://www8.hp.com/es/es/home.html

These are only a small number of the companies that participated in the 2017 NewCo event, unfortunately it is impossible to make it to all of them. Very excited with the new knowledge learned, networking made and looking forward for 2018 NewCo event!

Btw, if you are interested in knowing more about events in Barcelona, I highly recommend you to subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.