Entrepreneur Ecosystem
During the morning visit to Barcelona Activa, we heard from a former entrepreneur that now works at the office. The speaker walked us through the wide range of services offered to the public for entrepreneurs. Services include general information sessions, one-to-one planning sessions, and resources such as office space and a UX lab for any startup. Barcelona Activa is funded completely by the public - a combination of money from the City Council and from the regional government. Their mission and goal is to foster startup growth that will create jobs for the citizens of Barcelona. Anyone, foreign or resident, can use their services as long as the company hires people from Barcelona. On the flip side, Barcelona Activa also prepares the workforce by providing computer classes that range from beginner to program coding for youth and middle age citizens. This is how the government of Barcelona is genuinely trying to lower the unemployment rate, and using taxpayer money as a direct benefit to them.
While hearing about the impressive resources Barcelona Activa makes available, I had an epiphany of the structure for the last three days.The first day, we heard from the academic side of how ESADE is providing services to entrepreneurs. The second day, we heard how Tech City is doing something similar as a privately funded association. Today, we saw how the publicly funded Barcelona Activa is helping propel entrepreneurs forward. This service ecosystem concentrated on entrepreneurship doesn't compete with each other at all. For example, a company currently in Barcelona Activa, TimTul, started in the ESADE EGarage. Tiendeo, who we heard speak yesterday, started out in Barcelona Activa and is now in Tech City. As the speaker today said, no one organization is looking to be the one and only provider of resources to entrepreneurs. Even in how all three market themselves, it’s not to take away from the work each organization is doing. ESADE has a prestigious and recognizable name as the top business school in Spain, Barcelona Activa has thirty years of history helping entrepreneurs grow, and even though Tech City is newer, it is credible thanks to the success of the founding members. The execution of providing services and mission of each organization may be slightly different, but they all work toward the same goal of helping entrepreneurs grow to help Barcelona grow.
The tour through Hutchison BEST - Port of Barcelona was a very different take on the services we’ve seen so far. The semi-automated systems of cargo loading and transportation is a very impressive sight. The port terminal works as a well oiled machine, which is why they have the highest move production in Europe, if not the world. Hutchison competes with another port terminal that lies on the other side of their operations. Hutchison’s competitive advantage comes from their ability to be semi-automatic, which leads manufacturers like Zara to choose shipping lines that have contract with Hutchison over their competition.
The final visit in the evening was to KIC Innoenergy, where their business model is completely different than we have seen up to this point. A private company, publicly funded by the European Union, Innoenergy is a for-profit organization without dividends. This means the companies that Innoenergy chooses to invest in must have a return through equity or revenue sharing. All the startups funded by Innoenergy are focused on aging a positive impact on the environment through renewable energy. As explained by a representative of the company, the reason that more than 150 eco-friendly startups apply to the Innoenergy Iberia is the access to the vast network of energy companies and personal coaching they receive, in addition to direct funding.
The ecosystem of Barcelona is definitely built to support entrepreneur growth and success to increase the quality of life for the entire city. I admire the collaboration throughout the organization’s of Barcelona that make so many resources readily available to its citizens, with absolutely no competition among them. Unfortunately, I think it’s unlikely that it could be replicated in New York due to a different cultural view on the survival of entrepreneurs.