One of my favourite films is Blade Runner. In this film, genetically engineered robots called “replicants” are so similar to human beings that they even have their own implanted memories. I felt fascinated by this idea and others similar in Blade Runner, like the unicorn dream. So when I heard about Hiyalife, a website where you can store your memories, I got immediately interested about it. Last week I heard that David Gómez, Hiyalife co-founder, came to my city to give a workshop for entrepreneurs. Therefore, I decided to attend the workshop and it really deserved applause. David told such good advice for start-ups entrepreneurs that I asked him for an interview to share with you. Continue Reading…
Archives For Startup Company
It is said that a startup has two options: raising funding or bootstrapping. Bootstrapping is in reference to the famous saying “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. Bootstrapping in business means starting a business with the very little capital that entrepreneurs have, managing their companies with a lot of creativity instead of money.
Nowadays, it is a pity that bootstrapping is not a choice for many entrepreneurs, but the only option they have, due to the difficulty to raise money. Continue Reading…

fff. Photo by Filipe Ferreira on Flickr used under a Creative Commons licence
A couple of years ago I attended a conference where I was struck by something that Honorio Ros, founder of the startup Laexperiencia.com, said, “being from a big family helped me as an entrepreneur”. He explained that thanks to his large extended family, he had convinced some of them to invest in his startup. He was sure that without the economic support from his family, he would not have been able to launch his startup.
The way Honorio received financing is known as the three F’s (or FFF), family, friends and fools. Continue Reading…
Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant, who arrived to China in the thirteenth century, was one of the first entrepreneurs who got venture capital. He convinced several wealthy Venetians to finance his commercial expedition to Asia. Marco Polo promised that he would share his profits of this risky venture with them. These funders were a kind of precursors of the current venture capital, which main characteristics I describe below in a simplified form: Continue Reading…
– It is a company that uses scientific and technological knowledge systematically and continuously to produce new goods or services with high added value.
– They mainly operate in top-level strategic sectors, such as microelectronics, biotechnology, medical device, nanotechnology, etc.
– They perform R & D in-house or in close cooperation with universities and research centers.
– Many start-ups are not technology-based companies.
– Similar terms: knowledge-based companies, new technology-based firms.
Some technology-based startups in my region, (Navarre, Spain) are: Bionanoplus, Orbital Aerospace, Lev2050, Recombina, Proinec, Pharmamodelling, Kunak, ….
Related posts:
- Why do we need technology-based companies?
- What is a startup?
- What is a Technology Startup?
- EIBT-Sudoe European project for the development of technology-based companies.
- Definition and evolution of the term technology-based company (in madrimasd.org Spanish blog)
A couple of years ago, when I started reading about “lean startup“, the entrepreneurship methodology by Eric Ries, I remembered a story from my school days that may serve to illustrate the basic features of this methodology.
When I was ten, Santa Claus never brought me my Scalextric car racing game, instead gave me a useful stapler. When we were in class and an assignment needed to be stapled, we used to ask the teacher to do it for us with his own stapler. So with my new gift, my classmate and I decided to make several small writing notebooks that would serve to help us remember our assignments. Continue Reading…

Photo by John Fischer on Flickr used under a Creative Commons licence
It is a methodology for the creation of enterprises developed by the entrepreneur and consultant Eric Ries in his book “The Lean Startup” published in 2011. It has been a huge success among entrepreneurs, especially among internet entrepreneurs.
This methodology is based on the idea that a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model under conditions of extreme uncertainty.
The main point is to build a minimum viable product with basic features that are supposed interest to customers and launch it quickly to test if the hypotheses are true or not. By this way entrepreneur can learn a lot about the business, his products and his customers. Then, the entrepreneur decides whether to persevere or “pivot”, correcting some of the hypotheses.
- If you want to understand better what lean startup is, you could read an anecdote from my school days in the post Mini-notebooks “JoJaJo”, my first lean startup.

Photo by Globomedia on Flickr used under a Creative Commons licence
These days are special for those of us who live in Pamplona. The city is transformed for nine days during the festival of San Fermin.
Humorously I can say that the skills needed to enjoy the Festival are similar to those that startups entrepreneurs require: Continue Reading…
I interviewed Pello Gamez, one of three Geoactio’s entrepreneurs, who I met when they first launched their company. I negotiated Start Up Capital Navarra’s investment in their company. Since then, I have been witness to the positives changes in Geoactio, thanks to these entrepreneurs’ efforts, sacrifices and capacity to adapt to the market. Geoactio’s story is a good example of the difficulties which a start-up faces its first years and how its entrepreneurs overcame them.
Startup: GEOACTIO, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain.
Activity: Software and mobile applications development. Smart city and mobility projects. Smart bluetooth. Continue Reading…