Marc Cortés Ricart (Barcelona, 1974)

Digital Transformation & Growth Business Advisor and professor of Marketing in ESADE.

“I am passionate about trying to help people to think, to help them in their transformation process and to make them feel. Professionally, I help managers imagine, plan and manage exponential growth from the digital vector, both in their careers and for their companies”.

TB: Why your project?

MC: Decision-makers need to feel empowered and confident about their digital leadership capabilities. My obsession is to help them in this process.

TB: A good idea you have had.

MC: We must never lose the focus on people, over and above the focus on business.

TB: A bad professional experience.

MC: All my bad professional experiences have always been due to not knowing how to say no. Learning how to say no is a great lesson that takes a lot of effort to maintain.

TB: The best advice you’ve ever been given.

MC: That I must always trust in myself.

TB: An inspiration.

MC: The way my children look at the world.

TB: A startup.

MC: Giraffa Education, a startup aimed at developing the creative abilities of children between 0 and 6 years old, through a subscription-based product and service model.

TB: A book to recommend.

MC: “Moonshot Thinking” by Ivan Bofarull, a real inspiration to think, create and grow disruptive business models.

TB: A series, film or song that defines your moment in life.

MC: Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen. It defines the way I live, always moving forward.

TB: A recipe, a meal, a restaurant.

MC: My father’s macaroni always makes you feel at home, cared for and protected.

TB: A city, a journey.

MC: Running a 100km ultramarathon. It’s the best personal journey I’ve ever done.

TB: Where would you invest 100k?

MC: In any project linked to subscription models.

TB: What about one million euros?

MC: In making bigger the project where I invested that 100k.

TB: If you weren’t an entrepreneur…

MC: I would be in another project where digital is key -everything is now digital- to improve our environment and our planet.

TB: What is Tech Barcelona for you?

MC: A demonstration that ideas and dreams must be pursued. Someone thought that Barcelona deserved a meeting place linked to talent and a way of understanding how digital was going to transform the world and business. Together we are building it.

TB: ¿Why your project?

RB: At the founding moment there were many technological challenges in the world of antennas for new mobile phone systems and traditional companies did not offer sufficiently innovative solutions.

TB: A good idea that you’ve had.

RB: I don’t really believe in ideas. I would rather talk about decisions. And, with no doubt, the best decision I’ve ever made was to leave the Corporate world and to create Fractus.

TB: A bad professional experience

RB: I tend to make bad experiences positive. You always learn things. But, without any doubts, my worst experience was having Fractus on the brink of bankruptcy right after a 100% sale attempt to a big NASDAQ tech company.

TB: The best advice that you’ve ever been given

RB: That if you wanted to be an entrepreneur you should learn to combine moments of great action and quick decisions with long and tense waits.

TB: An inspiration

RB: The Silicon Valley world of the late 90s.

TB: A startup (other than yours)

RB: Ignion, the next revolution in the world of antennas.

TB: A book to recommend

RB: “The Global Paradox”, by John Naisbitt, although it is from 1994. A more current one, “Gracias por llegar tarde” by Thomas Friedman from 2016.

TB: A series or movie or song that defines your vital moment.

RB: I enjoyed the series called “Dark”, by Netflix.

TB: A recipe, a meal, a restaurant.

RB: I think that in the immediate future we will have to gradually approach vegan or vegetarian diets. As a novelty, Flax & Kale restaurant.

TB: A city, a trip.

RB: Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand.

TB: Where would you invest 100k?

RB: In Deep Tech.

TB:  And one million euros?

In Deep Tech too.

TB: If you weren’t in a digital project …

RB: I really like sports and nature. I am passionate about long distance triathlon, although surely I could not earn a living …

TB: What is Tech Barcelona for you?

RB: A great platform from Barcelona to the world and a benchmark for many who are starting their projects. I would have liked to have something similar in my city when I started.

Mar Masulli (Formosa, Argentina, 1976)

Soy cofundadora y CEO de BitMetrics. Licenciada en Administración de Empresas. Executive MBA por ESADE. MSc Data Analysis por la UOC. He trabajado para grandes corporaciones (IBM, BT y EY) y he fundado previamente dos empresas. Me interesan la tecnología, la sostenibilidad y la educación.

TB: ¿Por qué tu proyecto?

M.M: Buscamos democratizar el uso de la IA y la visión artificial en empresas de cualquier tamaño. No se puede perder de vista que, a nivel mundial, más del 98% de las empresas son PYMES que tienen los mismos desafíos que las grandes empresas.

TB: Una buena idea que has tenido.

M.M: Venirme a vivir a Barcelona.

TB: Una mala experiencia profesional.

M.M: Me molestan mucho las que implican falta de respeto: por ejemplo, la cancelación de una reunión cuando ya has llegado, justo antes de entrar.

TB: El mejor consejo que te han dado.

M.M: Focus, focus, focus.

TB: Una inspiración.

M.M: Mi hija, su curiosidad y su inocencia.

TB: Una startup (que no sea la tuya)

M.M: BlueBox.

TB: Un libro para recomendar.

M.M: Mafalda, no me canso de releerla.

TB: Una serie o película o canción que defina tu momento vital.

M.M: Todo cambia, en su versión interpretada por Mercedes Sosa.

TB: Una receta, una comida, un restaurante.

M.M: Un restaurante de mi barrio: el Petit Firo.

TB: Una ciudad, un viaje.

M.M: Un viaje en tren con mi familia. Disfrutando de cada momento.

TB: ¿Dónde invertirías 100k?

M.M: En Stage 2, para invertir en startups industriales.

TB: ¿Y un millón de euros?

M.M: En una empresa de deep tech.

TB: Si no estuvieras en un proyecto digital…

M.M: Estaría en un proyecto que contribuyera a mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas, un proyecto filantrópico.

TB: ¿Qué es para tí Tech Barcelona?

M.M: Para mí, es la referencia “del” y “al” ecosistema digital que impulsa Barcelona como capital digital en Europa y a nivel mundial.

Luis Martín Cabiedes (Madrid, 1960)

Investor in internet startups since the last century. He has more than 140 investments in internet startups (from Ole, Privalia, Trovit, Tiendeo, Indexa Capital, Cocunat or Laagam). He studied philosophy, master from IESE and Charter Financial Analyst. IESE professor and navigator.

TB: Why your project?

LMC: I started investing almost by chance from the family business, Europa Press, before we knew what a business angel was and there were VCs in Spain. I am an investor because I collided with the entrepreneurs from the media company. I never would have thought of it before.

TB: A good idea that you had.

LMC: Being an investor and not playing at entrepreneurship.

TB: A bad professional experience.

LMC: 80% of my investors fail, so I have bad experiences 80% of the time, and they are already a regular course of business. I live with failure.

TB: The best advice you have ever been given.

LMC: Never listen to advice.

TB: An inspiration.

LMC: The sea.

TB: A startup.

LMC: Inditex.

TB: A book to recommend.

LMC: Impossible, I would recommend 600! But at least: Thinking fast and slow (Daniel Kahneman) and Fooled by Randomness (N.N. Taleb)

TB: A series or movie or song that defines your vital moment.

LMC: An opera: Ariadne auf naxos.

TB: A recipe, a meal, a restaurant.

LMC: I am the antifoodie, the same as antifashion. But I invest in fashion and food.

TB: A city, a trip.

LMC: In love with Barcelona, ​​but wherever there is sea.

TB: Where would you invest 100k?

LMC: In self-education.

TB: And a million euros?

LMC: In Indexa.

TB: If you weren’t an investor…

LMC: I would have liked to be an athlete, like everyone else, and dedicate myself to professional sailing.

TB: What is Tech Barcelona for you?

LMC: Represents the people who are my world, my community.

Elena Rico i Vilar (Puigcerdà, 1976). Managing partner IMPACT PARTNERS

Telecommunications Engineer and MBA from the Universidad de la Salle.  She was director of operations at Caixa Capital Risc, and was the driving force behind the creation of People and Planet Partners to finance and support companies that use technology to solve one of the social and/or environmental problems defined in the SDGs. And now managing partner of IMPACT Partners. She is also an advisor to Mutua de Propietarios and an independent expert for the European Commission; married and mother of a 13 year old boy and a 10 year old girl.

TB: Why your project?

ER: It makes no sense to look at the world only for financial returns, we must do our bit for society. My best way of doing this every day: Impact investing.

TB: A good idea you have had.

ER: No super ideas at the moment, but it’s never too late.

TB: A bad professional experience.

ER: Not having had the opportunity to work abroad.

TB: The best advice you’ve ever been given.

ER: More than advice, a harsh but very true sentence I saw in an article: “people don’t usually get what they deserve, but what they know how to negotiate”.

TB: An inspiration.

ER: The entrepreneurs. I learn from them every day.

TB: A startup.

ER: I couldn’t decide on just one.

TB: A book to recommend.

ER: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

TB: A series or film or song that defines your moment in life.

ER: Stronger (What doesn’t kill you), by Kelly Clarkson

TB: A recipe, a meal, a restaurant.

ER: A pizza, Friday night, watching a movie with the family.

TB: A city, a journey.

ER: Sri Lanka

TB: Where would you invest 100k?

ER: In the company that I hope my children will create in the future.

TB: And a million euros?

ER: In a social or environmental impact fund.

TB: If you weren’t in an investment fund…

ER: In a startup where they develop a Tech4Good product.

TB: What is Tech Barcelona for you?

ER: One of the initiatives that truly implements the concept of “think global, act local”.

Barcelona, 1972. I work at Methinks, a startup founded in 2016 that uses software to analyse head CT scans of stroke patients to help doctors decide on treatment in time during the emergency. I studied industrial engineering at UPC and an MBA at IESE, and I’ve been programming since my father brought an Apple PC home in 1982. Methinks is my second company; the previous one, Coordina, which tracked vehicles with GPS, was acquired by TomTom in 2013. I like to work without being too sure that things will work out, in a close-knit group, trying to overcome difficulties without losing my sense of humour.

I was born in Geneva, 1983. I am the son of Spanish immigrants in Switzerland and became an adult in Montreal in Canada. Co-founder and Co-CEO of Talent.com, a job search platform. Progressing in padel and very ‘culé’.

XAVIER BERNEDA (Sant Boi de Llobregat, 1971). Owner and CEO of Munich

His grandfather opened a shoe factory in 1939 that specialised in football, handball and boxing shoes. In the 1960s, they innovated with the Munich brand and the emblematic X. Three decades later, faced with strong Asian competition, Xavier Berneda made a strategic turnaround in the family firm, betting on fashion and succeeding in Italy, the most difficult market. Today, Munich is a company that manufactures more than 1.2 million trainers and sells in more than 30 countries. Berneda is gaining the upper hand on the saying that the first generation creates the company, the second one enjoys it and the third one makes it disappear…

TECH BARCELONA: Why your project?

XAVIER BERNEDA: Because it is a life and family project. We have to show that the third generation can also do it well.

TB: A good idea you have had.

XB: We have had many. Creating the fashion department, betting on online when nobody was doing it yet and creating the DUUO brand that allows us to have fun and brings us a lot to the company.

TB: A bad professional experience

XB: Distribution contracts. People who are supposed to talk about the brand for you and don’t give it enough importance.

TB: The best advice you’ve ever been given

XB: My grandfather used to give me a lot of them. I’ll stick with: Where there is no profit nearby, there is loss.

TB: An inspiration

XB: The one given to me by a friend from the Golden Ticket company who is not having a very good time with the concerts. He told me that we are in a sweet moment for sneakers and that I shouldn’t miss the opportunity.

TB: A startup (other than your own)

XB: I have always been a big fan of Privalia. They managed to treat us not as suppliers but as customers.

TB: A book to recommend

XB: L’encàrrec by Xavier Melero.

TB: A series or film or song that defines your moment in life.

XB: Succession. I see a lot of similarities between the grandfather and the CEO. I don’t see anything in common with the children, but it amuses me and makes me laugh a lot.

TB: A recipe, a meal, a restaurant.

XB: Restaurants where you can talk, where there is no noise, where you are well looked after and where they offer market cuisine. The other day, for example, I went with my daughter to Arturo restaurant in Sants and we enjoyed a good lobina together.

TB: A city, a journey.

XB: Any Asian city. I like to socialise with the people and find out how they live and how they value the way we live.

TB: Where would you invest 100k?

XB: In Munich.

TB: And a million euros?

XB: In Munich as well.

TB: If you were not an entrepreneur…

XB: I would be a firefighter. To be in contact with nature, to give service to people in need. When I see a firefighter I want to hug him.

TB: What is Tech Barcelona for you?

XB: The opportunity to meet and share experiences, share work in order to grow much faster and ask the administration for opportunities so that we can do more things and be the engine of the online economy and tech to the world from Barcelona.

Sara Werner, CEO and co-founder of Cocunat

Huesca, 1978. I am CEO and co-founder with Ignasi Faus of Cocunat, the leading Spanish digital native brand in natural and toxic free cosmetics. I united my entrepreneurial DNA, my concern for toxic-free cosmetics and my passion for new technologies and since then my mission is to achieve a better, more sustainable and safer world for people, animals and the planet through cosmetics.

TECH BARCELONA: Why your project?