Josep Casas explains the impact of university education and vocational training on the success of startups

Josep Casas studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Catalonia, but eventually his path led to entrepreneurship and the startup sector. His business, an e-commerce called Naturitas, is dedicated to the online sale of dietary and herbal products, as well as food. The business has its market in more than 20 countries and invoices around 80 million euros per year. He also acts as a business angel in projects such as Incapto Coffe, a coffee delivery service, or Essentially, a Majorcan company dedicated to luxury travel.

Although he has never participated in a university startup, he is part of a company that is located in the TecnoCampus de Mataró, in Barcelona. He assures that it is an area in which you can find many dynamic people willing to work, a profile that startups need. They mainly want those who have been trained in new technologies or marketing. He even talks about developers and regrets that there are so few in Spain.

As this type of company grows at a much faster rate, it offers students the possibility of better training before starting their own project. He recognizes that it is better to get experience with “other people's money and risk”.

He does not consider that the labor situation in Spain is so difficult. He puts his own company as an example and affirms that in the new technology sector there is zero unemployment. He and his team accept profiles not only from technological-scientific fields, but also people from philology, philosophy and even humanists.

Of every 30 projects that are presented, he only manages to invest in one. He first makes sure that the founding team is varied, balanced, and has previous startup experience. He continues to verify that at least one of them knows about technology and development. Finally, the market must be sure that it is one with little competition and large.

Regarding professional training, he thinks the same as in university. He adds that you only study when you are young and that this cannot be the case. As he did, you have to recycle yourself and adapt to new terrain.

Some of them are mixed teams, which Casas sees as very viable “as long as it is something scalable.” He considers Spain as the gateway to Europe for Latin American businesses and vice versa. In addition, the presence of decentralized teams means that one team can handle the European market while another handles the American market.

Although he does not have experience in the Canary Islands as an entrepreneur or investor, he has seen a lot of interest in e-commerce. Since there is less competition, he sees it as an opportunity for part of a team to work remotely from the archipelago.

Josep Casas assures that the presence of means of transport that take and bring clients or entrepreneurs puts islands like La Palma in a good situation. He stresses that the important thing is who forms the team and who chooses a market with little competition, the location, whether in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​is of little importance.

He also assures that, since today more is invested in the initial phases, it is because the teams are better. As there is less risk in the investment, you get to risk more.

Regarding tokenization, Casas can only resort to his experience in an NFT Marketplace, since this system is relatively new. He warns that, like everything new, “there are things that work well and things that work badly”.

Finally, he advises that those who want to invest, do not do so with essential assets, only 10% or 15%. Setting up a startup is a long-term process, “also have patience”, since many changes take place, liquidity increases can take between seven and eight years.