Susana Fernández, General Director of Escoaching began her career in the world of startups in 2013, creating and leading her own brand. She was one of the first women in Spain under the age of forty to chair an investment fund.
Question: As an introduction, what would you highlight the most from your profile?
Answer: I started at Price Water House Coopers, where I was trained in technology. Later I assumed the leadership of the NGO Acción contra el Hambre. After this I decided to take the plunge as an entrepreneur and, for almost ten years now, I have been the general director of Escoaching. I have received recognition from the Government of Spain as one of the leading women in innovative entrepreneurship. In addition, the European Council also awarded me at the time. Even so, what I would highlight most about my profile is the creation, the empowerment of talent when it joins a purpose.
Q: Impulsa Ventures is an incubator aimed at startups incubated from the university. Have you had any experience in that area?
A: Yes, with incubators and support programs for entrepreneurship and the creation of startups. Now I am collaborating and developing an entire entrepreneurship program for the University of Cádiz. Also, I am part of the group of teachers and mentors of the Jaume I University. In addition, I have been collaborating with the Complutense University, the Rey Juan Carlos University, and with the Carlos III. The university environment I think is key. The University is a fundamental actor in the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Q: To a person who has just graduated from the University, what advice would she give before setting up a startup?
A: An idea is worth nothing, the team that is behind and pushing that idea is worth it. You have to pay close attention not only to what you want to do, what product or service or what you want to set up, but also how you want to do it and who you want to do it with. The how and the who are two questions that reflect the values ​​that the entrepreneur can and wants to transmit. Who you work with is also important, because it truly is an art to get the best team together, since they are the ones who support and promote your talent and also help you get through the worst of times.
Q: Seeing that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find work in Spain, especially for young people, do you think it is a mistake to start a business out of necessity?
A: Yes, I think it is a mistake to undertake out of necessity. I would reformulate it and say: do you think it is a mistake to undertake with a purpose? In my opinion, entrepreneurs, by identifying a very clear purpose, moves them, motivates them and drives them to generate their own business. What is an error is undertaking without being informed, without resorting to accelerators. I believe that entrepreneurship is complex and requires preparation.
Q: Before setting up a startup/company, do you do any prior validation? Do you have some kind of “checklist” to assess whether an idea is worth it?
A: I started to take some steps as an investor and business angel many years ago. For four years I chaired a group of investors, one of the things I learned and continue to use is a series of criteria, not only to assess the idea itself or the project that they put before us in technical terms, but also as an innovative project. In that checklist, we include a series of indicators about our profile, also as investors when it comes to supporting. In fact, a fundamental issue is people. And for me that saying has been a criterion to assess, not only the idea, but who wanted to make it possible.
Q: Another area of ​​activity for Impulsa Ventures is professional training. Have you had any experience in this area? Do you think it is a suitable space for the creation of startups?
A: Well, professional training seems fundamental to me. It seems to me that it is a space that is perhaps less explored. But I do believe that if there is something that the world of entrepreneurship and the creation of startups has, it is precisely a very agile, very practical, very little theoretical approach, and that requires a vision that is not only acquired at the university, but from other academic and educational environments.
Q: The incubation of startups with mixed teams from Spain and Latin America, with the support of university incubators, is another line of action for Impulsa Ventures. What do you think of international mixed teams of entrepreneurs?
A: Diversity is an important value, mixed groups include people who come from different regions, from different ecosystems, with different experiences, even different languages. It has been shown that teams with high diversity are more successful due to their ability and this will undoubtedly help to generate much more successful teams. I think we are in a world that is so connected, so international, that we have to take advantage of diversity to properly promote our talent.
Q: What experience have you had with startups in Latin America, or with Spanish startups in Latin American markets?
A: I have been a mentor, coach and also a trainer in both senses, both for startups and companies that were fundamentally in Latin America, especially in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Chile. Also the other way around, of Spanish startups that were taking a step towards expanding America. The experience I have had has been magnificent.
Q: There is a project to soon launch a call for startups on the Island of La Palma, an island shaken by the effects of the volcano, with a reality associated with nature, renewable energy or tourism. Have you ever had experience with startups in the Canary Islands?
A: Well, in relation to the Canary Islands, it seems to me an ecosystem that is gaining more and more power. I have been accompanying some entrepreneurs who, although they originated in the peninsula, have finally settled there. I am in love with La Palma, it seems to me a wonderful place where indeed, not as explored or visible in the entrepreneurial scene as other areas in the Canary Islands; but, nevertheless, with a brutal potential and also with a mentality of the perfect population itself.
Q: Do you think there is a tendency to invest in more and more early stage startups and how do you personally position yourself in these stages?
A: Honestly, I'm not so sure that this is the trend. I think that thanks to the situation we are experiencing (and of course as a result of the pandemic) the trend at the level of investment in startups is being more conservative, looking for certain ventures that can provide a track, that can already provide a certain positioning. Thus it is not full of as many risks as the initial phases are.
Q: What should a startup have achieved before starting to seek investment in an ideation or pre-SEED phase?
A: I think it is essential that an entrepreneurial team has been able to generate a group of stakeholders around them, who have managed to capture that idea and present it to potential clients. It may be that they have looked for mentors to accompany them along the way, that they have identified an accelerator (such as Impulsa Ventures to be able to accompany them throughout this entrepreneurial project). Also that they have been able to invest in their own idea
Q: Impulsa Ventures is working on the tokenization of startups in the ideation or very early stages. What experiences or perspective do you have on the tokenization of startups as a means of financing?
A: I think we are living a moment of revolution.
All this evolution and this trend has to pay special attention to specific training as a mechanism for an investor who needs to pay special attention to understanding what the tokenization of a startup entails and how to participate in it, in order to convert that tokenization in cash I believe that more and more spaces are going to appear that are going to provide more security to investors, it is going to be something that we are going to see grow in the coming years.
Q: What advice would you give to a person who wants to start investing in startups in very early stages?
A: I would give you two pieces of advice. The first, in early-stage investment, you have to be willing to take a high financial risk. And, on the other hand, we must remember what I said before, that an idea is worth nothing, what is worth are the people who make it possible. Do not get carried away, especially in these initial phases, by an idea that may be very attractive or close to the investor. You have to know that an entrepreneurship does not only imply having an idea. The success of an entrepreneur lies precisely in his or her flexibility and in his or her ability to understand that there is an ecosystem around that idea so that it really Maturity would be the advice that I would give to an investor, I am not saying in age , but really in conceiving your business with that seriousness to understand what it means to set up a serious business. You have to learn to look very well before investing.