{"id":1854,"date":"2014-12-23T16:30:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T15:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/?p=1854"},"modified":"2015-01-14T15:47:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T14:47:44","slug":"startupxplore-interviews-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/startupxplore-interviews-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Startupxplore’s interviews: what investors, accelerators and policy makers told us in 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year comes to an end. 2014 was a great year for the European startup ecosystem and also for Startupxplore<\/strong>, as our platform was born right before the summer. Over the past few months we\u2019ve been working hard on building one of the biggest startup funding communities<\/a><\/strong> in the world, launching the first syndicate in Spain and publishing interesting content on our blog.<\/p>\n

Besides content aimed at startup founders and investors, we\u2019ve also published a dozen of interviews with key players in the European tech ecosystem. Investors, entrepreneurs and policy makers have shared with us their thoughts on the ecosystem and how it can evolve -and improve- over in the long run.<\/p>\n

To finish the year and highlight the most interesting interviews we\u2019ve done, we\u2019ve put together a set of quotes from our guests that are worth reading.<\/p>\n

Investors and policy makers<\/h2>\n

Carlos Espinal: Seedcamp and Venture Capital in Europe<\/h3>\n

\"startupxplore<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlos was the first person we interviewed on Startupxplore. We talked to him right before Seedcamp<\/a> announced the launch of a $30 million fund, but we still got to ask him a few questions about the transition of Seedcamp from an accelerator to an early-stage micro seed investment fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what he told us:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Seedcamp we focus on adapting what we do to support the needs of our founders. we are unlike many others accelerators in how we work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cSeedcamp’s focus is in enabling acceleration at any stage” <\/a><\/div>\n

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\u201cVenture Capital in Europe is also undergoing an evolution\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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I\u00f1aki Arrola: Vitamina K\u2019s investment thesis<\/h3>\n

\"i\u00f1aki<\/a><\/p>\n

Besides being an entrepreneur (coches.com<\/a>) and an angel investor (counting Startupxplore), I\u00f1aki<\/a> is also one of the co-founders of Vitamina K<\/a>, a VC firm based in Madrid that has been quite active in recent months. We sat down with I\u00f1aki to talk about Vitamina K\u2019s investment thesis and also the evolution of the Spanish startup ecosystem<\/a>. Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t invest our own money in traditional companies. It\u2019s not easy for us to give money to e-commerce startups\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cWe need to invest in people that will fight for our money as if it was theirs\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cSpain is never going to be as strong as Silicon Valley or Tel Aviv and this is not a problem\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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Ciaran O\u2019Leary: European focus from Germany<\/h3>\n

\"berlin<\/a><\/p>\n

Ciaran was one of the last people we interviewed on the blog in 2014. He\u2019s a partner at Berlin-based-but-European-focused VC firm Earlybird Venture Capital.<\/a> Ciaran offered a great analysis of Berlin\u2019s status<\/a> and the causes that have led the city to its current situation as one of the main tech hubs in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key to Berlin\u2019s success is the ability to attract and retain talented and driven people\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cBerlin is already attracting just as much venture capital as London\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat Berlin needs to get to the level of London or Tel Aviv is time\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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Aquilino Pe\u00f1a: fintech and the role of corporates<\/h3>\n

\"aquilino-pena-kibo-ventures\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aquilino Pe\u00f1a has been involved in the technology world for quite some time. Now, as the co-founder of Spanish VC firm Kibo Ventures<\/a>, he\u2019s become one of the most active investors in the country. To know what moves him -and the firm- and what they\u2019re looking for in startups<\/a> we sat down with\u00a0him in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost one third of our portfolio companies are based in the US. But every single company we invest in has a \u2018Spanish angle\u2019\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cBig Spanish companies are still very afraid of buying startups\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe broader banking business still needs to be disrupted and revolutionized\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jon Bradford: accelerating and investing<\/h3>\n

\"how<\/a><\/p>\n

As the Managing Director of Techstars London<\/a> and previously as an entrepreneur and investor, Jon has worked alongside tens of startups in the last decade. We wanted to talk to Jon to hear his thoughts on the European accelerator ecosystem<\/a> and here\u2019s what he told us:<\/p>\n

\u201cTechstars\u2019 core value is to \u201cgive first\u201d and be proactive in supporting entrepreneurs and clusters. There is no other accelerator network which operates as many programmes in as many cities and verticals on an annual basis\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cAn advice for entrepreneurs considering joining startups? Do more, faster\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt’s never too early or to late for #startups to apply to @Techstars\u201c<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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Isidro Laso: the role of legislators<\/h3>\n

\"isidro<\/a><\/p>\n

Policy makers also play a key role in the development of startup ecosystems. Isidro has\u00a0been working at the European Commission for 13 years and more recently he\u2019s been involved in various key initiatives coming out of Brussels. In our interview we talked to him about the role of governments and also corporates and multinationals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge for European startups at the moment is in selling startups to bigger companies and corporates; there also needs to be a change in mentality in the corporate and startup worlds to increase exits\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cIt’s important that most civil servants are aware of the needs of #startups\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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This is only the first chapter. Next week we\u2019ll share with you the best quotes from the entrepreneurs and journalists we interviewed in 2014. Stay tuned and…<\/p>\n

Sign up to Startupxplore!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year comes to an end. 2014 was a great year for the European startup ecosystem and also for Startupxplore, as our platform was born right before the summer. Over the past few months we\u2019ve been working hard on building one of the biggest startup funding communities in the world, launching the first syndicate in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[67],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1854"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}