{"id":2045,"date":"2015-03-05T10:51:26","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T09:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/?p=2045"},"modified":"2015-10-05T11:56:43","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T09:56:43","slug":"startcaps-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/startcaps-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: Ignacio Vilela talks about Startcaps Ventures, a SF-based microVC with Spanish origins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Ignacio Vilela is the founding partner of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/investors\/starcaps-ventures\" target=\"_blank\">Startcaps Ventures<\/a><\/strong>, a Spanish Venture Capital firm based in San Francisco that invests in technology-based companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The company has just had its first exit (<a href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/startups\/authy\" target=\"_blank\">Authy<\/a>) and we thought it was the right time to catch up with them to talk about their story, investment thesis and why they&#8217;re focused on Silicon Valley and not in Spain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">For those who don\u2019t know you, who is Ignacio Vilela and what\u2019s Startcaps Ventures?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.startcaps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Startcaps Ventures<\/a> is a spanish microVC which invests in the most promising early stage companies in Silicon Valley.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"embedly-card\" data-card-type=\"article\"  href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/investors\/starcaps-ventures\">Startcaps Ventures<\/a> <script async src=\"\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/platform.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I am a MSc engineer who started working on innovative energy projects and in 2011 I decided to mix my main two professional passions, technology and investment, and start a venture fund with my closest friends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">What\u2019s the investment thesis behind Startcaps Ventures? What kind of startups are you interested in?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I usually say that I am interested in companies with products I like from a user or a customer perspective. It\u2019s basic for me to understand the core of the companies in which we invest. That\u2019s what takes my attention at a first stage, but after that I apply the most common tech Venture Capital criteria partly adapted for Startcaps. They are basically:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Huge market<\/strong>: we rarely invest in companies not working in existing $1bn markets<\/li>\n<li><strong>Team<\/strong>: always balanced and experienced, I need to feel they will be able to drive the company to success<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scalable technologies<\/strong>: this is the basics of internet investment, one unique development allows to scale and tackle both 10 people or a 1 milllion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Traction<\/strong>: companies have to have revenue and recurring customers. We invest in real companies with real business, monetization is essential.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Lately the sectors I am more interested in are machine learning\/predictive analytics, NLP and Business Inteligence on AI. But I also keep on looking for opportunities in VR, IoT, education and sharing economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ignacio-vilela-startcaps.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-2049\" src=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ignacio-vilela-startcaps.jpg\" alt=\"startcaps ventures\" width=\"368\" height=\"368\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">If I\u2019m not mistaken, you\u2019re very interested in fields such as robotics, IA, virtual reality, etc. Have you found interesting teams and startups in those fields in Spain?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the AI space I would mention\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/startups\/sentisis\" target=\"_blank\">Sentisis<\/a>, which works on a proprietary NLP technology that as you know is based in AI. It\u2019s amazing how the tool accuracy has improved in the last two years running on AI algorithms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/startups\/vrelia\" target=\"_blank\">Vrelia<\/a> is a really interesting company in VR hardware based in Spain and achieving excellent results with much less resources that other US competitors. I&#8217;d recommend people to try out their glasses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"embedly-card\" data-card-type=\"article\" data-card-image=\"0\"  href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/startups\/sentisis\">Sentisis<\/a> <script async src=\"\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/platform.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script> <a class=\"embedly-card\" data-card-type=\"article\" data-card-image=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/startups\/vrelia\">Vrelia<\/a> <script async src=\"\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/platform.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s hard to find a US-based VC firm with Spanish LPs. Did you ever consider founding Startcaps in Spain?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Honestly, in the US I have found the perfect place to invest, particularly in Silicon Valley, where talent, capital, potential customers, partners and thousands of early adopters are located in a relatively small region. From my perspective, I think it makes a lot of sense to offer\u00a0spanish LPs access to the best deals in San Francisco. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One of my goals, but more from a social commitment view than pure business, is to help the best Spanish companies come to the US and ease the landing providing contacts and support. But that just makes sense if you only do it for the top startups. If not, your reputation could be questioned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">What\u2019s your opinion on the evolution of the Spanish startup ecosystem? What do you think are its main assets and liabilities?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I love the recent evolution of the Spanish ecosystem and I think it will improve with time. Exits are helping to create a second generation of seasoned entrepreneurs and liquidity for investors, the cycle feeds back. I still miss two main things:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Connection between private companies and universities<\/strong>: I think that private corporations should guide educational institutions in their research activities and provide financial support. Thus it will be easier to get successful spin offs since they will be market oriented and solving problems for real corporations that will be glad to pay for their services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Acquisitions from private companies<\/strong>: if huge corporations would understand that at the end buying a company with an extraordinaire technology is cheaper than trying to develop it in house, it would result in more exits and consequently it would boost the entire ecosystem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"half right last\"><p>\u201cIn Spain, exits are helping to create a second generation of seasoned entrepreneurs and liquidity for investors\u201d <cite>Ignacio Vilela<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The main advantages are clear: super accesible public funding to start a company, existing talented and qualified engineers (In SF you compete with Google or Facebook to hire the best engineers so recruiting is extremely difficult) and costs; you can get a good engineer in Spain for $40,000 while you\u2019ll have to pay 3 times more in SF.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Based on your experience both as a founder and investor, what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs that might be starting their own companies?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Build a business, because starting a company is not a game and it implies huge commitments; so before launching a company, make sure that you are solving a real problem and find potential customers willing to pay for your services. I love win\/win models where companies get income from the cost they save for their customers based on \u00a0new technology. Those are my favorites, and that\u2019s the reason for being focused now on predictive analytics companies form all around the globe.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Want to meet Startcaps Ventures\u00a0and many other investors?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"btn\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/register\">Sign up to Startupxplore!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ignacio Vilela is the founding partner of Startcaps Ventures, a Spanish Venture Capital firm based in San Francisco that invests in technology-based companies. The company has just had its first exit (Authy) and we thought it was the right time to catch up with them to talk about their story, investment thesis and why they&#8217;re [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,51],"tags":[67,110,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045"}],"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=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2412,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions\/2412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupxplore.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}