Global Entrepreneurship Week Spain 2016

Entrepreneurs changing the world

The Rafael del Pino Foundation organised the meeting "Global Entrepreneurship Week Spain 2016. Entrepreneurs who change the world", on 14 November 2016, on the occasion of the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week in Spain.

In Europe, the importance of the growth and development of entrepreneurship is shared by most of the actors in the entrepreneurial activity (entrepreneurs, investors, companies, educational institutions, administration). While we experience a strong activity in the creation of new initiatives through the multiplication of accelerators, incubators, soft loans, crowdfunding, etc...) we do not observe a large number of companies growing at a global level, and therefore creating as much value as we would expect (jobs...).

The event was structured according to the following programme:

Welcome:
James CostosAmbassador of the United States

Debate among entrepreneurs: New models that change the world
Oscar Pierreco-founder of Glovo
Gerard Oliveco-founder of Wallapop
Francisco PoloDirector of Change.org Spain
Carlota Pi Amorósco-founder of HolaLuz.com

Closing:
Carlos BarrabésChairman of the Barrabés Group

Summary:

On 14 November, the launch event of Global Entrepreneurship Week Spain 2016 took place at the Rafael del Pino Foundation, under the slogan "Entrepreneurs who change the world". The focus of the event was the meeting between Carlota Pi Amorós, co-founder of HolaLuz.com; Gerard Olivé, co-founder of Wallapop; Óscar Pierre, co-founder of Glovo, and Francisco Polo, director of Change.org Spain. Carlota Pi explained that the idea of creating HolaLuz.com came from understanding that, in 15 years' time, no one will consider the option of owning a house without a self-system for producing light. What HaloLuz does is to connect the self-producers. The company started six years ago with three customers, the homes of the founders, and now has more than 80,000 throughout Spain. For Carlota Pi, the spirit of the company can be summed up in three points: people come first, which means surrounding oneself with a powerful team that wants to change the world; creating value from values, which allows them to grow at a double-digit rate every week thanks, in part, to the fact that their customers recommend HolaLuz to other autoproducers; and being true to oneself. He also indicated that the business needs a certain critical mass of around half a million customers, which they hope to reach by the end of 2019. What encouraged Óscar Pierre and his partners was to see how products move in a city. This gave rise to the idea of creating a company that would buy, pick up and ship the best products in the city and deliver them to the customer in a matter of minutes. They tried to ensure that no more than an hour would pass between ordering and delivery of the product. A year and a half after launching the company, they are in eight cities and have exceeded one million euros in monthly turnover. Their vision has always been that cities have to be more accessible to everyone. And, with this, they have created a new employment figure, the glover or person who makes the orders and takes them to people's homes. This is allowing many people to start earning an income, or to manage their income as they would like to. Gerard Olivé, who is behind projects such as Wallapop, FancyBox, ChicPlace and Mascoteros.com, commented that he is already present with his companies in ten countries, including the United States, and that every year he starts up one, two or three projects with an international vision. These projects have to have an impact and be scalable. Now he is also focusing more on social entrepreneurship because he considers it important that there should be different behaviours based on values. However, entrepreneurship, he said, is not so easy because there are many days when things do not go well. What makes him, as an entrepreneur, endure is that for him it makes personal sense to undertake, because he does things that he likes and that make sense for many people. What moved Francisco Polo was his desire to fight against as many injustices as he can, as he was a victim of bullying. His first fight was against the production of cluster bombs in Spain, which were banned. To do so, he started an online campaign on his blog in 2007 and managed to put an end to their production. From that experience he founded Actuable, which became the fastest growing petition platform in the world. This caught the attention of Change.org and the two companies merged. Today they have more than 150 million users worldwide. Their goal is to empower everyone to achieve the changes they want. According to their metrics, 50 million people have already achieved this.

The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for the comments, opinions or statements made by the people who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their sole responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference, written for the Rafael del Pino Foundation by Professor Emilio González, are the result of the debates held at the meeting held for this purpose at the Foundation and are the responsibility of the authors.

The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for any comments, opinions or statements made by third parties. In this respect, the FRP is not obliged to monitor the views expressed by such third parties who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their own responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference, written for the Rafael del Pino Foundation by Professor Emilio J. González, are the result of the discussions that took place during the conference organised for this purpose at the Foundation and are the sole responsibility of its authors.

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