A couple weeks ago we launched @JovenesFuturo as a way to connect with people in Spain interested in tech entrepreneurship, of which we know there are many.  Indeed, we plan on giving updates on the current selection process for internships in Silicon Valley as well.

Why Twitter? Apart from the obvious reasons things work on social media, the JCF program itself has an interesting story to tell that we believe all of Spain should be aware of: Spanish technical talent is just as good as anywhere else.  Indeed, we have said it before.  We hope to remind you a tweet at a time, while sharing pieces of news, advice, updates on the JCF program and other job opportunities that we are made aware of.

In short, we want to not just FOLLOW SPAIN but to share Spain’s success stories and do what we can to help promote new ones.

Here are some tweet highlights for and about tech profiles from these last couple days:

• More validation of Spanish tech talent – a la conquista de Silicon Valley - http://bit.ly/AEoEk7 by @ferrenet
• Must read – “Hello Future Engineers” – big company vs small company jobs http://t.co/6vwGUTXk by @andycroll
• What programming languages should a modern-day programmer know? – Answer from Quora http://t.co/cdhcq3dm
• If programming languages were cars, what would they look like? http://t.co/jKkHYvsT

Got a story to tell? Please share it, you can now find us at @JovenesFuturo.

Kintxo Cortés (@kintxocortes) es responsable de marketing de StepOneVentures. También dedica parte de su tiempo como consultor en procesos de asesoramiento a startups.

Desde que llegué hace unos meses no han dejado de pasar por StepOne infinidad de emprendedores, por lo que he tenido la suerte de escuchar presentaciones de más de un centenar de proyectos. Desde siempre me ha llamado la atención el tono desde el cual los responsables del proyecto hacen gala de los atributos de sus ideas y productos, desde los que no revelan cosas por miedo a que alguien les robe la idea del “próximo Facebook” (ridículo), pasando por los que se molestan cuando le descubres alguna debilidad (sorprendente), hasta los que no reconocen ni su talento ni la magnitud de su proyecto mostrando un producto “que podría ser interesante para alguna gran empresa” (poco ambicioso).

Y es que es muy importante saber cuál es el tono adecuado con el que dar a conocer un proyecto. No saber cuando la confianza en uno mismo y el proyecto se convierten en arrogancia o cuando la excesiva humildad en desconfianza para el resto, pueden retrasar el desarrollo de tu proyecto e incluso comprometerlo seriamente. No, no creo en metodologías milagro a la hora presentar un proyecto, pero creo que hay una serie de principios importantes de no perder de vista.

1) Aparca la arrogancia. Tu background profesional podría hacer derretirse al responsable de cualquier departamento de recursos humanos, pero créeme, si tu proyecto no es interesante eso no le importa a nadie. Durante este tiempo he conocido a gente sin apenas formación con proyectos muy interesantes y a “ex-gurus” de las mejores firmas de gestión con proyectos sin ningún futuro. 

2) Conoce bien cuál es el estado de tu negocio. Sé consciente de que aunque tu startup puede haber identificado un claro gap en el mercado, sigues siendo eso, una startup. La idea puede ser buena pero todo depende de la ejecución, está casi todo por demostrar todavía.

3) Escucha las críticas y dedícales tiempo. Sé agradecido con todas las críticas hacia tu proyecto y considéralas, después apunta las más interesantes y revísalas con todo el equipo. Las opiniones y consejos externos son un tesoro que pueden mejorar mucho tu negocio.

4) Si crees en tu idea defiéndela Tal y como Quevedo escribía “Apocarse es virtud, poder y humildad; dejarse apocar es vileza y delito”. Si no eres capaz de defenderte de opiniones contrarias y visiones diferentes estás perdido y transmitirás poca confianza en tu proyecto. Eso sí, hazlo siempre con mucha clase y educación.

5) Estudia bien cuáles son las debilidades de tu proyecto, reconócelas y plantea una solución. Reconocerlas es básico , pero no saber dar una respuesta que demuestre interés en remediarla te puede dejar en la estacada.

6) No infravalores tu negocio. Si de verdad crees en él, que se note en tu discurso y en la ambición de tu estrategia. Si de verdad no crees en tu proyecto lo mejor es que sepas detenerte a tiempo y valorar si necesitas pivotar la empresa o empezar con una cosa nueva. Un CEO dispuesto a modificar su proyecto es un CEO con más posibilidades de triunfar.

Pedro Jareño es responsable de comunicación y marketing de minube (@minube), startup española que ha sido seleccionada por Apple como la mejor aplicación de 2011 para Iphone en nuestro país.  Es el premio a muchos años de sacrificio invertido al muchas toneladas de esfuerzo y a una apuesta ambiciosa. ¿Quién dijo que en España no hay talento suficiente?

Nadie dijo que sería fácil. Pero todo está por hacer y todo es posible. Quizá estas frases resumen un poco nuestra filosofía y quizá estas frases deberían de estar presentes en todos aquellos emprendedores españoles que tengan claroque quieren cambiar el mundo, aunque sea un poquito.

Esa última expresión, que suelo utilizar mucho, es, seguramente, una de las primeras (de millones) cosas que aprendí de Raúl Jiménez, CEO de minube. Pero es básica para entender lo que es minube hoy y lo que ha sido desde su nacimiento.

Nacimos en noviembre de 2007 con el objetivo de revolucionar el sector de los viajes. Ambicioso, sí. Pero posible. ¿Por qué no? Somos emprendedores, jóvenes, apasionados y con ganas de hacerlo. Tenemos a nuestro alcance más oportunidades que ninguna otra generación ha tenido jamás gracias a las nuevas tecnologías y a Internet. Y poco a poco vamos aportando nuestro granito de arena.

Sabemos que aún no hemos hecho nada. El camino es largo y tortuoso. Es difícil. Pero, al menos, estamos intentando aportar nuestra ilusión y trabajo para conseguir transformar un sector que, además, ha sido el motor de la economía en nuestro país. Esto es posible y hay que perder el miedo a intentarlo. O a fracasar. Los fracasos son el comienzo de las grandes victorias. Son el mejor aprendizaje posible para los emprendedores.

Cuatro años después de nuestro nacimiento, seguimos siendo los mismos que éramos entonces. Bueno, somos más. Que eso es muy bonito. Hoy, 26 personas en nuestra oficina hacen posible salir adelante cada día un proyecto como el nuestro. Pero seguimos siendo los mismos. Con más experiencia, con más ganas y, sobre todo, con la misma pasión. Esa pasión que mueve montañas y que nos motiva cada día a seguir luchando por aquello en lo que creemos, por aquello con lo que soñamos.

Y es el equipo nuestro principal valor. Nuestra principal fuerza. Nada más importante para los emprendedores que contar con el mejor equipo posible. Equipo capaz de seguir innovando día a día con ideas locas y trabajo infinito. Equipo motivado y honesto, siempre dispuesto a generar nuevas herramientas de valor para los viajeros. El valor. La diferenciación.

Los viajeros. Si el equipo es nuestra principal fuerza, los viajeros son la sangre de nuestras venas.
Al principio, minube, quizá, era una buena idea. Hoy es un buen servicio. Y lo es gracias a los cientos de miles de viajeros que comparten sus experiencias. Viajeros apasionados que disfrutan tanto estando en un destino como contándolo después. Viajeros a los que hay que escuchar, agradecer y dar cariño. Por hacer lo que hacen y por cómo lo hacen. Viajeros que hoy conforman una comunidad maravillosa y que son capaces de venir en masa a la quedada de viajeros de Fitur (más de 1.000 personas así lo hicieron) para demostrar que la gente es mucho más maravillosa de lo que generalmente uno se imagina.

Y los amigos. Sin amigos no estaríamos hoy aquí. Sin la gente que, altruistamente, ha creído en nosotros durante todos estos años. Sin la gente que hoy, aún, siguen creyendo en nosotros y apostando por cada una de nuestras nuevas locuras. Gracias a todos ellos por estar ahí. minube es vuestro.

Los últimos meses han sido muy emocionantes. Demasiado. Momentos como la quedada, como la presentación que hicimos en el Thyssen ante 200 personas (amigos, viajeros, emprendedores, clientes…) o como cuando la empresa más importante del mundo (Apple) decide nombrarnos la mejor aplicación para iPhone del año son esas cosas que te dejan claro una cosa: ok; no será fácil. Nadie lo dijo. Pero todo está por hacer y todo es posible.

One of the best sessions we received was related to the top lies that entrepreneurs say when pitching in front of Business Angels and Venture Capital. This one is courtesy of Bill Reichert from Garage Venture Capital. Don´t make the same mistakes!!

1. My financial projections are conservative. We have X and Y potential new business lines that could add double growth
2. The market is $100B. Its not! if not you haven´t segmented well enough
3. We have a world class team. Everyone does!
4. My sales cycle is only 45 days. Most likely your first sales will be much much longer….
5. We have no direct competition
6. No one else can do what we do
7. We only need 2% of the market to be huge. VCs are looking for those that one the other 98%
8. We are cash flow positive
9. We will sign X and Y contract with this large client
10. I would be happy to hand over the reigns of being CEO

So good luck with your next chance to present!

The fifth annual Crunchies Awards, which recognize the most important technological innovations in the past year, has become one of  the most important tech events in the world. In this edition, all the entrepreneur world would look to meet at the impressive Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco to enjoy the gala, hosted by Harris Wittels.

Wittels, known for his Twitter handle @Humblebrag, made a hilarious introduction showing – in the enormous stage screen – tweets of famous tech stars complaining about how exhausting and hard being a tech personality was. Later in his speech, he performed a conversation with Siri, Apple’s voice recognition device, asking her “What’s the difference between Siri and Larry Page?”  and Siri’s answer made all the audience burst into laughter “Siri has a personality.”

After that, San Francisco’s Mayor, Ed Lee, took the word in order to encourage all present to fight against SOPA and to promote his tech jobs initiative for the City. Angel investor Ron Conway submitted Lee’s words and remembered the importance of “good guys can win” concept, which for him represents the Silicon Valley environment.

The show started controversially when Google+ was announced as the winner for best social application of 2011, defeating Facebook’s Timeline, the New New Twitter, Path and Instagram. Those who were there expressed mixed feelings about Google+ winning, but Google’s social chief Vic Gundotra posted his happiness on his G+ profile.

Further than that, the rest of the awards went more or less as expected, DropBox the absolute winner of the night as Best Overall Startup of 2011 (the company bought a lot of tickets for their employees and they yelled – a lot,  every time Dropbox was announced as a nominee or as the winners). Special mention should also be made of the award recognizing Pinterest as Best New Startup, Peixe Urbano within the Best International Startup category (“Groupon for Brazil”)  and Nest as the Best New Device, taking over iPad as the winner of the previous edition and beating important rivals as Galaxy Nexus, iPad 2, iPhone 4S and the Kindle Fire.

Twitter and Square’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, got on stage twice last night, once to receive the Biggest Social Impact award (Twitter) and again being recognized as Founder of the year. Reid Hoffman won on the Angel of the Year category and the VC of the Year went to Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz.

The ceremony had a distinct international flavor with attendances from all over the globe. The Spanish start-up Bitcarrier (represented by Cristina Galan and Martin Mendez) was mentioned during the ceremony as part of the IBM SmartCamp contest they’re attending here in San Francisco. On the Spanish side, StepOne was there along with Miguel Angel Diez Ferreira (Red Karaoke), Eneko Knorr (Ideateca), Fernando Gracia (BBVA)  and Jose Luis Agell (ChartBoost) among others. Our participants in Jovenes con Futuro Ignacio Soto and Pol Miro were there too.  Here are their impressions on the Crunchies Awards:

“The night was full of glamour, and surrounded by a really geeky sense of humor. We could see how companies like Google no longer have such a good reputation as they used to, and others like Path or DropBox, who had their entire team seating right behind us, were really supported by the whole audience every time they were named. After all the awards were given we had a chance to meet everybody and have a drink, and I was even able to play poker (see pic below) against other programmers! In summary sharing one night around a lot of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs was a nice and inspiring experience.” – Ignacio Soto.

“Being able to have the exposure to some of the top talent in the tech industry has provided me with a renewed motivation and ambition to achieve my own goals. The ceremony was super entertaining, and the talks of the awarded winners diverse, inspiring and very interesting. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed that Github did not win the award for the best bootstrapped start-up. I really think they deserved it! As an overall of the event, I have to say that it made me realize why San Francisco is the top tech city in the world. All the people in the event, including the mayor, who made a nice talk, are all orientated in the same direction and I am happy to be a part of this community.” – Pol Miro.

Following the ceremony, winners and guests ran into the after party. TechCrunch arranged for a casino game zone, different theme photo-calls, hors d’oeuvres and a full bar opened till the end of the party!.

Who knows what 2012 will bring to Silicon Valley, but from StepOne we expect a Spanish start-up wins a Crunchie because “The best victories are the ones you have to fight for the hardest.” (Eric Eldon, TechCrunch writer).

Alexander Osterwalder, author of the best selling book Business Model Generation held a talk this month at Stanford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders. In this presentation, “Cracking the Code of Entrepreneurship”,  he gave a basic introduction to the philosophy behind his popular business model canvas and how he developed it. Osterwalder, who travels around the world speaking about the topic, found that everyone has a different definition of what “business model” really means. Words are not enough.

Osterwalder believes that “prototyping is the conversation that you have with your ideas”.  To do so,  it is important to utilize a visual model to sketch out and gain a big picture understanding. The business model canvas gives us a shared visual language to talk about business models. You can download a free copy here.

In this talk, participants had the chance to practice mapping out the business model canvas of Nespresso. From this exercise one is able to see how all the pieces of the Nespresso coffee business fits together and can actually see the relationships play out. Osterwalder recommends trying this exercise not only for your own business, but for other successful businesses to see and understand how their models work and function.

Among the things we are happy to introduce is a partnership with Fundación Rafael del Pino, a non profit organization committed to fostering future Spanish leaders.  Jóvenes con Futuro will now become a stronger vehicle for the advancement of entrepreneurship and Fundación Rafael del Pino is determined to bring many more synergies and possibilities to the program, opening up new opportunities for promising talent.  Stay tuned as we build new forums, alumni programs and look into conferences and events in the months to come.

In light of these new developments and feedback from last year, we are also pleased to announce that all internships will be paid while on the job in Silicon Valley or in the San Francisco Bay Area.  You can thank Pol, Alberto, Saul, and Ignacio from last year´s program; who demonstrated an excellent technical knowledge and work ethic throughout their experience and continue to prove that Spanish talent is as good as anything in Silicon Valley.  Indeed, talented people deserve to be recognized and we hope that paid internships will open up more bandwidth for Spanish programmers this year.   For more info on how it will work, please see the FAQ.

To give these developments room for this cycle, we´ve responded by extending the application deadline to Monday, March 19th.  In the coming month we will continue to visit a number of universities, meet with computer science students, talk a bit about the typical programmer in Silicon Valley and answer any questions you may have regarding Jóvenes con Futuro.  Here´s where we will be in the coming weeks:

• ICAI – February 8
• Universidad Autónoma de Madrid - February 15
• Universidad Carlos III – February 29
• Universidad Rey Juan Carlos – March 1
• Others pending

Also, we´ve opened up a new Twitter profile, @JovenesFuturo, for the program.  We´ll be updating this with program developments, job opportunities for candidates, and news and info on entrepreneurs and we invite you to be among our first followers as we enter into the next phase of this program´s development.

David Fogel (@fogeldavid) is an Israeli national and a Venture Lab Fellow with the accelerator program at Instituto de Empresa Business School. After working with startups here in Spain over the last year, he provides some perspective and advice on how to improve entrepreneurship in Spain, while making the contrast with Israel.

If you could build your startup anywhere in the world, where would the best place be to increase the likelihood of success?

Common answers include Silicon Valley, New York and London. However, not far from the Iberian Peninsula, there is a place that leads in entrepreneurship, innovation and venture capital. A place that is a leading example of a successful entrepreneur ecosystem. Few people in Spain know that Israel is a leader in the startup scene. Many great products used every day including the USB flash drive, ICQ Messenger and the technology behind Microsoft Kinect were born in Israel. As an Israeli living in Spain and working with startups for the past 16 months, I was asked to provide some input on what Spanish entrepreneurs can learn from their Israelis counterparts.

Over the past year we have been hearing about entrepreneurship as one of the best ways to help the economy recover. Spanish entrepreneurs such as Miguel Arias, Alex Barrera and Iñaki Arrola have suggested ways for the government to help foster the ecosystem. The government providing support infrastructure is necessary but it is not sufficient.

Entrepreneurs need to do their part. They need to build a lot of startups. Successful start-ups, will come, but first you need to have a lot of entrepreneurs that feel comfortable with failure.

Failing means learning -

In Israel, during a good year, only 50 startups get seed funding. After another 18 months, approximately 80% of these startups are closed. Within two years, 99% of the startups fail. Yet every year 800 new startups are created.

Failing is the best opportunity to analyze yourself, your decisions and to make sure you understand what went wrong, so not to repeat it the next time. Was your team the right one? Was your market big enough? Was your product the best solution for the problem? Make sure you understand why you failed, and you will have a better chance to be the next big Spanish startup.

To be the next great success, you need to dream big and think global -

Israel only has 7.5 million citizens, for an Israeli startup to succeed; Israelis are not the target market. Israeli entrepreneurs have to think global from day one. In Spain an entrepreneur usually looks at his region. Unfortunately very few startups in Spain are planning to target the US or European markets. Let me be clear; you do not have to launch your initial version in the US. However, when you set your vision, think of your global users not just your Spanish ones. If you found a good solution for a big problem then people in the U.K and U.S and even China will use your product.

Make sure you do it in English -

Spain and Israel are very similar; both countries have an amazing heritage that they want to preserve and language is a very important part of it, but when you are in startup universe you need to speak their language, and no matter if you launch your product in Hebrew or Spanish the official language in the startup universe is English. In Israel there are more than 25 early stage VCs and all of them have Israelis partners that speak Hebrew fluently, yet you will never see a presentation or hear a pitch in Hebrew. If you think global from day one, you understand that after raising funds in Israel you will need to go and raise funds in other countries and find strategic partners all over the globe, so you have to build everything in English from the start.

So in Summary

1. Fail and learn from it
2. Think global from day one
3. Do it in English

I hope I managed to give you some insights about Israel. If you are interested in better understanding the Israeli startup ecosystem I recommend reading a book called “startup Nation”. Feel free to reach out to me at @fogeldavid

The Mad Video is one of the first companies joining “american adventure” at the  Spain Tech Center in Silicon Valley. The Mad Video, a spin off of MadPixel, is an online tool for tagging and adding rich content to any object displayed in your video in an easy, fast and intuitive way. CEO Koldo García (@koldogb) landed a couple of months ago and will now develop his product for the international market leveraging his presenece in San Francisco.

He was kind enough to sit down and tell us a bit about why he decided to move to Silicon Valley, the cultural implications of doing business there, and his expectations on the future of The MadVideo. Find the video above.

Last year was an intense one for the tech industry: IPOs, mergers and new products. 2012 seems like it is going to follow suit with acquisitions, stock market turbulence and a focus on mobile development. The increasing number of smartphone users is going to set the stage for a handful of trends for this year, not only with apps but also with updates such as geolocation implemented on mobile devices. Check out our 2012 trends forecast to see what’s going to be hot these upcoming months!

1. Netflix, Hulu and the cable

The materialization and evolution of on-demand video services like Netflix and Hulu is making cable companies review their business model. Therefore, Google and Apple are working with major TV channels to provide their shows not only via streaming platforms, but on smartphones and tablet devices. These subscription services are increasing the user demand for more content everyday: it’s easier to use, find and select your choice wherever and whenever you want, something cable is not able to do. Because of this, 2012 is going to be a interesting year to watch how Netflix expands through Europe and how the Internet titans develop their partnerships with media companies, phone companies and cable providers!

2. IPOs

All signs point to 2012 as the year of Facebook’s IPO. Mark Zuckerberg has said that Facebook will release its financials to the public in April to comply with regulatory rules. Aside from the Palo Alto giant, there are others in line to go public as well. Yelp (already filed a $100 million IPO), Tumblr ( latest deal valued around $100 million) and Dropbox (who raised more than $257 million from diverse venture capitals as Sequoia Capital).

“The surge in activity and relative strength in the number and diversification of industries in the IPO pipeline are early signs of a healthier IPO market in 2012,” according to a new report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Let’s see how IPO’s deal with the markets this year!

3. P2P Markets

Peer-to-peer marketplaces are hot in the start-up space this year reporting remarkable growth and unleashing a wave of disruptive innovation. These markets are connecting consumers online, reinventing market behavior and bringing “sharing” to a scale never before possible. The peer-to-peer movement is changing not just what we consume, but how we consume it. Last year was Airbnb’s breakout year, and we think 2012 will be huge for Rentalic, Getaround, Soundcloud and Lendingclub.

4. Startups to look out for in 2012

- Zaarly (e-commerce)

- Level up (mobile payment)

- Dwolla (mobile payment)

- Eventbrite (events)

- Boutiika (e-commerce)

- BranchOut (professional networking)

- HotPad (housing search)

- NextDoor (hyper local networking)

5. Coworking Spaces

Coworking spaces are an old friend of entrepreneurs here in the States, and Europe is no stranger to that model. Nowadays, specially since the economic crisis began, these co-working spaces have become an affordable way to launch your company and not be burdened by high office expenses along the way. Europe is leaping on this wave, and the co-working trend will be growing in popularity in 2012 in the Old Continent. If you’re wondering where can you find co-working space in Europe, don’t worry, check out the listing here.

6. Location Enabled Apps integration + Social Integration

2011 has seen a lot of location and social integration in the mobile app sphere. Many apps such as Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, Yelp and others allow you to share where you are with your social networks. GPS-based services were once reserved  for navigation purposes. 2012 will be the year where we find more and more location integration blending into everyday life.

7. E-Commerce Becomes More Local

E-commerce will shift towards bringing local businesses on or back on the map in 2012. We are seeing people utilizing e-commerce to re-discover their neighborhoods and locally made products. John Doerr’s concept of “SoLoMo”, social, local and mobile will pave the path and dramatically grow this year. Some San Francisco start-ups on the rise exemplifying this trend are Boutiika, a boutique shop discovery app, and Nextdoor for hyperlocal networking.

8. Tablets & Ultrabooks

2012 will be the year where tablets become more commonplace. We will see a surge in competition for the Ipad, and many lower priced competitive tablets will appear on the market. Also taking off this year are ultrabooks, which are slimmer more powerful laptops similar to the Macbook Air. We recently saw the unveiling of Dell’s XPS 13, Lenovo’s IdeaPad U310, U410, HP’s Envy 14 Spectre, Samsung’s series 9, Asus UX31, Intel’s gesture-controlled ultrabook and others at CES 2012.

9. Car Usership not Ownership

In KPMG’s annual survey of executives from the global automotive industry, results showed that “the world is moving from car ownership to car usership.” We have seen this from Zipcar, Relayride and other companies promoting car rentals. However, this year we will begin to see more intelligent services and new players in hybrid and electric car-makers.

10. Big Tech Firms Expanding

This year we can expect large tech companies to continue to branch out and try to develop other products and services outside of their core. We saw Google purchase Motorola Mobility and roll out Google+, Amazon launched a tablet computer, and other companies were involved in acquisitions and partnerships this year. People have their eyes on Apple’s next move into television and Facebook’s next moves for 2012.