My 10 years in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona foundation

It was early 2013 when I met a newly born Mobile World Capital Barcelona through friends and former colleagues who were already working there. I quickly clicked with the mission and vision of the foundation (which has lasted me more than 10 years and will last forever) thanks to my background in research, internet, technology, innovation, festivals and startups. I started to get closer to their activities through other providers and, for example, I helped conceptualize the Mobile World Centre space (with permanent exhibitions and activities of the foundation in Pla?a Catalunya in Barcelona).

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Then, the foundation offered me to be a speaker at an event they were planning for 2014, the first edition of the so-called 4YFN , where we also took the opportunity to pilot a product for events and spaces we had with the last startup I had co-founded. The pilot did not go as we expected, but we established a good relationship with the innovation area of the foundation. A few months later, they asked me if I could help them create and run a hackathon for Banco Sabadell .

That was my first project for MWCapital, and it went great: teams from all over Spain, viable fintech solutions, intensive testing of an open platform of the bank, media resonance and we positioned the foundation in the center of digital innovation in Spain.

The day after the hackathon, the innovation director (and later CEO) offered me to direct the contents and knowledge of 4YFN and I accepted, closing my previous stage as an entrepreneur/consultant.

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4YFN is history. I dedicated myself to create a very high-level conference, networking activities that made the community vibrate, generate a multitude of business opportunities, and a startup spirit within the foundation to be able to execute that project.

In the following 4 years we multiplied by 10 the number of attendees and organized 4YFNs in MWC Shanghai (2 times!) and MWC San Francisco, delegations in Tel Aviv (3 times!) and expanded to dozens of local vertical fairs. All with a team of 10 people and from Barcelona. And such was the success that our employer GSMA acquired 4YFN in 2018.

At this point, despite the offer from our GSMA friends to continue growing 4YFN in their organization, I decided to stay with MWCapital because, again, my life mission was aligned with that of the foundation.

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From there, I started to diversify projects and programs, participating in the beginnings of the Digital Future Society , organizing startup areas in more sectorial events at Fira Barcelona (and we were even asked by automatica in Munich to set up an industrial robotics startup area), supporting European projects across Europe, creating many relationships between national/international innovation ecosystems and helping hundreds (if not thousands) of startups.

We also created the Travel Innovation Hub with the Gremi d'Hotels de Barcelona , the first of several innovation hubs focused on tourism, trying to bring this traditional sector closer to startups and digital innovation. This program was closed just before the covid19 pandemic that showed that tourism needed transformation and digital innovation to be more resilient to changes in the sector.

Thanks to 4YFN and all these projects, MWCapital became one of the key players in the flourishing of Barcelona's digital ecosystem and startups in the past decade.

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In parallel to all this activity, in the brand new Pier01 hub, MWCapital created and developed mVenturesBcn . A team formed by friends and colleagues, who after a first few years of more diverse activities, focused on creating The Collider , the best tech transfer venture builder program for the creation of science-based companies in Spain. And I joined this program at the beginning of 2020, to provide all the contact and creation of innovation ecosystem, internationalization, and in recent years, business development and partnerships with corporations and organizations that have remained faithful giving financial support and participating in the program: corporations from various sectors such as Repsol, Naturgy, CEPSA, ENEL, Bayer, ACCIONA Energy, governments and public institutions such as the Basque Country's SPRI, European Innovation Council (EISMEA), EIT Manufacturing, research networks, etc.. MWCapital/The Collider has a magnificent impact on the tech-transfer sector in Spain and Europe, and it is a reference for tis methodology and operations.

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And finally, the last two special projects that I have recently led.

The first has been to support PUZZLE X? , which from 2021 to 2023 allowed Barcelona to have an inspirational conference of frontier technologies with a line-up of scientific and visionary speakers of the highest level, with Nobel laureates, best-selling authors, inventors and a scientific-technological community that lives in the future. MWCapital's role was essential for the event to take place in the city and connect with the entire local science and innovation ecosystem, in a unique opportunity to co-create with this community new projects and impact on the city.

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The second has been to get MWCapital to be the Spanish member of the DeepTech Alliance , a union of deeptech innovation ecosystems across Europe, where relationships and business opportunities are generated between startups, corporations and investors in "deep" sectors such as energy, industry and health. After several years in contact with the alliance and demonstrating the potential of Barcelona/Spain in deeptech, in 2022 we officially joined as members and just three weeks ago we brought other DeepTech Alliance members, corporations and startups from all over Europe to the city for an event.

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All these programs and projects have had an impact and have left a legacy in Barcelona/Catalonia/Spain. And it has been thanks to the teamwork of all of us who have shared the passion to carry the projects forward. We can be proud of that.

It would be impossible to mention everyone without forgetting someone, because there have been hundreds of employees and hundreds of collaborators, suppliers, partners, patrons who have contributed. Many of them are the legacy that remains with me for the next stages of my professional life. Thank you very much for having worked together.

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As you can see, in 10 years there is time for many things (and I have not mentioned everything so as not to make it longer). In addition to all this, in these 10 years I also had time to get married, buy an apartment, have 2 children and study an EMBA. That's also legacy ??

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See you around the ecosystem!