Startup Galicia is a non-profit association created to promote, energize, unify and improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Galicia. Its main objectives are to promote the connection between people and projects, give them the visibility they need and provide value through networking and events of various kinds.

What is StartUp Galicia and what are its objectives?

Startup Galicia is an association with the aim of making a great impact on the community through three fundamental axes:

The connection between people and projects to develop more activities between them and discover individual needs and tools to address them.

The visibility among people and startups of what is done in Galicia and what Startup Galicia does to promote all this. We want to get diffusion in the media, create links with other ecosystems, etc.

The value for the people who are members and for the partners who support our activity.

What activities do you carry out to dynamize the Galician entrepreneurial ecosystem?

The most important contribution we make is in the area of connection and visibility, using the newsletter, which more than 1,200 people receive every Monday, the Furancho chat, so that people can connect with other entrepreneurs through thematic channels and private messages, and events.

We organize three types of events that allow us to showcase existing activities and projects and also create a space for people to share with other people in the context of training, talks or just for the sake of it.

• The eSmorGas, which are meetings in a bar simply to get to know each other and share experiences, ideas, challenges, etc.
• AMAs (Ask me anything), talks with speakers with extensive experience in entrepreneurship, technology, etc. In which the attendees are the ones who choose the questions.
• The Fiadeiros, trainings given by people with a lot of experience in which they tell all their little tricks, their own learning, etc. In an environment of great confidence, without recording and with few attendees.

Every year we promote NosDay, one of the most important events on entrepreneurship that takes place in Galicia, with between 150 and 200 attendees, Galician, Spanish and foreign speakers of reference and a very 'riquiño' format.

What are the main challenges when transforming the idea into a business project?

1. Assemble a great team, well assembled, complementary and with a capacity to pursue a vision but be able to adapt it to reality (what the Anglo-Saxons call 'coachability').
2. Obtain a competitive advantage that can accelerate the project and face competitors.
3. Have the ability to balance technological innovation, generate the product and link it to the market and sales, approaching the 'Product Market Fit'.

There are more difficulties that also play a fundamental role, such as sources of financing or administration, but being strong in the three previous points makes the rest of the challenges more manageable.

Which areas currently generate more entrepreneurial vocations?

The technological field in terms of software development, artificial intelligence and big data generates a lot of vocation by accelerating the creation of different ways of adding value, reducing resources in processes or allowing the development of activities in a way that was not possible until now.

On the other hand, due to our background, location and previous development, the countryside and the sea offer many opportunities in Galicia, as well as biotechnology, which has a very strong track record and is becoming increasingly important in the community.

How do you value the new Startups Galicia Agenda launched by the Xunta? Why is it so important to promote the momentum of startups for the economic fabric of the Community?

The Startups Galicia Agenda contains many of the activities that can generate growth and strengthen the entrepreneurial community and we will be watching its implementation to measure its impact.

The business project format represented by the startup is not only a fashionable way of doing things, but a very interesting and potentially very profitable way to generate disruption and innovation at a faster speed than traditional companies can achieve.

A startup, in addition to generating exponential profit in relation to its cost, attracts talent, favors connection, increases the visibility of our region and brings in countless indirect revenues. Galicia has prestigious universities in fields in which to develop startups such as biotechnology, a strong business fabric in textile or automotive and much more talent than it seems. We have good ingredients to make a broth, but we have to cook it in the right way.

How has the entrepreneurial community evolved since the founding of Startup Galicia and what challenges does the association have for the future?

Startup Galicia was born in 2015 to unite entrepreneurs, support that growing community and demonstrate that things could be done in Galicia without having to go elsewhere. Now everything is different. The community changed a lot with the arrival of people from outside to work in Galicia, the democratization of teleworking or the higher density of people involved.

There are more spaces to interconnect the community and much more awareness on the part of the administration, with agencies involved, more investment and relevant state movements such as the Startups Law.

Much remains to be done, especially in terms of increasing the density of the community with the promotion of the entrepreneurial culture, generating renewal in the new generations, unifying the language and incentives between actors such as the university, the company and the administration and, in the case of the latter, a major evolution to further facilitate the processes of entrepreneurship.

The biggest challenge is not only to have economic support to develop our activities, but to go beyond, to be a reference for startups and entrepreneurs, to connect community, training, business and administration and to add as many hands as possible to generate the greatest possible impact.