Posts Tagged ‘Entrepreneurship#8217;

Here it is! The community travel guide made for IE Alumni and their friends; the idea came to Joseph Freiha during his International MBA in 2009. How great would it be to have a travel guide where IE Alumni would share their favorite addresses and tips in their home countries or the places they have visited;

When travelling, we do not need lots of addresses; we just need a few good ones shared by friends. FriendsChoices.com includes the traditional travel guide information on Restaurants, Hotels, Clubs, Attractions…; It also brought innovative and exclusive functionalities, making it one of the most complete and collaborative travel guides on the market. Only members can post their recommendations.

Of course, all IE Alumni are invited to join the community!

Go ahead and register! Use your IE email at www.FriendsChoices.com/IE

¡Aquí está! La guía de viajes comunitaria hecha para Antiguos Alumnos del IE y sus amigos; la idea surgió de José Freiha durante su año en International MBA en 2009. ¡Sería estupendo tener una guía de viajes donde  los Antiguos Alumnos del IE pudiesen compartir sus direcciones favoritas y  aportar consejos acerca de sus países de origen o de los lugares que han visitado;

Cuando viajamos, no necesitamos un montón de direcciones, sólo necesitamos unas pocas pero buenas y compartidas con amigos. FriendsChoices.com incluye no sólo la información tradicional de viajes sobre restaurantes, hoteles, clubes, atracciones,… sino que también muestra funcionalidades innovadoras y exclusivas, por lo que es una de las guías de viaje más completas y  colaborativas del mercado. Solamente los usuarios pueden publicar sus recomendaciones.

Por supuesto, todos los Antiguos Alumnos del IE están invitados a unirse a la comunidad!

Seguid adelante y registraros! Utiliza el correo electrónico de IE en www.FriendsChoices.com/IE

IMBA/MIAFDual Degree Alumno Moritz Heck

Are you tired of the mess in your wallet overfilled with loyalty cards and coupons? – The free Stocard app collects all loyalty cards on your smartphone and is now available on the Spanish app store. Providing users with personalized offers and coupons, Stocard creates a unique communication channel, through which offline retailers can reach young mobile customers. Moritz Heck has joint Stocard after completing his dual degree at IE Business School last December. He is convinced that the Stocard app has the potential to change the offline shopping experience. Working as CFO & Head of Business Development he can put the entrepreneurial knowledge into practice, which he acquired during his MBA and Master in Finance at IE Business School.

The Stocard app has already replaced about four million plastic loyalty cards for more than one million users in several countries. Now it also puts Spanish customers’ wallets on a diet. Stocard currently ranks 1^st in the Spanish app store – just a few days after its launch. “Smartphones are the future. They can completely replace all loyalty cards with the free Stocard app for iPhone and Android”, says David Handlos, CEO and founder of Stocard.

Stocard is very easy to use: Simply scan your loyalty card with your smartphone’s camera. The app then creates a digital version of the card on your phone. Stocard already supports 100 default loyalty cards – from Club Vips, over El Corte Ingles to Shell Clubsmart. If a rare card is not on the list, you can type in the store’s name by hand and easily add the desired card. Whenever you want to use your loyalty card, just show your phone with the digital copy and receive discounts and rewards, just as you would with the plastic card.

In May Moritz will be able to put his IE experience into action, when he will pitch Stocard at the biannual IE Venture Days in Madrid. Stocard has been announced as one of the ten finalists presenting in front of VCs from across the globe. This will be an excellent opportunity to find potential international partners for Stocard’s future expansion in Europe and beyond.

There are many posts on this blog and everywhere on the Internet talking about making dreams a reality. Some of them started as a hobby that you put a lot of passion into, and that you decided to make it a “real” job. That’s the case of Joaquin Grech Gomendio, IMBA alum of 2010 and founder of his own mobile applications company, Echoboom Apps.

Since 2007, Joaquin started to program mobile apps; the first one was a Financial Calculator that has been top 10 in the Apple financial apps, and later on, as he was pursuing the IMBA he started to develop Dogfight, a multiplayer flight simulator that has reached more than 3 million downloads.  

“With Dogfight we explored a niche for flight simulator lovers, and with time we realized our supporters wanted more: a historical component behind the airplanes, the missions, and the fun. That’s why we decided to plunge into the next- level adventure: Dogfight Elite an educational game that begins in the World War I, and continues through the World War II”, says Joaquin, that is looking for funding for this new project on Kickstarter.  

Dogfight Elite

What makes Dogfight Elite appealing is that each one of the missions will be based on an historical fact, and it will allow you to play their historic missions. We also found it important that Dogfight Elite could be played in multiple platforms.  You will be able to fly your plane from a desktop computer or a mobile device, including Windows Phone, Android and iOS. Everyone will be able to play it from the sofa or on the go!

Kickstarter is a worldwide known crowdfunding platform that able startups   to pre-sale their products (such as in this example, Dogfight Elite) with different kinds of perks. The list of perks by Dogfight Elite starts with an “early backer” version of the game, and goes to the Marketing Guru perk, where any legal business or organization could have a landmark of their own that is permanently in the game, seen by every player. So far, they have raised more than $5,000 and the most backed reward in the one that gives access to an Alpha version of the game, something that will make the Dogfight Elite creation process an engaging and fun.

We will certainly keep you posted of the developments of this crowdfunded – crowsourced online project.

Good luck Joaquin and Echoboom Apps!

En este blog hemos publicado muchas entradas sobre MBA que se han decidido a hacer realidad sus sueños tras el programa en el IE. Algunos de ellos han comenzado cultivando una afición, que fue convirtiéndose en mucho más, hasta que decidieron hacerla “un trabajo de verdad”. Este es el caso de Joaquin Grech Gomendio, antiguo alumno del IMBA 2010 y fundador de la empresa desarrolladora de aplicaciones móviles Echoboom Apps.

Desde 2007 Joaquin comenzó a programar aplicaciones móviles. La primera fue una Calculadora Financiera que ha estado en el top 10 de las aplicaciones financieras de Apple.  Más tarde, mientras cursaba el IMBA en el IE empezó a desarrollar Dogfight (combate aéreo en inglés), un simulador de vuelo de la Primera Guerra Mundial que ha alcanzado más de 3 millones de descargas.

Dogfight Elite

“Con Dogfight hemos podido explorar un nicho de amantes de los simuladores de vuelo, y con el tiempo nuestros seguidores nos han pedido que exista un componente histórico detrás de los aviones y las misiones. Fue a partir de esa inspiración que decidimos poner nuestro esfuerzo en una aventura mucho mayor: Dogfight Elite un juego online educativo que empieza en la Primera Guerra Mundial y continua en la Segunda Guerra Mundial”- menciona Joaquin que están buscando financiación a través de Kickstarter. Cada misión se basa en hechos históricos, y estará disponible para jugar en múltiples plataformas: desde el PC o desde un dispositivo móvil.  

Kickstarter es una plataforma mundialmente conocida de crowdfunding que permite hacer una preventa de un producto a cambio de financiación. En este caso, Dogfight Elite ofrece diferentes beneficios para cada tipo de colaborador. La lista de premios llega a incluir a las empresas que quieran inmortalizar su marca en el terreno de juego, con lo que llaman la recompensa del “Marketing Guru”. Hasta ahora la recompensa más codiciada es la que da acceso a una versión Alpha del juego, lo que hará del proceso de producción de Dogfight Elite una experiencia inolvidable. Hasta ahora han recibido más de $5000 en apoyo y la campaña dura hasta el 4 de mayo.

Ciertamente estaremos muy pendientes de este proyecto basado en el crowdfunding – crowsourcing, que estará disponible a finales de año.

 Desde aquí deseamos buena suerte a Joaquin y a Echoboom Apps en sus proyectos!

Check out the video below to see how entrepreneurship can change your life by taking new ideas home with you after the International MBA at IE. Congratulations Wade and good luck for the future!

To check out his interview on a Colorado News channel, click here!

This post was written by Guilherme Takamine – a student from Fundação Getulio Vargas, who attended IE’s Short Exchange Program: Doing Business in Spain.

In January 2013, a group of students from EBAPE/FGV’s Executive Masters in Business Administration, of which I am a part, had the opportunity to understand a bit about Spain, its culture and business environment. Within IE Business School and with the help of its experts, “Doing Business in Spain” was an enriching course, that added value to my personal life, as well as my academic and professional career.

The classes covered important points in terms of executive training. We were able to walk around and see historical landmarks of Madrid, visit some of Spain’s most important companies and even got to see live Flamenco music. It was very impressive to be able to understand a bit of the Iberian culture, its origins and the way business is done in that part of the world.

During classes it was inevitable that questions were raised on what it is like to conduct business during the current financial crisis. To hear from IE’s specialists and from people who live in Madrid, the different points of view were extremely valuable for our training. Brazil and its executives have much to learn from Spain and its remarkable drive to overcome the various challenges posed by these difficult times.

Another point of great importance during our trip which is worth noting was the contact with the School itself. IE is a place where you can “smell” entrepreneurship. To be able to see Area 31 and its incubators, as well as the school’s teaching method, provided to us FGV students an insight into how well entrepreneurship can be taught if an adequate space is provided.

Last, but not least, the trip gave us an opportunity to meet incredible people, from various parts of the world. In a nutshell, the program was of great value to us, as it gave us a chance to rub shoulders with great minds, students and alumni who, just like us, seek to develop their knowledge within the area of administration.

The knowledge and education acquired during this period in Spain was excellent. I do hope I’ll be able to go back and stay a while longer to seek answers to some of the questions that remained back in Madrid.

To focus on supporting IE Alumni with their entrepreneurial projects, IE launched the application process for its new startup incubator in Area 31 last month. The competition was tough and a lot of teams signed up. Thus,IE is very excited to announce the names of the teams that will join the first edition of the Area 31 Alumni Startup Incubator. Check out the projects below:

• Focus on Women
• Castlebaby
• Remini
• Inkubica Labs
• Beroque
• Pathfinder
• The Talent Bond
• Shared Secrets SL
• Swarmsurge
• IEX5
• camare.ro
• Letsdecco!
• uTree
• MAGARI
• Top Around SRL
• uniQinu
• Innubu
• Trajesamedida.com
• ChangeFusion Europe
• Soysuper
• Emzingo Group
• ecereales.com

Join IE Venture Network Thursday, 17^th January 2013!

This weekly pitch slam is an invaluable resource for early stage entrepreneurs, a forum for engaging the entrepreneurial community, promoting your startup, and at best securing an investment from our Investors in Residence Wayra, Sodena, Big Sur Ventures, and Vitamina K.  The Venture Network is unique in that it is a very informal gathering where startups can meet investors in an informal setting over beers and snacks and focus on what’s important; building relationships.  The Venture Network is a great way to perfect your pitch, get feedback on your product, and meet the local startup community.   

This week’s panel of startup experts include:

• § José Miguel Herrero, Big Sur Ventures
• § Raul Valdes-Perez, co-founder Vivisimo
• § Catalina Labiano, Sodena
• § Ehud Levy, Managing Partner at Vertex Venture Capital

 The three startups that will present their project in 7 minutes will be:

1. Wayra Madrid Top 3

This week the ten Wayra Madrid teams are competing for a slot to pitch at Venture Network!  On Wednesday we will announce the 3 teams to pitch – either way they are going to be pretty exciting startups!

 IE Venture Network will be held every Thursday, from 7pm to 9.30 pm, at “AREA 31” María de Molina 31, CP: 28006 Madrid.

Agenda

7pm_8pm Pitch Slam – 8pm_ Networking 

To register, click here!!

Have you ever wondered what really happens during the IE Venture Days and what ideas come out of the IE Venture Lab? If you are curious, check out the two presentations below, to get an understanding of what goes through students´ minds and what entrepreneurship is about at IE Business School. People might agree that everything starts with an idea; the rest is determination and endurance and maybe, being at the right place at the right time – such as IE Business School.

• We are very happy to announce a €3.5 million investment in busuu.com by PROFounders Capital and private investors as well as its headquarters relocation from Madrid to London. Apart from improving their online and mobile language learning courses and developing brand new products to improve services, the investment will be used to grow the team and give you the best language learning experience out there.
• Check out SNAP – a new business idea within the entertainment and night-life field that was born in the Venture Lab. SNAP is a simple, fast and convenient mobile app designed to order and pay for drinks without crowding at the bar and saving precious time of skilled bartenders.
• Be ready for some venturing! Venture Day is going into its next round to open up the stage for the best startups and spin outs of IE Business School. We are celebrating Venture Day on Thursday 15th November and are delighted to announce the participation of James Tan, founder of China´s fastest growing ecommerce site 55tuan. James is also founder of QuestVC China’s leading seed fund for technology companies targeting large internet communities. Check back soon for an insight post about the actual event!!