Jun 11 2008
The Talent loves Barcelona
When I travel, the people I know frequently ask me: “As an entrepreneur which pros did you have to create an star-up in Barcelona?” and I have always the same answer: “It’s 30 minutes away from my home!!!”
So my testimonial is not relevant for that reason, but I know a lot of guys that have moved their companies or part of their companies to Barcelona, and for sure they weren’t 30 minutes away from their home. I will try to update this initiative almost every week and through this testimonials I’d like to demonstrate that the combination of Barcelona+Google is the best bet to attract what I think Google really wants from the European Marketplace: Talent.
Here you have a video about the research group that Yahoo! have in Barcelona
I am trying to remember, without success, the name of the spanish business woman who once said “Spain is the European Florida but we would like to become California”, Inspirational, good idea, nice sentence, but don’t stand still , Let’s go for it!!!
It’s right. In fact there are some start-up’s looking for talent here now, for exemple, Fluendo/Flumotion, they create and mantain Gstreamer. When I met they and I talked about why Barcelona? They answered me, Barcelona is really a good option for 3 reasons: It’s a nice city to live (you have everything you want and it’s not so much stressed like other european cities), it’s cheaper than other big cities in Europe and have a good wheater.
So, why couldn’t Google put a headquarters in Barcelona?
Hi guys, Good sales pitch to lure google to put some bucks to make another mini googleplex at BCN.
BUT, Larry, wait a minute before you go for the chequebook..
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LOOK around. take a look at the IT activity in spain and BCN in particular. there are very few companies that do IT related stuff. OK, there is the odd fluendo, the mare nostrum guys, and some more who do some serious work. but the rest are a lot of dormant consulting companies, who are parasites of some multi nationals like HP, Sony, telefonica etc..
And these big fishes were here, NOT because of the weather nor talent, but at the time they came, spain was the cheapest labour center, which is not true now.
There is no critical mass in the IT sector in spain. whatever is left, is not capable of attracting students en mass to pursue IT as it happens in some poor countries.
Innovation, especially the disruptive kind, occurs only where there is ample activity. This is true in any sector, and IT need not be any exception. its the reason why new fashion trends come from Paris, or best footballers come from Brazil. So why should one expect disruptive innovation, the kind for which google is famous for, to flourish in BCN, or spain for that matter?
Things would have been a different story, if the Political class of spain had realised IT as a strong growth prospect, and made roadmaps to enable it to flourish. But that means not just subsidies for a handful of projects. It means building a whole eco-system including attracting foriegn talent, simplyfying immigration rules, sacrificiing spanish/catalan fluency a little bit for english, allowing mixed / dual degrees in universities, etc..
But as it is has not happened, not the case, as things stand now, spain has sun and beaches, and this pulls many tourists, without the spaniard or catalan not having to do much to attract them. Spain has a president who can’t speak in english, even though he is an advocate by profession..
well, sorry for the lengty post, but i really wanted to touch base with some realities here.
Regarding the question of whether Google should open a lab here, yes of course. but dont expect the kind of return like in Silicon Valley or elsewhere in Barceolona, atleast in the short term.
@rcnet Good comment rcnet. As a matter of fact I share some of your points. The political class is not focussed correctly to boost innovation in the IT sector. Sure!
But this iniciative does not come from them. It comes from enterpreneurs who are already doing things and working on a global scope from here. You cited some of the groups doing good stuff, I know a bunch more: research groups doing innovation in the IT schools on universities ( we have a lot here ), small companies doing startups rigth now, innovation in IA, IT in education, Mobile ad other sector is arising rigth now in litle companies.
My point is that we need somebody like Google to atract the talent that the blody dammed dormant consulting companies is draining and spoiling.