Not many days ago, Bryan Adams, founder and CEO of PhCreative, exposed in an article in Inc his opinion about the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Barcelona. His verdict was tremendously positive. These kind of opinions are very pleasant, especially when they are expressed by someone external to the ecosystem. But such opinions are even more interesting when they involve analysis different from the usual ones. That is the case of the article by Bryan Adams.
He argues that Barcelona is the unsuspected pole of European excellence in entrepreneurship. It is a flourishing capital of the entrepreneurial spirit and it’s gearing up for a tech revolution.
Bryan compares our ecosystem with Silicon Valley and stresses that the differences between one place and another are factors favorable to Barcelona, by generating more realistic conditions. For example, he says that investors and entrepreneurs in Barcelona do not have that much money. But precisely for this reason they use it much better. It exposes 6 factors that make of Barcelona a reference in the global scene of startups. Below I simplify, reorder and rename these factors as follows:
1) A mixture of past and future, a union between history and technology
2) An enterpreneurial attitude, hard work and perseverance
3) A great digital bet of the city of Barcelona and the innovative attitude of the administration
4) The attraction of international talent, which make Barcelona a melting pot for innovation.
5) The sensation of an unfinished system, of a process that is in its beginnings and that will go to more. There is no perception of saturation, as it does in Silicon Valley
6) Finally, I leave to the end the point that has surprised me the most and to which we must pay attention to continue to exploit that strength. Bryan Adams says that Barcelona and Catalonia are rebellious by nature and that here we feel inherently different from the rest of Spain. Our rebellious attitude permeates everyday life and creates a spirit of entrepreneurship between who comes and lives here. He believes that here there is a palpable correlation between the ecosystem of startups and that broader sociopolitical mentality.
It’s an interesting (and pleasant) point of view 🙂
Here you have the link to Bryan’s article: https://www.inc.com/bryan-adams/this-unsuspecting-european-city-could-become-silicon-valleys-biggest-rival.html