Founder of Idealista at IE Business School

Entrepreneur session 5: 

Jesus Encinar 

Session 5 in Managing Tech for Startups offered an insight to one of the most successful Spanish real estate websites idealista by the founder himself Jesus Encinar who's blog also offers some interesting posts... if you can read Spanish ;-) 

Regrettably, I was flying when we had this session which meant that I had to do my own research...

Idealista was founded 11 years ago in a business environment which was already very saturated. Despite aiming for international expansion, the business was initially only implemented in the Capital of Spain. 

Having only presence in Madrid allowed the company to focus and achieve great success in this vicinity but it made it challenging to raise finance as the scalability potential was not initially appreciated by the investors. 

Nevertheless, when there is a will, there is a way... 

After being rejected by 100s of investors, Idealista finally managed to raise $6.24M (€6M) in unattributed funding on 1/1/2003, which was achieved with help from Andersen Consulting. 

Idealista has since expanded into Portugal and Italy which seems that their strategy is to initially penetrate countries that share cultural and language similarities. 

The following tables show cultural similarities between Spain, Portugal and Italy. 

Hofstede explains these differences in the following 5 main elements which are very interesting and really worth exploring when considering an international expansion.

Power Distance Index (PDI) 

Individualism (IDV)  

Masculinity (MAS)  

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) 

Long-Term Orientation (LTO) 

Going back to the actual website, I must admit that I personally do not find it particularly user-friendly, but the company apparently makes great efforts and uses technology to track user experience in order to constantly improve the site accordingly. 

I cannot comment on what technology Idealista uses for this purpose, but an eye track technology is an mazing tool which allows to track and actually analyse a user's behaviour on the website. The process would require a number of different users using the site while tracking their eye focus. The system is then able to analyse preferences according to age, sex or any other relevant demographic facts. 

Another useful tool is google's site overlay which provides information about where and how often the user has clicked on different buttons/links on the site and illustrates this in percentage. 

This tool is extremely easy to set up in google analytics and is a very useful when testing the design of a new site. 

Technology aside, the success of Idealista illustrates that it is not always necessary to be 'born global' and it is still possible to establish an international presence and in a pace appropriate to the business...

Only when the business is ready to explore new markets!

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Founder of CHICISIMO at IE Business School

Entrepreneur session 4: 

Gabriel Aldamiz

An afternoon with Gabriel Aldamiz right here at IE Business School... 

 "How many of you are planning to start your own venture" was the opening speech by Gabriel Aldamiz...and wow!!!....almost all hands were raised. This was the MBA spirit at our Tech For Start up Class ! :-)   

Gabriel Aldamiz is behind a series of successful ventures and today he shared his entrepreneurial experience with us. Although he started by saying that it was his first time that he ever had to give such a long speech, once he began, he was unstoppable... in a very nice way of course! 

Full of energy and so much to tell that it was actually hard to keep up with him. His stories were very interesting and really made you think …  but before I had a chance to think it through, he was already sharing another interesting concept!

I am guessing that this might be how Gabriel Aldamiz is in business as well. He is probably one of those people who can create a business out of nothing. Starting a new venture, and ideas keep popping into his head and tempting him to pursue the next idea... maybe wished he could be more than one person and in more than one place at a time...

Chicisimo is a good example of making business out of something, which could have been seen as nothing by many. 

He spotted a behaviour that might be seen as ‘strange” and turned this into a successful platform that is not even close to have reached its full potential:

Girls who took photos of themselves wearing different fashion items and sharing these on Flickr. 

He provided the platform where these photos could be shared easily. Simple! 

        

Now, the potential for generating money from this platform is simply phenomenal. The most obvious one is that this could be turned into an ideal place for shopping. The numbers as seen above, provides a link that shows all other items tagged with the same brand. 

However, the link could in fact allow the user to purchase the product which obviously would require integration with the store and of course an updated catalogue. 

In the meantime, Chicisimo could also offer a link to the store website next to the pictures that show the particular brand and simply generate advertising money through the clicks. 

Now to increase the items posted, a simple phone application could allow the users to take pictures even in the changing room and post this into the site. 

These are of course the most obvious ones and there is scope for a lot more creative and innovative ideas which could serve this platform and increase its revenue potential. A social game as an example... 

Going back to the entrepreneur... despite the diversity in Gabriel's ventures, he shared a valuable tip with the class, which was to "stay in FOCUS while keeping a diversity". 

He mentioned the mistake that he had made in the beginning of his venture, which was to diversify too soon and into too many things such as sport, financial services, fashion etc. 

He also suggested that in the beginning of a business, having little money is not always a disadvantage but could in fact work to your advantage as it ensures focus and concentration.

There is no doubt that limited finance would ensure great focus, You truly think everything through several times, you try not to do too many things but only the most important…but there could be another side of this story. 

Sometimes, limited resources might make you desperate and could result in you taking the wrong decisions and giving into situations that end up distracting your initial focus. It could also limit your growth to the extent that no matter how great your idea is, it never reaches its real potential.

There is no ‘right’ recipe and everything truly depends on the situation, timing, preference, attitude, execution and perhaps a little bit of luck!  

However, one of the very important takeaways from this session for me, which is not going to change is the importance of bloggers and how to motivate them to write about your product. 

It is important to know your blogger's interests and as obvious as it sounds, you must read past posts to really get to know the blogger's style and likings. 

Also, when suggesting your product, find something that might relate to a recent post/article that the writer has written or perhaps some issue which is currently in debate.This increases the chance that the writer would get interested in your 'topic' and write something that could turn your business upside down... depending on what he/she writes and who the readers are... so if you want to get free PR, do your research well! 

Not all publicity is good publicity!