Entrepreneurs from Spanish-based digital-based companies gathered at Opinno Madrid's Headquarters this past Tuesday night for an evening with François Derbaix, founder and CEO of Voota.  In attendance were some of the most exciting innovators in Spain's entrepreneurial scene, including Baqk Up S.L., bookAffinity, Familia Nómada , Ideas4All, Koliseo, Musikame, Somflee, Tugueder, Vidium and YFSpain.  

François began the evening by speaking about his prior experience as a founder of Toprural, the leading portal for rural tourism in Europe, as well as a co-founder of Rentalia.com, the leading portal for holiday rentals in Spain, Portugal and Andorra.  From this experience, François offered the innovators in attendance advice for their own companies, varying from the serious (the importance of innovators to dedicate themselves full-time to their projects) to the more lighthearted (ultimately, venture capital comes when no capital is needed and when there is no risk).   François also spoke of the importance of digital-media-based businesses finding people with a commercial profile and expertise in monetizing websites.  To close the evening, François reminded the attendees that, on a more basic level, founders of companies should surround themselves with others that believe in their idea, because ultimately that's what will give the company passion and will lead investors and partners to have trust in that company.

For more highlights from the talk, please visit our twitter feed at www.twitter.com/opinno and search under the hashtag #ficod09meetup.  If you would like to read about the event in Spanish, you can also check out the blogpost by Eduardo Millán from Somflee.  Lastly, for pictures of the event, check out our Opinno Flickr album and the images below!

The World Premiere of the Ficod09 Competition Documentary

François Derbaix Speaks About his Experiences as an Innovator

Spanish Innovators Discuss François's Talk