Gonzalo Illesca always advises entrepreneurs to focus on understanding and meeting real market needs.
"There's no one-size-fits-all recipe for launching a startup," believes Gonzalo Illesca, who has personally experienced the challenges of driving innovative companies as much as he has advised others facing the same challenge. In his talk "How to create a startup and not die trying", the professor at the University of Las Hespérides invited students and attendees to "assemble a good team," with people suitable for specific tasks, even if it's difficult to separate emotions from those close by affinity and compatibility.
"Queremos que todos comprendan que la labor del emprendedor, a menudo caricaturizada como la búsqueda de enriquecimiento personal, en realidad consiste en coordinar de manera más eficiente la sociedad, generando más valor para todos nosotros," dijo al presentarlo el rector de la Universidad, Gabriel Calzada, que recordó que una de las metas del grupo fundador de la casa de estudios siempre ha sido que cada persona que pase por nuestras instalaciones "comprenda lo que implica ser un emprendedor", con los "desafíos y logros que conlleva ser parte de este mundo," para "transformar ideas en realidades tangibles que generen valor para la sociedad."
In the same vein, Gonzalo Illesca sketched out a definition that's quite provocative in a world where business psychology often gets mixed up with personal stuff: "I don't think just following your dream is enough, as it's an overly positive discourse without any tangible basis. From my perspective, the key is discipline."
The discipline, understand, is fundamental to moving forward with a business. Although there are other important qualities, such as adaptability to market changes, discipline is the foundation. "In my experience, I've seen that those who succeed are those who take that extra step, seek excellence and don't settle for what they already have," he explained. That's why he considered it important to help those with a great technical capacity develop business skills, or on the contrary, to those with business skills find a technical team to carry out their ideas.
When approaching the concept of a startup, he highlighted Steve Blank's definition, who differentiates a startup from a traditional company by "the search for a business model." In its essence, a startup "doesn't know how it will make money at first, but over time learns and adapts".
He also emphasized the importance of the client for business. "The client is at the central axis, and if there's no need in the market that your product or service satisfies, you're doomed to fail." This way, he analyzed the reasons why many startups fail, highlighting the lack of a need in the market as the main one. Finally, he addressed the idea of "dying from success," refuting it as an excuse to justify an advanced product without a market. "Creating something that nobody buys is not success" because it's crucial to understand the client's needs from the beginning. In this sense, he underscored that he always advises those who start up to focus on understanding and satisfying real market needs.