I was raised and born in Madrid, Spain in what is still today my favorite city in the world. My father comes from Galicia and my mother from Madrid, I have an older brother and a bunch of good friends that I consider family as well.
I went to High School at Lycée Français de Madrid, a French school where I had the opportunity to learn French, English, and Italian. I did well in school being not one of the best in the class, but in the higher rank and with an interest in scientific classes more than literature ones.
During High School, I also started playing rugby and competed in karate. I won numerous competitions in karate but I decided to stop this sport to prioritize rugby. In rugby, I won with my team numerous regional and national competitions, being one of the best clubs in Spain, and most importantly it is where I met most of my best friends today. I also had the opportunity to represent Spain in the Rugby World Trophy U20s, where we finished second.
I finished High School with good grades but without having any idea of what to study in college. I loved technology, but I couldn't see myself coding or studying engineering, I always loved business (I remember being a kid giving 1€ loans to my friends and asking them for a 50% commission), and I always liked traveling, and being an ambassador was one of the jobs I wanted to do at that time, so I decided to study Business Administration and International Relations at ICADE a top tier Business Schools in Spain
I started university following a traditional path, I just wanted to pass my exams, and when graduating getting a job in a management consulting firm or wherever 90% of business school graduates go.
Business Administration and International Relations is a 5-year double degree, where I spent the first three years passing my exams and having fun with my friends as most of the students in the university. I was an average student, my only strengths were mathematics and statistics.
I started university with two friends from high school, and I ended up having a new family of friends (I am the one at the top left)
Everything changed in my fourth year at the university, I decided to do study one semester abroad at North Carolina State University, I did not know much about the university or the city, the only thing I knew is that it was a good engineering university and that it had one of the biggest campuses.
First, I met amazing people from all over the world, with who I am still in contact and some of them are today part of my best friends.
Second, ****it is where I discovered entrepreneurship, and the story of how I discovered it is quite funny:
It was the second or third month there and I was already broke, I spent most of my money on travels around the East Coast and dinners with my friends, but I did not want to ask for more money from my parents. I saw a poster of a contest where you could win $1.000, you only had to present a business idea, but the deadline was that same night. I asked one of my friends if she wanted to try and record a video to participate, we submitted the video 5 minutes before the deadline and we did not have any expectation (the video was awful and we were basically presenting a copycat of Blablacar), one week later they told us that we were one of the finalist teams and that we had to present in a public event in front of 700 people. We were really excited but again we did not have any expectations as we were two 20-year-old friends with a strong Spanish accent presenting a copycat of Blablacar. We went to the event, we pitched, and surprisingly we won the competition. I was super happy especially because I could afford another travel, but I did not know at that time that this experience was my first contact with entrepreneurship and it will completely change my future.
Shoutouts to my friend Alba to get onboard!
Later, I joined the entrepreneurship club there, and I started reading books and getting to know that management consulting and boring 9 to 5 jobs were not the only path.
I came back to Spain and I still had 1,5 years of University, but I didn't want to keep doing what I was doing so I joined Taplingua, an ed-tech startup, it was my first internship and it was amazing, I was the right hand of the CEO and I was absorbing all the information he gave me and managing the content and UX of the app. After 8 months, I got bored, and I decided to go to a food-tech startup because I love food (I am a great cook!) and I wanted to experience new responsibilities, so I joined foodinthebox which is a copycat from Hellofresh. I was in charge of the B2B side of the business trying to get sponsorships and marketing campaigns with food brands, I learned a lot there, we were struggling with money and had hard meetings about closing the company (the company is still active today!). I was also involved in fundraising, and there is where I discovered Venture Capital.
Taplingua and Foodinthebox logos
At that time I was mostly full-time working for the startups, I remember being in class with my laptop working, then going to have lunch at a supermarket, and then running to the office to get to work again. I was also still playing rugby at a semi-professional level, which made my life quite packed.
I was about to graduate and again I felt bored at foodinthebox, I discovered that I am someone that cannot be only focusing on one project, I need more intellectual stimulation. at that time I discovered Venture Capital and I saw that investors were always researching different topics, speaking with smart entrepreneurs, and analyzing multiple industries and markets at the same time, so I was convinced that VC was going to be my next step. At the same time, I was participating in hackathons which made me learn and kept me busy during the weekends.
Presenting a travel-tech business idea at South Summit