III Transnational Meeting Equal Opportunities in the creation of companies

Vicenç Pardo and Bernat Catalan, explained their experience as young entrepreneurs to the attendees. Vicenç Pardo and Bernat Català, founders of onsom.com, participated in the meeting that took place on April 26 and 27 in Ibiza, where they explained their experience as young entrepreneurs to the attendees. This is what they told...
Vicenç Pardo and Bernat Catalan, explained their experience as young entrepreneurs to the attendees. Vicenç Pardo and Bernat Català, founders of onsom.com, participated in the meeting that took place on April 26 and 27 in Ibiza, where they explained their experience as young entrepreneurs to the attendees. This is what they told...

BERNAT: The truth is that when we were born, not even when we were studying at the University we would have imagined that today we would be entrepreneurs. Perhaps due to a lack of promotion of the business culture. Maybe because we had other plans.

VICENÇ: I would have liked to be a pilot, but my vision problems prevented me. As I have always liked to solve logical problems as well as computer science and science, I chose to study Computer Engineering.

In 2002, thanks to an Erasmus scholarship in Salerno, my way of seeing the world changed completely. This experience gave me the opportunity to meet people and new foreign languages (Italian and French), as well as lose the fear of going outside my environment.

In 2003 I returned to Palma, I was in my last year of studies and, thanks to a professor, who is now a good friend, who offered me a scholarship at his company. I saw how he ran his company, his employees and the daily challenges he took on. It was then that I was convinced that I had the qualities to set up my company and that my professional future would not be determined by a company but by myself.

BERNAT: Before setting up the company with Vicenç, I had other plans. I wanted to be a diplomat because I wanted to change the world. I was studying Law and before preparing the oppositions they advised me to study Journalism. Part of these studies I did at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), where apart from traveling and having fun, I participated in some courses and seminars that also changed my perception of the world.

In 1999, while I was in my 3rd year of Journalism, the Internet came into my life and I started working as a journalist in WorldOnline and in 2001 I joined the virtual communities of EresMas. Then, in 2002, I took over the management of the forums of wanadoo in Spain and America.

VICENÇ: In mid-2003 we came into contact with Active Barcelona and we discovered that the world could also be changed through private enterprise. From here we intensify the meetings, we talk and raise the issue with friends and potential customers, we study and analyze the market and the competition.

BERNAT: All this allowed us to detect the advantages and shortcomings of our competitors. Some of our friends and potential clients did not fully understand what needs our project wanted to satisfy. So and thanks thanks to Active Barcelona , we tried to work on the communication of the idea and what made us different through seminars, courses, bibliography...

VICENÇ: The result was very positive. We defined our activity, we knew how to communicate it and our interlocutors understood it. This solidity allowed us to evolve towards a multidisciplinary company idea. An Internet agency that would offer the traditional products of the sector (web development and software) and make a strong commitment to R+D+i to develop new products and services. Because friends, on the Internet there is still much to be done.

BERNAT: After much thought, in January 2004 we left our jobs and started a business venture, onsom.com. After analyzing the different legal forms, analyzing the pros and cons, in April 2004 we decided to set up a limited company, ONSOM SL. After the corresponding procedures and many photocopies of our DNI, we started our business activity in May 2004.

VICENÇ: Like most micro-businesses, we started in a small room. But our dream was to create a great company. Onsom.com is a long-term project. And there is no need to be ashamed of it. We want to be a great company! In some interviews we have been asked if we are afraid that the company will not work… And, well, that is one of the possibilities. You always have to keep it in mind. Companies are born, grow or die. Every day you have to work and innovate to grow.

BERNAT: Precisely, another of the typical questions is how do you deal with being partners and friends. They even warned us that we could get into a fight. And it is true, there are many cases of companies founded by friends that ultimately break up. In our case, from the beginning friendship was separated from business. We have always spoken clearly. We have always said what we think. In business there is no room for resentment, doubts, envy... It is a common project. A space in which, in addition to working and having fun, there should be room for discussion. In fact, we can discuss a lot about any company topic and then go out for a beer.

VICENÇ: From the beginning we were very lucky, because before starting our activity we already had three clients. But don't be fooled. Creating the company is very easy. Consolidating it and making it grow is very hard. You have to work and be convinced. And never give up. If you believe in something, bet on it. Fight! No one in this life will give you anything. In our case we are lucky to be two partners and also friends. We share the same vision and support each other. And that is essential. In difficult moments, it is appreciated that there is someone who tells you, Vicenç, go ahead, we will make it... And vice versa.

BERNAT: After a few months of starting the activity we went to the bank to ask for money. If you want to grow, hire people, advance, you will have to do this exercise. So we met with the director of the bank we were working with and he turned us down because he said that if we were entrepreneurs we were supposed to have money. The world came crashing down on us. But we don't give up. The next day we visited several banking entities and told them what we were doing and what we needed to grow. And they knew how to understand us.

VICENÇ: In June 2004 we had already convinced our friends, several clients and the SA NOSTRA bank, with whom we have been working since then. This financial support, which fortunately has never been lacking, allowed us to hire workers and establish paid internship agreements with the University of the Balearic Islands. Thus, in January 2005 there were already four of us.

BERNAT: In September 2005 we were admitted to the business incubator of the European Center for Innovative Companies of the Balearic Islands (CEEI Balears), coinciding with an extension of the credit line. This gave us a great boost at all levels: improvement of the corporate image, new clients, access to programs and aid, but, above all, it allowed us to increase our efforts in research, innovation and development.

VICENÇ: Since then, we have operated in Mallorca, Barcelona, Logroño, Nantes (France), Milan (Italy) and the Dominican Republic. This international flirtation has encouraged us to present ourselves to the Program for the Internationalization of Companies (PIPE) of the Institute of Foreign Trade of Spain (ICEX), in which we currently participate, since May 2006 and for a period of 24 months.

BERNAT: The PIPE program has had a positive impact on our company. And it represents one more step in our goal of becoming a great company. It is true that it has involved a great personal and material effort in which we are still immersed: adaptation of the products/services to the target markets (Mexico, Argentina, Chile, France and the United States), reorientation of the commercial strategy, contracting a responsible for marketing and several commercials, opening of delegations in France and Italy, search for agents and distributors in Argentina and Mexico, etc.

VICENÇ: As we mentioned at the beginning, we wanted to change things. We believed and believe that it is possible to do business from an ethical point of view, that it is possible to be happy working. We wanted our team to come to work every day happy. And we have achieved it.

BERNAT: In onsom.com there are no schedules. We work for objectives. We believe that not everyone performs the same or at the same time. For this reason we have adopted teleworking because it improves productivity, by allowing a better balance between professional and personal life; and because it allows adjusting the work environment to each need. And it is flexible temporally and spatially.

VICENÇ: Our human team has completely different professional and academic profiles, which makes us a multidisciplinary, plural company capable of offering original solutions designed by and for users. In addition, every two months we carry out brainstorming sessions outside the office in which current projects and future ideas are presented and analyzed and work groups are created in which external collaborators also participate.

BERNAT: When you develop your business plan or for any project, keep in mind that you have to work and live. Sometimes it's hard. But the income statement is just as important as enjoying life and collecting a payroll at the end of the month. Of that, sometimes some entrepreneurs forget. And the banks too.

VICENÇ: When we drew up the business plan, in addition to the financial forecasts, we took into account our lives. That is why we decided to request a line of credit that would guarantee our payroll and all the current expenses of the company, regardless of the cash flows, which, as you know, are variable.

BERNAT: And the thing is, friends, personal and economic stability is very important in business. In fact they go hand in hand. We were recently at a business forum in Barcelona and one of the Internet gurus, Eudald Doménech, suggested that the entrepreneur should have his payroll insured during the first five years of activity. Entrepreneurship is hard, therefore, let's not make it more difficult. If we have a good business plan and a good financial plan, we avoid unnecessary worries.

VICENÇ: The environment is also very important. In our case, our family has always supported us unconditionally: financially and emotionally. The company demands great sacrifices, especially at the beginning. Sometimes we see that our friends or acquaintances go on a trip, on vacation, buy houses, cars... All this can distort our reality and take us away from our goal. You have to continue, endure, sacrifice.

BERNAT: Work and workplace have not been synonymous for some time. That's how we understood it when we founded onsom.com. It is not just another option for teleworking, but rather the application of the concept of eliminating physical spaces to its ultimate consequences. Thus, while I live in Mallorca, Vicenç lives in Paris.

VICENÇ: However, we are in daily contact thanks to programs such as Messenger, Skype and a powerful Intranet. And we meet a couple of times a month in France or Spain. Some clients, family and friends have been slow to understand this working formula. But time proves us right.

BERNAT: While preparing this talk we have been looking at some photos. How many photos!, what moments! And it seems like it was yesterday. But it's been 3 years. We could tell you many anecdotes, experiences, situations... We have learned from everything. Of the good and the bad. We have matured as entrepreneurs. And never, during all this time, have we thought of giving up.

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