Spanish startups with international ambitions

Tyba – Source(d)

Tyba is an online employment portal intended particularly for young people with little experience whose dream is to work in different kinds of startups. Last year they developed Source(d), based on open source, which puts developers into contact with technology firms. The idea arose because they were unable to locate this type of professionals through Tyba. This is a profile that is very difficult to recruit, as there is substantial demand and very little supply.

Jorge Schnura, co-founder of Tyba and Source(d), points out that when developing a startup, “the most important thing is to forge relations with people in the sector, and make contact with several investors so as to be able to choose the one that offers you the best conditions”.

“The team that contacts the developers are all computer technicians, because they're really the ones who are most familiar with the complex world of developers. This is very important, because developers are tired of communicating with people who have very little knowledge of this world”, says Schnura.

The technology they use is based on Artificial Intelligence –they imitate the human brain to see how an expert developer would analyze another developer's code. They have customers all over the world, and receive most interest from final developers. These are their greatest asset, and mean they work with attractive companies in the technology area.

They currently have 34 employees, and their income derives from their success rate –they only get paid if a company hires someone.

Get Your Hero

This platform puts cleaning staff in contact with private customers in exchange for a fee. This is a Spanish company, and its founders –Sebastian Gmelin, Sebastian Janus and Henrik Beckmann–, are German. They decided to create Get Your Hero because as foreign students they knew no one reliable who could help them with their housework on an occasional basis. So they studied the market and decided that this app could satisfy a need that was still not completely covered, despite the fact that Spain is one of the countries with the highest number of domestic employees.

Their aim was to offer their users reliability and a high standard of professionalism, so all their employees must be registered as self-employed or belong to a limited company. This avoids fraud and risks to customers, and in turn combats the black market, which is very widespread in this sector.Their potential customers are professionals aged between 30 and 40 without children who require a service like this on an occasional basis.

The most difficult thing about being an entrepreneur is obtaining the necessary investment to put your project into practice. In the case of Get Your Hero, they obtained their financing from the Spanish fund Seaya Ventures, owned by Michael Kleindl and Beatriz González.

This platform is highly scalable. It currently has 100 employees and operates particularly in Madrid and Barcelona, where demand is highest. They are also present in Rome and Milan, and are studying the markets in Turkey and Latin America, although for the time being they prefer to concentrate on Europe.

We Smart Park

This is a collaborative consumption app that places users in contact with owners of spaces in private car parks. Both parties benefit: the first because they can park more quickly and cheaply, and the second because they can make a profit from their parking place. This startup began in the garage belonging to the grandmother of one of the founders, Jaume Mayor i Agell. From there they developed the software and hardware necessary to make this app work.

There are other companies that also offer parking services based on collaborative consumption, but We Smart Park's distinctive feature is that it sells minutes in car parks in enclosed spaces off the street. This way it can offer its users the best price. This application has been developed using already existing technologies. Its operation is very simple: when you register you are given a RSID sticker which you place on your car windshield, and when you draw near a car park that has an agreement with We Smart Park, you are given access so you can park. The free spaces are monitored using real-time information provided by the owner of the space.

Several types of professionals, mechanical engineers, computer technicians and electronics experts In this startup were involved in the launch of the product, in addition to experts in marketing and finance.

Their potential customers are installers and distributors who are obliged to use their car for work on a daily basis and have to visit several places on a single day. This app saves these professionals around 70% on parking fees. When the project started, they thought their target public would be young people, and were surprised to find the idea actually worked with other profiles.