After 4 years of intense dedication, I am announcing the end of my phase at Zyncro. As the Parana Investment Fund has entered the board, next Monday Carlos Ramón whom I have worked with for the past 9 months and is executive at the Fund will take over the CEO role. Best of luck, Carlos!
The sell of Zyncro has been without a doubt the most complicated in my career. The operation started in November 2012 and did not finish until now. These two years have been complicated for me as a CEO given that many times I encountered that the selling and buying parts had different visions on the future of the company. It is not a criticism, it is quite normal that a selling investor is being more conservative than the acquiring one.
Despite everything, Zyncro has been evolving. We have created a flexible and versatile platform that is capable if meeting the requirements of enterprises and medium-sized businesses all over the world. We have positioned it as a reference in Social Collaboration in the hispanic market and thus, it has been present in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant amongst the best in the world in this category for two consecutive years. And not only that! In the coming months, we will release features that will push Zyncro up in the raking.
Finally, I would like to thank the people that have supported me most in this long process. The order is not of importance as all of them have been key.
- To Julia, my wife, who has supported me all the way and had to handle a lot of Zyncro talking.
- To the amazing professionals working at Zyncro. It has been a privilege to work with such a passionate team. Many thanks for your valuable contribution, dedication and discipline.
- To Christopher and Ricard from Active Venture Partners. I can certify that their fund gives support to entrepreneurs at all times.
- To my friend, investor and Zyncro fan Manuel Serrano, General Manager at Fhios, who has been extremely patient with me.
- To Tomas and Dean for their Confucian patience as they were heading the Chinese representation and their hard work is giving its fruit.
- To Inspirit’s board and specifically the Carulla family for their trust, mostly in the beginning when everything was just a promise.
- To Didac who has been very supportive in the most complicated moments. Despite not taking the best of actions in the last phase, everything he did has been exceptional. Didac, be yourself, don’t let that advisor influence your decisions. For the ones taking this negatively, this doesn’t come to say that I do not think he is a champion and I owe him a lot.
- And finally, to the Parana family, Father and Son, whose names I do not mention due to confidentiality, for their persistence and strength.
So there is a new phase ahead of me. As you know, I specialize in growing small and medium businesses until the point where they can be sold to someone who can profit from them, as seen in Silicon Valley. With Zyncro, the numbers need no additional proof. In 2010 the company was valued in 1M and yesterday the amount announced in press was 30M.
And this bearing in mind that once someone told me that it is impossible to play this game from Barcelona… I think I am proving he was wrong. All the other successful startups here also prove me right.
Entrepreneurs, keep fighting! There is future. And allow me to remember one of my favorite quotes taught by my father:
Luck in life does not come alone, you make it happen with your work