Amazing CIO wanted

For my next venture I am searching for a new generation IT Manager. What I call: CIO 2.0

Absolutely hands on, working for a startup means doing everything at the beginning. Outsource, everything you can outsource… avoid high maintenance and problem generation self-hosted open source solution… send everything to the cloud. Master in Google Apps, Salesforce.com, and other SaaS applications. Able to implement, configure and manage this kind of powerful tools.

Position name: Chief Information Officer

We are a growing technology company with HQ in Barcelona we are focusing on Backup as a Service products. We are in need of a new generation CIO.

What you need for this position:

– 5 + years working in the Information Systems area

– Minimum Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Business or Finance preferred, Masters is a plus

– Experience in SaaS business applications, business processes. management, budgets and manage contractors

– Extensive background with google, salesforce applications environment

– Experience with software design from a hands on perspective and overall business view

– Strong understanding of human resource management principles, practices, and procedures would be a major plus

– Ability to present ideas in business-friendly and user-friendly language: Great communication skills

– The ability to maintain an agile environment

What will you be doing:

– Identifying, recommending, developing, implementing, and supporting cost-effective technology solutions for all aspects of the organization

– Establishing Engineering departmental goals, objectives, and operating procedures

– Stay abreast of new technologies and issues in the software industry, including current technologies, platforms, standards organizations and methodologies

– Managing operating and capital budgets

– Supervising recruitment and retention policies within the department

– Defining and communicating corporate plans, policies, and standards for the organization for acquiring, implementing, and designing new business applications.

Position glamour:

– Very competitive salaries

– Competitive vacation and work location with high quality of live

– Work on cutting edge technology

– Work on a fast growing international company

– Equity and stock purchase plan for some individuals

If you are Miss/Mr right just send me an e-mail.

HIT BARCELONA 2010: BE THERE, I WILL!

No matter if you are busy as crazy raising funds, closing deals or generating code. Ladies & Gents you have to be here!!!!

Hit Barcelona is a unique global event with a format that integrates spaces dedicated to knowledge, revolutionary ideas and great business opportunities. For two days, it will bring together business leaders, innovators, investors and entrepreneurs to share ideas, promote projects and redefine the keys to business success.

Key things to do at HIT Barcelona:

  • Discover how great ideas have become the latest and greatest business hits as explained by the key players themselves.
  • Get in touch with the best entrepreneurs and smartest investors. You will have the opportunity to meet everybody in our networking events
  • The world’s best business plans will compete for awards and to persuade investors of the potential of their proposal

Space Traveling made in Barcelona: fly to space safer than ever in a balloon

zero2infinity, the first environmentally friendly experiential aerospace company, is developing bloon, a revolutionary system that will provide the private Space traveler with the most life-enriching and meaningful experience of Space. Led by an MIT engineer, a talented interdisciplinary team is developing a completely new solution to an age-old dream: contemplating the Earth from outside. Escrow deposits can already be made for a first commercial flight expected between 2013 and 2015, tapping into the emerging Private Spaceflight Market (sustained 30% yearly growth in 07-08) which is part of the exploding Experiential Travel industry.
There is a new Space race, but this time it is among private companies looking to build a viable business from the desire of individuals to “experience Space”. As an agile start-up zero2infinity will be among the first to offer such experience. We will provide the most enjoyable journey with an ideal 2 hours viewing time (compared to 7 min in suborbital at $200k or 8 days of orbital at $35M). Travelers flying on our bloon will experience all the benefits looked after in spaceflight (black starry sky in daylight, curved Earth, even a period of weightlessness) without any of the drawbacks that have limited so far the development of the private spaceflight industry (high acceleration, explosives, environmental pollution, small windows, extreme cost, complex training, use of protected military technology). Several recent developments make bloon possible today:

  • Raised awareness about environmental and planet-wide causes.
  • High-end travel designers incorporate space-related experiences in their portfolios.
  • A growing backlog of private individuals having paid deposits to fly to Space.
  • High spatial and temporal resolution short-term weather prediction.
  • Improved guided parafoils and whole aircraft recovery systems.
  • Lightweight and ultra-resistant composite materials.
  • The affordability of many certified off the shelf components such as glass cockpits, communications, interior furbishing, etc.
  • A track record of successful previous investments in this industry.
  • The availability of highly motivated and skilled workforce that is tired of the failing large aerospace contractor/space agency programs.

bloon’s pod offers privacy in a shirtsleeve environment and, if so requested by the traveler, a fully bespoke experience. The airliner-like health guidelines greatly enlarge bloon’s appeal to travelers of any age and condition. bloon operates with zero polluting emissions. Scientists will place their instruments on the bloon to enhance the experience and make it valuable for protecting the same Earth that the travelers admire below. Our sourcing strategy allows for travelers of any nationality to book a flight on bloon, greatly expanding the market. zero2infinity’s main competitive advantage is 10 years of continued work on the topic by its Founder and CEO, José Mariano Lopez-Urdiales.

By the way, they have just raised funds to start the adventure. Congratulations!!!

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Why You Should Start a Company in Silicon Valley: 10 reasons why European companies shouldn’t open an office

Although many entrepreneurs are dreaming to have their company based in Silicon Valley I do not think is the right decision. Very often is a huge mistake that cost a lot of time and money.

I don’t mean you shouldn’t open operations in US. There are many good places in the states to open your US office, my preferred places are: Dallas, Atlanta and New York. However, I am sure there are many other suitable cities across America.

Here you have my 10 reasons:

1. Time Difference

With the continental Europe you are going to have 9 hours difference. It means 16:00 Berlin is 8:00 in Palo Alto. If your team is not working double shift the overlap is going to be minimum. Business Objects pointed out this fact as one of the worst problems when the landed in US. Many of the French staff complaint about working so late in order to help the US Team.

2. Very Expensive People

Salaries in the Bay Area are 20-40% the salaries. For instance according to www.salary.com the average base salary for Sr. Java Programmer in San Jose is around 115.000$, in Dallas is around 96.000$ and in Miami is around 93.000$. Just base salary,on top of you have bonus, fridge benefits, Stock Options… The difference could be around 40.000$ including everything! See the charts below:


3. More opportunities more voluntary employee turnover

In the Valley people have hundreds of job opportunities in one hour drive. Cisco Systems voluntary turnover ran at less than 10% through, although it is headquartered in Silicon Valley, where turnover averaged 25-30%. And, we are talking about CISCO here!

4. Non-compete agreements are no enforceable

The non-compete is non enforceable (and has been for years in California) but the confidentiality agreement still stands, and is remains enforceable. So, you can expect your best employee to jump into your worst competitor without problem.

5. Retaining talent far more difficult

You are going to have HQs of google, Apple, Cisco, Oracle and many more very near you. Do you thing is it going to be easy to keep your most talented employee?

6. No direct fly from your city

If you are based in Paris, London, Madrid or Frankfurt you are very lucky. You are going to have a direct flight to San Francisco. Even though, some of the flight schedules are horrible you lose two complete working days because you are not flying overnight. With a plane departing 9:00CET and returning 9:00PCT you waste one working day at every end.

7. Can you afford it?

The Valley is extremely expensive at all levels, not only for hiring people. Think carefully about office rent, apartments for relocated staff, plane tickets, and the like. Well, if you live in central London or Paris then no worries!

8. Me too Effect

Expect that your relocated staff ask for a unreasonable salary rise when they know the high cost of living and the salary of the locals.

9. You have compelling reason to be there

Don’t be a kid! “Google is going to acquire my company in two years” is not a compelling reason. Perhaps if you are in the hardware industry and you are going to supply a key part for the new ipad you have to be there. Just be realistic.

10. The weather sucks

Do you want to go to the beach? They say that you can. Sure at 12:00 after the fog with your coat otherwise you will catch a cold. Do you want swim? With neoprene suit no problem at all.

Think about it!

Critical Success Factors in Entrepreneurship – What’s Hot and What’s Not

Ken Morse is in Bracelona.

Kenneth Morse is a co-founder of 3Com Corporation, Aspen Technology, Inc., and four other startups. He is the former Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and Chairman of Entrepreneurship Ventures, Inc. He is currently working on a book, tentatively titled «Making It Happen Globally.» Each chapter profiles a brave entrepreneur, far from Silicon Valley or Rt.128, who pursued an opportunity and built a great company.

You can miss him.

Join the event ASAP. Seating is limited!

What is the best country for startups? Believe it or not, it’s Spain

No country for old economy. Beyond the sluggish economy, the real state cracked up and the 20% unemployment rate Spain is doing his homework very well in terms of creating new companies in Bio-tech and IT.

Let me make the case 🙂

Imagine that you create a company and you raise 500.000€. Here below is what you can get is you base your company in Barcelona:Seguir leyendo

Justinmind: Speeding up software development

The old motto “A picture is worth a thousand words” is more true than you can possibly imagine.

Having the look & feel, the workflow, the fields and the whole picture of your software application (also called mockups) before you program any single line of code can speed up your development cycle dramatically.

Forget about wasting time writing long functional analysis that your client/user never reads and further more never signs.

With Justinmind you can create in minutes the complete prototype of your application. You can check with your end-user and team, modify 1000 times and get a final agreement without programming a minute.

Some of the key features are the following:

Real-time mockup simulation: Simulate your interactive mockups, even with real data, before starting the project development. Demonstrate how the final application will behave to your customers, test users and IT suppliers. Simulation technology helps you cut costs in your projects avoiding dramatic changes at the final stages of your projects.

Generate and share mockups: Your customers and users can test and annotate a functional web mockup worldwide with a web browser, and communicate changes and new requirements with the web annotation system.

Multi-platform solutions: Justinmind Prototyper, the wireframing tool, is available for Windows and Mac OS. Justinmind released Justinmind Server for Windows, Red Hat, Suse and Ubuntu.

My estimation as professional with more than 20 years in the software industry is that you can save near of 50% of development time using Justinmind!!! Again… near 50%!!!

In summary, the key benefits are the following:

  1. Avoid misunderstanding with user & clients
  2. Get the approval of the prototype is much easier than get the approval of a long word document
  3. You invest in design and concept and you save a huge amount of time in development. You minimize the last minutes changes.
  4. You can save tons of programming time with the right prototype definition at the beginning

With Justinmind you can save time, save money and increase the satisfaction of your user and clients.