After months of an intense activity (those of you who have started a business will understand perfectly what I’m talking about) finally I’ve found a moment to explain what I am willing to do.
When I finished my period in Anuntis, I thought I was going to need some time off to rest and think. Some would call it a “sabbatical year". But I found myself with a great desire to start over again, this time with more scars but also with more experience. After thinking about what I really wanted to do I set myself two goals: 1. To assist and guide young entrepreneurs. 2. To build a new company. It’s from these two ideas that "Red Arbor" is born.
The former, which perhaps may be less profitable but can have more emotional return, will be the “incubator – accelerator”. Through this area I want to help startups in their seed phase or in later stages, to promote their growth. The latter is a holding of investment in Internet companies in various stages. I will also launch my own new projects. In this area, I executed my first investment in Morocco, where I acquired a 25% of www.mubawab.ma, a Real Estate portal which aims to become the leader in the Arab countries. Furthermore, right now I'm looking at other possible investments (which I will keep you updated about)...
As an incubator - accelerator, Red Arbor will invest in ideas and entrepreneurial projects to help them to become profitable businesses. They will be offered workspaces and “coworking” services, on top of this mentoring in different areas and a specific monitoring plan for each project.
I think that those of us who have had success in our businesses and have received something from society, have a certain moral obligation to others. We should help, if only a little, so others can get the same results. Listening to ideas of young entrepreneurs is, almost always, a breath of fresh air.
In a recent interview a journalist asked me about the meaning of the name Red Arbor. I'll tell you, although sometimes I think it’s a little bit overemotional. It is a mixture of ideas and feelings. A word with a double meaning in English and Spanish (red) and one in Latin (arbor), trying to unite the new with the experience. Red is the internet, which is the new, global and international ... But not to forget the values and the people, which are the essence of companies at the end. “Arbor” is tree in Latin and symbolizes the strong growth and the importance of having strong roots.
When you put it together, “Red Arbor”, also means “Red Tree”, the ones that change leaves in autumn. This is the similarity with this phase of my professional life: it is still a very good time of the year and you still have a long way to go.
The feeling that you can do new things is what gives you the spark to start over again. It is interesting to think about how you would do it all again from the beginning, knowing what you know now.
But I’m still convinced of one thing: any business that starts from zero can go right or wrong. This is the challenge. Time will tell...