Determination | Pitch by Pitch

Can too much determination be fatal for an entrepreneur?

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Carlota @BeConnections

Personal sacrifice comes with the label entrepreneurship. As one, I tend to put many aspects of my life behind BeConnections. I call it determination, but could an overdose of this be cancerous?

I had a meeting on Sunday in Manhattan and decided to come into the city a day early to see my friends from college. We dined at a Mexican restaurant in the West Village and reminisced on our years at American University in Washington D.C. It had been 7 years since our graduation day and our first expression lines around the corners of our eyes revealed signs of hard work and luckily for all of us, of professional progress since then, too.

“It’s easy to forget how far we’ve come” — Beth Orten

Financial district, NYC

My closest friend that evening is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Health at Colombia University. The next two years will tell a story of determination and sacrifice. Her sacrifice during this time is nearly mathematical.

After two years of hard work and perseverance, she will receive a Master’s degree from a leading University in the US. That diploma will lead to a wealth of opportunities, which in turn will be attached to a monetary compensation. And rightly so. She will have earned it, for that diploma represents an investment made into her education.

Education is a safe bet… but is entrepreneurship?

As my friends and I were catching up, I was also receiving a thread of messages from a fellow entrepreneur in Boston who was going through a very difficult moment in his life.

This friend of mine is in his mid 50s and he had, also, made a bet.

He had bet his house. He had bet his family. He had bet his life… on an investment that, unlike education, is far from safe. This bet was on his startup and he was all in.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Can too much determination be fatal?

“Where the story ends depends on how far we go” — Beth Orten

Passion and determination are fundamental elements for every startup, and a founder without those two elements will, ultimately, fail. However, too much of anything is called an overdose and that can be fatal if not reversed.

“I wonder where these dreams go when the world gets in your way” — The Goo Goo Dalls

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Pitching BeConnections to a crowd of 200 people on Dat Venture’s Demo Day. Boston, 2015

For that reason, I’ve added an additional element to my equation, which is pragmatism. The ability to take a step back and make rational choices will mark the difference between a founder who runs her startup and a startup that runs a founder’s life.

Which scenario do you prefer?

BeConnections is a virtual networking bridge between companies in emerging and developed markets, which is currently being used by companies in 40 countries and 25 major industries to discover and connect to new leads and partnerships around the world.

Founder Carlota Pico is currently in Boston launching the network in the US via Massachusetts. She is working closely with private and public agencies to provide local companies with a hub online to meet and connect on in real-time. Her long term vision is for BeConnections to be a source of greater deal flow and partnership opportunities across borders and industries. To be part of this mission, join www.beconnections.com — it’s free!

Three letters that changed my life: yes

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Carlota @BeConnections

If you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.

African Proverb.

Week 1: On route from Madrid to Boston

Five days ago, I was saying good-bye to everything that I knew and I loved. I had spent the whole day packing my life into medium size boxes and enormous suitcases. My cat Mandela along with everything else was being temporarily moved to my aunt’s house until… when? I don’t exactly know.

That’s the problem with good-byes; the scary part about going abroad isn’t leaving but rather not knowing when and if one will come back.

Every step that you take could be your biggest mistake. It could bend or it could break but that’s the risk that you take. ~ Cold Play

Traveling is exhilarating and exhausting

How can you know it when you don’t even try.

Traveling steals my heart and holds my tongue.

It reminds me of an article that I read recently about 40 amazing things that one never forgets. In my case, I never know which way I’m going, but I always remember which way I came and I never forget the people that momentarily become my family. And hence the ecstasy and heartbreak of a nomad.

Say you’ll wait for me.

Traveling is bottom line, heartbreaking.

Each time I leave, a piece of me remains where I was and another part where ever I’m going. With every good-bye, I’m detaching myself from a part of life that I’ve come to label as normal.

But then again, what is normality? We all have choices in life, and it’s these choices that make us normal. Some people never leave their homes, but every single person makes a choice at some point throughout their journey. The choice could be an I do at the steps of an alter or a rejection letter to a job. What’s important about this choice is the bounding commitment that we should all feel every time we use these two words. Yes and no.

Both words can change one’s life forever. I’d rather focus on the yes.

It’s so easy to say and so hard to live up to.

So this is my declaration to Boston:

Yes, I will embrace this new city as home
Yes, I will make enduring friends
Yes, I will actively participate in your culture and celebrate your victories – even the most recent Patriots win
Yes, I will forever hold you in my heart as a city that introduced BeConnections to the US market

What do I ask in return? Please stop snowing.

Jokes aside, while I was on the plane I was watching the movie, The Good Lie, which is about South Sudanese refugees who relocate to the US. Although I can’t compare myself to its protagonists, their sense of uncertainty upon arriving to the US is a feeling that I’ve shared many times upon all my travels.

The best remedy against it is to revolve oneself around great people. I’m lucky enough to be part of Dat Venture, an accelerator that does so much more than accelerate Spanish startups – it builds friendships.

So although many of my colleagues don’t speak English fluently and many times, their lack of proficiency may be a barrier, I’d rather go slow but yet farther together.

To my new friends: thank you

To Boston: you’re amazing

To Spain: I miss you everyday

My pledge to you

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Carlota @BeConnections

Raise your hand if you have ever wondered what it would be like to be part of an accelerator? Keep your hand in the air if you have applied to an accelerator in the past, only to find the rejection notification in your inbox a few weeks later.

Hands down. Breath. It’s happened to the best of startups.

I’m assuming you’re an early-stage startup with a developed business idea, MVP and maybe some early customers.

So was Buffer when it applied to Y Combinator and was at the time, rejected (read their CEO’s rejected application here).

According to a report published by TechCrunch in 2014, only 4% of applicants ever make it into an accelerator.

“F6S found that, on average, 3.98% of applicants to the 1,564 Accelerator programs that ran their application process through F6S between February 2013 to February 2014, were accepted into Accelerator programs. The results are based on 62,262 applications from over 150,000 founders in 95 countries.”

Whoa. That’s a lot of rejection.

So how does an entrepreneur fight this battle? It’s called determination, which is composed of two primary ingredients: resilience and drive. As the author of the book Founder at Work, puts it:

“Resilience keeps you from being pushed backwards. Drive moves you forwards … [] Even if you are Airbnb, you are going to start out looking like an ugly duckling to most people.”

Our team at BeConnections knows what this feels like. Both myself and my colleagues have spent long nights filling out application forms to accelerators in the UK, US and Spain, a few of which have kindly been returned to us with a big fat no.

Luckily we’re passionate about our network and determined to make it work. Go hard or go home, right?

The good news is that our hard work has paid off. BeConnections was recently selected to participate in Dat Venture, an accelerator based in Boston that helps Spanish founders break into the US market. The 3 month long program can basically be summed up into 3 parts.

Entrepreneurs take business courses once a week at Harvard University
The rest of the week is spent at WeWork, a communal and collaborative office-space operator for startups and other small businesses in downtown Boston. Weeks alternate between personalized coaching received from former Techstar Mentors and other seasoned entrepreneurs/experts and practical coursework about different topics that affect the lifecycle of a Startup, such as product valuation, customer acquisition strategy, etc.
Founders sleep at Krash, a network of shared living spaces where residents immerse themselves in the culture of innovation.

The acceleration process starts February 1^st, which means that I’m moving to Boston in two weeks! I have loads of emotions that are clouding my thoughts, lately, many of which I will discuss in the upcoming days.

However, before moving across an ocean for my startup I would like to make a pledge to you.

I pledge to write in my diary every week during our acceleration process.
I pledge to tell you both the good and the bad about our experience in Boston
I pledge to share honest and relevant information to help your startup grow
I pledge to be your friend, to be reliable and to always get back to your comments

Never forget that incubators are shortcuts. They can help you improve your chances of success, but they don’t determine it.

Moral of the story? Don’t give up.