At La Lonja de la Innovación we are lucky to have a great team of mentors who are experts in different areas and we want you to meet all of them. Therefore, today we sat down to talk with our mentor in personal communication, Andrés Vidal Acquaroni, a Law graduated.
Andrés’ labor as a mentor
Andrés tells us that he likes to "understand each of the projects and get to know people, help them discover their full potential and set themselves challenges". That is why he is most proud of having been able to form teams that improve every day with the contributions of each one, as well as helping many professionals from all fields to communicate with talent and passion, work that he does at La Lonja with the startups he mentors.
His experiences has made him live “hundreds of situations that, if you analyze a little bit, they give you clues” that you can turn into learning. As he tells us, in the entrepreneurial world, communication is essential, so as a mentor, he asks the entrepreneur questions they haven't asked themselves yet and that allow them to anticipate situations that will occur in the future in order to be able to make guided and well-founded decisions.
Although he already tries to promote entrepreneurship in Huelva, doing his bit with the advice he gives to startups in La Lonja, he believes that more needs to be done from the province, in particular, “creating spaces of relation with quality”. Our mentor explains that one of the main difficulties that entrepreneurial projects have is being able to make themselves known. “Startups need to meet investors, partners, other companies of the same or different sector, tractor companies, potential customers, ect. Through prestigious forums which are attractive”, he says, concluding that “if we really believe that entrepreneurship provides talent for a better solution to current problems and challenges, it is necessary to put it at the forefront so that it is known”.
Some tips for entrepreneurs
Andrés not only tells us what Huelva must do to promote entrepreneurship, but also he tells us what, according to his experience, are the most important values that every entrepreneur must have: “open mind, critical thinking and resistance to obstacles, which are going to be many”.
In addition, he takes the opportunity to offer a series of tips: "We must avoid arrogance and enlightenment, there is already too much of that in our society. Listen, evaluate and decide. The decision is yours, you are the one who puts your time, your money and your future at stake. It is preferable to do and make a mistake than to do nothing".
After these tips he encourages any entrepreneur who thinking on applying to La Lonja de la Innovación to do so, because as he says, “it is going to help them to make their project a reality”
Finally, he didn’t want to say goodbye without first giving some books recommendations for inspiring our entrepreneurs: Sin noticias de Gurb, by Eduardo Mendoza, a book which he describes as “a funny lesson in adapting to an to an unknown place” and Las voces de Marrakech, by Elías Canetti, to learn about marketing and pricing, from which he recommends the story “La elección del pan”, which he defines as “a naked reflection on value”
Getting to know Andrés Vidal a little bit better has been great. Now, you can read the rest of the interviews to our mentors in La Lonja de la Innovación’s blog, where you will also find many more tips on entrepreneurship.