Today we had the opportunity to talk a bit with Rodrigo Delgado, entrepreneurship mentor at La Lonja de la Innovación, about his professional career and experience.
Rodrigo studied Telecommunication Engineering and has a long experience, within which the milestone he is most proud of is to have achieved that GABITEL INGENIEROS, which he joined in 2006, when it was just a fledgling project with no more than 5 employees, has become a company with 200 employees. What makes him proud of is what this growth implies, because as our mentor says “this means that a great number of people and families have been able to make their personal dreams come true, thanks to their work in our company, and that is very comforting”.
It was in the same year he started at GABITEL, 2006, when his journey in entrepreneurship began. Since then, Rodrigo has been, and continues to be, a partner and manager of several companies, and he has also helped many other entrepreneurs in their beginnings, as well as in their day to day; a task he performs everyday at La Lonja.
Huelva’s entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur, he believes that entrepreneurship from Huelva is possible because, as he says, "we have a global vision and we are open to the world, as our export figures show. And we not only export products, but also talent and know-how”. In addition, he adds that “Huelva is a province of valuable people, discoverers and entrepreneurs”. With all these ingredients, Rodrigo considers that very little is needed to encourage entrepreneurship in huelva, but undoubtedly the help of the administrations is needed to achieve “bureaucratic simplicity, lower taxes aid for entrepreneurship and hiring, infrastructure improvements, etc.” But, in spite of all this, our mentor considers that the Huelva entrepreneurs have been born and trained in this land for generations.
In addition, now with La Lonja de la Innovación, this help to entrepreneurship is easier, so Rodrigo encourages anyone who is thinking about joining “to do so without hesitating for a second”, since “there is a great team of mentor behind La Lonja, which joins the facilities provided by Telefónica. It is a unique opportunity in our province and is a great luck to be able to take advantage of it”
Rodrigo’s work in la Lonja de la Innovación
There are many tips that Rodrigo can offer thanks to his experience, but if he had to choose one, it would be to make a good business plan, “which is supported by a rigorous market study, with a realistic segmentation of potential customers and expected revenue volumes”. Our mentor explains that the costs are more predictable and easier to calculate, but it is fundamental “to do the prior exercise of calculating what they would be and the sales needed to support them.”
On the other hand, thanks to his experience as an entrepreneur and after helping so many others in their paths, he has been able to observe that the most important values in an entrepreneur are “to have a high degree of determination to achieve their objectives, joined with leadership skills and honesty”. And if his previous experience has given him anything else, it is the ability to offer objectivity and critical capacity when analyzing the business plans of the startups that are accelerated at La lonja de la Innovación. In adicción, as he says, he can also “provide good ideas and contacts to those entrepreneurs who request them”
It has been a pleasure to talk with Rodrigo Delgado and getting to know him better, if you want to continue getting to know the rest of mentors of La Lonja de la Innovación, stay tuned to our website