This time, in El Periscopio, we talked about design and the industrial sector with Oriol Pascualfounder and CEO of Stage2. With him, we learn about his company, which backs and supports European industrial technology founders, and we also analyze the industrial sector, technology and startups .
Oriol is a true believer in the industrial sector. Strong and competitive economies are those that have a strong industrial sector.
"Strong economies are those that have at least 20, if not 25% of GDP in the productive, transformative and industrial economy," Oriol remarked.
In 2014, and hired by a technical university in Barcelona, our guest started a program for industrial startups, as a center for entrepreneurship and to support university students. At that time the startup sector had grown a lot, but no one was supporting industrial startups.
8 years later, and after supporting 82 startups, Pascual and 10 partners are entrepreneurs. And so was born Stage2was born, to fill a need.
During his time at the university he noticed that 2-3 year old startups, which already had a working prototype and had developed a new technology or product, only had a patent and a few units . But they did not know how to grow and industrialize their business.
Stage2 solved this problem, and was one of the first to support these startups in the sector.
When we talk about entrepreneurship and startups we refer to a methodological and structured process of how to create new business projects and validate business ideas.
This type of company arises at the same time as the boom of digital technologies and in parallel to the creation of the Internet. It is therefore inevitable to assimilate the concepts startup and entrepreneurship with digital solutions. Or digitized services such as buying and selling, renting or sharing.
Oriol tells us that in the digital world, the issue is not so much about revenue, but about gaining market share and users. When the time comes, the company becomes the industry benchmark. It is the winner-takes-it-all strategy . As in the case of Airbnb or Amazon.
"The dynamics of the digital world tend to have one player taking the whole pie in a particular sector," says Pascual.
Oriol is optimistic. Analyzing the evolution of the digital sector and the health sector in Catalonia and Spain, he says that 20 years ago few people invested in them.
Today, everything has changed. Barcelona is considered the third best city in Europe to start a company and has a mature ecosystem with many players.
Our guest tells us that the industrial sector has already started on this path and that in a few years it could be as important as the other two.
Validating technology is one thing, but validating industrialization is another.
"Elon Musk always says that prototyping is easy and industrializing is very difficult," says Oriol.
Companies face a great challenge when it comes to validate their industrializations, despite having innovative technologies, they need capital, and few private investors are committed to helping these startups to make their way. Stage2 seeks to help them.
The role of design in the industrial sector is a clear pillar. Oriol says it has evolved a lot in recent years. It used to be more artistic and aesthetic and today it is more strategic and engineering. It plays a very important role.
"Designers bring the magic to the product," says Pascual.
The 360º vision of a designer towards the product, makes it take into account everything that surrounds it. Providing dimensions of usability, interaction, ease and repair that others would not.
Behind industrial entrepreneurship projects, and dare we say in life in general 😉, attitude is vital. A good attitude.
Oriol believes that the key to any project in the sector will depend largely on the attitude of its leader and that of his team.
He ends by saying that leadership must be approached with a positive attitude and adaptability.
