“Be decent. Think like an entrepreneur. Play hard. Go beyond”. 

These are just some of the tips from Jose Del Barrio for startups at this year’s South Summit. Jose co-founded La Nevera Roja in 2011 and later led the sale of the company to Rocket Internet for €80m euro in 2015. 

Now CEO and founding partner at Samaipata Ventures, he’s constantly looking to build relationships with marketplace and integrated eCommerce startups.

Venture capital has been a mainstay for startups looking for investment for years. Facebook had barely broken out on a handful of university campuses when it received its Series A funding from Accel. 

“When we invested in Facebook we thought it might be a nice $200m dollar company serving students”, says Jim Swartz in an interview with the Silicon Valley Business Journal. 

“We're always looking for high growth and the opportunity to dominate a market”. 

Swartz co-founded Accel in 1983 with Arthur Patterson. The growth Facebook would subsequently undergo would have been difficult to predict, but Accel have a slick portfolio that includes Dropbox, Slack, Spotify and Squarespace to name but a few. Investing in Facebook was no accident. 

“We spend a lot of time every quarter trying to define what major sectors are emerging that are going to be the disruptive, high-growth centers. Then we pay attention to them and look for projects in those areas”, Swartz told TechFlash Editor Cromwell Schubarth. 

The rise in popularity of accelerators has also been an incredible boost to the startup industry. They give startups the investment and workspace needed to realise the full potential of their ideas. 

Techstars and 500 Startups are both highly popular accelerators making an appearance at South Summit. 

“90% of startups fail. Surrounding yourself with great mentors, other founders and a massive network that can help you during your journey can make the difference” says Jose Iglesias, Director of Startup Programs in EMEA at Techstars, referencing the popularity of accelerators for startups in Europe. 

“Over 900 companies have gone through a Techstars programme since 2007, and 91% of those are still active or have been acquired.” 

Previous Techstars graduates include SendGrid, Sphero, and Two Bit Circus.  

There’s also been the continued rise of corporate VC’s and accelerators. Startups have always been trying to get close to corporations and corporates always want to be near the cutting edge of innovation. In a Gary Stewart blog post for Wayra, itself an accelerator for Telefónica, he discusses the growing importance of corporate VC’s and accelerators in the industry.

“In the UK, for example, our Wayra startups have generated over $61M in investment, and developed products and services that have enriched the customer experience provided by Telefónica.”

His stat highlights the mutual benefits startups and corporations both receive from these partnerships. The current investment opportunity available to startups and entrepreneurs is an extremely rich and fertile ground. Orange, who will be at South Summit, also run a 3-month accelerator programme helping startups with innovative products and services that meet their strategy and commercial interests. 

“Usually corporate VCs have strategic objectives”, Jose of Techstars told me. “They provide startups with in-depth industry knowledge and access to potential customers.”

“We work with some of the World's top corporations and the results are pretty successful. Most of the startups going through our corporate partner programs end up doing business with the corporate.”

You can benefit from the opportunity to meet top-level corporates, accelerators and global investors at South Summit. Techstars, Accel, Softtech, 500 Startups, Atomico, Rakuten and a whole bunch more will all be there. 

It’s also never been easier to meet startups, investors, entrepreneurs, corporates and more by registering for the South Summit speed-networking event. 

See you on October 5th! Tickets here