Mauricio Prieto was Chief Marketing Officer from the online travel agency, eDreams between 1999 and 2015. Since 2015 he is a Founding Partner of Startfish Technology
Partners. In addition, he has been a coach and investor of startups like Beabloo, ReviewRank, Krush, Scripted, Lightt, WeHostels, EyeOS and Minube and different
venture capital funds such as: Bialla Digital Ventures, Corpfin Capital Ventures, Lanta Digital Ventures, Cabiedes & Partners. He’s also member of the Management Board of Barcelona Tech City.

Prieto emphasizes the significance of being surrounded by diverse people, coming from different cultures, personal and professional experiences, also from people from all ages. All this offers positive aspects on the work teams, such as connecting withdifferent consumers and the capability to be more innovative in the market.

BEGINNING OF EDREAMS

eDreams offers low-cost services in airlines, hotels, rental cars, dynamic and vacation packages and travel insurances. When the company was created, Prieto -together with
his partners- had clear in mind that they wanted a solid and long-term business, which would not only remain as a startup but also would become into a company. “Most of
the entrepreneurs have the motivation to launch many projects, instead we wanted to start with just one project and take it as far as possible”, stresses Prieto. For this
reason, he highlights the value for all entrepreneurs of defining their objectives and motivation, inasmuch as this type of approaches will have a huge impact on the
decisions made for the company.

The beginning of eDreams was not easy, it had a non-steady growth, then an exponential one, until it reached an equilibrium. “On each stage it’s required people
with different abilities and willingness. We must have clear which are the abilities that we need along the growth, and sometimes we must take decisions that are not
necessarily pleasant for people, but we have to understand, that not everybody works over all the growth phases of the company.

CULTURE IS CHARACTERISTIC OF EACH STARTUP

Defining the culture of the startups is really important, it requires effort, it’s not enough just looking at other examples and then copycat them, because it may don’t work.
Prieto remarks the importance of having their own culture. It’s important to define which is the culture that fits better.

For example, Prieto that one of the mainly values of the Amazon’s culture is the frugality, meanwhile Google doesn’t care spend any amount of money for deploying a
campus. Both companies are successful but doesn’t imply that the Amazon culture works on the Google’s one, and vice versa.

UPCOMING CHALLENGES

“The Third Digital Wave of Internet has brought acceleration in the innovation boosted by the democratization in the entrepreneurship”, remarks Prieto. Entrepreneurs are
increasingly more representative within the society; they search for giving solutions to the currently issues in the world. As a result, there are more digital and technological hubs. For this Reason, for Prieto, his challenge and also opportunity is to participate and contribute in the entrepreneurship development.