The World’s First
Startup Decelerator

Broad experience in business management, fundraising processes and investor relations. Has served as a Board Member at several early stage companies giving strategic advice. Has +15 years of experience in the European energy sector. Co-founder of B-strategies, co-founder of the European Pellets Council, co-founder of Decelera, co-founder of Torret Road. Holds an Executive degree from MDT, a Master’s degree in Business Administration from INDAE Business School and a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the UVa, having specialized in the energy industry.

14 years experienced Executive in Business Development, PR and Sales within the following sectors: Media Services, Advertising, Publishing, Content Marketing and Event Organization.
8 years of International experience in Key Accounting and Business Development in different countries: EMEA and LATAM. Long term, consistent and profitable relations with B2B clients. Proficiency level in English and French.
Founder and Director during 5 years of a Sustainable Tourism and ecological salt production company: Reserva la Concepció.

Professional qualified in international trade and specialized in creating value outputs for startups and B2B branding with more than 5 years of experience in innovation and business development industry. She wanted to discover her passion and share her experiences with other entrepreneurs so, in 2017 she moved to Silicon Valley and became the House Manager of the most well-named Hacker House for tech entrepreneurs in the Valley. During this, she founded her own business development agency for early-stage startups called Sivity counting with clients in more than 5 countries. 

Nowadays her main focus is creating a better entrepreneurship environment working with The World’s First Startup Decelerator. She’s in charge of Customer Experience and startup acquisition for the Decelera experience. Roadshow speaker and Event planner. Responsible of Alumni Program and logistic Manager.

In the meanwhile, she won the #AllStartups Hackathon for entrepreneurs in Madrid in 2018 and she founded The House. A co-living and co-working experience for same mindset people daring to share by living, interests to help them to connect and grow.

Antonio is a Board Member of El Comercio Prensa&News, the leading media group in Peru, a senior advisor of several leading companies in different sectors and a Founding Partner of Decelera, the innovative start-ups ‘decelerator’ and Torret Road Capital, among other occupations.
Until mid-2016, he was the Group Chief Revenue Officer of Grupo Prisa, a Spanish and Latam leading media & education group. Prior to that, Antonio held between 2002 and 2014 a wide range of positions at CBS Outdoor International (CBS Corporation) in London, including International President & CEO, International Chief Development Officer and CEO in South America. Previously, he was the CBS Outdoor’s Managing Director in Spain.
In earlier professional stages, he held general management positions in Nefitel/Telefónica, and Sales & Marketing management roles in Motorola, IRi, and Carrefour.
He also developed senior roles in international and Spanish associations, such as FEPE International, OMC UK, AGEP, AMPE, AEPE and others.
Antonio holds a degree in Law from the University of Deusto, Spain and a MBA from IE Business School. He is also a founder of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) in Madrid and serves in the Global Alumni Advisory Board of IE Business School & University. He is currently based in Madrid, Spain.

Antonio has over 20 years of IT and Internet/Mobile experience in senior executive positions with leading companies (Vodafone, Terra Lycos, Microsoft). He’s a Founding Partner of Decelera, and Advisor at Genasys, Advisor at Sherpa Next, and Board Advisor at MobileAware to name a few. He attended the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Dan lives in Brooklyn, NY. He’s building Circl.es, an idea that came out a recent sabbatical in Barcelona. Circles fosters deeper conversations to create enduring connections and learning.

Dan Hoffman loves growing companies, delivering great service, and applying technology. He believes that business is philosophy in action, culture eats strategy for breakfast, and learning is leverage. Dan has a lot of education and isn’t stopping. Dan joined a successful early Internet service provider that sold in 1998, founded and failed by 2000 with a venture-backed roll-up in Asia, and then started and grew M5. M5 became a pioneer in the cloud communications industry. After 12 years, Dan sold M5 to ShoreTel (SHOR) and worked there for a while before being selected as a 2014 Henry Crown Fellow and shipping off to spend two years with his family in Spain.

Di-Ann Eisnor, VP Platform & Partnership runs US operations and is crafting the cartography of “live mapping” for Israeli crowd-sourced navigation and real-time traffic start-up, Waze.

Di-Ann is a neogeography pioneer and serial entrepreneur employing all means to increase the world’s citizen mappers.

Prior to Waze, Di-Ann was Co-Founder and CEO of Platial, a widely adopted mobile and online social mapping service funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Ram Shriram and others. She also founded and Di-Ann holds a BS in Studio Art and Business Administration from New York University.

Elies is an obsessively driven entrepreneur who thrives on technology and business challenges. He is able to envision products and business strategies based on his knowledge and creative understanding of markets and technology. Elies is a cross-functional collaborator, at ease with engineering, product and business strategies. He has founded several companies including fastDove, a mobile messaging platform for Spanish mobile companies, AlertaPhone, the largest Spanish crowdsourced network of smartphone repairs, an eBay store for enterprise daily deals before Groupon and at age 14 founded Sants 3 Ràdio, a Barcelona local radio station. His primary interests and areas of focus are: Mobile, Mobile Apps, Mobile Messaging, e-Commerce, Analytics, SaaS, Crowdsourced Services. Elies moved to Silicon Valley and nos is part of the business development team at WhatsApp, recently acquired by Facebook for $17b.

Counsel at Olleros Lawyers

Javier Martínez has an extensive history with Euro Disney and The Walt Disney Company. He started as VP of Marketing and Sales with Euro Disney (9yrs) then transitioned to the Walt Disney Company, where he held varying lead/vp positions for the remaining six years he was with them. He is currently Managing Director of Business Development/Marketing & Sales at Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D.

As CEO of Artiem Fresh People Hotels, Jose has shaped the company and its culture for over 20 years. Jose and the Artiem team are leaders in the hotel industry with their belief that a hotel is not only somewhere to sleep, but a holistically focused place to create experiences and great memories for their guests. Jose has been a well-known figure in the Spanish hotel industry for many years, serving as past President of the industry consolidating Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations (CEHAT) as well as the innovative Hotel Technological Institute (ITH).

co-founder @Decelera @Torret Road │ @YouNoodle, Barcelona City Council, @La Salle Technova Barcelona │Inspired @UCBerkeley @Universitat Ramón Llull

SCPF is one of Spain’s leading creative advertising agencies.

The agency has offices in Barcelona, Madrid and Miami. The agency has been ranked by Campaign magazine as one of the four leading independent agencies in Europe.

SCPF, which employs 90 people, has billings of 15m euros in 2011.

SCPF operates autonomously within the WPP Group acts as a partner to the J Walter Thompson Group joint business initiatives.

Having spent over a decade as the CEO of innovative Spanish clothing brand Desigual, much of what Manel has accomplished to date is a result of his unshakeable commitment to making a difference in the world. A strong believer in the powers of positivity, commitment and creativity, he feels that there is a powerful correlation between fun and profit. With a strong global vision, Manel’s innovative yet disciplined approach to international business expansion was seen as the driving force behind Desigual’s explosive 50x revenue growth during his tenure with over 500 million Euros in sales in 2011. Aside from being a really great guy, Manel is also one of Decelera Founding Partners!

Martin Varsavsky is an Argentine/Spanish entrepreneur, and has founded several extremely successful companies over the course of his career. Martin manages the Varsavsky Foundation and is a board member of Instituto de Empresa, Spain’s leading business school, where he taught entrepreneurship for eight years.

Martin started his first business while still in college, Urban Capital Corporation, one of the early leaders of the loft movement in downtown Manhattan. His third business, Viatel Ltd., Varsavsky’s first venture into the world of telecom, is best known for inventing call back and building the first pan European fiber optic network ahead of liberalization. In 1998, he started Jazz Telecomunicaciones (Jazztel), Spain’s second largest publicly traded telecom operator, and founded Ya.com the following year (Spain’s third largest internet web site/DSL provider.) Martin is currently the larger shareholder and Chairman of Fon – the largest WiFi network in the world (headquartered in Madrid.)

Sam is best known for his role in growing hotel website wotif from 3 staff and $10m cap to 500+ staff and a cap in excess of $1B. As founder, advisor, and investor in multiple successful companies, Sam is known as a triple threat in the start-up community. Sam has been described as a no nonsense business leader who has the unique ability to connect the dots between marketing, ops, finance and capital management. His ability to make immediate sense of complicated situations and offer constructive, strategic advice is invaluable to any team.

Professional with more than 20 years of international experience in FMCG market and since 2009 in Biotech, Pharma, Private Equity, M&A, Quantum computing and Startups

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Professional with more than 30 years of international experience in FMCG market and since 2009 in Biotech sector, M&A, Startups, Private Equity, Investment Management and Pharmaceutical.
International Management positions in Spain, France, Germany, China, Mexico, Brazil and Italy.
Languages: Spanish, English, French, Italian and Catalan.
Specialties: General Management, International Development, Growth Projects, Strategic Alliances, Startups.

Chief Executive Officer and Entrepreneur with clear focus on GeneralManagement, Business Intelligence & Development, Strategic Planning, Leadership, Innovation. Passionate about sports and modern art firmly believes in creating engagement and team-building through sport and communication.

Potentiate companies, startup’s and professionals through consulting and training in marketing, personal branding and leadership. I help companies make better decisions by understanding who they are, how they think and especially how people act (market research and consumer behavior). I also help the professionals to put themselves in value and to enhance their personal branding. In addition, I apply leadership techniques to both companies and professionals to get better results.

I am graduated in ADE and MBA by ESADE. I have over 18 years of professional experience. In this time, I have combined my professional work (I have managed 4 companies: SAGE Eurowin, Ros Roca SRN, Fira de Lleida and Renault Lamolla) with my activity as a consultant (I founded my own company in 2001, Smart Marketing) and teaching Professor at the University of Lleida).

I currently work as a consultant and teacher in marketing, leadership and personal branding.

In October of 2015 I published my book “Desmárcate – develop your personal brand successfully”

Tammy is a Website Producer with a Berekley MBA,who created large scale commercial websites for many Bay Area projects.
Moved to Spain with eDreams, and spent the last 15 years in Europe. Dabbling as an Angel Investor with 4/9 Investments in Spain, the most promising Beabloo and the most cultural “No Day But Today”.

I am currently the Founder of The Makers Nation (themakersnation.com), with the goal of building creative communities through making.

Passionate about community building, story telling, and entrepreneurship – I believe strongly in the power of word of mouth marketing and grassroots initiatives to inspire and incite action. I thrive when leading projects that build, speak, and listen to the stories of a community and bring measurable results back to the relevant stakeholders.

Cristina Ventura has been working in Retail for the past 20 years and is currently leading the international business of Joyce based in Hong Kong as Senior Vice President for the Group, managing a portfolio of over 200 luxury brands. Joyce is a famous Luxury Retailer in Greater China, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and part of The Lane Crawford Joyce Group. Cristina has been working in Luxury and Retail for some of the world’s most prestigious brands and brings an international understanding of luxury, strategic planning, creativity and innovation.

Before joining Joyce, Cristina has been leading Apple’s team and high growth expansion in Hong Kong and China, one of the largest growth markets for Apple globally. She grew her team to over 1,500 members covering four large retail stores in Hong Kong and South China, which made an important contribution to Apple’s $8.8 billion revenues in China.Previously, Cristina was Regional Retail Director at Prada Group, where she was responsible for the regional retail network of the Prada, Miu Miu and Car Shoe brands, covering 12 countries and over 100 stores with 1,500 employees throughout the Asia Pacific Region and was involved in the preparation of Prada’s IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Product management leader with 10+ years of experience in e-commerce. Experienced in growth stage companies; launched European operations. Strategic planning experience & P&L accountability. Led complex cross-functional teams. Worked in 3 continents.

Professor Engel is an internationally recognized expert in innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, lecturing and advising business and government leaders around the world. He is the co-founder with the well-known serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, of The Lean LaunchPad. After a successful business career, he joined the faculty of University of California at Berkeley in 1991 to found the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, of which he is a Senior Fellow and the Founding Executive Director Emeritus. He advises major corporations as well as young emerging companies and private equity investors on corporate strategy and innovation.

John is a General Partner and co-founder of BlueRun Ventures, formed in 1998. John’s commitment to entrepreneurs and their market vision is reflected by his thoughtful, passionate and consistent efforts to help founding teams reach the full potential of their endeavors.

John brings global operations and marketing experience into such investment areas as internet services, digital media and mobile broadband services. He has more than 20 years’ experience as an executive, entrepreneur, investor, and director of venture-backed start-ups, and has served on the boards of more than 20 companies. Most notably, he was the first venture investor and board member in Paypal, for which he was named on Forbes’ Midas List of Top Venture Capitalists.

Prior to founding BRV, John served in management and executive roles with Nokia, Go Communications and MCI. He holds a J.D. from George Mason University and B.A. from Boston College.

Goal oriented risk taker.

Specialties: Business Strategy and International Business Development, Partnership Development, International Market Development, Accredited Business Angel and Venture Capital ecosystem, Business Process Management, Project Management, Sales and Marketing, Cross-cultural teaming, Relationship Management, People Management, Technology Transfer, US federal research strategies, higher education strategic planning, Due Diligence

Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 12,000 members worldwide, and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches today. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 210 partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scaleup. The “Growth Guy” syndicated columnist, he’s also the Venture columnist for FORTUNE magazine. He’s the author of the bestseller Mastering the Rockefeller Habits which is translated into 9 languages; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times,” for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword.

His latest book Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) has won seven major international book awards including the prestigious 2015 International Book Award for Best General Business book. Verne also chairs FORTUNE Magazine’s annual ScaleUp and Growth Summits and serves on several boards including chairman of The Riordan Clinic and the newly launched Geoversity.

A private investor in many scaleups, Verne resides in Barcelona, Spain, with his wife and four children and enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Professional with more than 20 years of international experience in FMCG market and since 2009 in Biotech, Pharma, Private Equity, M&A, Quantum computing and Startups

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Professional with more than 30 years of international experience in FMCG market and since 2009 in Biotech sector, M&A, Startups, Private Equity, Investment Management and Pharmaceutical.
International Management positions in Spain, France, Germany, China, Mexico, Brazil and Italy.
Languages: Spanish, English, French, Italian and Catalan.
Specialties: General Management, International Development, Growth Projects, Strategic Alliances, Startups.

Seasoned entrepreneur, early-stage business angel and entrepreneurship lecturer in 3 languages and 4 continents; Mathieu joined Nero Ventures early 2016 as a General Partner; focuses on deal-flow generation and value creation.

Mathieu is one of the 3 founding partners of Venture Hub, a consulting firm supporting the scale of high growth start-ups and the development of entrepreneurial skills in the society at large. He is a Business Angel investing in early stage new ventures (holding board seats) such as MBA&CO, a world leading internet Marketplace disrupting the recruiting industry on a global scale.

After completing his MBA, Mathieu took the helm of the IESE Business School Center for Entrepreneurship where he coordinated teaching, research and outreach activities related to Entrepreneurship and innovation during 6 years.