Talk sharing career paths and experiences on Startups, Academia, & Industry to PhD students considering setting up a Startup. Some advice to my younger self for building a startup. Talk to Lowcomote's PhD Student on 2021.11.04. By: Pedro J. Molina PhD. founder at Metadev S.L.

1. Are
Startups
for me?
2021.11.04
Pedro J. Molina, PhD
Founder

2. Disclaimer
▪AllopinionsthatIamgoingtopresenthereare
hardlybiasedbymyownexperience.
▪Takethemcarefully,notasanirrefutabletruth.
▪Contrastwithothersandyourownexperience&
context.

3. Contents
▪ Career paths for PhDs
▪ Entrepreneurs:data & mindset
▪ Short Bio (to put in context)
▪ My balance: achievements & failures
▪ Lesson learned
▪ My approachto business
▪ Entrepreneursin a Post-pandemic World
▪ Sum up: advice to my younger-self

4. Career paths for a PhD
▪ Academia, Postdoctoral Research
▪ Path to→ Full time professor (high competence)
▪ Work in industry
▪ Software Developer
▪ Consultancy
▪ Research
▪ Startups
▪ Build your own
▪ Join a startup
▪ Cultivate carrots, be a gardener, a musician, etc.
Legend: Explored in Blue, not yet in Red.

5. Some Entrepreneurial Facts
Abundance of entrepreneurs: 0.31% in the USA
Survival rate:
▪ 20% close on the 1st year
▪ 50% close before the 5th year.
▪ 33% ofstartup survive after10 years.
Reason #1why businesses fail is there’s no market
need.
62% of small businesses don't have any staff.
30% of entrepreneurs only have a high school degree.
PhD holders:
▪ 4% entrepreneurs
▪ 96% remains in Academia or work for companies)
Studies show middle-aged men start the most successful
businesses. (MIT Sloan)
There is a belief that young people are responsible for
most successful businesses out there.
However, studies shown that middle-aged men have a
much better chance of succeeding in their enterprises,
especially if they’vealready workedin thefield before.
42years of age on average.
There seemed to be this very consistent finding that the
likelihood of entrepreneurialsuccess riseswith age.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/age-
of-successful-entrepreneurs
55% say their biggest motivation is being their own boss
97% of self-employed professionals say they would
nevergo back to traditional employment.

6. Bio
1998 - 1999 Research Fellowship, UPV, Valencia
1994 - 1996
Technical Software Engineering, UCLM, Albacete
Seattle
SFO
1996 - 1998
Software Engineering, UPV, Valencia
1998 - 2003
PhDinComputer Sciences,UPV, Valencia 1999 - 2004 Researcher, Software Architect CARE Technologies, Dénia
2005 - 2012 Capgemini, SW Architect, Consultant, Manager, Valencia
2012 - 2016 Research Manager & CTO, Icinetic, Sevilla / Seattle
2016 - now Founder,Metadev, Sevilla
2018 - now OpenAPI Inititative, Linux Foundation / Univ. of Seville
AB
VLC
Dénia
SVQ
Born in 1975.
Work Experience
Studies

7. Achievements
▪ PhD in the area I like (2003)
▪ 2 USPTO patents granted (2005)
▪ Working for top companiesbuilding successful
MDE approaches
▪ Build one of the firsts successful Mobile
AppBuilder (Windows Phone App Builder)
(2013)
▪ Setup my own company → freedom (2016)
Failures
▪ Discover a failed marketing approach (2003) “The
ProgrammingMachine”
▪ Discover a total lack of trust from my boss (2004)
▪ When almost get ready to sell the product/company
being cheated by a big shark (2013)
▪ Wrong VC focus on the market (2013)
▪ 1.5M USD of investment vs competitors:
▪ Mendix 13+38M USD (sold to Siemmens by 700M USD 2018)
▪ or Outsystems 360+150M USD
My (current) balance
So far, so good! Game has not finished. I keeplearningeveryday…

8. The Startup Circus
▪ Tech Crunch
▪ AngelList
▪ Accelerators
▪ Y Combinator
▪ 500 Startups
▪ Angel Investors
▪ Venture Capital
▪ A16z
▪ Sequoia
…
▪ Series A, B, C… and sell
The“easy” recipe:
▪ Pitch & raisethe money
▪ Growth an exponentialproduct
▪ Builda Unicorn
▪ Exit: Sell it!
Pros:
▪ Will learn a lot in 2-3 years (better than an MBA)
▪ If lucky (Unicorn) you can do whatever you want after
that
Cons:
▪ Stressful & demanding (fierce competence)
▪ High risk: 10% get an exit, 90% close (all or nothing)
Otheralternatives:
▪ Bootstrapping: keep control of the company
▪ Set the pace of the growth
▪ E.g. Mailchimp (2001 – 2021) (12.000M USD)

9. “Know thyself” Socrates
What are my strengthpoints?
What Iknow, Iam lacking?
What kind of games Iliketo play?
Look yourself at the mirror and ask others how they sincerely see you.
https://www.16personalities.com
Architects are the most likely personality typeto avoid beingdependenton
other people.
True for me. -> Tendency to be a solo entrepreneur.
Steve Jobs: Discourse to Standford 2005 Students
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

10. Entrepreneur Mindset
▪ Positive thinking
▪ Creative mindset
▪ Persuasive communication ability & Story
telling
▪ Intrinsic motivation & Drive
▪ Tenacity & ability to learn from failure
▪ Humble while hungrily ambitious

11. Uncertain / Risk
tolerance?
Where do you feel comfortable?
Build a company is a challenge in many
aspects:
▪ Technical
▪ Social: customers & providers
relations & team building
▪ Legal & Finances
▪ Negotations
▪ Personal effort (keep healthy
physical & mental)

12. Lesson learned
▪ Set your objectives in life
▪ What is success for you?
▪ Buildinga revolutionarytechnologyto improvethe
world?
▪ Having 5 millionsof USD in the bank?
▪ Be the owner of your agendaand be able to takea free
day if you want to to play with your 2 years daughter?
▪ To grow a happy family?
▪ Do what you like: Life is short to be following other's
dreams
▪ Break & try thinks while you are young. You need to expose
to different cultures, way of thinking to discover what you
really like.
▪ Your 20s-30s are ideal time frame to discover and learn.
▪ Probably when approaching 30, 35, 40 chances are you will
have children → Your perception of risk will change.
▪ Priorities change
▪ Will tolerate less risk
▪ Will not be liking to travel so much
▪ So be aware of that, and plan accordingly

13. Lesson learned
▪ Build your own business is not for everybody (risk aversion & self motivation)
▪ Know yourself. Can you tolerate the risk?
▪ Be prepared& await for the right timing
▪ Focus on what you can control, be aware of what we cannot
▪ If failure arrives: it’s part of life
▪ «Aguapasadanomuevemolino»(Old Spanish saying) meaning “Pastwaterdon’tmovethewatermill”
▪ Recognize > accept > embrace > learn & move on.

14. Our (lean) approach to business
▪ Now Bootstrapping (less pressure, no hurry)
▪ Know your customers: detect pain points, find where we can Add
Value and focus on it
▪ Look always for win-win deals
▪ Build trust for a long-term relationship
▪ The best marketing are satisfied customers
▪ Simplify: life is too complexto create more troubles.

15. Entrepreneur in a Postpandemic World
▪ Climate Crisis: We need to be sustainable, or
not be.
▪ Remoteworkhas come to stay.
▪ Talent is more reluctantto move to Silicon
Valley and commute to work 2 hours every
day.
▪ The nextsuccessful startups are no longer
to be in SFO / Silicon Valley (can be anywhere
in the world).
▪ Hire thebest (you can afford) Culturalfit &
alignmentmatters more than distance.
Buildtrust relationshipsand nurturethem.

16. To sum up
My advice, to my younger self would be:
▪ Know yourself
▪ Define your own goals for happiness & to be successful
▪ Know the market
▪ Be antifragile, defer decisions, keep alternatives open: optionality.
▪ Build a team to make you grow
▪ Surround yourself with smarter people than you to learn from
▪ Be prepared to surf the wave: Thefortune willfavor thebrave (& the prepared)
What ever you do, enjoy during the path, everyday.
“Donottakelifetooseriously. Youwillnever get outofitalive.” Elbert Hubbard

17. Recommended readings
▪ Antifragile, Things that Gain from Disorder 2013, Nassim Taleb
▪ Exponential Organizations, 2014, Salim Ismail
▪ The Lean Startup, 2011, Eric Ries
▪ Phoenix Project, 2018, Gene Kim
▪ The Unicorn Project, 2019, Gene Kim
▪ Storytelling & Negotiation

18. Your ideas, in action.
https://metadev.pro | @metad3v