Jorge Marcos, Lead Project Manager at Opentop, “The Business Growth Program is focused on the growth of the company regardless of the stage it is in”

Jorge Marcos, Lead Project Manager at Opentop, “The Business Growth Program is focused on the growth of the company regardless of the stage it is in”

31/01/2024. We talked about innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, partners, the port logistics sector and the Business Growth Program with Jorge Marcos, Lead Project Manager at Opentop.

Startups can submit their projects to the challenges proposed by the initiative until 3 March 2024. Stay tuned so you don’t miss any of the news or new challenges that Opentop will continue to propose to the ecosystem!

What’s new in the Business Growth Program and how does it differ from previous programmes?

We have previously developed an incubation programme and an acceleration programme. We focused on the stage of the entrepreneurial projects and helping them to get what they needed to get to the next level. Now, with the Business Growth Program we are focused on the growth of the company regardless of the stage it is in.

Specialised mentoring, networking with key managers in the sector, participation in events and visibility in marketing actions, support in obtaining financing and, above all, the possibility of carrying out pilots with companies in the port sector are some of the tools that we will make available to entrepreneurs to help them grow their business.

What is the role of the corporates in this Business Growth Program?

The corporates, or, as we call them at Opentop, our partners, are the companies in the port logistics sector that launch innovation challenges for which the startups propose their solutions. Once a startup has been chosen for the programme to solve the challenge posed by the partner, both collaborate during the six months of the programme, testing and adapting the solution proposed by the startup to meet the real business needs of a potential client, which allows the startup to validate its solution and adapt it to the sector. Once validated, or if the solution is more mature, we pursue the objective of a pilot project or commercial deployment.

Thanks to this collaboration, the partner gains access to innovative technological solutions and a new level of knowledge from the experts who develop the technology, which would otherwise be very difficult to achieve. In addition, they can experiment with new ideas and even business models, minimising risks for the corporation and maximising the potential benefits of the technology.

What are you looking for in this new Business Growth Program?

We are launching a new programme, but our objective remains the same: to seek out and support the best innovative start-ups capable of providing solutions to the challenges of the port logistics sector and who want to grow their business with the help of the leading port cluster.

After almost two years of life, what experiences and conclusions is the initiative starting to draw?

In these two years we have held 2 hackathons, with a total of 100 participants and 2 programmes with 8 startups and more than 30 partners in the different initiatives.

We have also held innovation conferences and an international congress, as well as being present at multiple events, collaborating with the innovation ecosystem. But we see that for us the most important thing is to see that open innovation bears fruit and that the projects of our startups are being implemented, providing technological solutions to the challenges of the companies and entities that work in the Ports of Valencia, Sagunto and Gandía.

What skills and values are you detecting that are most valuable in startups and entrepreneurs?

For us, in the case of teams with several partners, it is very important that the founding team is well formed, with different profiles and complementary skills, and that it is cohesive around the vision of the business. And if it is a solo entrepreneur, he/she must be able to surround him/herself with a team with the same characteristics I mentioned before. In addition to that, the ability to understand the needs of the clients, and to know how to adapt to them, is key, together with the commitment to the project and the clients.

If you are able to have many clients and make each one of them feel important, you will have won a lot. And of course, it sounds old hat, but in these times when the only thing that is constant is change, the ability to adapt to changes in the environment is fundamental. This is a value that startups are supposed to have, because they are small and agile companies, but in reality it depends more on people.

What differentiates Opentop from other accelerators?

Well, I like to say that Opentop is not an accelerator, or that it is more than an accelerator. Opentop is a complete innovation hub, which makes Valenciaport the place where things happen in open innovation in the sector. Opentop brings together a dynamic and innovative cluster, the first port of Spain and the Mediterranean, with leading companies, with the support of the Port Authority of Valencia, and with all the know-how of more than twenty years innovating in the sector of the Valenciaport Foundation and more than twelve years of Wayra supporting the best startups.

To all this, we must add our agreement with the innovation hubs of the Ports of Hamburg (homePORT) and Halifax (The PIER) to create an international network of port innovation hubs that will be a platform that will allow us to expand internationally the growth possibilities of the startups in our programmes.

If you had to summarise the best milestones of the initiative to date, which ones would you highlight?

Our trajectory is still less than two years old, but it has been very intense and with many important milestones, hackathons, bootcamps, innovation conferences… but even if it is difficult to mention any milestone among the others, I would highlight the first Port Entrepreneurship International Congress that we organised in the framework of the Valencia Digital Summit 2023, which brought together important entrepreneurs, investors, corporations and experts in open innovation and entrepreneurship in ports, coming from many countries, to share experiences, knowledge and trends on entrepreneurship and innovation in the sector. In addition, at the congress we announced our agreement with homePORT and The PIER to create the international network of port innovation hubs. 

And, of course, I would also highlight the Demo Days of the two programmes we have carried out to date, because they condense in a very short time the progress of the startups and partners during the programme and show the tangible results that Opentop provides to the entrepreneurs and partners of the programme.

Don’t miss the opportunity and apply to this program before March 3rd, 2024!