Playbook - Tetuan Valley Startup School for Dummies - July 2012 [2nd Edition]

Tetuan Valley Startup School For Dummies
Acknowledgements & Forewords
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A special thank you to Santander for the
publication of this playbook

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Tetuan Valley wouldn’t have been possible without the support of many
individuals and organizations; thanks to:
Our sponsors, who pay the bills to keep the lights on and provide essential
services and freebies for our entrepreneurs:
Our mentors, guest speakers, and collaborators, who dedicate literally
thousands of hours every year to help the next generation of entrepreneurs:
Abel Muíño, Agustín Cuenca, Alejandro Riera, Alejandro Santana, Alex
Farcet, Alex Lobera, Alfredo García, Álvaro Verdeja, Ándres Burdett, Ángel
L. Quesada, Ángel Medinilla, Ángel San Segundo, Antonio Sáez, Aurelio
López-Barajas, Benjamin Rohé, Bernard Seco, Bill Liao, Byron Stanford,
Carlos Ávila, Carsten Kølbek, Cels Piñol, Chris Cunningham, Chris
McCann, Clint Nelsen, Corrado Tomassoni, Cristóbal Alonso, Dom
Jackman, Eduardo Berastegui, Eider Sola, Emilio Martínez, Emilio Rey,
Eoghan Jennings, Eric Bergasa, Evan Nisselson, Félix Arias, Fernando
Cabello-Astolfi, Fernando Sáinz, Francisco Lorca, Francisco Rivillas,
Gerardo Morales, Germán Del Zotto, Gonzalo Ulloa, Gregor Gimmy,
Guillermo Falco, Guillermo Vicandi, Gwendolyn Regina, Horacio Melo,
Humberto Matas, Ian Noel, Inés Leopoldo, Iñaki Arrola, Jaime Abad,
Jaime García Bañón, Jason Meresman, Javier Cuervo, Javier Martín,
Jenaro García, Jesús Osuna, Joaquim Esteve, Joaquín Guirao, Joaquín
Muñoz, Joe Haslam, Johan Hellman, Jon Bradford, Jordi Oliver, Jorge
Coca, Jorge Quitegui, José Cabiedes, José Luis Orgaz, José F. Vivancos,
José Isaac Mendoza, José L. Marina, José María Joana, José Miguel
Herrero, José Villalobos, Juan Alonso Villalobos, Juan Carlos Arrese, Juan
José Peso, Juan Pablo Nebrera, Justo Hidalgo, Krzysztof Kowalczyk, Linda
Hickman, Liz Fleming, Lucio Román, Luis Martín Cabiedes, Manuel
Balsera, María Encinar, Maria Sipka, Mariano Gómez, Marina Zaliznyak,
Mario López de Avila, Martin Kelly, Martin Tantow, Martín Varsavsky,
Miguel Acosta, Miguel Cobián, Mónica Perez, Nacho de Pinedo, Nathan

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Ryan, Nicholas Hawtin, Nieves Pérez, Oscar Farres, Pablo Ventura, Patrick
de Zeeuw, Paul Kedrosky, Paul Papadimitriou, Pedro Trucharte, Philipp
Hasskamp, Rafael Garrido, Ricardo Fernández, Rob Symington, Roberto
de Diego, Rokas Tamošiūnas, Roxanne Varza, Ruud Hendriks, Sara
Enríquez, Sergio Montoro, Sylvia Díaz-Montenegro, Telmo Válido, Tristan
Mace, Victoriano Casajús and Vivek Wadhwa
Our Analysts, who have made this possible:
José Ramón Díez, Matthew Maxwell, Dominik Drechsler, Stefan
Schachtele, Laura Spencer, Fredrik Höel, Katelyn Melan, Lena Carola
Mauelshagen, Helena Huertas, Will Schubert and Julie De Mony Pajol
Special kudos to Fredrik Höel for the cover of this playbook
And above all, to our alumni, who are the real stars:
Abel Muíño, Albert Mascarell, Albert Morcillo, Alberto Costa Gómez,
Alberto Fernández, Alberto Nuñez, Alejandro Hoyos, Alejandro Pérez,
Alejandro Riera, Alejandro Segura, Alex Recarey, Alfonso Gómez-Jordana,
Alicia Cañellas, Álvaro García, Ana María Salas, Ándres Burdett, Andrijana
Culjak, Ángela Ramírez, Antonio Encinar, Antonio Fernández, Antonio
Melé, Aravind Chandrasekaran, Asier Ríos, Audrey Linares, Axel García,
Bernat Fabregat, BK Khur, Camilo López, Carlos Hernando, Carlos Muñoz,
César de la Cal, Chi-fung Kam, Chris Timuat, Christopher Valles, Clara
Martín, Claudio Cossio, Cristóbal Miranda, Damasia Maneiro, Daniel
Alonso, Daniel Miranda, Daniel Rodríguez, Darko Stojanovski, David
Fontanent, David Manero, David Moreno, David Pedroche, David
Scarlatti, David Velayos, Diogo Teles, Eddie Salazar, Edin Kapic, Eduardo
de Juan, Eduardo Gibaja, Eduardo Pola, Elena Pérez, Emilio González,
Enrique Cárcamo, Ernesto Arredondo, Ernesto Guimerans, Esteban
Salazar, Eva López, Fernando Alonso, Fernando Amenedo, Fernando
Benito, Fernando Gil, Fernando Sáinz, Francesc Lucena, Francisco
Cuenca, Francisco de Ángel, Francisco Javier López, Francisco Martínez,
Gabriel García, Geoff Gibson, Germán Del Zotto, Germán Retamosa,
Germán Viscuso, Guillermo Arribas, Guillermo "Awesome" Vicandi,
Gustavo Castillo, Héctor Ambit, Héctor Criado, Ignacio Martínez, Luri

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Aranda, Ivana Marsic, Jaime de la Cal, Jamie Dick-Cleland, Javier Anaya,
Javier Escribano, Javier Maestro, Jesús Gonzalez, Joan Casadellà, Joan
Casas, Joan Muni, Joaquín Garzón, Joaquín Sánchez, Jordi Corominas,
Jordi Fierro, Jordi Martín, Jorge González, José A. Gil, José Antonio Leiva,
José Ignacio Galarza, José María Estevez, José Martín, José Simoes, Juan
Marí, Liad Rubin, Lorena Pantano, Luis Aguilar, Luis Durán, Luis Manuel
Pérez, Luis Muñoz, Luis Pérez, Luis Sánchez, Luis Santos, Madelón
Lánchez, Manel Pacareu, Manu Arjó, Manuel Gil, Marcello Rinaldi, Marcos
García de La Fuente, Marcos Gil, Marcos Triviño, Mariano Torrecilla,
Martín Huertas, Matko Balic, Maximilian Weiß, Miguel Araujo, Miguel
Florido, Mima Mochón, Miquel Camps, Miquel Las Heras, Miquel Puig,
Miriam Wohlfarth-Bottermann, Natàlia Castanys, Nilo Morán, Noemi
Losada, Nozomi Yamawaki, Pablo Cosias, Pablo Llopis, Pablo Rodríguez,
Paco Fernández, Pau Gay, Pau Olivella, Paul Goldbaum, Paz Ferrer, Pedro
Fraca, Philip De Smedt, Philipp Herkelmann, Pol Miró, Rafael González,
Ramón Recuero, Raúl Sánchez, Raúl San Narciso, Robert Isaac , Roberto
Costumero, Rodrigo Gómez, Rosendo Chas, Rubén Díaz, Santiago
Lizardo, Sergi Consul, Sergio Galán, Sergio Naval, Stuart Thomas, Taoufik
Aadia, Tomás Carbonell, Tony Martín, Vanessa Estorach, Vaibhav Puri,
Victor Manuel Díaz, Victor Mier, Victoria Arias, Victoria Martín, William D.
Wallace, Wilson Toh, Xavier Burruezo, Xavier Miró, Xevi Gallego and
Zubin Chagpar
Special kudos to Asier Rios and Alberto Costa for the Tetuan Valley
graffiti in our beta office and to Eduardo Pola for the design of the
Startup Spain logo

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In this document you will find comprehensive guidelines for the planning of
your Tetuan Valley Startup School clone or affiliate program.
For questions and specific requests please do not hesitate to contact us at
playbook@tetuanvalley.com

Table of Contents
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ...................................................................................5
Part I: Our Story ......................................................................................9
An Introduction to Tetuan Valley .......................................................10
The Origin of Tetuan Valley .................................................................................10
Okuri Ventures, Meet Tetuan Valley.................................................................11
The Tetuan Valley Manifesto...............................................................................14
The Startup School...............................................................................16
The Course.................................................................................................................16
The Players.................................................................................................................17
Attendees..............................................................................................................17
Mentors..................................................................................................................17
Friends, and the People Who Hang Around Our Door.........................18
The Goals of the Startup School.........................................................................18
To Spain, and Beyond!...........................................................................................19
Startupbootcamp, United Accelerators and TechStars Network.....20
The United Accelerators .......................................................................................20
The Danish Connection.........................................................................................21
A Leap of Faith..........................................................................................................21
The United Cities of Startupbootcamp ...........................................................23
The First Results .......................................................................................................24
Accelerators on the Rise........................................................................................25
Startup Spain........................................................................................27
Kauffman Global Partner Network....................................................................29
Startup Nations ........................................................................................................30
How We Are Working to Start Spain...................................................31
The Accelerator Fund.............................................................................................31
The Angel School ....................................................................................................32
Startup Spain from a Bird´s-Eye View...............................................................34
Startup Galicia ..........................................................................................................35
Why Are We Open Sourcing This Manual?.....................................................35

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Join the Movement and Start Spain ...................................................36
The Startup Spain Partnership............................................................................36
Co-Investor Group .............................................................................................36
Startup Spain Investor......................................................................................36
Sponsors................................................................................................................37
The School Network..........................................................................................37
To Contact Us............................................................................................................39
Part II: Running Tetuan Valley Startup School...................................40
Tetuan Valley Startup School: The Basics ..........................................41
What Exactly Is This Program About? ..............................................................41
Who Is This Program For?.....................................................................................42
Requirements to Be Eligible for the Program ...............................................42
The Selection Criteria.............................................................................................44
Dates............................................................................................................................46
Fees and Weird Contracts Claiming Your Soul.............................................46
Program Structure................................................................................47
Session Structure.....................................................................................................47
Session Descriptions ..............................................................................................50
Session #1: The Way of the Startup .............................................................50
Session #2: Finance 101...................................................................................52
Session #3: Funding and Cash Flow Management................................54
Session #4: Selling, Product and Brand Building ....................................55
Session #5: Corporate Culture Creation.....................................................57
Session #6: Critical Failure Factors Recap and Key Takeaways..........59
Demo Day: Graduation Event........................................................................61
Objectives and Success Metrics...........................................................62
The Objectives of the Startup School ..............................................................62
Success Metrics ........................................................................................................64
Selection Statistics ..................................................................................................65
Impact Metrics..........................................................................................................66
Some Success Stories and Anecdotes .............................................................67
The Tetuan Valley Community - Beyond Startup School..................68

Table of Contents
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Tetuan Valley Carabanchel Space .....................................................................68
Who Is This for and Requirements...............................................................68
Summer Break: Tetuan Valley Events While School´s Out........................70
Tetuan Valley Alumni Meetup.......................................................................70
Okuri Entrepreneur Feedback Day ..............................................................70
Okuri Talks ............................................................................................................71
Tetuan Valley Hackathons ..............................................................................71
Tetuan Valley Battledecks...............................................................................71
Tetuan Valley Entrepreneur Speed-Dating...............................................72
Entrepreneur Commons..................................................................................72
Other Events and Activities ............................................................................72
How to Build Your Own Tetuan Valley Startup School in 5 “Easy”
Steps......................................................................................................73
1. Getting the Program off the Ground...........................................................73
1.1. How to Finance / Fund the Program...................................................73
1.2. Mentors..........................................................................................................75
1.3. Space, Tools and Technology................................................................78
2. Attracting and Screening Applicants ..........................................................83
2.1. Promoting the Program...........................................................................83
2.2. The Application Process ..........................................................................86
2.3. The Interview Process...............................................................................89
2.4. The Selection Process...............................................................................91
3. Personnel Requirements..................................................................................94
4. Logistics for the Program.................................................................................94
4.1. Prepare for Session 1 ................................................................................94
4.2. Program Sessions 1-6 ...............................................................................94
4.3. Mentor Demo Day .....................................................................................95
5. Progression to External Programs ................................................................96
Part III: Annex .......................................................................................97
Materials, Examples and References ..................................................98
1. Tetuan Valley House Rules ..............................................................................98
2. Email Templates...............................................................................................101

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2.1. Selection Process ....................................................................................101
2.2. Program Logistics Emails .....................................................................108
2.3. Life After the Program...........................................................................111
2.4. Sponsorship ..............................................................................................115
3. Application Form .............................................................................................117
4. Interview Evaluation Form ...........................................................................120
5. Confirmation Form..........................................................................................121
6. Peer Review Form............................................................................................122
7. The Toolkit..........................................................................................................124
7.1. The Blog......................................................................................................124
7.2. The Wiki......................................................................................................125
7.3. The Mailing Lists......................................................................................125
7.4. The Slides...................................................................................................126
7.5. The Streaming..........................................................................................126
7.6. The Twitter.................................................................................................127
7.7. The TweetDeck ........................................................................................127
7.8. The Facebook Group .............................................................................128
7.9. The LinkedIn Group................................................................................128
7.10. The Doodle..............................................................................................129
7.11. The Tickets ..............................................................................................129
7.12. The Wi-Fi..................................................................................................130
8. Promoting the Startup School....................................................................131
8.1. Twitter Attack Strategy .........................................................................131
9. The Themes........................................................................................................132
10. The Tetuan Valley Crew...............................................................................133
10.1. The Founders .........................................................................................133
10.2. Management Team..............................................................................133

Part I: Our Story
9
Part I: Our
Story

Part I: Our Story
10
An Introduction to Tetuan Valley
The Origin of Tetuan Valley
It is difficult to imagine it now, but back in 2009 there weren’t many
events or meetups in Madrid for entrepreneurs, far less when specifically
talking about tech entrepreneurs. It was quite a lonesome, non-
collaborative and non-supportive environment in which the few people
that dared to try to start up were constantly being discouraged and
mocked by even their closest friends and family members.
Nobody, not even the few respected and active investors we had here,
thought Spanish entrepreneurs stood a chance to compete at an
international level. This conditioned the tiny ecosystem we already had
to produce copycats, hoping once a global incumbent arrived on the
local scene they would acquire the copycat for easy entry. Another
common strategy was to stay incubated in the R&D labs of our public
universities. There, a third party usually found the startup, either took or
copied their findings, and then marketed the results at a fraction of what
the founding team could have done on their own. Because of this
copycat culture, almost all entrepreneurs were extremely secretive about
their projects. Entrepreneurs didn’t even trust each other since they
generally believed others would just try to copy or take advantage of
them.
Small numbers of entrepreneurs
translated into a small number of
events. In one of the few events there
was at this time, Iniciador, Tetuan
Valley was born. Luis Rivera and
Bernardo de Tomás, the founders of
Okuri Ventures, both regularly
attended this monthly event. At
Iniciador, an entrepreneur gives a

Part I: Our Story
11
keynote talk and afterwards the attendees go to a nearby pub to grab a
beer and network amongst each other. The event often missed its target
in that most of the attendees weren’t entrepreneurs, but people trying to
sell services and “miraculous” courses to the few entrepreneurs that were
there.
Bernardo and Luis found it very off-putting that, given the status of the
already small and weak ecosystem, there were people trying to charge
entrepreneurs thousands of Euros for things like outsourcing their
product development or teaching them how to build a 150-page
business plan filled with invented, untested hypotheses. All these offers
were filled with false promises to give entrepreneurs more users, clients,
or, the ultimate "big-sell," better access to funding.
Amongst the crowd, Luis found a familiar face; a former high-school
peer, Alejandro Barrera. Alex was a computer scientist that had just come
back from a year at the University of California-Berkeley, studying and
falling in love with Silicon Valley, the startup world and entrepreneurship
in general. While catching up, sharing a few beers, hearing Alex’s Silicon
Valley stories, moaning about the local Spanish ecosystem and criticizing
all the “fame and front-page photo seekers,” one thing was clear:
criticizing and blaming others was not productive; they needed to
do something about it.
Okuri Ventures, Meet Tetuan Valley
Okuri Ventures began its activity just as the Spanish financial and real
estate bubble burst was about to blow the country’s economy to
smithereens.
Through Okuri Ventures, Luis
and Bernardo had, until this
time, been providing training
sessions about how to invest,

Part I: Our Story
12
support and build tech startups. The company also advised local Venture
Capital funds: scouting and filtering deal flow, conducting market–niche
analyses and providing financial and technical due diligences.
While doing so, it immediately became clear to them that something
here was not right. Spain had (and still has) over 2,500 public & private
institutions that foster and support entrepreneurs. The OECD1
claimed
SMEs in Spain had lower barriers to entry to compete with larger
companies than in other countries like Germany or the US. We were
ranked 21st
in the world in the production of talented graduates by
Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Talent Index (In 2011, we were ranked 18th
).
However, the rest of the statistics published about our ecosystem were
quite discouraging:
• Very few university graduates considered entrepreneurship as a
career choice (recent statistics show this metric at 1.6% vs. the
60% that want a government job).
• The World Bank consistently ranks us as one of the most difficult
countries in which to start a business (the "Ease of Starting a
Business" ranking has Spain currently at 133th
, right behind
Kenya).
• OECD named us as Europe’s underdog in categories that ranged
from institutional barriers (administrative burdens on startups,
regulatory and administrative opacity, procedures to register
and run a business…) to more sociological and psychological
factors (fear of failure, perception of opportunities,
entrepreneurial intentions…)
What was the problem in Spain? Bureaucratic red tape, endless paper
trails, and a lack of educational support for entrepreneurship as a career
option, for starters. At the time, most decision-makers and actors were
more interested in using entrepreneurship as a marketing buzzword
1
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Part I: Our Story
13
than as the center of a plan to regenerate local economical growth. The
only model people were using to revamp and foster a tech ecosystem in
Spain was based on small, unconnected clusters of activity. Vivek
Wadhwa, a Washington Post columnist and scholar, describes the
normal strategy of these cluster centers: “Pick a hot industry, build a
technology park next to a research university, provide incentives for
businesses to relocate, add some Venture Capital and then watch the
magic happen.” As Dr. Wadhwa accurately points out, “Such magic never
happens.” There was no community to support these centers, no culture
of entrepreneurship to keep the talent coming. Islands of innovation
alone would not help Spain.
During his time in Silicon Valley, Alex had seen various startup
communities and was inspired by the difference between the initiatives
there and the ones in Spain. The Valley is not built on "centers" or
individual celebrity entrepreneurs, but by an ecosystem where
entrepreneurship is valued. The "pay it forward" culture kept it
sustainable, the amazing ideas it fostered made it great.
Luis, Bernardo and Alex decided to launch something to give back
instead of take from entrepreneurs. They started off by putting pen to
paper and creating the manifesto from which Tetuan Valley came.

Part I: Our Story
14
The Tetuan Valley Manifesto
On July 7th
2009, the friends published a manifesto stating everything
that set Tetuan Valley apart from the status quo that surrounded it. Three
years later, these words remain as true as the very first day they were
published:
OUR MANIFESTO
We believe. We believe that single individuals can change the course of
history.
We believe in a hyper-connected world, where flat is the norm and frontiers
are just lines in a 2D map. But, above all, we believe in the talent and ideas of
entrepreneurs all over the world as agents of change and innovation.
Tetuan Valley isn’t a place, neither is it a company, nor a person. Tetuan
Valley IS a state of mind.
Tetuan Valley is that person that has to fight against society to defend their
vision and ideas.
Tetuan Valley is that company that tries to create a breakthrough for
humanity.
Tetuan Valley is that place where you can empower your ideas with the aid of
other like-minded people.
It’s not money, nor glory, that moves Tetuan Valley, it’s personal success and
life changing experiences that drive it.
Some places exist that share this mentality, but physical locations among
others prevent them from reaching all four corners of the world. We need
those places, we need a shared vision.
We have talent, we have education, we have money… but we lack that
vision. We lack a common set of ideas that unify and stitch together a
community strong enough to foster innovation and advance human
knowledge.
These abstract concepts, these distilled ideas ARE Tetuan Valley. Under the

Part I: Our Story
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Tetuan Valley umbrella we want to concentrate individuals whose limits are
the sky and beyond, who want to achieve greatness and grow as
entrepreneurs and persons.
We are looking for those persons, true entrepreneurs who don’t take NO for
an answer, that fight back with every ounce of energy they have, who will not
back down until they’ve conquered greatness. Persons that don’t fear failure,
that understand failure IS the key to success.
Are you one of US or one of THEM?”
@tetuanvalley, July 7th
, 2009
http://blog.tetuanvalley.com/about/manifesto

Part I: Our Story
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The Startup School
The manifesto was first brought to life through the Startup School, a
program where entrepreneurs came together to test their startup ideas
and to find out if the entrepreneurial lifestyle is a good fit for them. They
met other entrepreneurs, got guidance from mentors and guests, and
eventually began to create a community which grew more, and stronger,
than anyone initially expected.
The Course
The course takes place over a 6 week period that has two major
components:
1. A series of classes & mentor talks related to the non-technical
aspects of starting an internet startup.
2. The implementation of a business idea through the creation of
an MVP.
Teams come to the Startup School with an idea they plan to work on
throughout the course - ending 6 weeks later with a well thought-out
business pitch and prototype. Once a week, we meet at our offices
where, during each session, our staff gives a short lecture about a topic
related to how to build an internet startup. These lectures aren´t
technical in nature, but philosophical. The rationale behind this is that it
is simply impossible to teach
people how to program in 6
weeks (and expect to have an
MVP done in that time). This is
especially true of our students
who enter the program in
varying stages of development
and using different coding
languages. Our goal is to

Part I: Our Story
17
communicate the central principles behind starting a business in order
to give people the tools they need to make the right decision for
themselves deciding if the entrepreneurial path is for them, and if so,
how to launch. After the lectures, we invite a mentor to come speak and
share their experiences.
Finally, the teams pitch their projects and present their achievements
from the week to the TV Crew and their peers in the program. Through
this practice, we work together to prioritize developments while
focusing and improving communication skills. Both group and personal
coaching is available outside the course if desired. At the end of the 6
weeks, we do a big Demo Day where everyone shows their final
prototypes.
The Players
Attendees
This program is oriented nearly
exclusively to people who haven’t
experienced a startup; people who
don’t know there is life beyond the
corporate world or being a
government employee; people that
are ambitious, but don’t know how
to materialize those feelings.
Mentors
Mentors are usually entrepreneurs who have already achieved a level of
success and want to pay it forward, or experts in their industry who want
to give back. We also have some who just love being around

Part I: Our Story
18
entrepreneurs. They are unpaid, and are a critical source of value
creation in the program.
Friends, and the People Who Hang Around Our Door
As the community has grown, we have picked up groupies. These are
entrepreneurs or experts who are neither mentors nor students, they just
show up. We love having them; they are often some of the most active
members of the community.
The Goals of the Startup School
Attending this program gives wanna-be entrepreneurs the opportunity
to get in touch with like-minded people in the entrepreneurial world, not
only locally, but globally. They learn how to do a good Zen presentation,
how to pitch investors, potential clients and other entrepreneurs. They
share experiences with other teams and establish relationships with
other entrepreneurs from other countries. They learn the basics any
successful startup needs to know, both from an entrepreneurial
perspective and from learning how investors evaluate potential projects.
They learn how to take an idea from its abstract form and execute it, how
to plan out the path they want to follow, and acquire the tools to meet
head-on all the surprises that they find along the way.
If Kendo is the way of the sword… we try to teach young talent the way
of the startup. After that, it’s up to them to succeed. They’ll have the
background they need to go out into battle for their startup and a
community for support, help, and guidance to fall back on even after the
school ends.

Part I: Our Story
19
To Spain, and Beyond!
After the second edition, Tetuan Valley expanded to Barcelona for two
editions. The growth of the program and its unique offer to
entrepreneurs made it stand out. It was the first nonprofit pre-
accelerator in Europe (yes, that is how young Europe´s entrepreneurial
scene is; it really did take until 2009 for the first). Through Tetuan Valley,
we knew we had something valuable. Other people started noticing too,
people from across Europe…

Part I: Our Story
20
Startupbootcamp, United
Accelerators and TechStars Network
The United Accelerators
After the first two editions, we started getting in touch with people with
similar initiatives in other countries. We began having conversations with
other accelerators who were interested in what we were doing.
We discovered how powerful it was to exchange ideas with other
programs from around the globe and launched an association to
facilitate these discussions: United Accelerators.
United Accelerators aims to:
• Fine-tune and replicate the accelerator model in new places.
• Explore collaboration options between different member
programs.
• Open up channels of communication through a LinkedIn group
and cross-promote through a Twitter account.
• Hold quarterly conference calls with management from the
programs to share experiences on what works and what doesn't
in each market and, with the right sponsors, hold an annual
global conference hosted by a different member each year.
We decided we wanted to even further collaborate, so we made a call to
arms:
Opening hailing frequencies to connect with the other Seed Accelerator
Programs
Yesterday part of the Crew and myself had a conversation with Denmark in
the hopes of organizing an exchange program with lots of Viking females
that could help us lure the best hackers into the Spring 2010 Edition of
Startup School. It obviously didn't work out, but we had the chance to share a
lot of experiences and realized how important it was in many ways to start

Part I: Our Story
21
learning from each other the best way to fine tune the Ycombinator model to
other latitudes. We are honoured TechStars has been the third program to
join us.
Combined with our contacts at Seedcamp to help organize the Barcelona
stage at IESE, and talks with other accelerator programs around the world, it
seems the right time to open up the channels; if you are part of the
organization of an accelerator program and would like to join our discussion
group please shoot me an email…
@luisriverag, January 26th
2010
http://blog.unitedaccelerators.com/2010/01/under-construction.html
The Danish Connection
The Danes reached back. They wanted to know how TVSS was so
successful with so few resources. As we soon found out, they were doing
some pretty exciting things over in Copenhagen, too. The Crew over at
TechStars had shared their playbook, and the Danes had it in mind to
become the first global affiliate. This, to us, sounded like just what we
were looking for, so we took a chance.
A Leap of Faith
We invested a significant part of the little resources we had in the
Copenhagen pilot program without having ever met face-to-face with
the Rainmaking team or the former DHL Manager, Alex Farcet, who was
to run the show. It was a pretty risky move on our part, but we wanted to
go big and we wanted to go international. We had seen what keeping
the Spanish borders closed had done for the ecosystem here, and
wanted to make a change. We wrote the Startupbootcamp Copenhagen
Fund a check, and didn´t look back.

Part I: Our Story
22
How far are you willing to go to launch your startup?
It's been about six months since Alex Farcet and myself held a Skype
conference after connecting through Twitter to share our experience
with Tetuan Valley. That conversation led to my collaboration as mentor in
Startupbootcamp and the launch of United Accelerators as a forum for Seed
capital programmes to connect and share experiences, a group
which TechStars and Seedcamp joined within a week and now
includes Bucharest Hubb (Bucharest, Romania), Maverick Seed Capital
(Lisbon, Portugal), Seed Accelerator (Sydney & Singapore, Australia and Asia),
Tech Wildcatters (Dallas, U.S.A.) and The Difference Engine (U.K.),
Recently, Startupbootcamp has set new standards for exchanging best
practices. And when a few weeks back we were offered to participate in their
new fund it was time for the team at Okuri Ventures to reflect on the
whether international borders are just lines on a 2D map and seriously
consider our first international transaction... even though we had never
shook hands with the team in Copenhagen and have only been running
our Valley program for 2 editions. As every entrepreneur knows, incentives
push us out of our comfort zones and launching a venture is closer to a
journey than to a destination. Not to mention we feel a lot closer to their
Crew than to millions of people around the block who seem to live on
another plane of existence.
So, if you are a startup somewhere in Europe that could benefit from being
part of this and believe Denmark is out of your way you might be missing the
opportunity of a lifetime. I lived there over a decade ago and must admit it's
cold and dark during the winter, but 10 lucky teams are going to experience
the spring of their lives. Check out the details right now because deadline for
applications is June 30th
@luisriverag, June 28th
2010
http://blog.unitedaccelerators.com/2010/06/how-far-are-you-willing-to-
go-to-launch.html

Part I: Our Story
23
The United Cities of Startupbootcamp
After being an original investor and
mentor to the Copenhagen program
(and finally meeting our Danish
friends in person), a federation made
sense. Europe had to come together.
We joined forces to create the first
pan-European accelerator, empowering entrepreneurs to leverage on
local resources to access larger markets. Madrid became the second city
under the Startupbootcamp brand.
The three month program offers teams EUR 4,000 per founding member
and free co-working space at the offices of each Startupbootcamp site.
Like TechStars, the concept is based on the support of over 150 mentors
that share their experiences building truly amazing businesses. Each city
has its own batch of local mentors, plus a batch of international, shared
mentors across all programs. Startups have access to not only the whole
Startupbootcamp Europe team, but to all the mentors and investors in
the network which covers the whole world.
Each program ended with an Investor Day for all of our accelerated
startups to pitch to VCs and Business Angels from around the world. We
believed we needed a platform for wider exposure of the European
startup scene. Through this platform, we tried to bridge countries and
bring together startups and investors from across all geographies of the
region.
The next chapter to join was Ireland in 2011. Each of the three chapters
raised three funds of EUR 300k to finance the 10 startups of each local
program in 2011/2012.
Between the cities, many synergies were realized through sharing
fundraising, marketing & PR efforts. We used the same methodologies,
resources and investment criteria to pick teams. Many of the mentors

Part I: Our Story
24
participated across the different chapters (cities), and all chapters saw a
large growth in their international network of contacts and ambassadors.
We open sourced the contracts in order to promote seed investment
across Europe with simple, straightforward terms. The contracts were
specifically designed to accommodate the expected growth of the
startups and to facilitate investment decisions before and after Demo
Day by simplifying the bureaucratic due diligence.
The First Results
The SBC MAD program launched in June 2011. The teams moved into
our offices and we launched a Mentor Day to introduce everyone before
the "boot camp experience" began. The teams got to meet a new mentor
almost every day for three months, they worked late, they woke up early,
they pivoted, lost members and found new ones. It was a hell of a ride.
In the end, the Okuri team learned just as much, if not more, from the
experience.
As a company, we raised a fund for the first time. Logistically, we
uprooted 10 teams and brought them into Madrid. We expanded our
mentor network wider than it had ever been before. We learned the
difference between good mentors and not-so-good mentors. We found
new warning signs and metrics to look for when filtering prospective
teams. We had the ride of our life.
When Demo Day came in September, 9 of the teams had "survived" boot
camp, and pitched their projects to around 200 guests. Over half the
attendees were investors, making it the biggest event of its kind, ever, in
Spain. Even more impressive was that within 5 months of Demo Day, 6/9
teams got funding. They have gained tons of traction, and we are happy
to report we have very content investors and mentors who are excited
about what´s next for the Okuri team.

Part I: Our Story
25
Our investors weren´t the only ones excited about what was going on
our offices in Tetuán. We achieved significant media presence from all
the activity that was happening here in Spain:
Accelerators on the Rise
Part of our learning experience during Startupbootcamp was that,
despite the huge value that accelerators provide to startups in their early
stages, there was an even greater demand for funding that came
immediately after the accelerators.
Once a startup passes through an accelerator, it is tried, tested, has
achieved traction, normally has pivoted a few times, but normally is not
yet ready for a Series A round. These startups also have mentors and
program directors that can speak to their caliber and alert investors of
warning signs that they have seen along the way. Thanks to these
programs, investors that enter in this round have lower risks and quicker
time to market than they otherwise would.

Part I: Our Story
26
With the huge rise of accelerators (from 2 to 230+ in just the last 6 years),
there are more startups in this stage than ever before in the market, all
actively seeking funding. Because of the influx of startups here, demand
for investment at this stage is at an all time high. It is a unique and
interesting place to be in, and one that our company has decided to
pivot to be a part of.

Part I: Our Story
27
Startup Spain
We always have had a vision of doing something bigger than ourselves.
When we started Tetuan Valley, we saw lots of "Return on Ego" (people
who claimed to be helping entrepreneurs in order to help boost their
own ego or name) everywhere we looked and, therefore, wrote off many
initiatives that we knew were hurting the ecosystem. As former
entrepreneurs ourselves, we were very wary of a lot of the "help" being
handed out around Spain. Although skeptical, we never gave up being
open to collaboration. It was only because we kept our eyes and minds
open that we were able to see the people who were in this sector for the
right reasons; people who didn´t care about old competitions and
political lines in the sand, but who wanted to do whatever it took, with
whoever they could, to help entrepreneurs and the ecosystem here. We
decided that we had to bring these people together, and that launching
a unified movement to help startups was a banner under which
everyone could get involved. We decided we wanted to Startup Spain.
Why moan about the crisis when we can Startup Spain?
About two and a half years ago Techcrunch contributor Marina interviewed
us asking how we planned to change the Spanish startup ecosystem. At that
point we had a vision, but planned on figuring out tactics as we went along.
Constant pivoting to figure out what works wasn't considered "normal" in
Europe, and neither was trading in the suits I wore in my last job at London’s
South Kensigton for our never-to-be-ironed, bright orange Tetuan Vendetta
t-shirts.
In those years we struggled a lot. Like most startups we ate, breathed, and
(barely) slept lean. We took a hard line on “for entrepreneurs, by
entrepreneurs” and having been entrepreneurs ourselves, took a very protect-
and-serve attitude that often had us pitted against other organizations in
Spain. But, through that, we built a lot too. We started the first non for profit
pre-accelerator in Europe which after it´s 5th edition now comes complete
with an army of 200 alumni. We launched Startupbootcamp, the first pan-

Part I: Our Story
28
European accelerator, making Madrid the second of it´s five partner cities.
We grew and we spread when two of our co founders moved on to launch
new projects (@abarrera is busy with @42press and @btkutz with
@Infoadmyo), and we now have a new senior team on board, including
another former suit, @jmcobian, our visa experiment @kmelan and a
wannabe MBA with a performer background known as @startupjedi.
We have met a lot of amazing people who helped show us the way, from
superstars like Paul Kedrosky and Vivek Vadwha, to our earliest
entrepreneurs and mentors who grew right alongside of us. And, most
importantly, we learned a lot. Looking for people who had the same goals as
we did, we turned many an old competitors into a new allies. Soon we
realised that instead of working in-spite of the government it is especially
essential in countries like Spain to work with it. But how to do that when
everyone here is complaining about the status quo? It is necessary to look
inside of organizations to find those few who really want to make a change &
engage them with entrepreneurs so they know how and where to help best.
So what are our plans for the next months?
Two weeks ago we received a letter from the Kauffman
Foundation confirming we had been invited as members of the future Global
Partner Network that will help foster entrepreneurship in 14 countries
initially. After seeing what Techstars has done with Startup America, and
learning from the Crew at Startup Chile - we decided now was the moment to
start-up Spain. We quickly bid $100 for startupspain.com in our first domain
auction and launched the brand kicking off this huge task with three initial
initiatives:
• The Angel School which sets out to help develop “the other side” by
providing insight to a new generation of informed angel investors in
Spain, and open sourcing of the Tetuan Valley model so Startup School
preaccelerator Affiliates and clones can help entrepreneurs worldwide
• A 2 M EUR private seed fund for 2012 that will serve as a pilot for a
much more ambitious 5 year fund that during it´s life we estimate can
bring around 3000 global startups into the Spanish startup ecosystem
offering 150k+ EUR to each of the 8-12 startups of the pilot program, a
14 day visa fast-track that will enable founders to stay in Spain if they

Part I: Our Story
29
so wish and a 6 month intensive accelerator program with support
from the old and new mentors, VCs, BAs, and Institutional
collaborators
• Fighting to get 5000 guiris a visa in Spain. This basically proposes we
should copycat the Startup Chile import-export scheme. The difficulty
in getting a visa in Spain is a roadblock that needs to be sorted out in
order to move ahead and, if unresolved, will rob the Spanish economy
of time it doesn’t have. Thanks to the openness of some friends in our
former colony we know it’s going to take 5 years to reach the speed of
1000 startups per year, but, as they say in Techstars, we need to do
more faster.
Yes, it is hard to start-up in Spain, but when has any real entrepreneur shied
away from difficult? It doesn´t make sense for us to sit around and moan
when we can make things here easier, and more importantly, worthwhile. So
that's the challenge, and that's what we intend to fight for under one
common name: Startup Spain. Will you join us?
@luisriverag, Tetuan Valley, January 21st
, 2012
http://startupspain.com/about-us/
Kauffman Global Partner Network
When the Kauffman Foundation opened the application process to
incorporate international entities in the work that it had been doing, we
were ecstatic. We submitted our application and, along with 13 others,
were chosen as an inaugural partner of the Kauffman Global Partner
Network. We flew to San Francisco in February to attend the launch
event of the Partnership. The KGPN brought together the best
nationwide private & public sector initiatives aimed at promoting
entrepreneurship. Here was an opportunity to connect with leaders from
around the world, share best practices, and get some feedback on where
we needed to be headed. The 13 inaugural members are:

Part I: Our Story
30
Startup Nations
We met up with our fellow KGPN members, Startup Chile, Startup Britain,
Startup Malaysia and Startup Canada, at the Global Entrepreneurship
Congress in Liverpool. Here we shared our visions for starting-up our
respective nations. We all had the common goal of fostering
entrepreneurship through building up our national start-up ecosystems.
We soon announced we intended to open source our Tetuan Valley
Playbook in order to contribute the best practices from our very early
stage model to the group.
Startup Nations that attended the Global Entrepreneurship Congress: (left to
right) Lanis Anthony and Rivers Corbett (Startup Canada), Luis Rivera (Startup
Spain), Horatio Melo (Startup Chile), Jonathan Ortmans (Kauffman Foundation),
Dash Dhakshinamoorthy (Startup Malaysia), Farid Haque and Jamie Williams
(Startup Britain), and Erin Wiley (Kauffman Foundation)

Part I: Our Story
31
How We Are Working to Start Spain
There is not one road to start-up Spain: capital, culture, and education
are all parts of the need. The ecosystem won't be built in a night, but
through Startup Spain we are taking a multifaceted approach to building
that we hope will begin to address the various elements in Spain that
have historically prevented the formation of a strong start-up culture
here.
The Accelerator Fund
The Accelerator Fund is going to be the "shot heard around the world"
for the Startup Spain movement. It is our call to teams from all over the
globe to come start-up here. From the rapid growth of accelerators and
our own experiences, we know that there is a very high demand for
capital during the acceleration and post-acceleration phases. Demand is
so high that programs and investors here can essentially cherry-pick the
best teams from many different programs around the world. In addition
to capital, the fund provides community, support, acceleration and
growth to achieve the goal of not only importing foreign entrepreneurial
talent, but also retaining and fostering local talent in Spain.
The fund will invest in about 10 startups during its pilot, selecting top
talent from international accelerators and home-grown Spanish startups.
The teams will be incubated in Madrid for the duration of the program,
receiving an investment of approximately EUR 50-150k each from the
fund. Our co-investors will have the option to match this amount. In
addition, during the program the teams will have access to support from
our network of more than 100 experts who, along with the Okuri
Ventures team, will mentor these teams.

Part I: Our Story
32
We know from experience that real value lies in the combination of non-
financial investments (mentoring, advisory, events, network creation)
with investment money. However, from our experiences and that of our
Startup Nation peers, we have also learned that there needs to be an
ecosystem in place for those elements, and therefore the startups, to
thrive. This fund will ultimately encourage competition and increase the
visibility of the national entrepreneurial ecosystem of Spain. We have
begun part of that work through building our Tetuan Valley Community,
which provides a lot of value for startups. But that is only one part of the
problem in Spain. In February, we looked into tackling one of the other
glaring truths about Spanish start-up ecosystem: the lack of Business
Angels.
The Angel School
The Angel School is a one-day intensive course where wanna-be startup
investors come to learn how to analyze internet startups. The school
aims to instruct new investors and help current investors in other more

Part I: Our Story
33
traditional sectors switch into tech investing by giving them the tools to
be successful and a community to reach out to. The course covers what
internet businesses are, examining their business models, metrics, and
negotiation. We try to show the participants strategies for adding value
to startups as an investor in this sector. We build these theoretical
courses around a practical case involving three real startups who the
participants evaluate throughout the day (learning by doing). We also
bring in panels of entrepreneurs and experienced Business Angels to
help give a wider range of perspective.
As explained earlier, in their early stages many startups need Angels, not
huge VCs. The gap between the earliest stages of starting a business and
the round where a VC enters is often, especially in Europe, too large to
breach naturally. An "in-between" quantity is needed to help the teams
reach early growth and expansion stages. Angel investments are,
therefore, critical to the growth of a successful ecosystem:
• 70% of European entrepreneurs said they would have failed if
not for the investor (VC and Business Angel) participation.2
• US VC funds invest less than 2% in seed-stage start-up
companies, creating a void filled by Business Angels who are
responsible for up to 90 percent of all outside equity in seed and
early-stage stages.3
• In the US, the number of angel investors has quadrupled since
1999.4
• Spanish VC fund volume per capita is less than USD 1 vs Israel’s
is USD 142 or USA’s is USD 70, enhancing the need for more
active angel investors in Spain.5
2
EVCA Survey of the Economic and Social Impact of Venture Capital in Europe
3
Marianne Hudson, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
4
William H. Payne, Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneur-in-Residence
5
ESADE Business School, 2012

Part I: Our Story
34
The need was great, and we created Angel School to meet it head-on.
Business Angels are unique in that, rather than competing, they often co-
invest. By building a community around the school, we hope to
encourage those kinds of collaborations, amongst others. We are,
therefore, nurturing the creation of an interconnected, collaborative and
supportive network across all Spain’s regions of new investors with a
global mentality.
Startup Spain from a Bird´s-Eye View
Startup Spain is proud to be a Startup Nation member, but Spain faces
unique challenges, and therefore we are structuring Startup Spain in a
unique way.
Regionalism is exceptionally strong in Spain; citizens here don´t
associate themselves so much as being Spanish as they do Catalan,
Basque, Andalucian, etc.
Given the national tendency towards regional identity, we want to build
and grow startups and investors regionally (bottom-up), and attract
startups and investment internationally (top-down).

Part I: Our Story
35
We think that centralizing in Madrid doesn´t make sense in the context
of this infrastructure, so we decided to grow by seeking regional partners
to launch local chapters of Angel School and Startup School in order to
put into play the bottom-up approach.
Startup Galicia
Startup Galicia will be launched partnering with María Encinar. María
brought Startup Weekend to Spain, and coordinates the events across
the country. In the summer of 2012, a Startup School and an Angel
School will be launched there to support the Galician entrepreneurial
and investment ecosystem. This also will be the pilot effort materializing
the Playbook into an affiliated Startup School. From this pilot experience
with María, we plan to leverage our experience to grow quickly.
Why Are We Open Sourcing This Manual?
We tell our startups that NDAs are as useful as toilet paper, and that
when starting up it is imperative to let people know what you´re doing.
Startup Chile and the Kauffman Foundation opened our eyes and
challenged us to think about changing our micro efforts into macro
movements. When you open up your best practices and share your keys
to success, you never know who you might find interested in being a
part of what you´re doing. You also get feedback from many sources.
You can find partners and allies in unexpected places. We are open
sourcing this manual because all of those things sound great to us.
Sharing your methodologies sounds scary, but having benefited
ourselves from the TechStars methodologies when we launched
Startupbootcamp and from the Startup Chile playbook for the planning
stages of Startup Spain, we have seen the positive effect that it has had
on some of our new allies.

Part I: Our Story
36
Join the Movement and Start Spain
There are many ways to get involved in starting up Spain. We are open
sourcing this book because we want Spain to become a great place to
start a business. The list below contains only suggestions; it is, by no
means, an exhaustive list of ways to help achieve that goal. Take a look,
see what sounds good to you, but if you´re interested in starting-up with
us, here are the ways we have to collaborate (so far):
The Startup Spain Partnership
Co-Investor Group
Are you a Venture Capital Firm? Does the fund we are launching sound
like it might have some exciting projects in it? Become a co-investor of
the fund and collaborate in the process of filtering projects. You will have
the option to co-invest, under the same terms, with Okuri in any of the
chosen startups. The co-investor group currently includes:
Startup Spain Investor
If you´re an investor and want to get even more involved, there is the
option to invest directly in the Startup Spain (Okuri II) Fund, which we
are currently raising. If you or someone you know is interested, get in

Part I: Our Story
37
touch and we will send you more detailed information about the fund
and how to get involved.
Sponsors
We are always open to exciting sponsors for Angel School and for
Startup School. Sponsorships can be financial or non-financial. In the
past we have had people sponsor our office, internet, and the pizzas
from the Startup School. We´re pretty open to new ideas here, so if you
have your own suggestions, get in touch and well figure something out.
The School Network
Create a local ecosystem of
startups and investors
adapted to your local
conditions. By becoming an
official partner of the School
network, we will take your
program under the Startup
Spain and Tetuan Valley
brands. This includes sharing best practices, training your local team,
streamlining many of the major processes, offering access to the alumni
network/resources and offering your startup graduates a fast track
application to the Startup Spain Accelerator Fund.
For all the details around running your own Startup School, the logistics
are outlined in this playbook as thoroughly as we thought we could give
them (without telling you that if the computer freezes you should try to
restart it first). Once you´ve read the manual, decide if you want to
launch an independent program or become part of the Affiliated School
Network of Startup Spain.

Part I: Our Story
38
Go My Own Way Join School Network
- Flexibility.
- Independence.
- Take what I like and leave the rest.
- I don’t like the color orange.
- These timelines don´t work with me, I
have something else in mind.
- Part of the established Tetuan Valley
and Startup Spain brands as well as
online and offline presence.
- Enter in a community that already
has six editions of Startup School
Alumni and two editions of Angel
School Alumni.
- Let Madrid HQ handle most of the
centralized work.
- Get training from the Tetuan Valley
team on how to run each session (we
come to you).
Either way, if you´re doing great things for startups and this manual
helped at all, it was worth the write. Hope to hear from you, or better yet,
hear about the success of your startups.

Part I: Our Story
39
To Contact Us
Email: playbook@tetuanvalley.com
Phone: +34 91 186 30 08
Twitter: @tetuanvalley @startspain @okuriventures
The Startup Spain crew celebrating the affiliation with KGPN (From left to right):
Nast Marrero (@startupjedi), José María Cobián (@jmcobian), Luis Rivera
(@luisriverag) and Katelyn Melan (@kmelan)

Part II: Running Tetuan Valley Startup School
40
Part II:
Running
Tetuan Valley
Startup
School

41
Tetuan Valley Startup School: The
Basics
It´s important for startups to have a practiced elevator pitch. Here´s ours:
“Tetuan Valley is the first non-for-profit pre-accelerator program in Europe.
Our goal is to promote local Entrepreneurship and regional development
towards technology. Twice a year, we host a 6 week Startup School focused
on the training and implementation of a business idea. We have a portfolio
of more than 70 top-notch mentors who participate to give the students a
unique and valuable experience. All graduates of the Startup School get
exclusive access to the Tetuan Valley Alumni Network”
However, the Startup School is much more than this. It’s an experience
through which we try to bring to life many of the values of
our manifesto. The Tetuan Valley Startup School is a 6 week program for
young wanna-be-entrepreneurs who want to experience what it is like to
build a startup.
What Exactly Is This Program About?
During the six weeks of the program, we, through courses that guide first
time entrepreneurs through the process of launching a startup, try to
help teams test the viability of
their business ideas and their
interest in being an
entrepreneur. During the
course, students work on their
own to develop a Minimum
Viable Product (MVP AKA a
demo that works). In the

42
course, they learn the basics: what it means to be an entrepreneur, what
investors look for, legal, marketing, and financial basics for launching
their own startup, etc. The format of each class is: a brief course given by
the Okuri Staff, one keynote from a mentor in a related subject, pizza for
all, and then we finish with a pitch practice. Through the pitch practice,
entrepreneurs are able to practice communicating their ideas. They
receive feedback, and they iterate on that feedback week to week until
they find a viable strategy for launching. They also learn how to
communicate the viability of their product. Sometimes they find the
projects won’t work; that’s OK with us since Startup School is a safe place
to learn, pivot, and even decide, "hey, this isn´t for me."
Who Is This Program For?
This program is oriented nearly exclusively to people who haven’t
experienced a startup; people who don’t know there is life beyond the
corporate world or being a government employee; people that are
ambitious, but don’t know what to do with that drive.
Requirements to Be Eligible for the Program
There are some basic requirements we expect everyone to fulfill.
• Ideas for projects MUST be innovative. This means we won’t
accept already existing ideas. We don’t expect radically new
ideas, but we do expect some degree of innovation. For
example, Team A: We want to build a social network for my
friends. FAIL! Team B: We want to build a system to exchange
homework between fellow students. OK!
• Ideas WILL be executed. The project must be something that
can be done in 6 weeks of work. This doesn’t mean that they
should choose something that takes 1 weekend to finish and

43
spend the other 5 weeks playing Wii. We want them to be a bit
stressed, since part of the startup experience is learning to cope
with these feelings.
• Teams will range from 1 to 4 persons max. Teams must have at
least one technical member on board. Due to previous
editions, we’ve learned the hard way that it’s fundamental to
have technical skills in the mix if you’re going to make it to the
end.
• Physical presence WILL be required, so they have to be sure
they can attend all of the sessions during the 6 weeks before
enrolling. No excuses will be allowed for missing classes.
• The course will be conducted 100% in English. Lectures and
many materials like slides, videos, etc. will all be in English.
Students are expected to be able to participate and work in
English, even if they are not fluent in the language.
• This program will require them to work. Some homework will
be assigned and weekly progress WILL be expected. Any team
that doesn’t complete their homework will be notified and
possibly expelled from the program.
• Participation is a must. Constructive criticism is expected from
everybody, so is motivating others to develop and improve their
pitch and demos. If people are reserved, we recommend they
leave their shyness at the door.
• If they don’t have an idea, they need to come to the
interview with one. Some teams don’t have a clear idea of the
project they want to work on during startup school. This is fine;
we can help them narrow down from a list of potentials. We do
require teams to come to the interview with one idea to pitch,
so we can see how they have thought through that particular
idea and can base our decisions on that. Projects often change

44
completely during the Startup School; we’re open to that (and
welcome it).
• This program encourages and expects participants to add value
and participate in the Tetuan Valley Community. As Tetuan
Valley Startup School students/alumni, teams help with things
like developing content or programs, promoting Tetuan Valley,
acting as an ambassador/mentor for the program, and
expanding the Tetuan Valley network.
The Selection Criteria
The selection process is a necessary evil. We limit ourselves to a class
with 10 teams to keep the value, dynamism and richness of the
experience intact. It is important to filter and pick only candidates that
are going to add value to the class dynamics and the community as a
whole. Also, because it is a practice of how things work in the "real
world," some of our best teams have been rejected (multiple times). It is
the ones that bounce back from that rejection and take that experience
to get better who end up being our best candidates.
So, what is the selection criteria?
1. Cultural fit. We need to make sure the candidates selected are
going to add value and provide the right support and feedback
to their peers, both in class and to the Tetuan Valley Community
after graduation.
2. Motivation. We did not
require anyone to make
demos or PowerPoint
pitch pages for
interviews. But 90% of
the selected teams did

45
just that. The 10% of the teams that made it without those
materials were able to prove they cared enough to spend time,
energy, and sometimes relocate because they wanted to do this
program. We cannot ignore this kind of motivation. The same
goes for teams that were denied last edition and still applied
again; their drive doesn´t go unnoticed.
3. Clarity. If teams don´t know, or can´t explain what it was they
want to do and why it is unique, valuable and important, then
come decision time, chances are we won´t be able to either.
4. Group Composition. We take into very serious consideration
the composition of the team. Teams with three developers
always receive lower marks than teams with a business person, a
design/product person, and a developer.
5. Copycats. YouTube exists. If someone is presenting us a video
sharing site, there needs to be a clearly explainable competitive
advantage to why or how they can do it better. Much better.
6. Doubles. For Startup School, we cannot take two teams doing
the same or very similar projects. It can sometimes prevent
teams from being open about their progress and problems,
creating a hostile environment.
7. Market Size. We are idealists here (that’s for sure!), but starting
your own business requires that someone will want to pay
money in exchange for what you are offering. They need to tell
us who and why, especially if it isn´t extremely obvious.
8. Investment Potential. Tetuan Valley is a safe place to learn how
to start your own business. But it is a program for businesses;
when it comes down to two ideas, we lean towards the one that
appears more fundable. Remember: Profitable does not always
mean investable.

46
Dates
Startup School runs twice per year in Madrid. The fall program starts in
early October and ends mid November, 6 weeks later. The spring edition
tends to happen between March and May. Meetups are scheduled every
Wednesday afternoon (in Madrid) during those weeks.
Some sporadic extra meetups might be scheduled to assist with specific
topics, as well as some additional entrepreneurial events but they aren´t
mandatory (although usually advisable).
The first Startup Network partner, Startup Galicia, will launch its Startup
School in the summer of 2012.
Fees and Weird Contracts Claiming Your Soul
NONE, nada, FREE, as in beer. It is against our principles. Tetuan Valley
does not take money from entrepreneurs. So there is no excuse for
entrepreneurs to not attend the program.

47
Program Structure
Session Structure
As previously mentioned, the program runs over a period of 6 weeks,
plus a 7th
session for the graduation event. We meet once a week at 19:00
pm in our offices to run our weekly meetup. We choose that schedule to
allow our candidates to coordinate their university and work schedules
with the course. With the exception of the First Session and the
Graduation Event, all classes follow the same structure:
• 19:00 – 20:00 Lecture
During each class, one of the members of our Crew gives a 45
min lesson and a 15 min Q&A session on a specific subject
related to entrepreneurial life and elements of starting your own
businesses.
Subjects covered in each of these sessions are detailed in the
section “Session Descriptions.”
• 20:00 – 21:00 Mentor Session
After each lecture, a mentor will give a 1 hour talk and Q&A
session developing the subject reviewed in the lecture or a topic
specific to his/her experience related to launching, developing
or investing in startups.
All mentors have different profiles and domains of expertise,
and they might vary from one edition to the next. The most
important thing is that the students get 6 different points of
view from people with 6 very different backgrounds, all relevant
to building a tech startup. For that, the most important selection
criterion is getting mentors with the right mindset: completely
passionate about startups and entrepreneurship and willing to
help.

48
In Madrid, our mentors’ profiles vary from an expert in public
speaking and presentation design, to seasoned entrepreneurs,
to former lawyers-turned-entrepreneurs, to former C-level
executives at Big Corps, to hardcore hackers turned professors,
to Business Angel investors and Venture Capitalists.
• 21:00 – 21:30 Pizza Time
Each session we provide all our students with a nutritious dinner
of pizza and soda. It is important to use that time to encourage
them to mingle, share experiences, give informal feedback to
each other and share a few laughs.
When we were not strict about the timing of this part, we found
ourselves risking extending the session past midnight, so we try
to be conscious of keeping this time to a half hour.
• 21:30 – 23:00 Weekly Pitch Practice & Status Update
In our experience running Startup School, we have seen that
this is the most important part of each session and the most
Best Practice: Estimating Pizza Order
Count how many people there are at the beginning of the class,
multiply by 2 or 3 (slices per person), divide by 8 (slices in a pizza),
round up to the next number and that is the number of pizzas you
need! Madrid normally orders 7 - 12 pizzas.
Now go back to the number of people, divide that number by 5,
round up to the next number and that is the number of 2 liter soda
bottles you need (buy an assorted range of sodas, most people love
soda, but some only like one of the Diet versions, and other don’t
like carbonated drinks at all).

49
valuable part of the program.
During each session, all the teams will go up, one by one, in
front of their peers and pitch their startup as if they were
pitching to an investor or at a startup competition. They then
explain what they have been doing the previous week (covering
the homework plus any significant advances), the key problems
and questions they are encountering, and their plans for the
following week. After this, their peers, the Tetuan Valley Crew,
and all other spectators will have the opportunity to provide
them with questions, suggestions and constructive feedback to
help them continue to evolve their projects and improve their
pitch.
It is very important that the Crew is careful about keeping both
the pitch and the feedback productive, efficient and on-time. It
is not an easy task (everyone runs over!), but it is important to
remind the students to utilize the other tools they have (like the
Google group, other events, or reaching out to one another on
their own) to provide any additional feedback they didn’t get to
give during class time. What happens outside of each session is
just as important as what happens within the hours we are all
sharing together in class. Also, encouraging communication
outside of class
makes the students
more comfortable
doing it with the
community at large
once they graduate.
Best Practice: Cutting Teams Off
We are strict, borderline cruel, about
cutting teams and feedback off
according to the time rules. Why?
Because that´s the way it works in the
real world. Most pitch competitions
will cut you off if you go over time,
and talking to an investor for 8 min
when he told you 5 shows a lack of
practice and consideration. We want
to get the teams ready for this reality.

50
Session Descriptions
Session #1: The Way of the Startup
The first session of the Startup School is crucial for the correct
development of the next sessions and the whole program. It has to be
both insightful and exciting; everybody should leave the session with an
adrenaline rush (think Tony Hsieh WOW experience).
The structure we usually follow for this class is the following:
• Introduction to Tetuan Valley (30 min)
20 min Quick review of the purpose of the program, the “House
Rules,” the syllabus and brief introduction of the Tetuan Valley
Crew.
• Lecture: “The way of the startup” (60 min)
20 min Philosophical talk about the entrepreneurial spirit,
mindset and attitude.
25 min Introduction to the Customer Development Model and
the Lean Startup method.
15 min Q&A
• Mentor Session: “How to build the perfect pitch and a great
presentation” (60 min)
50 min Mentor keynote about Zen Presentations and the
importance of preparing and practicing your pitch, and
effectively communicating and presenting yourself and your
startup.
10 min Q&A

51
• Pizza Time (30 min)
Pizzas usually are ordered ahead of time to be picked up right as
the Mentor is finishing along with the sodas.
• Pitch Practice Exercise (60 min)
As this is the first class, slides won’t be required for the teams. In
this class they’ll practice their Elevator Pitch (90 seconds max.).
Each team will go up in front of their peers and have 90 seconds
to pitch their project, no more (use a timer and cut teams off
when the time is up; it is important that they learn to prioritize
and summarize what information is important). After the pitch,
allow 2 min for their peers to give feedback (use the timer again)
and 1 min for your Crew to build on that feedback and digest it
to actionable to-dos for the next session.
Blog post with slides and videos
http://blog.tetuanvalley.com/2012/03/tetuan-valley-startup-school-
startspain-death-or-glory.html

52
Session #2: Finance 101
• Lecture: “Finance 101” (60 min)
45 min The basics surrounding the Business Plan, how to price
products, creating initial metrics, business models and some
tools & tricks to help shape startup finances.
15 min Q&A
• Mentor Session: “Startups’ Legal Framework” (60 min)
50 min Mentor keynote covering the legal basics any startup
must know in Spain.
10 min Q&A
Follow process and
Pizza Best Practice
described in Session
#1.
Through the sixth session, the structure of the pitch practice
part will follow the same structure:
! All teams need to have sent their presentation slides as
PDFs two hours before the event.
! Each team will go up in front of their peers and make a
4 min and 30 sec. presentation covering (a) their pitch
to investors, (b) what have they done over the past
week, (c) what are they going to do next week and (d)
what are the key problems they are facing.
Best Practice: Presentation Flow
All the slides for the session (mentor,
Okuri Team, and the pitches) should be
sent as PDFs and downloaded into one
folder to keep transitions smooth
between pitches.

53
! After the pitch, allow 2 min for their peers to give
feedback and 2 min for your Crew to build on that
feedback and digest it to actionable to-dos for the next
session.
Blog post with slides and
videos
http://blog.tetuanvalle
y.com/2012/03/startup
-school-session-2-get-
better-in-the-boring-
stuff.html
Best Practice: Why PDF?
Hack any PPTs they send, inserting
random slides that will interrupt their
pitches, to illustrate the point of why it
is a best practice to always send PDFs.
They´ll never send another PPT again.

54
Session #3: Funding and Cash Flow Management6
• Lecture: Finance 101 Part Two a.k.a. “Funding and Cash
Flow Management” (60 min)
45 min The basics surrounding key concepts every entrepreneur
should keep in mind regarding funding, how Business Angels &
VCs think, what they care about, what they look at when
evaluating a company and how to manage finances to become
a potentially investable startup.
15 min Q&A
• Mentor Session: “How to Sell, Partner, Compete and Deal
With Big Corps” (60 min)
50 min Mentor keynote covering how to interact with big
corporations.
10 min Q&A
Follow process & Best Practice described in Session #1.
Same structure as in Session #2.
http://blog.tetuanvalley.com/2012/03/tetuan-valley-session-3-its-ok-
your-code-sucks.html
6
During the 2012 Spring Edition we rearranged the order of the talks due to
mentor scheduling requests

55
Session #4: Selling, Product and Brand Building7
• Lecture: “Selling, Product and Brand Building” (60 min)
45 min The basics surrounding how to market your startups,
what tools you can use, how to build your product fast with the
right product-market fit and in coherence with your branding
efforts.
15 min Q&A
• Mentor Session: “Technology 101 & Development
Shortcuts” (60 min)
50 min Mentor keynote covering the basics any tech startup
member needs to understand about code and how both coders
and non-coders should work and plan work in a startup with
regards to building the product.
10 min Q&A
Follow process & Best
Practice described in
Session #1.
• Pitch Practice Exercise
(90 min)
3
During the 2012 Spring Edition we rearranged the order of the talks due to
mentor scheduling requests
Best Practice: 10s ,90s, 3m
Although the teams give a 3-4 min
pitch every week at TVSS, they should
also be able to do (and practice) a 1-2
phrase (<10s) pitch, and an elevator
(90sec) pitch.

56
http://blog.tetuanvalley.com/2012/04/tetuan-valley-startup-school-vi-
session-4.html

57
Session #5: Corporate Culture Creation3
• Lecture: “Corporate Culture Creation” (60 min)
45 min The basics surrounding corporate culture, motivations
and critical issues that threaten the early startup life such as the
importance of unequal equity distribution and how to pay on
equity to your key employees.
15 min Q&A
• Mentor Session: “Choose Your Own Adventure” (60 min)
50 min Mentor keynote from a seasoned entrepreneur covering
the basics about innovation, creativity, how to run your startup
with these things in mind.
10 min Q&A

58
Follow process & Best Practice described in Session #1.
http://blog.tetuanvalley.com/2012/04/tetuan-valley-session-5-
the-investor%C2%B4s-perspective.html

59
Session #6: Critical Failure Factors Recap and Key
Takeaways
• Lecture: “Critical Failure Factors Recap and Key Takeaways”
(60 min)
45 min Recap of the key takeaways entrepreneurs should keep
in mind when they leave the program including: creating a
culture from day 1, making themselves heard above all the
entrepreneurial "noise," knowing who their stakeholders are and
keeping them happy, how to deal with and attract investors,
and the importance of being legally air-tight.
15 min Q&A
• Mentor Session: “The Investor’s POV” (60 min)
50 min Mentor keynote from a seasoned investor covering what
he or she looks at when evaluating a project, what kinds of
startups they are interested in and why, what are red flags for

60
them when meeting teams, and how they make and follow
through with investment decisions.
10 min Q&A
Follow process described in Session #1.
http://blog.tetuanvalley.com/2012/04/tetuan-valley-startup-school-vi-
session6.html

61
Demo Day: Graduation Event
The Demo Day is all about the startups and the Tetuan Valley
Community. We normally organize it two weeks after the 6th
session,
allowing participants 14 days to bring their “A game" for the event.
We invite all the Tetuan Valley Alumni, startup advisors, mentors,
accelerator program managers, and early-stage/seed investors we know
to come to enjoy a night of celebration with us. It is a lot of fun!
The structure we usually follow for this event is:
• Congratulatory Graduation Talk from Program Manager
and Tetuan Valley Crew (10 min)
Brief recap on what the program has been like and welcome to
the Tetuan Valley Alumni Community for the recent graduates.
• Commencement Speech: Guest Speaker (40 min)
30 min Inspirational talk from a guest speaker.
10 min Q&A
Each team comes up one by one and does a 4 min pitch as if
they were presenting to potential investors.
No Q&A
• Pizza Party with Free Beer
Up until whenever you want, it’s a party! Have fun!
http://blog.tetuanvalley.com/2012/01/tetuan-valley-startup-school-v-
season-finale.html

62
Objectives and Success Metrics
The Objectives of the Startup School
The underlying objectives of the Startup School are:
• Disrupt Spain’s widespread, old-school entrepreneurial mindset
and the status quo by showing the teams the perks, difficulties
and, most of all, the mentality needed to build a startup.
• Provide a “Petri dish” for our students to test the startup
experience and answer these 3 simple questions in just 6 weeks:
! Is the “startup lifestyle” made for me?
! Is this the project that I want to start my entrepreneurial life
with?
! Are the teammates I chose for this project the people I want
to work with and share my first startup endeavor with?
• Foster and sustain a real, collaborative community among the
people that go through our program.
• Offer a well-rounded, objective overview of the
entrepreneurial way, providing the teams the tools to make
their own success.
! We take no equity and charge no fee, therefore removing
any interest in the teams that would cause us conflict,
allowing us to give impartial, objective advice.
! At each session, we provide a mentor from all walks of
professional life; they help to provide different points of
view.
! As shown in the infographic, we do not try to funnel teams
into our own programs, but instead act as an "equal
opportunity" recommendation source to external programs

63
for those entrepreneurs that decide to stay with their
projects.
• Improve the overall quality of the ecosystem by evangelizing an
open-source mentality that avoids elitist and endogamic
mentalities by:
! Encouraging and facilitating interaction between our
alumni and ALL entrepreneurs and mentors, from both
within and outside of the Tetuan Valley Community by
making all Tetuan Valley events, including the Startup
School (on a spectator basis), open to all interested persons.
! Uploading all the materials from our Startup School
Sessions and events including slides, handouts, videos,
pictures and blog posts. We also collaborate with other
private and public initiatives in the promotion of their
events, opening access and distributing information about
these events to members of our community.
• Improve the overall quality of Spain’s deal flow from its
earliest stage.
• Contribute to the education and development of not only
better entrepreneurs, but happier and more passionate
entrepreneurs.

64
Success Metrics
Most of the members from our Crew have a professional background
working for the “dark side” as management consultants and corporate
finance minions. Therefore, we do understand that numbers and
statistics speak louder than words for people who don’t have empirical
evidence of Tetuan Valley´s success. For that reason, we conducted a
brief study to be able to provide “cold hard facts” to the non-believers.
The outcomes of this research are:
Measuring "community" is hard, but between the above alumni,
collaborators and our Crew, we have 186 people subscribed to our
Alumni Google Group. This group has shared around 3,370 messages,
sharing feedback, suggestions, contacts, information and key lessons
learned through the continuation of their experiences.
220+
88
63
Project.
Applications
Projects.
Selected
Projects.
Graduated
158
120+
80+
Candidates.
Graduated
Currently.in.
Start>ups
Jobs.
Generated
Selection)Statistics Impact)Metrics Some)Success)Stories
Tetuan Valley*is not only the first program of*its kind but a*highly successful source of*dealflow
Funding while)still)in)Program
Acceptedto)accelerator)programs
40%
72%
75%
70%

65
Selection Statistics
Of the project applications shown above, our single greatest source of
applicants (over a third of the total) now comes from referrals from our
former students.
Our average acceptance rate was around 40% after our first edition, and
it kept decreasing rapidly from one edition to the next. In 2011,
acceptance rates were around 20%. We decided to make significant
changes to the application process, and despite making it a much more
“involved” application, acceptance rates hung around this percentage
(leading us to believe that had we left the simple form up, we would
have had rates much lower than this).
Out of all the teams selected, only 72% have graduated from the
program, implying they "survived" our assignments, strict attendance
policy, and most importantly, successfully coped with the startup
experience. We are proud of this figure.
Why? Entrepreneurship is not made for everybody. It is a lot of chaos and
work for very little money. In most cases, frustration and failure are
knocking at every startup’s door every single day. The only real asset a
wanna-be-entrepreneur has when he or she starts is their time.
Therefore, figuring out quickly that this lifestyle is not made for you- in a
night school (A.K.A. a low risk
environment where no one
has to quit their day jobs, yet) -
is a valuable way to save that
time.
Additionally, from our point of
view, not being able to follow through with the work that needs to be
done in order to graduate is a key indicator that a team is not going to
add a lot of value to the other community members. Thus, expelling the
"slackers" and procrastinators is a tough, but imperative, decision (and
filter) to maintain the quality of our graduates.

66
Impact Metrics
As of today, we have an alumni community of almost 160 people (this
figure will be around 200 by the time we finish our sixth edition in spring
2012). It is impossible to describe how proud we are of each and every
one of them. We have watched them grow, create ideas, throw those
ideas away, make better ideas, build great projects, and even turn some
into companies.
From these 160 people, it is important to acknowledge that over 75%
continue building and/or running their own startups; some continue
running the same projects they gave birth to in the Startup School,
others dropped those projects to build new ones that seemed more
feasible or they were more passionate about. Some continue with the
same team members that they started Startup School with, others have
split up and built projects with other people they were more
comfortable working with.
In the end, the most important data point is that these entrepreneurs are
currently generating jobs: up to one new job for every 1.43 participants.
In a country that is currently close to reaching the 25% unemployment
rate, these guys are taking a stand and positioning themselves to set the
example for how to self-start. Have we mentioned we´re proud?

67
Some Success Stories and Anecdotes
• In our last 2 editions, we have had 2 teams receive investment offers
before finishing the program (Toorisk and Quurl, now called Qrystal).
• Several teams have been selected by some of Europe’s top
accelerator programs such as Telefonica’s Wayra (Mashpan), our
own Startupbootcamp (Mobitto and Timpik) and Valencia-based
Business Booster (eCheckinServices).
• The founder of Automatify, a startup from our third edition, decided
to drop that project for a new one called Certalia and was selected
to be one of the startups joining the Startup Chile program.
• A graduate from the first edition along with a graduate from the
third edition met at one of our Alumni Meetups and decided to drop
their individual projects to build 1uptalent, a developer angel
company that joins other startups as the tech cofounders in
exchange for equity. Amongst their portfolio of tech investments,
they have several hot startups like Wayra’s Valioo.
• A graduate from our second edition and another one from the third
edition, both coders, decided to create Betabeers, a new kind of
monthly event in Madrid. It is oriented towards developers with
entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial spirit. They meet each month to
discuss and showcase their latest projects, get technical feedback,
share new techniques, programming languages and packages, etc.
In just a few months, they have grown their community, have
thousands of followers and have expanded into several cities in
Spain and abroad.
• Several of our startups have won various startup contests such as
the Instituto de Empresa’s Venture Lab (Mashpan), The App Circus
(Timpik & Food2U), SiTF Awards (Connaxion), etc.
• We have received applicants and graduates from places as varied as
Singapore (Connaxion, 4th
edition), Portugal (Mobitto, 4th
edition),
Belgium (Mobflint, 5th
edition), the US (ExecInterview, 5th
edition)
and Canada (HoloHolo, 6th
edition).

68
The Tetuan Valley Community -
Beyond Startup School
Tetuan Valley Carabanchel Space
In September 2011, Tetuan Valley
began managing the public, pre-
incubator and accelerator space at
the Vivero de Carabanchel (one of
seven Viveros run by Madrid
Emprende). Tetuan Valley offers
projects at the Accelerator:
! Consulting.
! All the events & activities
offered to the rest of the Tetuan Valley Community, as well as
those offered by Madrid Emprende.
! Incubator space.
Teams in TVCS can enter before, after, instead of, or in addition to their
participation in Startup School. The flexibility in the requirements at
TVCS and the added component of co-working space gives it many
synergies with the Startup School and larger TV Community.
Who Is This for and Requirements
The only hard and fast requirement we have is a need for acceleration.
We always ask teams: "Why do you want to work from here, and not from
your kitchen at home?"
We also look for people who want to contribute to the co-working
environment, who will add value to the community, and genuinely need
acceleration and feedback on their idea.
A normal stay at the accelerator is 1-5 months depending on the needs
of the team. The duration of the stay will depend on setting goals that

69
they want Tetuan Valley´s help in achieving. Once those goals are
achieved, the project will graduate from the accelerator, but will still
have access to all events at the Vivero, Tetuan Valley, and consulting
from the TV Crew as needed.
Some examples of “typical” milestones we try to complete during a
startup´s time at the accelerator:
! Market study (testing).
! Creation of a minimum viable product.
! Launch plan.
! Creation and utilization of social networks.
! Creation of publicity and communication material.
! Strategy/ implementation for finding clients.
! Pricing strategy.
! Creating financial model.
! Pitch presentation for investors and clients.
! Business plan.
! Alpha/ Beta demo products.
! Incorporating the business.
! Search for financing.
! Progression to external programs.
And more…
There is no team size or composition requirement. We can work in
Spanish, English or both. We also accept non-tech teams to this program,
and, as always, charge nothing.

Playbook - Tetuan Valley Startup School for Dummies - July 2012 [2nd Edition]

Playbook - Tetuan Valley Startup School for Dummies - July 2012 [2nd Edition]

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