Get to know the Foundation’s three dreamers. On February 24th these Dreamers jumped on board the 2017 Imagine Express train. We have chatted to the dreamers to find out what they have learnt from the Dreamer programme, and how they are planning to approach this new stage in their lives. The dreamers are: Liseth Monticone, who entered with ‘Btrust’. Btrust is a strong, safe and unique digital identification service, verified by a trusted third party; Óscar Rovira, founder of ‘Mealing’, a platform which recovers your digital information on social networks, together with algorithms which track your culinary tastes so that wherever you are, the food that you like and want can be delivered to you; and Héctor Alemany, who created ‘Weevo’, a platform for the purchase/sale of invoices using blockchain technology.
Define your Imagine Express experience in just one word…
Liseth: Intensity
Óscar: Learning.
Héctor: Incredible.
What has Imagine taught you the most?
Liseth: Teamwork, passion and new knowledge.
Óscar: Motivation to continue fighting to change the things that I believe aren’t going well.
Héctor: A change in mentality, improvement, progress.
What will you remember the most?
Liseth: with the 5,000 minutes, but with the people who I got to know, and who have helped me both personally and professionally.
Óscar: I will always remember the magical moment when my team and I were on our way to Paris (Friday), and I was feeling quite low because the whole day had gone by and our idea still wasn’t strong enough to move to the prototyping phase. So I decided to go for a walk on the train, I was listening to classical music to try and clear my mind and get the concepts straight, and after about 20 minutes I went back to the coach where we were working and the whole Pipedoctor team was brainstorming with my team, helping us to simplify the idea and to focus on the big picture of what Mealing was going to be. It was at that moment when I realised that the journey had changed from 12 teams to a single team.
Héctor: Sunday was incredible, after having pitched at the London Eye, on only two and a half hours sleep, it was time to let go of all of the tension which had built up after two days doing everything we could to make sure we were properly prepared. Also, the moment when they announced the teams has also stuck with me. I remember feeling that I didn’t know any of these people, and two days later we were already like a family.
What would you like to achieve after your experience at Imagine?
Liseth: make more persons Dreamers, apply this experience to my life.
Óscar: Now, more than ever before I focus on projects which only require a few resources to be able to prototype them quickly, and if they fail, it will also be quickly and cheaply. Mi challenge lies in developing a sustainable food chain. There is no way we can continue the way we are if in 2100 we want to feel 11 billion people.
Héctor: I would love it if the project which we have created is brought to life, in addition to continue working for the company, innovating and thinking about how we can better satisfy our best customer.
Will you continue to Dream?
Liseth: Always! just like now.
Óscar: Of course! Dreaming and doing (which is more difficult).
Héctor: Imagine Express has left its imprint on my DNA Being a Dreamer is an attitude which I am going to maintain for the rest of my life. Xavier Verdaguer always says a phrase which has stuck with me: “Everything you can imagine is real” Pablo Picasso.
How would you evaluate entities such as Banco Sabadell Foundation who support talent and creativity?
Liseth: For me, it is absolutely fundamental that entities such as Banco Sabdell Foundation exist, because it is a tool with which a lot of dreamers have been able to show what they are made of. And also to give credit to these entities, because in the end, it is it is people who are the driving force of everything.
Óscar: I believe it is very necessary and vital to give a voice to people who are the most curious. It’s motivation to carry on, and that’s really positive.
Héctor: Thinking about travelling by train from Barcelona to Paris and then from Paris to London whilst developing a new disruptive business idea is really hard to imagine, and impossible without dreamers such as this Foundation, who take on the most risk in order to give us this opportunity. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to count on the confidence and trust of the Banco Sabadell Foundation as well as the EDEM Escuela de Empresarios.
What does talent mean to you?
Liseth: To me, talent means attitude when faced with problems, but also when searching for opportunities. There are a lot of talented people, who are knowledgeable and multiply their knowledge through their attitude.
Óscar: A combination between genetics (<1%) and effort (>99%). Nothing can be gained from having good genetics if one does not put personal effort in, a lot of work.
Héctor: Persons who have a thirst for learning and continuously improving, of moving forward and starting from 0 all the way up to the top. The best thing about a person is their attitude. Attitude is what determines talent, more than the knowledge that you may or may not have.
