Inaki Arrola - Keeping it real, keeping it simple

We've all heard the old saw about common sense being fairly uncommon. Inaki Arrola, an eminently normal guy feels he's "strange" when compared to entrepreneurs. He just might be right...

This session, we got some pretty grounded, real-life insights.

2 people in his family, buying the same car, comparing notes, realize they've been quoted different prices by different dealers, realize there might be an opportunity here, and you know how it goes. He went into business with cousins and friends with the grand startup capital of EUR 28.500.

Don't do business with friends and family he says. In fact, a recurring theme in his talk was the need to keep work and family separate. Keep their needs separate, keep your time for them separate.

Mix the two, and you might not be left with a wife, and not much of a business either !!

Inaki stressed the importance of beginning with the end in mind - do you want to get into entrepreneurship because you want fabulous riches, do you want to be your own man, do you want to keep embracing the newest idea out there. Not that you're gauranteed to get whatever you set out to get, it's just a question of getting the goals right.

Inaki got into a business that was already estabilished, the incumbents were (and still are) much bigger than him, his new company had no strategic differentiating factor, his team was light on tech. talent in the beginning. And yet, here he is today, talking to us to-be 'tech start up managers' and doing fairly well for himself.

His secret sauce is, like the man himself, very simple and straightforward: Connect with the user as best as you can. Now that's quite vague, so he went further - keep the user interaction on the website as minimal and simple as possible. He thought back to the websites he liked, and what exactly was it about them that he liked, and distilled his likes and dislikes into a sleek landing page for coches.com. This kind of a thing sets coches.com apart from the bigger guys, who're so similar that you wouldn't notice a thing if you switched their logos around on their websites.

In keeping with his common-sense way of doing business differently, he said that he rarely offers equity to new employees to lure them in or keep them motivated. The reason is quite simple - equity in most startups is going to turn out to be useless for the poor youngsters who'd rather have some disposable income. To keep them motivated, Inaki prefers bonuses when the company is doing well. It's a lot more meaningful for the employees.

All said, a very sensible entrepreneur. I'm very impressed !!
Main takeaway, in a field where everyone is going nuts trying to be different, just doing the common-sense thing might make you different from the rest !!