What is a startup?

A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop,

and validate a scalable economic model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses,
including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups
refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning,
startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on
to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup
companies valued at over US$1 billion.
This strong technological component allows them to scale their business agilely and quickly,
and with a lower capital need than traditional companies.
Examples of Spanish startups:
Glovo
Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, founders of the startup.
Glovo was born in Barcelona in the image and likeness of other services in the United States
that fight for the so-called "last mile" of the distribution sector, that is, the final process of
delivering an order to its buyer.
Founded in January 2015 by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, Glovo is already present in 23
cities, having even completed the jump across the Atlantic upon landing (alongside Cabify) in
Latin America.
Glovo's idea remains the same as the start: to offer the user all kinds of products in record
time - about 30 minutes - through a simple mobile application.
The company is for now oriented to southern Europe with home deliveries at the user's
request or as a service for partners such as McDonalds with whom they have just signed a
business agreement.
In September 2017 the startup managed to raise no less than 25 million euros in a financing
round in which it counted Rakuten as the main investment partner.
Over the next few months Glovo's goal will be to settle in all the markets in which it is
present and introduce a new line of business, called SuperGlovo, that will allow users to make
a purchase with consumer products from the main brands that delivery people will take to
their doorstep.
Bioo
Tech Bioo is an ambitious "startup" that manages to generate electricity through the
photosynthesis of plants. An idea that could forever revolutionize cities by turning gardens
into a source of energy for businesses and homes.
Founded by Javier Rodríguez Macías, Pablo Vidarte Gordillo and Alexandre Díaz Codina the
"startup" has already 25 workers and has won the innovation award in the fifth edition of the
South Summit. In its first round of investment it has already managed to add more than
300,000 euros.
The startup has already presented a flowerpot, called Bioo Lite, capable of generating enough
energy to charge the mobile battery through photosynthesis, the process in which plants
transform carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and organic matter.

Glossary:
1) Entrepreneur – przedsiębiorca
2) Uncertainty - niepewnosć
3) Unicorns - to określenie prywatnej, innowacyjnej firmy technologicznej typu start-up, której
wycenia wyniosła ponad 1 miliard dolarów.
4) Agilely - zwinnie
5) "last mile" – “Ostatnia mila” czyli dostarczanie towaru do końcowego odbiorcy
6) Revolutionize – rewoluzjonizować

Exercise 1
1) Unless you are a private investor or venture capitalist, ……………. being startup
companies don't really accept a lot of moderately-sized investments.
2) Auto dispatch helps make ………….. delivery more efficient by reducing service costs
associated with dispatch.
3) Leaped ……….. from roof to roof

Exercise 2
1) What do you think about star-up? Would you benefit from this organization when
starting a company? Why/Why not?
2) Did you use mentioned startups? If not, would you like to try? Do you know some
other?
3) Do you think the last startup has a chance to develop on a global scale? Why/Why
not?
4) What do you think makes startup so successful and why some are failures?