BlockTac Podcast #1 – The 2019 review of the year

 

(Transcript)

The 2019 review of the year

Hello friends, my name is Francisco Guillén and I am Co-founder and CEO of BlockTac.

I welcome you to this new communication initiative that we have felt committed to launching, with the excuse provided by this end of the year 2019. The BlockTac team of professionals has found it necessary to close this decisive year with a review or summary of what our work has been and make it known to all our followers and friends through this podcast.

We would like it to be the first in a series of podcasts and to consolidate it as a communication initiative to raise awareness of the nature of the business applications of Blockchain technology and also the specific way in which we, from BlockTac, approach it.

Well, 2019 has been an extraordinary year for BlockTac. It has followed 2018 that it was like the embryonic phase of the company, where we had to spend a lot of time explaining what Blockchain technology was all about and its obvious utility to solve business problems. In fact, this year has witnessed a large number of initiatives, an intense and varied work of the BlockTac team, which in turn has also been growing the number of people in recent months.

I do not intend to tell you here everything we have done, but I do want to give you an idea of ​​the diversity of initiatives and commitments that we have attended all these months.

For example, I begin with an activity that was not planned and for which we were not prepared, neither Enrique Lizaso, cofounder and Technology and Operations Director of BlockTac, nor me. I mean the production of original audiovisual material. Overcoming our lack of experience, we have published 18 corporate videos to present the company and the essential qualities of our certificates and digital seals. The content of these videos explains what constitutes the nature of our services and at the same time helps potential customers to form an opinion about the right way of doing things.

And to them, we must add another five blogcasts on the application of Blockchain technology in the human resources management function. We carried them out with the Asociación Centro of Human Resources Managers, and thanks to the excellent collaboration of one of its associates, Luis Amigo. They have had an extraordinary effect in the improvement of the recruiting processes and in the accreditation of professional capabilities in the business environment.

Another initiative in this area has been the blog posts on our website. We have prepared 12 notes, written in English and Spanish, in which we present some news of our everyday routine. In others, we dig into technical aspects of how Blockchain technology can contribute to the solution of the problems of the authenticity of products and services in different economic industries.

And I abandon now those internal activities, to go on to describe other initiatives carried out abroad. They are those related to our participation in startup competitions, congresses, fairs, and conferences on Blockchain technology, or on how to make a safe certification of academic degrees or professional competencies. These actions have taken us all over Spain, from Huelva to Malaga, Burgos, Barcelona or Madrid, and from Shenzhen in China, to Istanbul, Lisbon or Los Angeles. There have been so many and so diverse that this is not the place to detail them, but you can see them reflected in the BlockTac website and in our LinkedIn profiles.

However, it is necessary to highlight some of them, starting with the Cuatrecasas Acelera program, organized by the prestigious law firm, which we won. We were also awarded by the economic newspaper Expasión in the Startup category of Telecommunications, Industry 4.0 and Emerging Technologies. In Expoliva, the oil industry World Fair, they gave us the prize in technological innovation, and we were finalists on the Acció Entrepreneurship Forum, in Barcelona.

Regarding our presence in international events, there are two actions to highlight: We were selected to attend in September the MWC in Los Angeles after qualifying as one of the 20 most innovative Spanish technology companies. And in May we went to Shenzhen, to participate in the International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, being selected as one of the 20 most outstanding companies in the world on the Internet industry.

Research and development work carried out internally also received outstanding awards this year: The European Commission granted us a Phase 1 Project, on the Horizon 2020 Program. And the Center for Industrial and Technological Development, an institution of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities, granted us a NEOTEC program. In both cases, the awards go with very significant financial compensation that has helped to consolidate the company’s assets.

It is necessary to make a special reference to a set of mandatory activities for any startup worth its salt. This involves participation in investor forums, such as those from ESADE or IESE, in addition to meetings held individually with some tens of Business Angels and Venture Capital companies.

The goal was to complete our first round of investment which has ended with a crowdfunding campaign by Crowdcube and based in London. The campaign, launched in the last days of the year, reached the target figure of 170,000 pounds in just five hours and has been closed with a final subscription of 325,000 pounds, or 191% of the initial goal, being completed in 12 days and a few hours. A great success thanks to the trust of 392 investors from 53 countries and the professionalism of the entire Crowdcube team.

Many of these activities and awards have been mentioned in specialized journals and in leading newspapers such as La Vanguardia y Expansión. And I leave aside the detail of the several tens of thousands of kilometers traveled to open new markets, present and serve customers and partners, or the time allocated to close international distribution agreements in Central America, Colombia or Bolivia.

All of this has represented a lot of work, and with many satisfactions, it is true. And, at the same time, we are not pleased. This has just begun. We thought it had to be remembered here to express our gratitude to you all for the immense support and trust received.

The bar is already set very high for next year.

Welcome, 2020!

And that’s all for today. I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet you again and tell you the latest and interesting news about BlockTac developments.

Goodbye, my friends!