HOMYHUB- an idea that grew with South Summit 🤝

Every year the area of La Nave brights up with red and yellow color. For people here in Madrid and all over Spain it’s clear, its South Summit time. The three days of the entrepreneurial festival brings some of the best startups and minds from all over Europe. From young entrepreneurs looking out for a team, to startups getting funded, South Summit always have a story that encapsulates the mind and heart. Just like how Maria Benjumea started this as an idea and turned South Summit as a benchmark of events. 

 

One such story is about HOMYHUB. How an idea to developed over the years and it all began at South Summit 2016. Being the Head of marketing and communication at HOMYHUB, I have been with the company for almost 4 years now and attended my first south summit in 2017. But the year 2016 was really important to the story of our journey. Hence I will include the words of Enzo, who is the CEO and Co-Founder at HOMYHUB.

 

Let us see and try to picturise how the journey looks like if we give it the touch of the making of a movie. 

 

South Summit 2016 – “Finding the perfect cast”

 

A young master’s student from IE Business School who came as an attendee at the event was just looking around and trying to gain the feel of the Spanish ecosystem. Enzo had an idea and a mission in his heart, to bring innovation in the world of garages. Garage, a place where now trillion-dollar companies once started. While sharing his idea, two people got his tune and felt a positive vibe in the idea. A young graduate, Alvaro Roman ( now  Co-Founder at HOMYHUB and head of front end) really envisioned himself being a part of this idea. Another experienced hardware wizard, Carlos Quinjano ( now Co-Founder and head of backend) just said the exact line “man we can build a disruptive product”. After one more meeting with them, Enzo knew one thing, its a perfect team of

“HIPSTER”, “HACKER” and the “HUSTLER”. 

 

South Summit 2017 – “Launch of the trailer”

 

 After one entire year of hard work and being in London with Startupbootcamp IoT as one of the winners of their acceleration program, the team had developed a working prototype and had more than 200 users, using the power of HOMYHUB. But this time, it was not just the product but an entire idea to move forward not just as another garage opener device but “unlocking the full potential of garages and make them a valuable space in people’s lives”. Hence being the winners of the Rheto Lehnica challenge and also among the 100 finalists at South Summit, 2017 gave the entire team a huge boost. HOMYHUB with its product and first new-generation service to deliver packages securely into your garage, gained immense traction from people around the entire ecosystem. South Summit 2017 was a perfect trailer of what was about to come next. 

 

South Summit – 2018  “A great premier”

 

 2018 was another benchmark year for HOMYHUB and its team. A successful pilot of the “Entrega Segura“ service in Madrid with Correos, leading to a signed contract. Also with the final product ready with more users in the chart. Now the idea had a perfect physical form and people were realizing the power of HOMYHUB. With more than 15 national and international awards in the bag, it was time we move forward with the step to bring more people under the ecosystem and as a part of HOMYHUB. 

 

South Summit – Malaga Encounter “The critics loved it”

 

This was a very tense part for the team and especially for Enzo, as we were in the middle of our investment round. HOMYHUB just launched its crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube and secure more the 50% of the investment in just 3 days of going live. But there was still a long road to cover. “HOMYHUB has been selected among the top 10 startups for the Malaga Encounter”. To this day we feel, this has been one of the most successful events for the team in regards to investment. After a super successful 2 days in Malaga, we were back with more than 150.000 euros of investment guaranteed and by the end of the crowdfunding campaign, we were overfunded. Reaching a total investment of 470.000 euros from crowdfunding and 230.000 euros from the NEOTEC CDTI grant, HOMYHUB successfully completed its first seed round. 700.000 euros of investment, but what does that mean?  That meant people have trusted us, investors, family members, friends, other companies have shown their love and supported the disruptive solution that HOMYHUB provides. We know have more than 180 investors or team members whom we need to deliver. The trailer was great, critics approved it, it’s time to now hit the theaters. The pressure is mounting, but we have trust in the idea and the team behind it. 

 

South Summit – 2019 “It was a Friday family blockbuster”

 

This year we went to the event with our head high and a feeling that “it’s our playground and our home.”  With a fully packed product and launch of the “CityPaq Garaje” service, people knew who these “Garage guy “ are. They knew what we were doing and wanted to know more. Our file was filled with contacts of companies wanting to collaborate, people wanting to buy the product and most importantly when someone came to our stand and said

“More than myself, I want it for my parents. They keep on losing the remotes all the time and I just want to make their life easier”. 

 I just felt we are close to our mission. Our mission to unlock the full potential of garages and make them a valuable space in people’s life. 

 

South Summit – 2020 “It’s going to be a series”

 

2020 looks really far away. But it’s just 362 days left from the date I publish this article. That’s a really short time in the life of an entrepreneur. As I mentioned in one of the interviews during the event

 

 “South Summit is not just a 3-day event. These three days are the build-up for your next 362 days. The red and yellow color is the color of entrepreneurship in Madrid and in Spain. So get drunk as much as you can with the cocktail of contacts, ideas, and motivation and move forward until the next South Summit with a constant refreshing hangover of entrepreneurship”

 

See you all in 2020!!