Manuel Mates Garcia

Manuel Matés is a founder and Managing Partner at Big Sur Ventures, a seed–early stage firm that invest in information technology companies in areas like consumer and business Internet (Saas), mobile, new media. He supports and mentors portfolio companies in the following areas: strategy and business plan development, funding structuring and negotiation strategy, and talent, training and organizational process management (OKR, V2MOM…). He began his entrepreneur career in internet and information technology where he has been in the past 20 years. He is pioneer in the first wave of founders of the Spanish Internet and startup ecosystem. From 1994 to 2001 he cofounded Cinet (B2B ISP sold to Retevisión, now ONO-Vodafone) Olé, (a Cinet spinoff and first hispanic portal sold to Telefónica) and BellMoore Consulting (Internet & Tech integration: CRM-CMS software tools). Manuel cares about share knowledge and he has a solid background in teaching and research. During 17 years (1994-2011) he has been professor part time at ESADE Business School, not only teaching but also designing and launching pioneer and very practical courses (2001, first E-Business course in a Business School in Spain) in these areas: organization and human resources, e-business, and seed and early stage financing, analysis and investment process. He has founded and supported some key institutions of Barcelona tech ecosystem: ESADE investors and entrepreneurs club, ESADE BAN (Business Angels Network) and Business Angels (BA) School (2004-2009). Necotium BA School (2011-2015). Barcelona Tech City (2013). Most recently he is promoter, co-editor and translator of the book “Venture Deals” written by Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson and "The Hard Thing about Hard Things" Ben Horowitz for the hispanic market (2015, 2016 www.librosde cabecera.com) Manuel holds a bachelor’s degree in law and a master’s degree (MBA) from ESADE. He is a foodie, and enjoys cooking, travel, diving, listen good music and read about underwater archaeology.