Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui recently interviewed Catalan-Taiwanese entrepreneur Dídac Lee, who was already interviewed in Sinalunya on June 2nd, 2011. Here's the transcription of this more recent interview.
Entrepreneur DNA
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Dídac Lee's cartoon from El Punt Avui website[/caption]With deep roots in Figueres but with a global spirit, this businessman of the world of new technologies and son of Taiwanese immigrants has been one of the leaders of entrepreneurship in Catalonia. He says his secret is "to have his feet always on the ground".
Dídac Lee explains that when he was 18 years old he founded Intercomgi -the first stone of today's Inspirit group- he had no idea of what being a businessman was. He only "wanted to create products and sell them". And so he did, in a way that he only cared for the short term and never got deeply into any mid or long term strategy.
But the turn of the century brought the bursting of the technological bubble. And as it usually happens, the fall was so hard that he matured in a very short time. "We went through some really tough times, we were about to shut down and I saw very clearly that I didn't want to go through that again. I had to diversify and be more global". But his personal and professional transition didn't bloom until summer 2005, something that happened in the prestigious Cambridge University. There he became the first student coming from Spain that took part and won the technological entrepreneurship contest organized by this university. And this happened despite Dídac Lee's feelings upon arrival to Cambridge, when we saw himself "as the small-town boy who didn't have anything to do there". But he went on. After all, feeling different was not something that would stop him, as it didn't stop him from integrating in a small-town Catalan society being the first son of Chinese immigrants born in the Girona province. "I worked very hard during that summer and I proved to myself I could do it".
Since the Cambridge award, his career has been skyrocketing. Other awards have been adding to that one at the same speed as he and his team have been presenting new projects through his Inspirit Labs, "a factory of companies inspired in the Intercom Group of Antonio González Barros, whom I consider my teacher and someone to follow closely".
The founder of Intercom was the first one from a generation that has placed Barcelona in a leading position in the world of the technological start-up companies. "What makes a place become a reference are the results of their companies and here we have some 20 extraordinary examples, like Privalia or Softonic". Inspirit is also on such a list, but despite the fact that Dídac Lee tries to keep his feet on the ground, he is aware that for someone still below 40 he has become a role model for many entrepreneurs. He says that this does not bother him, but he prefers to look at it from the distance. "In Chinese there is a saying that that says that when fate wants someone to fail, it inflates his or her ego". In Dídac Lee's case, this is not just a phrase. All those that know him from long time ago are aware that the only thing that has changed in him since its beginnings in a warehouse in Figueres is that he has an extremely busy schedule. This is also because he has become one of the members of FC Barcelona's governing board, under the chairmanship of Sandro Rosell, which has also placed him in a prominent position in the sport's world.
He says that some of his secrets have been to surround himself of a good team, not being afraid to create partnerships and to know how to recruit good professionals. With a staff that nowadays is approaching 400 people, these are essential abilities, but Dídac Lee is not the kind of person that says that he knows all the people that work in his companies. "The truth is that, to be honest, I don't know even half of them". But some of these 400 people have been with him since the first day and this makes him feel very comfortable.
Dídac Lee is not happy with those that summarize his profile by only compiling his successes, because successful people has also fallen many times. "It's because I have done many mistakes that now I can have my feet on the ground". And also because of the same reason, he is not obsessed with being the best, but with "improving myself every day".
One of the many times he made a mistake was, some years ago, when he tried to enter the Chinese market with Spamina. Then he failed, but now he is back to conquer China with Zyncro, a social network for companies that has come out of the Inspirit Labs. They have just opened an office there and he acknowledges that "having a professional success in China is one of my dreams". He explains that "to have a Chinese face is not a guarantee of success. When I open my mouth they see I am not from there, which is just the opposite that happens here. The only place where I felt that they don't care where I am is in the USA". In America he has offices in Silicon Valley, Mexico and Argentina, but he feels it is not enough. "I want to be more global and that people would think of me when they would be talking of this sector", but he adds this is not about "being pretentious" but it is about "knowing that you did things right". In the list of things to do he includes to explain his experience to the new entrepreneurs, a task he already is doing in the Instituto de Empresa and that is going to bring him back to Cambridge. Plus, he is preparing a sort of autobiographical book that he wants "to be mainly focused on my mistakes, because that's where readers can learn the most".
The truth is that one of the chapters could be devoted to explain how to obtain funding, because in these 18 years he has held 25 successful financing rounds for his companies and only in the case of Zyncro he has been able to get more than 3 million € in only one year. "Entrepreneurs have to understand that investors do not invest on an idea or on a business plan, but on a team able to turn it into reality. We wouldn't have been able to get this amount of money if Lluís Font was not leading Zyncro".
Dídac Lee is not the kind of person that asks money from governments. "It is enough if the laws do not become an obstacle". But something he thinks is lacking is a greater social recognition of the role of entrepreneurs, even though he admits lately this has changed for better, because when he decided to quit his studies of computer engineering to start a company he felt how his closest circle of friends and family -including his parents- looked at him with disapproval. "In the Chinese culture, to finish the studies is a matter of honor". But time has proved him right and when he looks back he thinks that he has entrepreneurship in his DNA because of his parents. "They are the ones that taught me to fight for what I wanted".
