Building an Internet of Things Platform Company from Zaragoza, Spain: Alicia Asin, CEO of Libelium (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Somehow, you managed to get through 2007 and 2008. At what point and what strategic moves did you make to get to a more sustainable path?

Alicia Asin: I think it was 2009. Through the maker shop, we were able to sustain the salaries of all the personnel. We were 10 people by 2009. We launched our official business line, which is the biggest one now and the one that is generating 70% of the revenues. I think that was the inflection point for us.

Sramana Mitra: When did you figure out that product – the product that today is generating 70% of the revenue? What was the process in figuring out the precise specs and product/market fit of that one? That’s the real business builder, right?

Alicia Asin: Yes. We started in November 2006. By March 2007, we already knew what we wanted to build. It was two years and a half of researching and debugging. That was the origin of what today is the main business line.

Sramana Mitra: What was the segment where you were getting traction for this? Do you remember where the early adopters came from?

Alicia Asin: The first adopters came mostly from universities because, at the time we started, IoT was not a term that was very well known. It was wireless sensor networks. The best thing about our approach was that it allowed for experimentation and research. It was not only a closed product. It was a platform that you could use a tool for investigating. Universities were the first ones to start doing a number of amazing projects.

Sramana Mitra: But universities tend to be small deal sizes right? Your average deal size must have been small then?

Alicia Asin: We have deals of all sizes with universities. In fact, the biggest project we’ve ever had was with a university in Australia.

Sramana Mitra: Do you remember what kind of deal sizes you were getting at that point with these universities?

Alicia Asin: The orders were very small. Maybe, 5 to 25 units per order because they wanted to create a small network to do a pilot.

Sramana Mitra: What does that translate into — 5 to 25 units?

Alicia Asin: Maybe $2,000 to $2,500.

Sramana Mitra: How long did you continue in this mode and what was the point where you started to get traction outside of the university market into a more commercial domain?

Alicia Asin: We were seeing that research labs in big companies are, in fact, the same thing as a university in practical terms. We started having orders from those labs who were trying to figure out wireless sensor networks. They started making pilots and testing the technology. Because they’re commercial companies, they have the ability to transform that into bigger projects. As for today, that’s exactly the same. At 2014, the average order is between $5,000 to $6,000. We’ve been growing more in the number of customers rather than in the average deal size.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Building an Internet of Things Platform Company from Zaragoza, Spain: Alicia Asin, CEO of Libelium
1 2 3 4 5