Antonio J. Padrón Hernández is the Partner – Director de Marketing & Institutional Relations of the startup IMBS. International Maritime Business School
He was born in Madrid (1989), although from the age of two he was linked to his mother's native Cádiz. He has also resided in other maritime cities such as Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tenerife and developed his university career in Vigo (Pontevedra). He studied Business Administration, a Master's in Marketing and Business Management from ESIC and a higher degree in Big Data from EOI.
Antonio believes that Cádiz, as an entry point to the Mediterranean, has been a strategic place and is an important link between three continents, Africa, Europe and a commercial connection with America. "Therefore, what better place to develop a Blue Economy project than a quintessential seafaring city like Cádiz".
However, he thinks that “Cádiz needs to train its population more in what the Blue Economy is and in the multiple employment possibilities it offers. We need to promote the activity of the ports and that people who are not familiar with the maritime, port and logistics sector know about the new employment opportunities that exist in our land”.
His role as a disseminator and educator also focuses him on a newspaper on maritime and port news, actualidadmp.com, which has been running since 2009 when Antonio created it as a blog when he was only 20 years old.
Focusing now on the IMBS startup, accelerated in Incubazul, it is in the process of expansion and acceleration and after a first experience with the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, making training alliances, it is now in the middle of the development phase of new actions of formation after numerous signatures: chamber of A Coruña, chamber of Castellón, Bilbao or Cádiz. Also in collaboration with universities such as CEU Andalucía y Latinoamérica, Universidad de San Buenaventura (Colombia) and is currently in the process of new signatures in Latin America.
Antonio responds to the Incubazul questionnaire.
What is your role within the company?
I dedicate myself to the coordination of all actions related to the price, product, promotion and distribution of all the training of our business school.
What does your value proposition consist of?
International Maritime Business School is a 100% online business school focused on training in the Blue Economy. Our training is divided into three types: Masters, Advanced Courses and Technical Courses.
How does your solution contribute to the sustainability of marine resources?
Education is a fundamental part, firstly to understand what the blue economy is and, secondly, to learn how to work in this sector in a sustainable way, taking advantage of all the employment opportunities and wealth it generates.
What aspects differentiate you from your competition?
We have teachers who are working professionals from more than fifteen different countries. Our students can acquire any of our training and can do it from anywhere in the world, at their own pace and with a personalized tutor who accompanies them throughout the training.
How do you think technology helps to enhance your solution?
Without a doubt, technology helps us to facilitate access to knowledge at an international level. The networking of our students and teachers from more than thirty countries also generates employment and business opportunities.
Have you come into contact with potential clients?
Yes, we are already in billing and thanks to the actions of Incubazul we are obtaining great visibility that has caused new potential clients to find us and become students.
How did you find out about the Incubazul acceleration program?
Thanks to the press. As soon as we saw that a blue economy acceleration program existed in Cádiz, we knew that it was a unique opportunity to get to know more companies in our sector, feel advised and supported by expert opinions that would help us to continue advancing with an "external" look at our project, which is providing us with incalculable and priceless value.
What areas of mentoring do you think can bring you more value?
I would tell you that practically all of them, because in our business, the technological part is so important, for example, to know tools, use cases, even organizing a database, as well as the legal part since we have a large number of students. per year with a significant volume of data.
What would you say to other entrepreneurs who want to launch their project based on the blue economy?
Don't think about it and apply as candidates for the accelerator with your idea. I have been working in the private sector for more than ten years and the value of mentors, as well as the ecosystem they have created, costs a lot of time and money to put together individually and thanks to the incubator we are saving a lot of time and learning from the best.
This High Technology Incubator Project for the promotion of innovation and technology transfer to microSMEs in the blue economy sector in Andalusia “[BlueEcoIncuba x Logistical]Tech = ZONA BASE – INCUBAZUL 2.0” is 80% financed by the European Regional Development Fund within the Pluriregional Operational Program of Spain FEDER 2014-2020 OP. “A way of making Europe” within axis 3: Improving the Competitiveness of SMEs, Thematic Objective 3 Improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, and investment priority 3 Promotion of entrepreneurship, in particular, facilitating the economic exploitation of new ideas, and promoting the creation of new companies, also through incubators.”
