Juan Matji - Cantabria Labs

[MUSIC] >> [FOREIGN] >> Bienvenidos a 100 PC, el podcast donde puedes escuchar historias de emprendedores contadas por ellos mismos. >> [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] >> Juan, bienvenido a 100 PC. >> Encantado de estar aquí con vosotros. >> Que gusto tenerte aquí. Juan, tú estudias Administración y Dirección de Empresas. Cuando terminas la carrera, ¿qué haces? >> Pues supongo que como todo el mundo acabas la carrera con mejor o peor, con mejor o peores notas y al final pues me buscas trabajo. Y el trabajo es el que te da un poco la independencia económica y salir de casa, aunque yo voy a ir muy bien en casa. Pero bueno, también uno tiene su prudito diciendo yo tengo que valerme por mi solo, ¿no? Pues haciendo la carrera, pues las tibias entrevistas previas, tal, tal. Y a mí me enganchó mucho un consultor. Una consultor independiente, yo te estoy hablando ya hace muchos años, pues un consultor independiente y era un señor. Entonces el señor necesitaba un super junior al lado, pues para hacer las labores que tocaban esa edad, que son labores pues muy manuales, muy tal, pero lo más importante es que yo aprendía muchísimo. Era como una segunda carrera. O sea, yo creo que tu primer trabajo esteo es bueno tener un jefe, es bueno que te diga lo que tienes que hacer, es bueno que lo quiera para antes de ayer, ese tipo de cosas son buenas. Yo con este consultor que en paz descansa se llama Bernat, Juan Jo Bernat y asociados, una persona que conocía muchísimo el mundo consumo, yo aprendí con él muchísimo. Hicimos el primer proyecto, una planificación estratégica de una compañía farmacéutica y aprendí, entendí muchísimo lo que era el mundo farmacéutico. Mi padre trabajaba en el sector farmacéutico, era director de una compañía farmacéutica. Entonces ya, familiarmente, ya de eso me venía. Que sonaba algo. Mucho, mucho. Y la consultoría estratégica me servió un poco para ver el sector farmacéutico, las oportunidades que tenían, las debilidades y las unidades estratégicas de negocio que había dentro del sector farmacéutico. Y con 27 años, uno de los proyectos que sale es que te contratan para hacer el cierre de una empresa, que estaban dificultades. Activamente esta consultora, esta misma consultora, pues tenía un proyecto, una familia de Santander, quería desprenderse de su negocio. Y bueno, era un negocio que no prestaba una atención, un negocio de estos que ya había pasado generación, generación, nadie le prestaba atención y era... Era un laboratorio pequeñito, ¿no? Que se llamaba Industria Farmacéutica de Cantabria. Y era muy local. Y te contratan para hacer un cierre ordenado. Cierre ordenado, sí, al final, claro. Una consultora esta decía, oye, pues analiza la compañía, mira a ver qué es lo que tienes que ir haciendo, etcétera. Pero no nos interesa nada este negocio. No, cero, cero. Y entonces ahí, claro, te cambia la vida, porque tú viendo los números, piensas que ahí hay futuro, que esa empresa se puede reflotar. Obviamente venía fresco de haber hecho la consultoría estratégica de esta otra compañía farmacéutica. Entonces ya conocía el seto y está un poco calentito. Y entonces hablando con el consultor, "Eso es esta compañía porque será quien inquieta, si se puede reflotar tampoco está tan grave, ¿no?" Pero que era más desidía. Por parte de los propietarios no vtcrme este negocio, estamos vinculados. Entonces yo, sí, empecé a ver haciendo la consultoría para cerrar, hacer cierre ordenado. No sé qué, no sé cuánto. Pues cancelar autorización y comercialización, pues despedir personal o reducir la jornada. Bueno, cositas que se hacían un poco fine-tuning para que fuese un cierre ordenado, ¿no? Entonces yo dije, "No, pero es que en penita me da, yo creo que esto se puede reflotar y tal". Entonces yo me acuerdo que empecé a pensar, hablé con el consultor y le dije, "Oye, esto, todo tiene, yo creo esta compañía se puede reflotar y le me dijo, por supuesto, todas las compañías se pueden reflotar, pero hay que tener como una especie de plan, plan financiero detrás, ¿no?" Y supongo que ahí, claro, cuando tú estabas intentando cerrarlo, por las noches le estás dando vueltas, "Oye, te imaginas un poco el cuento de la lechera, ¿no? Podría hacer esto y podría hacer esto otro y podría hacer esto otro". Supongo que tendrías algo dentro ahí. No lo es. Como cuando planificas un viaje, ¿no? Tú planificas un viaje y dices, "Oye, ya que voy a este sitio, voy a ver esto, voy a ver aquello y tal". Y ahora vamos a ver. Ya tiene 24 horas y tienes que centrarte, ¿no? Y entonces, hablando con el consultor, me dijo, lo primero que tienes que tener es un plan, no un plan financiero, sino, "Oye, what's next? ¿Qué es lo siguiente que vas a querer hacer?" Y bueno, yo le estaba dando vueltas y tal, que veía que un poco que era una compañía muy genialista, creía que especializa esa compañía, podía tener futuro, con lo cual, un poco de dimensionar, o sea, reducir la dimensión, reducir la ambición comercial, dejarla más pequeñita para luego crecer. Y así fue en los inicios. O sea, hay una persona clave en esta decisión, obviamente fue mi padre. Y que tu padre era directivo de la industria farmacéutica, me la conocía muy bien. Con lo cual, tú le dijiste, "Oye, papá, esto como lo ves, porque yo veo esto, tú como lo ves, ¿no?" Mi padre era un emprendedor nato. Pa' descansa, yo lo quiero muchísimo, y él, mi padre, me animó muchísimo a hacerlo. "Oye, Juan, esto, el sector farmacéutico es bueno, lo puedes reflotar, yo te puedo ayudar con mi conocimiento, pero tampoco me puedo implicar demasiado, porque tengo conflicto de intereses y tal, pero si tú lo ves y tal." Y luego, claro, llegó el millón. Es decir, tú tienes que tener un plan de taras, un plan, o sea, tienes que tener un pulmón económico. -Well, 27 years, well, you don't have it. -You don't have it. The consultant didn't pay that much. No, no, no, no. Besides, the consultant was like, "Well, it's your project and such." I remember he always told me to say, "Hey, I think it's great that you have this project, that you have this illusion, but I have something to tell you. If you're doing well, it's because you're the son of your father. If you're doing bad, you're going to be the dumb son of your father all your life." -You're putting pressure on me. -Yes, yes, but well, in the end, I have one thing. The illusion of those ages and all, because the illusion is something that you have to renew every day, well, you can do it all. You can do it all, you know, it's very good in the business world. And then you talk to the owners of the company and you make an agreement and you stay with the company. Oh, no. In the end, I buy the company. It costs almost zero, almost zero, but most importantly, you have to reflow the company. You have to have an economic pulm to start doing it. Not only economic pulm, but when someone sells you a company for almost zero, is that the company is in trouble. And you have to turn it around. How do you do it? What do you focus on? Well, the first thing is to analyze what the products are and analyze the products that really have something in the future and which ones they don't have and which ones they don't have, close. That's a bit what Steve Jobs did in Apple, right? When he came back, he said, "We're going to focus on three products and everything else out." Well, I didn't really know, but I think it's a common feeling at the end. That is, focus on the one that can generate and leave the one that hasn't generated such. I remember that in those times we stayed with three basic products, a restaurant product for the toast, also a product for the headache, that is, generalist products that had their small volume. And more than that, what they did once was change the vote. Not even change the formula, change the vote. Fuck, if it's red, it's nice. So it's going to be a traditional topaz vote of old pharmaceuticals, a transparent vote. And with that, and with 10 sellers, we started today to have more interesting orders. So in the end, it's like contagion, you know, contagion. Those 10 sellers, in the end, they stayed in the project. With these 10 sellers, we started to build the new project. And I always liked talking about project, project, project, project, project. And that's how it was. And of course, during the first two months, even years, I suppose the goal is to survive, because the situation is bad. How long does it take until you can sleep peacefully at night? I mean, and this is more or less already caused. When you decide to undertake this kind of... Never sleep peacefully at night, because you have a responsibility with what the project is and with the people who know me, including the project, which is responsible. That can't tell you that you don't sleep all night, but there are nights where you get something in your head and you don't take it out, right? Before, now, and I'm sure that in the future it will continue to happen, let's go. You stay with the company, we said you were 27 years old, it's 1994 and in 1995, I mean, very soon, you make a collaboration with the Harvard University that you get the patent of oral photo protection. And that's where the product "Star of the House" is born, which is the "Liocer". How does that collaboration project with Harvard come about? Look, it's about a story of anxiety. One day, when I was reviewing scientific papers, I saw that there was a Spanish doctor who was curing, he said he was curing the vitilio, and the vitilio is a... At that time, I had decided to focus the company on dermatology, to specialize in dermatology. So I was looking for pathologies or diseases in dermatology that didn't really have a cure. So I saw this doctor who said that with an extract, a plant cured the vitilio. You got to be true. Well, well, I pulled the thread, I saw this doctor, I was in Spain, I saw him, and he said, "No, no, and look, I have received a letter from Dr. Fispatric, who has read this, and Dr. Fispatric is the number one in the world in dermatology, who has read this and has written me a letter." So he gave me a photocopy of the letter, photocopy. At that time, I don't know if it was photocopy or fax, this paper that goes to the ink, and then I saw the address of Fispatric and Fax's phone. At that time, it was fax, and I wrote Fax to Fispatric, saying, "I've seen that he is interested in this product, we have this product in Spain, we would like to do research with this product, if you are willing, send Fax and... -Send Fax to Harvard. -To Harvard. To Fispatric, the head of dermatology in Harvard. And after a while, suddenly, I turn around, I don't know, around 15 days, I turn around, Fax enters the office of Harvard, and I didn't believe it. Saying that he was delighted to receive me, that he was in Boston, and that he was going there. I had a sister who was studying in Boston, which was a double trip, I mean, she was going. -You had free houses. -Exactly, I made the trip. With a holy week, I went to my little sister's house, I took a bed, and I went to see Dr. Fispatric. Today it was a great meeting, he raised me as an adult, and I was very young, and he said, "Well, I'll help you, I'll help you." Put in contact with this doctor, and then all our investigations started with Eleocare Oral. And how does that change the company? -Well, really... -Because it has been the star product throughout your life. It continues to be so. It really changes... You realize that you believe science, that science is what allows you to talk about yourself in Spain and out of Spain. And we used to talk about yourself with the doctor, and he said, "I have this product, I have this science, I created it with Harvard, this is the credibility that the product is having, and in the end that gives you credibility at home." And then with the credibility that you are building, you go out, and so on. And I think it was very important. We had to support each other a lot in the credibility of Harvard, obviously. -Harvard sells well. -Yes, it sells well, but I remember that time, I was going to Boston, there was a Spanish doctor who wanted to do some practices in Boston, I put him in contact with the two Swiss patrics, this Spanish doctor, today he is one of the great world references, dermatology, I call him the vicar. I mean, I would love to go back to those times, but time goes by. During the 90s, you focused on stabilizing the company, because, of course, you bought it in a complicated situation, and in growing in the national market. The company was growing, but, of course, you didn't have previous experience in directing a company. You did have experience as a consultant, but one thing is to give advice, and another is to be the one who has to make the decisions. How do you learn to direct a company? Well, I think the most important thing is to know how to listen to your people. You have people who work around the same time, with more or less experience, and in that aspect, we could not take such an opportunity to contact professionals. In the end, to Friends and Family, and I said that I would sing in the "Friends and Family" phase, I have a friend who is here at the pharmacy, I have such a friend, his first job, and so on. We call ourselves as a training company, we were like a school, we trained a lot of people, people pointed out "po, it was taken by another, po, it was taken by another." But the project was above everything. The company was growing, it was growing, it was growing, and we were learning. There is a motto that I read a little about MIT, which I think is also a very important institution, which says "Learning by doing". I mean, learning by doing. And I think this is something that we have said all our lives. We have been learning by doing. We did not learn, we do not have business managers, if we have not learned how to manage the company by doing, and common sense. I think common sense is very important. One has to set achievable goals. I mean, the unicorn, it seems very good to me, the unicorn comes out from time to time, but not always. Of course, when you buy the company, it is a generalist pharmaceutical company, let's say, and you decide, as you mentioned before, to focus on dermatology. We had here Dr. Ricardo Ruiz, founder of the International dermatological clinic, who was telling us that there was a boom of products for aesthetics, that you were able to take advantage of, too, right? That's how it was, yes, Marminor with Ricardo Ruiz, an enemy and many stories from the past. I mean, I shared room with Ricardo, when he was a resident, I had a very small company, I could not pay a room, and then in the end you did like friends trips, and in that plan, I mean, and you learn. I have learned a lot from Ricardo, a lot, because obviously he felt like a dermatologist, the vision of a future dermatologist and such, and that I have learned with all of them. We commented that in the 90s, you focus on stabilizing the company and growing in Spain, and with the change of decade, you start internationalization, right? In 2001, you were born into the international division, and the international expansion, you do it in two ways, right? On the one hand, you buy companies in Italy, in Brazil, in Belgium, and on the other hand, you open branches in the United States, in China, in Portugal, in Morocco. Today, you are in 85 countries, and 65% of the expansion is out of Spain. In this process of internationalization, is there a country or some area that has cost you more? Well, of course, it is the most difficult area, the United States is still one of the challenges, or one of the projects with Mayúscula that the company has. I have always said that, of course, internationalization, when we start in 2000, I mean, we are going to sell with Mayúsculas out of Spain, because you have to do many small areas, a lot of running through the airports, lose planes, I don't know what I can do, traveling, obviously, in coach class, or... -Tourist. -Tourist. And obviously, well, in the end, a minimum expense policy, you try to take maximum performance to your business trip. And at the beginning, convince people, convince people that you carry your products. Today, my products are good, the recipes, I recommend them to the dermatologists in Spain, look at all the science there is, because you don't carry the products, right? And I remember that when I was looking for a distributor in Italy, talking to a company that I had a target, which could be our distributor in Italy, because the owner, his name is Parque Montgomerie, was the creator of Oralve, and the creator of Cooper Vision, I mean, a person in business all the time, and he was older, and the owner of the company looked at me, he looked at me with the illusion that he was in Spain, and why are you looking for a distributor and don't build a company in Italy? And then I thought, how am I going to build a company in Italy? I don't have a dimension, I mean, Italy is a bigger market, etc, etc, etc. Well, I bought the company, oh, I'm going to buy the company, come to New York, and there we discussed it, because it was an American who lived in California, and he had his last business in Italy, he didn't care, he didn't want, I mean, he was already, God saw the opportunity and said, look, I'll put it, I'll put this one, and that's it, well, I went there, I got there with the price agreement, a reasonable agreement, well, to buy the company in Italy, we had to do a due diligence, I didn't know what a due diligence was, I had no idea, but hey, you get on, and then I remember that there, the due diligence led me to the seller, the seller, he said, no, guys, you have to do this, that, etc, etc. Well, in a company, it was quite transparent, simple, it had some trap than another, which I ate, obviously, Italian, I had to get up, and today, well, we have the company in Italy, it's called Ifa Cooper, who is the leader in the market of prescription dermatology in Italy, we gave him the turn, this man has a good base, and we, with the illusion, go up, above all, I was lucky, because in the business world, you have to be lucky to find yourself on the road with good people. The manager I chose for Italy is a crack, he's still working with me, he's been working with me with us for 20 years, and I've learned a lot from him, and he says he's learned a lot from me, I don't know what, but anyway, then I say the same thing again, luck, and finding yourself with people on the road, is important. You say, "Oh, and this person, how did you know her?" "Headhunting, I don't know, that was in San Famili, a friend who had a friend who had worked with me, and I interviewed him so that he could help me find people, and if he hadn't had an interview with him, he would tell me. That's me. The project seemed interesting to me, and so on, until now, and so on. Friend, partner, and great entrepreneur too. But then you already took the trick to do the dealings, because you've bought a lot of companies since then. Learning by doing, it's the same, you're learning, you're building an internal team to do the dealings, I had the truth, I mean, in the end, if they want to see you hang something with bad faith, they hang it. Always. I mean, in the end, it's very important to know what you buy, what you want to get, and really, things that are normal. And that plan comes. These purchases, they helped you to grow, obviously, but something that has been intrinsic to you from the beginning, in your story, has been innovation. You've done projects, like you talked about before, with Harvard, but also with MIT, or with the Ramón y Cajal Hospital. How important is the innovation in the success of Cantabria Labs? Well, that's all. I mean, in the end, I think you have to have something different so that you really have a bit of an active listening. And I think you can get the active listening. You can get it. Great marketing element or some innovation. It's always said that the Cantabria products have to have two things. They have to have magic and mystery. I mean, they have to have something different, something different and mystery, what gives you innovation and so on. And we are all I think we are working on it. We have different ingredients, we listen to everyone, someone who comes with an idea is always told to do the active listening. You have to receive everyone and you never know where you get a good opportunity to do business or an innovation, right? I remember. I'm with battles, but it's a battle. The entrepreneurship always sees what has gone well and does not see what has not gone well. And we have had many things that have not gone well. Maybe because it has arrived soon to the market, we commercialize a biological product, a plastic drawing, I invent a method for which I take a video to the patient behind the ear, which is a area that is not exposed to the sun. It is biopsia. We cultivate it in a laboratory, we remove the fibroblasts and we put them back in the patient as a filling. And the fibroblast moved and went away. For me it is some pioneer techniques in the anti-aging world, but instead of putting that as a filling, it is put as a facial recognition. And the doctors even said to me, "Do you remember Juan and Solagen when you did it?" And I said, "Of course, I remember." Too soon. Too innovative. Sometimes, too soon. But hey, I always say that this is what I heard once precisely to Ricardo, that you have to talk about the last one, but use the penultimate one. Very good phrase. Yes, yes, yes. With this topic of innovation, you have recently opened an innovation production center in La Concha, in the municipal term of Villa Escusa, which you have there water of human anti-aging, that is a project. A beautiful project, the truth is that it is at the same time, as I say, the insignia book, and a little bit the demonstration of the anti-aging. If it had been small to us, the plant was manufactured in Santander. Well, we have to look for another plant. So they offered us industrial polygons, red carpet so that you can continue staying in the community of Cantabria and all kinds of facilities. And in that case, I was in charge of saying, I want to have something different. Just like with innovation, the same. I want to have a different factory. So the Santander team looked for a field, a field with some peculiarities. When I went to see the field, the first thing I found in the field was cows. With a prado. A prado. But the field that I had near had a warranty, of water, medicinal mineral, which came out at 39 degrees. Hot water. And that water came out and went to La Ría. And La Ría went to La Vía Santander. And I asked, "Hey, can this water be redirected to the factories?" He said, "Yes, yes, yes. No problem. A few pumps are taken out. There is part that goes to La Ría and part that goes to the factory." And I said, "Well, nothing. We are going to get the water at least." "That's a concession. I don't know if I'll tell you. Well, let's see who has the concession. We bought it and so on. Well, it was a family there. We bought the concession. We stayed with the concession of medicinal mineral water, 90 years, which I think is a time that is sufficiently long. And then we are using that water to air the plant. There is the first phase. That air conditioning makes an eco-sustainable factory. And after air conditioning and heating the plant, we have investigated about those waters that are in catalogues of medicinal minerals to see if it has any differential property and can be used in cosmetic products. We are already in that phase. And we are going to launch in a little while a line of products with this different water, to put it that way. That's good. So, instead of a polygonic factory, we have a factory in a beautiful natural environment, at the back of Cabarce, with its medicinal mineral water and with its applied geothermal water. I don't know anything. Fantastic. We mentioned before that you, at a given moment, decide to focus on dermatology at the beginning, and that is one of the keys that attracts the project. But with time, even if you are very focused on dermatology, progressively you start a diversification process and you enter other businesses. You have entered, for example, in pediatrics, Introduce Immunoferon, which is a medicine that I take many times and which has a lot of success in sales, I suppose. You have entered Cosmetica, there you buy a company called Avance Cosmetics, and recently you have entered in Mia Cosmetics, which is a project of Marta Moya, who we follow very closely from here, from the podcast. You also have a line of food supplements that is called NDL ProHealth, along with Rafa Nadal, who is also the brand's ambassador. And more recently, you have set up a line with Sofia Vergara Toti, which is a product that gives me a lot of attention because it is a product that is a photo protector, but also makeup. Tell us a little about all these new lines that you have set up in recent years. Very good. Pediatrics, obviously, we are with pediatrics and, for some reason, we are right now close to the pediatrics of Immunoferon. Immunoferon was an opportunity that they had in the market in a product recognized in Spain that they did not have the companies that took it, because they did not know, and so we bought the Immunoferon. So I have to say that Immunoferon is one of the products that my father has investigated the most during his years as a pharmacist, an innovator. So it would also be a special illusion for that. Yes, of course, it's like the little brother who comes back home. Of course, a prodigy son. Yes, yes, yes, no. And that's the story, that is, we love it very much at home in Immunoferon. In the pandemic, Immunoferon was a bust in sales, then down, and now this year it has also been a spectacular year. And what are we doing? Well, Immunoferon is a product that is known, recognized in pharmacy, as the leader who is on the issue of immuno-modulators or orals. And we are doing more products of Immunoferon. That is pediatrics and Immunoferon. Then the projects of Cosmetics advance, and mine Cosmetics is no more or no less, that is, we have always been specialists in the creation of cosmetic products that recites the dermatologist and that recommends the pharmacy too. But there are these, there is another type of products that are more consumer-like, like make-up, and then there is, yes, it is true that we have bought companies to know a little more about the world, the retail world. Well, my Cosmetics is an example. It is a company that creates many color products and is a leader in the issue of nails. And well, we are learning a lot about the people who do it. Learning by you and we return to the social groups with people who know it. And then there is the NDL project, which is with Rafa Nadal, which is a natural association. On its day, when Lyocare already took an important dimension of sales, we said, well, Lyocare knows the doctor, Lyocare knows the pharmacy, Lyocare, the consumer, knows Lyocare, but not in the way that he has to know it. Then he says, you have to support the credibility of someone. In this case, it was Rafa Nadal. Of course, but that's what all brands think. How do you manage to convince Rafa Nadal, which is a real number one? Well, I think that in the end it's like the Fispatric, just like playing, playing the door and coming with an interesting project. The project with Rafa was very easy. No, no, no. It was easy from the point of view. Look, we are a Spanish company. We are working with this line of photo protection. We won a few big events outside of Spain. We are very entrepreneurs and well, we are majorquies and that also sounds like something, something, even though I am from the town, who is Rafa's rival, Rafa from Manacor, and I am from Felanich. And the two towns have their own rivalry. But hey, at the end of the project, it was the photo protection is very important and the sport makes the air free. And there are many people who follow you as a sportsman and as a person and you are not the example of photo protection. Because you have always been very exposed to the sun, you have the skin very brown and so on. Maybe you don't think you need it, but there are many people who do need it. And in that case, at that time, one of their coaches had a skin cancer. But he was aware of that. Well, hey, look, I, as a figure in the sports world and as a figure with authority, it is important that there is a health campaign telling people that it is very important to take care of the sun. So that was a bit the reason why. Why to join you. Because as you become Rafa, nothing is the last thing. Hey, I give you this money on the table. Of course, he has to have something to tell the story. And the story, yes, yes. So working with him, we have created a very good dynamic of brand ambassador, leocar ambassador, singer-song ambassador, value ambassador, and Rafa, that is always very willing. He has gone to the factory, he loves the factory, I don't know what to show you a link. And suddenly I got curious and said, "Hey, Rafa, let's take another step because we are not doing anything in the world of sports and that sports are healthy and such, a line of food supplements for sports and such." And Rafa, well, I was thinking about Rafa and his team and all the team that I want from Rafa. He said, "Well, look, why not? It's an interesting project, it's something that will transcend the day tomorrow after the tracks of Denis and such and why not?" And there was born NDL, very simple, Nadal, Nadal and singer-song ambassador, we have made a young venture and there we are sharing entrepreneurial adventure. Very good, and then... Because Rafa is an entrepreneur. Yes, yes, of course. And then we have the last one, which is Sofia Vergara, that I imagine that would have to do with your desire to conquer the United States. Yes, yes, but sometimes they are casualities of life or, as I say, to receive everyone. My secretary told me, "Hey, Juan, they are calling you a very strange person from Miami, who is a representative of artists." And I said, "I'm going to be there, the typical artist who uses these products and wants to get the products." I said, "No, pass it on to me." Then he tells me that the representative of an artist called Sofia Vergara, and the truth is that I honestly didn't know her. And then when he told me, "No, it's the mother-of-family picture," he said, "Ah, I know her very well." I mean, because it fits, right? Yes. And so... This is a love for your products. Use the products of your entire life. I mean, really, and he told me to look for you. To look for who is born because she wants to get a cosmetic line in the United States and wants to use your formulas. So I said, "Well, no." I said, "Well, no." Our formulas are ours, and we only play that game and somehow we make some kind of association. I talked to Sofia again. Sofia said, "Hey, look, this doesn't want to make you with your name." I mean, they wanted you to make a white brand. Yes, exactly, that's what we made. You said a white brand, no, but in the middle, yes. Exactly. And that's what we did. We made a joint venture between Canta Velas and Sofia Vergara, the same model that we've made with Rafa Nadal. And there it is. Then he says, "I want the product I'm using in the United States." And I said, "Look, Sofia, this product has to be Americanized. It has to meet the FDA's standard. I don't know what, so we've Americanized it. We've put on its 17 inclusive colors so that no one feels excluded from the photo production and I covered two things. It's make-up with photoperator. And that's what makes a difference. And it's very involved. We've launched it recently. At the beginning, of course, it was supervised with this project. It came at this time. The pandemic, everything that has delayed the launch a bit, but it doesn't matter to me. You have to be patient. If we can't launch it after the pandemic, a little later. We've launched it now in the month of June. And it has been a coincidence that she has now made the tour of Griselda, which is a tremendous machine of notoriety. So Sofia Vergara's notoriety has grown a lot. And that's good for the project. And we're with it. Very good. Well, there are four projects. Yes, yes, yes. The babies who come back saying the same thing. You have the business as a user and it conquers new territories. It's easy. They say, "No, you're going with Rafa. Very good, but the market is very competitive. You're going with Sofia. Well, I'm going with the American market, very competitive." And well, you're there fighting. This year it's been 30 years since you stayed with the company. You factor in more than 300 million. You have more than a thousand workers. The truth is that it has been an impressive story. Do you ever think how your life would have been if you hadn't had to work in that project when you were a consultant? Or if you hadn't been launched to buy the company? Yes, I've thought about it many times, because I can tell you something. I mean, nights without sleeping, many. All worries, obstacles. You don't even know, I mean, we're not going to cry. But obviously, as far as you get, it's based on a lot of effort, a lot of effort. My father used to say a phrase that is always true. Success is 90% of inspiration and 10% of inspiration. I mean, you work, you work, you work. And if we're here in entrepreneurship, there's no work without work. You can't work alone. You have to work with teams. The team has to link the projects. You have to motivate them. You have to make them dream. I don't know, all those things have been fulfilling. What would have been in my life if not, well, look, I think maybe it would be an auditor, because I had studied at a university in Cunev. All my company is an auditorium, investment bank, private bank and such. Maybe there would be a lot more bags that I don't have an idea now. Or finances that I don't have an idea. But well, maybe my life would have been like that. I don't know, it would be more boring. -Sure. -Sure. What have you been doing in these 30 years, the secret of the success of Cantabria Labs? I think contaminating the illusion. Really, I mean, I keep thinking about it. It's easy to contaminate the illusion to a team of 50, 100, 150, as long as you grow more difficult. But I think it's like that. I think it's the illusion for the project and the illusion to decide what to do in the end. We are a Spanish company. We want to be relevant in Spain. Okay, check, done. Or we have to keep doing it. We have to reach an international level. You have to travel around the world. You have to export the brand to Spain. Come on, you're doing it. And now I want to be relevant in the markets where I am. We are in that. In these 30 years, what has been the most difficult moment of the company? I remember that at one time we had a product that was financed by Social Security and it was very important for us. And the taxes were being traced. Well, no, no, no, no. Pages. Suddenly, people went down the price at 40, 50%. If your product is star, they lower the price at 50%. You have to do something, right? Well, in that plan, we made a contingency plan, that is, tighten the belt. Well, that's all. And then it came a little bit, that this product was under sale and it was rising the liocard. I always say that you have to have a little diversified your portfolio. You don't have to have a dependency on a single product. Maybe the liocard, God forbid, is the most known in Cantabria, but the liocard is 30% of the business. We have another 70% there, I explain myself. And also, geographically, we are not only in Spain, we are in Italy, France, Portugal, that is, and we have in the future new markets created. With which, well, there is a little diversified the future. Speaking of the future, what can we expect from the future of the company? Where does Cantabria Labs go? Well, the next step. We have reached 300 million euros and now the goal we have is to reach 500 million euros of faturation. We have an internal strategic plan made by us, with growth, with the businesses that we have, how they are growing, how they would arrive, nothing happens if we do it instead of four or five years. Nothing will happen. But then, when you get here, you stop, it's like saying, "A rellano, no? A rellano, you get to the rellano and you say, "Well, the next one is 1,000. Where am I?" And 1,000, 2,000. The 1,000 that is, in the end, allows you to say, "This is a great company with muscles." I explain, competes and such. And then you decide to look for a travel partner, or to look for a travel partner. That is, as I say, what you find in the business world. You find people with chemistry, with business groups, with family groups. There are very good families in Spain, entrepreneurs. We are a country of entrepreneurship that has conquered the world. Why not? In the end, I think those things exist. Real Madrid is number one in the world. Why not? Because Spanish companies cannot compete. We will compete and that's it. That's what we are. In this time, in these 30 years, apart from setting up a company, do you have time to have seven children? What is the subject of the succession in the future? Well, the first thing is how to try to be a better father. In the end, of course, my children want a suffering, the absence of having a father. If the father has been involved in the business, it is time that he has stolen them. I always take the opportunity, I apologize, because they have not had the presence of a father that they should have. And for me, the most I work with them is to say, "Hey, have affection for the company, look at it, know the products, know what we are doing, we have a policy of information to the next generations quite wide. Hey, there are some who are interested and others who are not. And it goes on for cycles. It goes on for cycles. Man, I'm cool now that we are exposed to the real Madrid. Of course. I'm with Rafa Nadal and such. And Sofia Vergara. Of course, that's cool. But little by little. They have to have a little business, have affection. And then that they want to work in the business, because they have to fulfill a series of requirements, where they have worked outside, having a boss, and such, that they are fulfilling it. I mean, I can not complain. I have five and then two little ones, those two little ones because right now, because now they are searching and I am here with you. And they send me a photo, I am searching and well, time that I steal from them, right? And in this... Well, we thank you very much for that. No, no, no, no. Let's talk a bit about the Cantabria Labs Foundation, because you have created an occupational center where you give training to disabled people. Tell us a little about what it consists of. Well, we are creating. This is a process that is ongoing, and the truth is that we have met very good travel companions. The old factory, you change from factory to place, and you stay with the field in the factory. Three options. The first option was to throw it down and sell the land. The second was to make a living promotion, and the third was to make a geriatric residence. Those are the three options that we lowered. The easiest is to throw and sell the land, then do a voluntary promotion, which is a world that we have never been in, and it must be different. And the geriatric residence one, it seemed interesting, but in the end we decided that, hey, neither one nor the other, and nothing. We are going to take the factory as it is, we are going to wash it face-to-face, we are going to leave it prepared, and we are going to do inside that factory, floor up, university, floor down, work center. So people, disabled people, people with capacity problems, we are going to form them up, with a company specialized in capacity, which is the San Martín Foundation, we have a company that is more capable to form them, and then maybe, not just to form people, but to have work. So what is the bottom part, which is industrial workshops, we have conditioned them to do industrial things, of little value added, at the beginning, then there are different places. Little value added, middle value added, and something more value added. And those people who are going to form up there, they are going to have their work, where they are going to enter every day, in a dressing room, they are going to change, they are going to put on the little hat of industrial pharmaceutical, and that is a project that we are putting in place at the San Martín Foundation. Fantastic. Yes, the truth is that it is something in the end, I think that companies have to leave a mark, and we can give a commercial mark, we have always had a lot of social work, in Turkana, in different places in Africa, but there is a mark here in Spain, that is seen in Italy, I think that is it. And that is also a occupational center, that is going to take the name of my father, which I also like, because my father always said that work, and I think so too, will signify people. So, of course, you have to do something. And you can't give him a better gift than give him a job. Of course. And not pay, but work. Let's go with the three last questions that our sponsor Arkano Parnes brings us, who is a leader in alternative management and investment banking. The first question is that you tell us about someone you have admired in your life, or that has been a reference for you. Well, my father has come out many times, my father is a person who has always said that success is 90 percent, transpiration and 10 percent inspiration, he is a person who has been a reference for me in my life, of course. And well, within the world, within the world of business, any entrepreneur who has decided to say, hey, look, I have made my time and such to get projects ahead. There are many silent heroes out there, but hey, in this case, for proximity to my father, of course. Your father died as you commented, but it took him time to see the success that you had in the company, that would be very proud of him. He was very proud, I was delighted that he came out of the office, he talked to the people, he was delighted with the project and to see him pushed from the beginning through his son, with his credibility that he had in me, I mean, I will always appreciate that. The second question is that you tell us about a book you have read in your life, that has inspired you, or that has served you, what can you recommend? I always say the same thing, it is the refrigerator. Because in the end, you are like a popular wisdom, a popular wisdom. So, it is a book where you say, "Hey, this problem is like that", and you say, "Well, it is true". They said that if you stop, you take it to the line. Of course, you see that, by accompanying you can be all the time looking at yourself, looking at yourself and such. It is a book that we do not live in. There was already a book called "The Barbarians to Bureaucrats", which is the demonstration of how a company, when it grows, loses the essence, a little conqueror, a bar or something like that, and then it becomes very defensive of itself and such. So, when they lose a little the essence, those two books, the refrigerator, and "The Barbarians to Bureaucrats" is a very good recommendation. And the last question, there are many people who do not hear us, who are thinking about starting a business or who have just launched their own company, with the experience that you have had by setting up your own company, what would you recommend? It is always good. If you have a dream, chase it. Chase it. I mean, it is very good. It is a great word, and such. But I, as a person, always start it right away. Start it. I mean, I come to a person and say, "What would you like me to do?" Come on. Little by little. The problem is that right now people are in a bit of a hurry. Getting too fast to the sites. And life is long. And the business world is not a 100 meter free race. It is a marathon. So there are moments where they are more difficult, and so is the marathon. When you are doing a marathon, you are fighting alone against your opponent, but they encourage you from the team, they also give you strength. Well, this happens in the same business world. You have to have a project, chase it, and fight for the art of good people. But you have to be a dreamer. You have to be a dreamer and you have to be a bit osado. And if right now, with my experience, you say, "I've made a business, but at first what I see is a bit are the barriers." And I say, "When I saw those barriers, I had them now, and I had them before. Before I knew them, and I surpassed them. Well, you have to have that spirit, a bit of, I mean, the skills of a pirate, I mean, of a pirate, and I go green. I mean, in the end, it's like, I don't know, fighters. I love it. No, Juan. Well, thank you very much. We thank you very much for coming today to tell us your story. And we wish you many successful future. Well, I'm delighted to be with you. And I, whatever it is to contribute to what comes out of this country, which I think is super necessary, I'm delighted. Here you have me. Thank you very much. If you want to contact us, you can write us [email protected]. 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