The partners of Formentera Capital have been actively investing in entrepreneurs for over a decade. Supporting fast-growth, high-impact startups from across the globe has been a passion for years now. But like so many individuals have felt since March 2020, there’s something about a moment of crisis that helps put things into focus. We realized that today, perhaps more than ever before, entrepreneurs with big dreams needed support, guidance and mentorship to weather the storms the world was throwing at us.
Formentera Capital is built by founders, for founders. We’ve been entrepreneurs for the majority of our lives – and we’ve lived through failure, experienced the rollercoaster and understand how to make it out of complex situations even stronger than when we entered them.
We formalized Formentera Capital for one main purpose: to provide real support (capital, network access and operational guidance) that passionate entrepreneurs need more than ever.
Grit-centric
A deep sense of grit and resilience is the first thing we look for in entrepreneurs. We know what true grit looks like because we’ve learned to build it within ourselves. While this hasn’t been the first crisis we’ve lived through, we recognize it will be for many early-stage startups – and we are eager to help navigate the tumultuous waters a crisis brings on. Being able to remain steadfast, focused and persistent in the face of complex challenges is partly a learned skill and partly innate. If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that it’s the grittiest entrepreneurs who commit to finding a way will always be the ones to find success.
Never fearing failure
Every partner at FC has experienced failure. Some of us have seen it so frequently that, in many ways, failure helped to build up an “underdog” mindset that we bring with us every day – even if we haven’t had any major failures in a while. Jean-Nicolas, for example, has some incredible stories around the failures he’s lived through – and because of them, he understands almost better than anyone what the entrepreneurial struggle truly looks (and feels) like.
Accordingly, every entrepreneur we invest in has an innate ability to push past fear. One of the first thing we ask ourselves after a pitch: “Has this person seen failure? Did they find a way to overcome that fear of failure? Do they feel like an underdog?”
Empowering the Entrepreneurial Community
We’re active members in the entrepreneurial community – and we care about supporting it. From our involvement as leader-members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) to supporting the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) to being mentors and advisors in numerous startup competitions, we’ve committed hundreds of hours outside of our own businesses to support entrepreneurship across the globe. The entrepreneurial community has given us so much – and we are committed to giving back to that same community. We launched FC with one main goal: to provide much more than capital to entrepreneurs with big visions. We all know the value of capital injection (especially when you need it most); but our firm was founded on one key differentiating principal: we want to share knowledge, help implement structure and provide support that goes way beyond monetary value. We believe we’re all members of the same entrepreneurial community – and your success matters to us on a level beyond spreadsheets and ROI.
Grit and resilience, pursuing without fear and being part of a community are the main reasons we launched this firm. It may have taken a pandemic to sharpen our focus – but now more than ever before our focus is on supporting inspiring entrepreneurs across the world. We’re in it with you.
-Formentera Capital Team
