“Colvin, a success story. Digitisation of the traditional sector.” This was the title of the last session of the Emprèn Entrepreneurship Series. Colvin is a flower and plants sales startup company founded by three friends during their university studies. In less than six years, it has managed to digitalise a market as traditional as the flower and plant market, and has managed to find a niche in the European market. It is currently present in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France.

After a quick presentation of the company, Sergi Bastardas answered questions from Francesc Cano, and the master lesson became a dialogue, in which the audience was also able to participate. Bastardas explained that Colvin’s mission “is to build a better future for the floral industry, by putting together a more efficient and sustainable digital ecosystem.”

Logically, in a session on this topic, the Catalan journalist led the conversation in that direction and asked Bastardas the difference between an entrepreneur and a business person: “The entrepreneur is the one who, on a day-to-day basis, looks for impact and not direct monetisation.” Bastardas, in turn, added that his experience at the university had broadened his horizon in this sense, “We had an entrepreneurship club, and every time an entrepreneur came, I took them out to eat.”

Because this session closed the series, UIC Barcelona Rector Alfonso Méndiz was present and opened the last session by welcoming the speaker and expressing his thanks for the well-organised sessions, which sought to encourage entrepreneurship through the innovation hub created at the University. “Entrepreneurship,” he said, “is the greatest challenge we have right now.”