Meet Liliana Guerreiro, one of Braavo’s newest business development managers focused on EMEA. Liliana joins our rapidly growing Barcelona team from the world of payment solutions. We talked to Liliana about what it’s like to join a new part of the company and what she would advise other mobile app and game founders in EMEA. 

What is the tech ecosystem like in Barcelona?

Barcelona has been named a top tech center. It’s a major European hub for gaming, and it’s where Mobile World Congress, the largest mobile event in the world, is hosted every year. In fact, the Braavo Barcelona office is located in the center of 22@, known as Barcelona’s innovation district. 22@ started as a government initiative to incentivize high tech companies and startups to build and grow their businesses in the historic Poble Nou neighborhood. Poble Nou was previously an industrial area that’s quickly transformed into a new and exciting district over the last 10 years. 

Spain overall has a very strong tech ecosystem, and I think the strongest part is Barcelona. New companies, startups, and gaming apps are coming here. A lot of investing is done in Barcelona. 2020 is going to be very promising. 

What is it like being a part of a new team in Spain?

It’s amazing being a part of a new company. It means being a part of everything. You can contribute to any part of the business, not just the things that are directly related to your work. You can have a really active voice and share your ideas, and every input is welcomed. All of us pitch in to help with organizing the office. It’s amazing to see the company and product heading somewhere, being a part of it, and looking forward to seeing where it goes.

What makes Braavo different?

The product is very strong, and our co-founders do a great job keeping the product on track. It’s the ideal – what you would hope to see in a tech company. 

How would you describe your work style? 

I’ve always liked multitasking. I’m also good at making complicated things easy to understand. I can easily adapt to working with different kinds of people, whether it’s the business side with a CEO or the technical side with a developer.

How would you describe your team?

Unique and dynamic. We’re very different from each other, and we have different strengths and roles within the company. But, we all love to talk about food and restaurants – so we’re very fortunate to live in Barcelona. Rich (Ashton) brings deep expertise from the payments world, and Yani (Elbaloula) is full of joy and laughter and brings up the positive energy on our team. 

What advice would you share with new mobile app founders in EMEA?

Focus on building your marketing strategy. This moment is all about user acquisition. Having an amazing app is great, and it is the most important thing. But if you don’t know how to sell it, it is pointless to build. Have an idea of what you need to do to organize your efforts and prepare for the market. Understand what’s next. 

I’ve seen many app developers reach a point in product development where they’re ready to release their apps, but they don’t know how to do that. So they turn to publishers and investors to take care of it. Unfortunately, a lot of developers lose money by doing this – some publishers take as much as 50-70% of their revenue. It really pays to do your own marketing.

Interested in joining a rapidly growing fintech team with a global focus? Visit our careers page to see what are opportunities available.