A marketplace for ham carvers is not the first business that springs to mind when someone says “startup ecosystem.” Yet El Cortador appeared in the same Cáceres incubation cohort as livestock-management software and insect-derived ingredients. Startups.st helped run the program. The combination is a useful introduction to a company whose work reaches well beyond the familiar procession of apps, pitches and investor selfies.
Startups.st designs and operates entrepreneurship programs for founders, companies and institutions. Its services cover incubation, acceleration and international expansion, with corporate innovation alongside them. The company calls itself a platform. In practice, much of the product is people doing complicated work together: selecting businesses, finding mentors, organizing meetings and helping a founder turn a promising idea into something a customer might buy.
The customer behind the cohort
There are two audiences in this business. Entrepreneurs want help with customers, financing and growth. Institutions want someone to build and run a program that serves their territory or sector. Startups.st’s institutional offer includes regional accelerators, training for technical teams, trade missions and connections to investors. Its website reports more than 50 institutional programs implemented, a company-reported measure of activity rather than a tally of successful exits.
That distinction explains its place in the market. A chamber of commerce can have local relationships and a mandate to support business without maintaining every specialist needed for an accelerator. Startups.st supplies program design and execution. The value of the arrangement depends on the brief: which businesses qualify, which problems the program tackles and what participants should be able to do when it ends.
Corporate clients receive a related offer: startup scouting, tailored accelerators, executive training and venture building. The delivery proposition is unusually plain in the company’s own Spanish: “Lanzamiento con tu marca y nuestra ejecución.” Launch with your brand and our execution. The buyer keeps its name on the program; Startups.st supplies the operating work behind it.
“Lanzamiento con tu marca y nuestra ejecución.”Startups.st’s corporate offer: your brand, our execution.
Ten businesses, including the ham carvers
C-Lab Start makes that work visible. In its account of the October 2023 launch with the Cáceres Chamber of Commerce, Startups.st described 16 applicants and ten selected projects. Applicants were interviewed individually and assessed for their ideas, business models and growth prospects. The three-month program began with questionnaires to establish where each venture stood.
Juan Carlos Bugallo introduced Lean Startup methods; Roberto Touza taught customer development. Group mentoring followed, with a final demo day planned. The sequence matters. A business first had to explain its starting point and intended customer, before being coached to explain itself to a jury. For a founder, that is a useful order to copy: make the proposition intelligible before making the presentation impressive.
Another documented assignment, CámaraTech 2022 in Seville, used a similar starting point. Touza’s project account describes a public tender, ten selected projects and an initial diagnosis and interview. The purpose was to shape each venture’s route through three months of incubation. That repeatable process helps explain how a services company can work across different territories without pretending every founder has the same problem.
A European fellowship, with the bill paid
The Break shows the model at a different scale. EOI commissioned the program, and its second edition was delivered through a consortium led by Impact Hub Madrid with mentorDay and Startups.st. The 2023 design targeted 720 women entrepreneurs resident elsewhere in the European Union, combining three months of hybrid support with a working stay in Spain. It joined business development to an explicit effort to build a European network.
The experience had a substantial physical component. Impact Hub Donostia described hosting two groups of 18 women, with online preparation followed by 24 days locally. Espacio Geranios was selected as one of 27 entrepreneurship hubs, hosting the Caravaca de la Cruz strand. These local organizations were part of the delivery machinery: the fellowship needed actual places, hosts and working relationships.
For participants, the economics were striking. Impact Hub Madrid’s 2023 invitation said flights, accommodation and training were fully financed by the European Union. A regional government account put the overall program budget at €10 million through December 2023. That was money for the program as a whole, including its wider delivery arrangements. It was neither a venture round for Startups.st nor a statement of the company’s revenue.
Overall program budget through December 2023. Participant flights, accommodation and training were advertised as fully EU-funded.
EOI’s closing report counted 1,000 women across the two editions, representing 73 nationalities. It reported that 52.3 percent had formed business alliances with fellow participants. The program also received a European Enterprise Promotion Award. Those are shared program results; Startups.st’s documented role was in the second-edition consortium.
One much more tempting statistic needs careful handling: EOI said 92.3 percent of the 2022 participants’ projects were still alive six months later. That is an early survival observation about the earlier cohort. It does not establish long-term profitability or isolate any one operator’s contribution. The useful lesson is to measure relationships and business continuity after the closing ceremony, while keeping the cohort attached to the number.
Free training is a funded product
Finance Cádiz brings the same business logic into 2026. Startups.st announced that it had won the tender to direct and coordinate the initiative with CEEI Bahía de Cádiz. The advertised timetable placed classes in September and October, beginning September 1. Participants were offered 40 hours of training: 25 in person and 15 through practical webinars.
The focus was financial strategy and investment preparation for businesses in the province. The company advertised three calls with flexible schedules and free access, supported by European Social Fund cofinancing. This is a specific purchase of time and expertise. A company owner can assess the commitment against a working calendar and the financing questions already sitting on the desk.
Alongside commissioned programs sits a smaller, directly priced product. Campus Startups.st advertises monthly learning plans at €13, €19 and €24, plus a €219 annual option. Its catalog includes Lean Startup, first sales and product launch material. The plans and cohort programs occupy different buying situations: one offers access to learning, while the other organizes support around a particular group and sponsor.
The phoenix has a practical side
The company’s current leadership page names CEO Roberto Touza, Juan Carlos Bugallo and internationalization lead Raúl Touza as co-founders. It describes a dedicated lead adviser, investor rehearsals and a post-program growth roadmap with quarterly follow-up. These are promises about continuity, the part of mentoring that becomes valuable when the first workshop has faded from memory.
Touza explains the phoenix in the company’s identity through entrepreneurial setbacks. In the manifesto, he writes about failure and frustration, and the effort of getting up again. The emblem is exuberant, but the underlying sentiment is familiar to anyone who has sold something that customers declined to buy. Its short mission statement is easier to hold onto: “Nuestra misión es ayudar a emprender.” Our mission is to help people start businesses.
The practitioner emphasis also appears in the mentor roster. The company lists expertise in growth and no-code tools, investment, marketing and business models. For a founder, the practical question is which person has experience with the next decision. A crowded roster is only useful when the relevant specialist has time to work on the problem.
Shanghai is a destination, not a result
International expansion extends the service beyond Spanish cohorts. Startups.st advertises market validation, arranged business meetings, trade missions and help with establishing operations abroad. Its stated target includes technology companies with a product already validated in Spain, as well as chambers and trade agencies looking for delivery partners. That qualification matters: travel does not settle an unresolved question about whether customers want the product.
The company has announced an agreement with Lingang Group and meetings in Madrid, Valencia and Castellón. Its stated ambitions include Shanghai softlanding, investment connections and collaboration in deep tech, biotechnology and aerospace. The announcement describes work still to be developed. A signed agreement can create a route to useful meetings; commercial value arrives when those meetings produce a workable next step.
For someone considering this service, the offer suggests a sensible discipline: specify the market question before booking the mission. A founder seeking a distributor needs a different agenda from an institution seeking research partners. Startups.st’s international package includes analysis of entry barriers, competitors and pricing, alongside operational help. Those tasks make the international ambition concrete enough to evaluate.
Give every introduction a job
Startups.st’s distinctive position sits between entrepreneurial education, innovation consulting and outsourced program management. A founder could instead approach a local incubator; an institution could hire its own delivery team. The company’s case rests on combining people, program structure and cross-border relationships. Its partnerships with other operators also show that this market involves cooperation as well as competition.
The part readers can borrow is straightforward. Start with a diagnosis. Match expertise to the business problem. Give introductions a purpose. Keep following up after the pitch. These are lessons suggested by the documented programs, and their usefulness depends on having participants willing to do the work and sponsors willing to define outcomes. If the only objective is a full auditorium, even a well-organized accelerator can finish before the business has really begun.