Feending is now a supplier of the Valencia City Council

Feending, the Valencia-based platform for managing communities, is now a supplier of the Valencia City Council. We shared it this week at the City Council itself, in a talk as members of Startup Valencia about how public-private collaboration drives the city's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

From Startup Valencia to an ecosystem with one voice

Valencia has achieved something that is not that common: bringing the main players of its ecosystem together under Valencia Innovation Capital —Lanzadera, Valencia Port, KM ZERO and startups like ours— and presenting itself abroad as one. At events like 4YFN in Barcelona, Valencia does not show up as scattered pieces, but as an ecosystem with a shared identity and vision. That joining of forces creates a bigger impact than the sum of its parts.

The Sandbox: the chance to prove it works

Last year we took part in Valencia Innovation Capital's Seed Program, and we found three things that made it different from the private acceleration programs we had already been through —Lanzadera, Telefónica or Draper University, in Silicon Valley—: La Harinera, a space on par with the best accelerators in the world; funding; and, above all, the Sandbox.

The Sandbox offers what a startup lacks the most: testing your platform in a real environment and proving the impact of your value proposition. We often have good ideas and technology, but we lack the chance to show they work. And being able to prove it with data is, in the end, what separates having an audience from having a community.

What being a City Council supplier means

Thanks to that opportunity and the results we achieved, we now provide the platform for Valencia Innovation Capital, and Feending is a supplier of the Valencia City Council. It is a sign that the City Council does not just talk about innovation: it adopts technology when it brings real value and impact. And it has opened the door to working with other administrations, such as the Madrid City Council.

For us it validates the work we do every day: helping accelerators, innovation networks and startup communities sustain large communities with small teams, and prove with data what they produce. It is the same direction our product has been taking since we committed to artificial intelligence in community management.

The physical and the digital, the public and the private

A strong ecosystem needs physical spaces like La Harinera and digital spaces, like the platform we provide to Valencia Innovation Capital. When the in-person and the digital, the public and the private work toward the same goal, Valencia becomes a place where innovation happens. Our request, made there, was simple: may this be only the beginning. And if your community —public or private— wants to take that step, let's talk.