Two from Ya.com and one from Jazztel on FON’s board

I’m beefing up FON’s board and decided to ask to ask former Jazztel and Ya.com colleagues to jump on the FON bandwagon. And I’m thrilled they’ve accepted. On the Ya.com side, we have Alvaro Ibanez (a.k.a Alvy) who’s very well known here in Spain with Microsiervos and Internality and Jon Berrojalbiz who started the very successful TradingMotion . On the Jazztel side, I’m joined by former managing director Antonio Fuentes and who has partnered with me on Sybilla and who is its CEO.

Sometimes, we have parties and get-togethers with all those who worked at Jazztel and Ya.com in the early days. For me, they’re like Christmas parties in the office, with a strong feelings of déjà-vu mixed with memories of intense work.

How many entered these companies as employees and left as entrepreneurs? What about Miguel Salis, ex CFO of Jazztel, who is now building wind farms across Spain valued at over 200 million euros.

And Axel Serena is another one who really made and who, I’ve heard, is about to lift off pretty soon.

What do I want from people who work for me? Well, basically I’d like to see my employees enjoy their last stint as an “employee” with me!

Jon for example had the the entrepreneurial spirit in is early 20s. I met him in 1999 when he was still a student but had registered the domain favoritos.com hich I liked very much. When I saw that he owned it, I asked him if he wanted to sell it to me. Jon simply answered : “I know who you are and if you interview me,I will give it to you”. From there, we started working together, him, first as an employee then as a partner and now as business buddies. Ya.com and Jazztel were more than anything, made up of people who dreamed of creating something. For those ho are nostaligic, here is an old powerpoint that tells the Ya.com story from the very beginning.

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