2023–2024 · Wound down · CEO
The Q-Studio
Zero to 22 people, three countries and seven shipped products in under a year. Then the only client stopped paying.
01 · Situation
One client. Nine companies a year.
The Q-Studio opened in October 2023 as a venture builder built on people-centred design and technology. In practice it was the venture-building arm of a single investment fund, which wanted to launch around nine companies a year with us as it turned itself into a services group. Barcelona was headquarters, Mexico City was where the client lived, and San Francisco was an outpost so we could see what was coming to Europe a few months early.
We built the products, absorbed the fund's earlier customer-experience studio when its lead left, and I ran the Q House project: a seven-floor, 2,500 m² innovation hub for 400 people, 50 metres from Paseo de Gracia, with my COO piloting the build.
02 · Hardest moment
Six figures a month to zero, almost overnight.
In late 2024 the fund stopped paying and, shortly afterwards, ceased to operate. Revenue of six figures a month went to zero in weeks, with 22 people on payroll and Q House in the works, backed by a multi-million-euro investment commitment that was never honoured. Every product we had built for the client went down with it.
03 · The move
Close it cleanly. Keep the ten best. Start again the same month.
I wound the company down the way I always try to: fast, honest, with introductions and time to search for everyone who left. I kept the ten best people. Four of them became partners and forwent salary in the first month, because we had no clients yet. That is how QS Ventures began.
What we had built in those months went with us: high-performing teams, a brand and a culture, CRM and KPIs, a product methodology (the Product Sandbox: discovery, ideation, build, validation, development and performance in 10–12 weeks with weekly checkpoints), a CFO, a desk at BBVA Spark, seven products delivered and thirteen proposals waiting.
App + web
Xpats
Relocation companion for expats: events, wallet, services marketplace and community, with a card request flow.
Website (no-code)
Twolander
Brand site with magazine and blog, taken from discovery to live in weeks.
App + web
Thunder NFT
Event ticketing with NFT collectibles: explore events, scan, claim and keep a wallet of passes.
Fintech app
Colors
Digital credit and credit-builder app with card, levels and offers, designed through three sitemap iterations.
App + web
Dreamboosters
Financing product with chatbot-led onboarding, eligibility calculator, e-signature and payment tracking.
Investor app
XYApp
Portfolio, contracts and investment tracking for a corporate client's investor community.
Intranet
Cockpit XY
Internal cockpit for a corporate client, mobile and desktop, live.
04 · Numbers
Eight months.
- €0→€500k
- revenue in eight months, no outside funding
- 0→22
- people hired in the first year
- 7
- products delivered, 4 of them in the first six months
- 3
- offices: Barcelona, Mexico City, San Francisco
05 · What I'd do differently
Never one client.
Concentration risk killed a company that was working. Diversification was on the roadmap for the second half of 2024; it needed to be the first item, not the seventh. QS Ventures was designed around that lesson: five companies, several revenue lines, each one founder-operated.
I count the closure as a win. The team, the method and the clients' trust carried straight into the next company, and the next company is still running.