Peter J Isola Foundation opens hub to foster entrepreneurship in Gibraltar

A new initiative, the Peter J Isola Foundation Europort Start-Up Hub, aimed to foster Gibraltar’s budding entrepreneurial spirit was launched on Thursday at Suite 842, Europort.

The space was officially opened by the Minister for Business, Gemma Arias-Vasquez, in the presence of members of the Foundation including Peter Isola.

Mr Isola told the Chronicle that the Foundation believes it is very important to support Gibraltar's community, “and part of that support is supporting businesses that are startups in Gibraltar.”

The Foundation’s commitment extends beyond businesses, as it also assists the Digital Skills Academy.

The hub will allow new enterprises access to a space, something the Foundation believes is integral to early business success.

“I think that when you start up, you need the space, the view is amazing, the clarity of thought which will help you develop your business,” said Mr Isola.

“I wouldn't mind having my retirement office here. But yes, I think we're trying to support, together with the Government, people that start up businesses in Gibraltar.”

“Because for startups, especially when at the beginning, they may not have the financing to pay rent, to pay office space, computers. So this is what this is trying to achieve.”

Reflecting on the broader context of entrepreneurship, his advice is to “work hard”.

As a businessman himself, as well as a lawyer who works with numerous businesses, he said that these businesses “probably had as many failures as successes.”

“I think the important thing is that failure is a stepping stone to success.”

“There are so many businesses in Gibraltar that I'm aware of as a lawyer, that have had their failures before the success. People just see the final success, but there have been a lot of failures along the way, and that's very normal, and people should embrace that and move on. So this gives them an opportunity to do that.”

He concluded with “Just keep persevering.”

For her part Ms Arias-Vasquez called the hub an “amazing facility that's available for you [start ups] to use.”

“And as you know, in my previous life, I used to be chair of the Federation of Small Businesses. So I've very often seen how difficult it can be for businesses to start up and to get up and running.”

“This space is meant to be a space where we can help businesses in the first year, where they are struggling with the availability of space, etc. So it's just literally trying to give businesses a helping hand.”

She encourages businesses to come and take a look and take the opportunity that has been made available to them as “it's an amazing space with amazing views”.

Following the announcement on Wednesday that the legal text for the treaty has been completed she noted that from a business perspective it's great.

“I think that the treaty is a great platform for businesses because it offers the certainty that we've never had before,” she said.

“So we have the certainty of knowing what the relationship is like with Spain.”

“We have the certainty of knowing, a business will now plan five, ten, years in advance, because it knows what the frontier is going to look like.”

“A business will know what the environment is going to look like, what the jurisdiction is going to be able to offer.”

“So I am personally very optimistic just as I've always been about the about the fact that we have a text of a treaty,” she added.

The treaty will also help start-ups, as it will make “the jurisdiction attractive”.

“We've suddenly got this treaty, we've got this opportunity available, and we have this small jurisdiction that now has an ability to interact with Europe. So I think it makes us very attractive,” she said.

“And the important thing is that now we know what we can sell, we know what we're doing, and we know what we're going to look like. So I think that's the important thing about having the text.”

One of the people that will assist in the running of the new hub is John Paul Fa, who said: “We also want the startup hub to be a little bit more than that. We also want it to be an ecosystem.”

The hub aims to be more than just a workspace by helping start-ups integrate with government departments and the broader business ecosystem.

Thankful for the support from the Isola Foundation, he encourages businesses to get in touch directly with the ministry or via other avenues such as the Chamber of Commerce to put forward their interest in using the hub and the opportunities it provides.