Francisco Palao
Francisco Palao is a serial entrepreneur who splits his time between Silicon Valley and Spain.
Francisco Palao is a serial entrepreneur who splits his time between Silicon Valley and Spain.
Francisco has a PhD in AI, an executive MBA from the IE Business School and graduate degree from the Singularity University at NASA Ames. He also forms part of the LaunchPad Educators Program at Berkeley with Steve Blank.
In 2002, while Francisco was studying at university, he founded his first internet start-up.
The start-up was called BuscarAmigos.com and functioned as a dating portal. A larger internet company acquired BuscarAmigos.com in 2004. After that, Francisco co-founded several other start-ups (two of which have been sold).
In 2006, after finishing his PhD, Francisco founded IActive which focused on artificial intelligence and innovation. IActive has won several international technology awards.
Also, Francisco co-founded Nativoo (acquired by SBTUR) and LeanMonitor (acquired by a US-based company). In 2012, Francisco was recognized by MIT as a TR35, an award given to the best 35 innovators under 35.
Additionally, Francisco is a mentor in different start-up accelerator programs, and an advisory board member at the Lifeboat Foundation. Francisco writes about technology, innovation and entrepreneurship on his blog www.franciscopalao.com.
