Rebeca Minguela

Rebeca Minguela is an entrepreneur
and startup advisor. Founder and CEO of Blink Booking, now Blink by Groupon, an award winning mobile app to book hotels last minute in Europe. When Blink was acquired by Groupon in September 2013, she joined Groupon.
Background
Rebeca was born in Valladolid (Spain) and grew up in Cuellar, a small Spanish town of around 9,000 inhabitants. She studied Telecommunication Engineering at the (Technical University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), an MSc in Information Technology at University of Stuttgart and a Master in Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She worked at IBM in Madrid, Siemens in Munich (Germany) as a developer and at the German Aerospace Agency in Oberpfaffenhofen, where she helped develop the Radar Parameter Generator of TerraSAR-X satellite (launched in June 2007). She also worked at Boston Consulting Group, and Bain Capital Private Equity in London.
While studying at Harvard Business School, she did a research study on a platform for entrepreneurship that would help foster entrepreneurship in European countries, starting with Spain. After graduating, she started the first startup of that platform: Blink Booking, and when Blink started taking off in 2012, she became Blink full time CEO.
Blink was acquired by Groupon in September 2013 (Blink by Groupon) and Rebeca started working for Groupon as Director of Product and Technology.
Rebeca serves as advisor for several startups, among them: Smile & Learn (edTech), Protheus (microfluidic technology for Malaria early detection and other health & wellness applications) and Columbus Global Solutions (training and support for entrepreneurs who want to expand operations abroad). She is also a mentor for entrepreneurs and at accelerators.
Blink Booking
Rebeca started Blink Booking in 2011 a travel mobile app to book hotels last minute in Europe. Blink Booking was the first startup of a platform aimed at fostering entrepreneurship in Spain. She joined Blink as full time CEO in March 2012 due to an issue with her co-founder and to be able to manage the rapid growth of the company (as stated in Harvard Business School case about Blink Booking ).
Blink raised $4.4M from tech and travel investors (SoftTech VC, ProFounders - Brent Hoberman, Charles Petruccelli and American Express Travel (UVET Italy), Radisson Hotels, Kibo ventures and others). Blink app was available in 6 languages, Android, iOS and HTML5, and grew really quickly to 800,000 downloads and almost 3,000 hotels in 8 different European countries.
Blink has been Top rated app by Apple Store and Google Play, top 1 Travel app in main European Markets for several weeks and Top 50 apps total Europe/Spain App store. It has been featured by Apple as best app at UK Apple store. It was also awarded Top 10 apps Google Play Store Spain 2013, “Travel Pioneer of the Year 2012” (Travolution Awards, from Travel Weekly), "Travel App of the Week" by Female First, and was finalist of 5th edition of Open Talent Award 2013 to most innovative start-ups.
Blink Booking was broadly advertised in Spanish and Italian TV. The TV advert “The Lady in White” was awarded with the “Sol de Bronce” award in 2013 (Festival Iberoamericano de Publicidad, FIAP).
In September 2013, Blink Booking was acquired by Groupon to strengthen its travel and mobile business. Blink Booking is now “Blink by Groupon”.
Community and Social
Rebeca has worked on several social and community projects in various countries, some of them: co-founder of Global Impact Rating (project started in 2010 aimed to measure social impact), consultant for Nancy Barry’s organization Enterprise Solutions to Poverty in Kenya in 2011, consultant for Rwandan Development Board and World Bank in Rwanda in 2010, engineer and consultant at Poligono Don Bosco in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Public Speaking, Press and Awards
Rebeca and Blink Booking have been mentioned widely in the press in several countries with features in publications including Forbes, The Economist, Financial Times, The Sun (printed edition), The Daily Mail, El Pais, El Mundo, Il Sole 24 Ore, and many others. Rebeca’s entrepreneurship platform and Blink Booking are also the subject of a business case at Harvard Business School.
Rebeca has been a speaker at several events and conferences, among them: Harvard European Conference 2015 - sharing the panel with the Director General for the European Commission -, Spain Tech Week Silicon Valley/ Seattle 2014, Startup Spain 3.0., "Red Innova 2013"
She has been recipient of several awards and honors along her career and education: 1st and 2nd year honors and Distinction at Harvard Business School; Eduarda Justo; Real Colegio Complutense Fellowship ; Premio Extraordinario de Bachillerato; Ruta Quetzal Argentaria.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu