How an investor from Carabanchel with several Guinness swimming records hit a 100 million euro hit with Clicars

Pablo Fernández is, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the person who has taken the least time to swim five kilometers in the open sea with shackles on his feet. And this is not the most relevant part of his biography. Born in Carabanchel (Madrid) 42 years ago, this swimmer and, furthermore, a businessman —order by which he defines himself— receives Business, still with the mark of the swimming goggles on his face, at the Clicars headquarters in Madrid. He founded this car sales company online in 2016 and sold it last year for more than 100 million euros. Now, Fernández is a founding partner of Clikalia, a real estate platform also onlineand is one of the investors in start-upso business angelmost recognized in Spain.

“I feel like a swimmer. Companies and businesses come and go, but what is constant for me is swimming”, he says after swimming 15 kilometers a day in the small current pool that he had installed in the Clicars spare parts workshop, and where he beat one of his four Guinness records. In the absence of moving the pool to a garage near his house, he returns to his old company every morning to swim 15 kilometers against the current. During his training breaks, he takes notes on his mobile with the ideas that occur to him. He used to send messages to his employees, but he realized that he did not give a good image that they woke up at eight in the morning with 15 messages from his disciplined boss. Every day starts at 5:15 with an espresso.

Hearing him talk about companies, with the Anglicisms typical of the world in which he moves, and wearing his Harvard sweatshirt, it is surprising to learn that Fernández was about to become a civil servant. After a short stint at the Alicante Faculty of Architecture, he decided to study International Relations to become a diplomat. Since his parents couldn’t afford a coach, a teacher got him one for free. On one condition: that he do an internship at the Association of Young Entrepreneurs in Madrid. “The practices changed my chip,” he says. With the 1,400 euros that he received that summer, he set up his first company, a scholarship search engine.

Earliness milestones

From there, his professional career is an accumulation of early milestones. He was the first graduate in Political Science to be hired by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). For a graduate in International Relations, the leap into consulting was great: “In the interview, the partner asked me what the EBITDA (gross operating result) of my company was, and I had no idea what that was”, he admits with a laugh. After a stint at the Harvard Business School, he signed Banco Santander for its US division, where he became the youngest executive vice president in the entity’s history.

In the United States he met other entrepreneurs, such as Juan de Antonio (Cabify), Pau Sabria (Olapic) or his co-founder at Clicars, Carlos Rivera. Adding Rivera’s knowledge in the automotive sector to his financial experience, and after several changes of ideas, they launched the company: “It was a risky leap. My grandmother used to tell me: ‘Study and work so much and now you’re going to sell cars.’ His first sale was an automatic Volkswagen Polo, on New Year’s Day: “I left the family meal to manage it. I made a contract that said ‘truck’. The idea worked. Since its foundation, Clicars has had a turnover of more than 500 million euros and has been profitable since its second year.

The image of Fernández swimming with sharks, which he boasts of on his mobile phone, puts the simile within reach. He, however, avoids that name. In one of his open sea swimming challenges he came across a shark. After the “traumatic” experience, he decided to learn about these animals: “It was more a matter of facing fears, not so much being a business shark, which is an easy simile.” “I am defined more by dreaming of something and working very hard. They were the values ​​my parents taught me.” His father, a former soccer player and aircraft mechanic, and his mother, a nurse, left their jobs to help the underprivileged as Church missionaries. This, he says, has also inspired him to participate in social initiatives. He has just come from India to visit his plastic removal social project, Oceans.club.

The luck factor

If there is an idea —besides hard work— that the entrepreneur continually returns to when talking about entrepreneurship, it is luck. For example, the pandemic was a great opportunity for Clicars, a business online, which tripled its turnover while car sales in Spain sank. “It is important to be aware that many of the things you achieve do not depend on you. But you have to do everything for the percentage that yes, ”she emphasizes. “Many successes in life depend on luck.”

Fernández has invested in more than twenty companies —such as We Are Knitters, a successful start-up of knitting products—and is the director in Europe of the investment fund in start-ups Harvard alumni. He is a demanding investor: “I invest in the person. The first thing I look for is academic or professional excellence.” Later, that he gambles for her idea – “If you have not put your savings, do not ask me for my money” -, but that he is able to listen and pivot on her. His investment strategy has changed over time. He now invests for larger percentages and asks for a seat on the board. He wants you to listen to him.

Although he shies away from the image of the business shark, Fernández is far from being the last fish in the food chain. He acknowledges that capitalism is a jungle and rejects the fact that meritocracy does not exist in Spain. “We have raised a weaker generation,” he defends. “When I started, I didn’t have a vacation and I didn’t see it as a bad thing. You say that to a kid now and he doesn’t take the job”. He is a swimmer who has transferred his work ethic to the company: “I know that the three hours I swam today will be part of the next record I break.” And he concludes: “Life has dealt you some cards, stop complaining about the lottery and play the fucking game.”