where’s the paper?

A short story about Spanish e-⁠resident Jose Ernesto and his Estonia-based startup Glassity (republished from Life in Estonia magazine)

Jose Ernesto Suarez Font, or Ernesto for short, was initially skeptical about e-Residency. He learned about it when he and a colleague scouted locations for their latest venture. "I thought this was too good to be true," said Ernesto, a systems engineer from Spain. Over time, though, he was won over by the programme and its benefits. 

But it's been an eye-opening process. When he obtained e-⁠Residency in 2018 and set up his first Estonian firm called Wedoops with a French partner named Pierre-Louis Raust, who is based in Abu Dhabi, they still booked flights to Tallinn to handle the paperwork, only to find there was nothing to sign.

Initially, Estonia was just one of several places on their list for starting the firm, but their first trip sealed the deal. "We were impressed by the startup community, the feeling of belonging, and how people helped each other.

"I come from the open-source world, and I really understand how powerful a community can be," he said. While Prague, Berlin, and Barcelona – other cities where they considered setting up their business – are certainly much bigger than Tallinn, that size can make connecting with like-minded entrepreneurs more difficult.

Ernesto picked up his e-Residency card kit at the Estonian embassy in Madrid, as most Spanish e-residents do. He still had those nagging doubts. "Even holding it in my hand, I wasn't sure it would be enough," he said. "They said we could do everything electronically and that we wouldn't need to rely on accountants," he recalled. "But after I started using the system, I was really surprised."

From Valencia to Tallinn

A year later, Ernesto even decided to relocate from Valencia to Tallinn. It was a big move for someone who admitted that Estonia really wasn't on his radar until he obtained e-⁠Residency. 

He credits the Estonian government with making all of it possible and for taking the initiative to introduce a system that, as a systems engineer, he knew was technically possible but that nobody had done yet. "I had never seen anyone implement it and did not imagine it could be implemented to such an extent like this," he said. So it has been a very good thing."

Good enough that Ernesto decided that his new company, Glassity, would also be incorporated in Estonia. "It also allows me to reinvest in my company, to invest in other startups, and in that way, to do innovative things."

Just a year in, and the company is sailing along. Glassity can cut customers' cloud costs by half without even touching the servers. It's now looking to broaden its services offering. The startup scene has helped, and Glassity has attracted investment from Estonia and Lithuania. The company also plans to open an office in Spain and expand to the US.

"Estonia is an amazing place to be," he said. 

This short story about Spanish e-resident Jose Ernesto was originally published in the Spring edition of Life in Estonia magazine. Access the full edition here.