María Cebrián Fernández, a long time yoga lover, hardworking mother, and two-time company founder, defines herself as a person full of determination and love for life. In the start up world, she’s not alone; passionate entrepreneurs draw on their lust for life and their passions to dream up and then realize all kinds of companies with the power to change the world.
In May of 2012, Aomm.tv, a company that offers affordable online yoga, pilates and meditation classes for Spanish speaking internet users went straight from María’s imagination into becoming an early-stage startup with huge potential for growth.
While Aomm.tv is María's second company, it was not always clear for her that she'd be contributing to the world through for-profit businesses. After completing her undergraduate degree in Economics and Business administration, Fernández's work and further education took on a social focus: She began a path of working in the field of NGOs, working as an aid worker, a social worker, and heading communications campaigns. It wasn’t until 2008 that she opened her first business a company that brought photography and video services to agencies and organizations, called “Iconik Estudio”.
With guidance from Madrid’s chapter of the Founder Institute, and the help of her sister and co-founder Olga Cebrián, Fernández took on the creation of Aomm.tv, which would eventually become the leading yoga and pilates online platform in Spanish.
Today, the company offers more than 500 classes taught by 55 teachers. Classes are offered in different styles, different levels and with different objectives, so that users can find what’s right for them. The classes are beautifully shot in HD and the company has more than 6000 active subscribers in more than 76 countries. Users pay for a subscription to have access to classes and also a blog and information and recommendations on the website.
While users can’t speak in person to their instructors, there’s communication between users, teachers and the Aomm.tv team which help’s Aomm.tv with it’s goal of improving every day.
Maria calls the transition to Aomm.tv easy, after having already founded “Iconik Estudio” with her husband. Olga on the other hand, had a difficult decision to make, as she was leaving the security of a management position at a large company. Her desire to build a startup with her sister and the chance to promote yoga as a discipline helped her make her decision
Growing the company required a serious commitment from both founders and they didn’t start getting salaries until the the company started monetizing. And, much like learning yoga, nurturing a new company, according to María, is based on three important things “motivation, hard work and positive spirit.”
It is very important to believe in your project, and have a strong motivation to put it up and take it forward every day. Sometimes that motivation comes from wanting to help improve the world, sometimes the passion for something specific, sometimes comes from an economic motivation… but the important thing is [that it’s] there!
María also has words of encouragement specifically for female entrepreneurs. Though the tech world and startup world may be male-dominated, María says that if women believe in themselves they can achieve true confidence in the startup world and that she personally is able to move through it with “ease and security”.
The company received funding from venture capitalists and an accelerator. In 2016, the Founder Institute, acknowledged the company by inviting them to participate in the FounderX Advisory Program for which only 42 “up and coming” companies from the Founder Institute’s network of graduates were selected.
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over 2BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
