Higher education USAL and the postgraduate ecosystem
The University of Salamanca is the world's eighth oldest university, eight centuries old, and a brand asset few European universities can match. Its postgraduate offer, Spanish-for-foreigners schools and affiliated centres (Pontificia, IEB) generate an educational ecosystem receiving international students year-round.
My work here goes through two channels: helping private training centres (master's degrees, business schools, Spanish academies) capture international students without cannibalising the USAL brand, and working with university spin-offs on their market entry (positioning, corporate customer acquisition, differential narrative against Madrid startups).
Health: University Hospital and associated medical services
Salamanca University Hospital is the oncology and transplant reference of western Castile and León, and around it grows a belt of private clinics, laboratories, medical distribution and services for the pharmaceutical sector. Proximity to BNADN and oncology research groups makes Salamanca a non-obvious but real node.
I work with private clinics on patient acquisition combining the city as an asset (Salamanca attractive for long treatments) with specialisation (not competing on generalities but on niches: paediatric surgery, reproduction, oncology). And with B2B medical services on positioning against the public hospital buyer.
DOP Guijuelo: acorn-fed Iberian as a global brand
DOP Jamón de Guijuelo concentrates the most recognised brands of global Iberian: Joselito, Beher, Sánchez Romero Carvajal, Embutidos Fermín. It's a DOP with consolidated premium narrative in Japan, the US and Arab markets, but with an internal challenge: how does a mid-sized producer differentiate without Joselito's budget?
My work with mid-sized Guijuelo producers (5-15 M€ turnover) is very concrete: finding the narrative angle that holds premium price without imitating the leader, building packaging and digital communication consistent with international HORECA, and opening conversations with gourmet distribution in the US and Asia without exhausting the sales team.
Biotechnology (CIC, Science Park, National DNA Bank)
USAL's Cancer Research Centre (CIC), the Science Park and the National DNA Bank configure a Salamanca biotech cluster combining basic science with applied spin-offs. It's a small ecosystem but with high-impact publications and connection to global pharma.
My work with Salamanca biotech spin-offs is on market entry: how to tell a deeply technical technology to a non-technical buyer (corporate, pharma, hospitals) without jargon, how to build the first pilot sales round before seeking Series A, how to work LinkedIn and sector events with a contained budget.