Established by Sempere, Sánchez-Diezma, and Berenguer in 2006 and located in Barcelona (Spain), HYDS S.A. offered innovative solutions in hydrometeorology, a science that develops predictive modelling and data processing tools to facilitate the forecasting of precipitation in the short to medium term. Emerging out of CRAHI, one of the world’s leading public research centres in hydrometeorology, HYDS became one of the most innovative companies in its field.
In 2008 HYDS was focused on CRAHI markets and customers, basically regional weather and water public agencies, and large companies involved in water cycle management. However, it soon became clear that what was good for a research centre was not necessarily good for a spin off. The entrepreneurs had invested more than €200.000 and the return on the investment was not at all clear.
By using radar data input, HYDS software solutions were able to predict whether or not it would rain within the next two to six hours. But who might be interested in this kind of services? Outdoor sports organizers, farmers? One point was clear; whoever interested in these services would be completely different from CRAHI customers. So, if HYDS was to grow, its management had to come up with new approaches, processes, products and markets.
Written by Pere Losantos and Xavier Estaran from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from pere.losantos@upc.edu.
