We're moving on from the Startups BCN Slack community

In October 2015, we opened a Slack workspace for the Barcelona startup scene and told people to come in. We called it Startups BCN - quite the imagination! It started off as a way to bridge the gap between our monthly editions of Startup Grind Barcelona, so people could continue the conversations they started at the event, but it soon grew to absorb other communities, and even some coworking spaces ran their community efforts there, too.

On 1st October 2026, its eleventh anniversary, MarsBased is stepping down as host and handing the workspace over to members who still use it.

What eleven years actually produced

Over the years, we saw all kinds of stories coming out of this communities. We got some projects, or hired some freelancers ourselves, but we also made it possible for other startups to find investors, advisors, or get into acceleration programs. Others cofounded companies, or hired each other. We gave left and right recommendations of coworking spaces, lawyers, other agencies and more. Others announced their project launches to get an extra pair of eyes to look at their new app.

But some of the wildest stories, I’ve just learnt today when I have gotten some replies back to this announcement, which I’ve sent over email to all its members.

The wildest of all has been this one:

I don’t think any other story can top this one!

What I can also say is the unglamorous part: the value of a community like this was never exclusively in the channels: it was in the direct messages that started in the channels. That is also why it was so hard to measure, and why we were slow to notice it had gone quiet, because I was using it to DM with key people of the Barcelona ecosystem almost on a daily basis.

What now?

If Startups BCN was how you followed MarsBased, this is where we actually are:

• Newsletter, every two weeks. Start here.
• Podcast
• Blog

MarsBased is thirty people now, we are deep in AI-augmented development, and that is where my attention goes. I have passed the baton before, with Startup Digest and Startup Grind Barcelona. This one took longer because it required less maintenance.

In the next days, we will hand over the community to someone else, if we find someone suitable. I seriously hope we do!

Eleven years… Thank you to everyone who ever posted, answered, hired, got hired, or made an introduction in that community. That was the entire point, and it worked better than these things usually do.