Leire is an Alumni of the Double Degree in Audiovisual Communication & Journalism at Universidad Europea de Madrid. Today, together with her business partner Ana, she has created Kultur, an app for last-minute ticket sales with exclusive discounts.
What is Kultur?
Kultur is an app for last-minute ticket sales for all kinds of events and shows with exclusive discounts. The aim of this app is to help venues to generate income from the leftover capacity that sometimes goes unsold, while bringing culture to people who often cannot afford to pay full price for a ticket. At the moment we’re operating in Madrid, but in upcoming months our goal is to reach other Spanish cities. The app is available on both iOS and Android.
Please tell us when you studied and which faculty and campus you were at. How was your journey after completing your studies at Universidad Europea until the creation of your project?
I completed my studies in 2018 after doing 5 years on the Double Degree in Audiovisual Communication & Journalism in the faculty of arts and communication.
Since finishing my studies, I’ve had a rollercoaster of a journey. For one thing, I worked in two very well-known international advertising agencies, but I had unstable contracts and terrible working conditions (like most young people nowadays). My partner Ana Barquero had a similar experience. We are also both passionate about culture, it’s what we focus on in our free time, but getting a job in this industry is complicated, that’s why we decided to start a business and create Kultur.
Tell us a little more about your work. What do you enjoy the most? What challenges do you face on the daily? Do you have an anecdote you would like to share?
As a two-person venture, we have a very heavy workload and we both have several roles to play. I’m in charge of the whole communication side of things and the visual identity of Kultur, as well as marketing and content creation. Ana, having studied Business Administration, Tourism and Art History, is in charge of all the legal and accounting aspects and also acts as Account Manager. The positive thing is that our profiles complement each other well, and each of us contributes a variety of great things.
What I enjoy most is thinking of ideas for content, and once we’ve done that, to see the impact that our actions have. Everything we do needs to have an objective behind it, and seeing how that’s achieved is really rewarding.
Our greatest challenge at this time is reaching people, for them to hear about our app. At the moment it’s a project without funding, meaning growth is slow. We have to work a lot and keep our minds sharp.
Why do you think your project is important? What impact could it have on other people?
Our project is important because it resolves two problems. Firstly, after attending several events we realised that sometimes part of the capacity is left empty. The venues and promoters do not manage to sell all the tickets available, which means a financial loss for them. For this reason, we want to help venues to fill the capacity they don’t manage to sell via their traditional sales channels.
The second problem we resolve is making culture a little more accessible. With the current state of things, there are lots of people who can’t afford to pay the full ticket price and therefore can’t enjoy cultural activities. Kultur, with its discounted tickets, brings culture closer to people. Furthermore, the app also serves as a catalogue of plans and events happening in the city, so that at a quick glance from the palm of your hand, you can see all the cultural activities available in Madrid.
Why did you choose Universidad Europea? What values and characteristics do you think it has that have contributed to your professional development?
I chose Universidad Europea mainly because of its quality education, and after 5 years of studying I can safely say that it was. I learned a lot and the professors I had were incredible. Thanks to them, not only did I learn the theoretical and practical sides of the subject areas, but they knew how to instil the values of the profession in me. Universidad Europea knew how to teach me that when you’re passionate about what you’re doing, anything is possible and there are no limits to what you can achieve.
What is your best memory from Universidad Europea?
I think one of my best memories of the university (besides my classmates and the lifelong friendships I made) is when I received the award for Best Final Degree Project. For the University to recognise the work I had done and to choose my documentary Glassy as the best project in my year in the area of Journalism was really exciting.
What advice would you give to those who have just finished their studies and are now going out into the working world?
The best advice I could give them is to have lots of patience and resilience. Right now it’s quite a difficult time for us to enter the working world, but I believe that with patience and by putting ourselves out there, everything will pay off.