José Manuel Pimentel finished his studies in Journalism in the year 2000, and the same year he was able to do a scholarship in the news services at TVE, in the sports section.
Hi everyone, I’m José Manuel Pimentel, founder of Mister Nilson, UE Alumni and graduate in Journalism from the year 2000.
I finished my studies in Journalism in the year 2000, and that same year I was able to do a scholarship in the news services at TVE in the sports section, thanks to an agreement between both organisations.
After the scholarship I managed to secure several contracts at TVE‘s 24-hour channel as a reporter.
I later moved to Mediaset, where I spent more than 10 years as the content coordinator for entertainment programmes.
That was when I started thinking about working for myself—why not start my own studio?
I told 2 key supports in both my personal and professional life about this idea. They were essential to ensuring this project went ahead. They were Jorge Borrajo, a former university classmate and Alberto Larrea, a colleague of mine for several years at Mediaset.
We were the perfecto trio, or so we thought.
But, how would we do it? How could we launch a business when we all worked full time? How could we leave a stable job and take the plunge? Would we land on our feet?
In the end, everything happens for a reason. That push that everyone needs came around. The TV programme I had worked on for 10 years went bust. We were all let go. 30 people. Some with kids, me included. 1 and 4 years old.
It’s true that my final year on TV hadn’t been going well, but it’s also true that outside, things were cold.
At first I had conflicting feelings. Pent-up joy and vertigo all at once.
We spent several months shaping the project and finally launched Misternilson in October 2015.
I started working in the attic of my house, totally alone, putting more hours in than a fool. The worst of all is the feeling of loneliness. And yes, there were many days I worked in my pyjamas. In the end, all that hard work paid off.
I’ve been everything: a camera operator, editor, reporter, soundman, drone pilot (I got the official qualification), salesman, extra, accountant, manager, driver… 5 years and more than 1000 videos later we are working for clients like Universidad Europea, Real Madrid CF, Thyssen Museum and Cetelem Bank, among others. We’ve worked on projects across half the world, including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Sierra Leone, Milan and, of course, across all of Spain.
If I had to choose one word to describe Mister Nilson, it would be integrity.