Gonzalo García Iranzo, co-founder of Hotta

We speak with Gonzalo García, co-founder of Hotta, an entrepreneur with a technical profile who, after training as a civil engineer and working in the software world, ended up developing together with his partner a solution aimed at recovering and reusing waste heat generated by technological infrastructures such as data centers.

Throughout the conversation, he explains how a very specific observation in a garage in Soria ended up becoming the starting point of a business project with a strong industrial, energy, and technological component. He also addresses the challenges of validating a proposal in an environment with long cycles, technical clients, and high barriers to entry; the importance of certifications, proofs of concept, and a deep understanding of the sector; and the role that spaces such as Plataforma ONE can play in facilitating connections, funding, and useful knowledge for those building ventures in complex, high-impact fields.

Waste heat from data centers is an invisible problem for most people. What made you realize there was a real and untapped opportunity there?

It was a very specific combination of factors. On the one hand, my partner Aarón had set up a small data center (CPD, or Data Processing Center) in Soria, in a cold environment, and he noticed something striking: in winter, the garage was almost too hot to stay in because of the heat, while the room he wanted to warm still needed heating. That led to a very simple but powerful question: how do you move that excess heat to where it is actually needed?

On the other hand, I came from working in a context where there was more and more private cloud infrastructure, which also meant more data centers and a growing market. When you combine a real need with a clear technological trend, you understand that you are not looking at an anecdote, but at a structural problem.

There was also a very important underlying motivation: a huge part of the energy we consume is used to produce heat, while there are industries that generate heat as a by-product and also spend energy getting rid of it. We saw an obvious inefficiency, and that was Hotta’s starting point. More than inventing a need, what we did was look where almost no one else was looking.

Validating an industrial business model is very different from doing so in software. How did you validate your proposal in an environment with long cycles and highly technical clients?

With patience, a lot of listening, and a very gradual approach. In sectors like this, you do not validate a solution all at once or with a single presentation. The process actually begins by solving a problem of your own or one that is very close to you. In our case, the starting point was trying to move heat from a space where there was too much of it to another where it was needed. That first step helps you check whether the idea is viable.

Then comes the hard part, which is going out into the market and facing the fact that at first almost everything is rejection. What matters here is not interpreting every “no” simply as rejection, but as information. If a potential client says no, you need to understand why, gather that feedback, adjust the MVP, and try again.

The key is to get a real proof of concept as soon as possible, even if it is small. First, you validate it with yourself or in a controlled environment, and the next step is to have someone external test it. From there, each validation makes the project more solid. At first it is like pushing a square; then, little by little, it starts to look more like a wheel.

Building in industrial sectors is not usually high-profile, but it creates enormous value. What factors or market signals convinced you to commit to such a technical niche?

In our case, there was a very strong motivation around efficiency. Both my partner and I are the kind of people who constantly question why things work the way they do and whether they could be done better. When you detect such an obvious inefficiency, it is very hard to look the other way.

Beyond the fact that it was a less visible or less fashionable sector, what attracted us was precisely that there was a real, deep problem that was still largely unsolved. We saw energy being systematically wasted while the market and regulatory environment were moving toward electrification, sustainability, and the need for more efficient sources.

Over time, market evolution has validated it even further. The arrival of artificial intelligence has multiplied the need for computing power and has put data centers at the center of many conversations. It is not that the trend appeared overnight, but rather that we could already see where the market was heading and focused the product in that direction from the very beginning.

Hotta was literally born in a garage in Soria. What practical lessons did that early, hands-on, experimental stage leave you with?

A huge number of them. When you start like that, truly from scratch, you learn a bit of everything because you literally have to do everything. For example, I had studied civil engineering, and electronics was absolutely not my specialty. Even so, I found myself working alongside my partner on circuit boards and solving technical issues I would never have imagined tackling a few years earlier.

But you do not only learn from the technical side. You also have to deal with the entire business and administrative dimension: from understanding how to set up a company to handling paperwork, finding information, and making decisions with very limited resources. That phase forces you to develop a global view of the project.

If I had to sum up the main lesson, I would say that entrepreneurship teaches you above all about everything you do not know. The more you move forward, the clearer it becomes that there are many areas you do not master and will need to understand if you want to build something real. That awareness of not knowing everything is precisely what pushes you to learn quickly and adapt.

Integrating servers into real infrastructures involves technical and regulatory barriers. What obstacles did you encounter at the beginning, and how did you overcome them?

The first major challenge was realizing that having a good intuition was not enough. We had to turn it into something technically viable, and that forced us into areas we did not fully master at first. In industrial or energy projects, this happens very quickly: the physical, technical, and operational challenges are very concrete, and you cannot hide behind a presentation.

On top of that comes the regulatory and market side. As we moved forward, we realized how important it was to understand certain certifications and requirements that may seem secondary at first, but become essential if you want to work with large clients. One of the clearest lessons was that these issues should not be left for later.

The way we overcame this was by learning quickly, accepting that we needed to build knowledge across different areas, and translating the value of the solution into metrics the market could understand. In our case, for example, CAEs — energy savings certificates — are a very useful tool because they make it possible to show clearly the efficiency improvement and the economic logic of modernizing certain systems.

Circularity and sustainability are central to Hotta. How do they translate into real metrics or day-to-day operational decisions?

For us, the foundation has always been efficiency. Circularity and sustainability were not a slogan added to the project, but a direct consequence of solving an obvious energy inefficiency.

Over time, we understood that for a large company or industrial client to see the real value of a solution like this, it is not enough to talk about impact or the future. You have to translate it into understandable, operational, and monetizable indicators. Here, CAEs are a very good example, because they directly connect energy savings with a market framework and a tangible incentive.

Working in this field teaches you that sustainability becomes more powerful when it stops being an abstract promise and becomes a measurable improvement in efficiency, savings, and competitiveness. That is when the message becomes credible and when it truly influences decision-making.

Many entrepreneurs want to enter industrial or energy sectors, but the technical complexity is intimidating. What two or three practical steps would you recommend to get started on the right foot?

The first is to understand the sector well and acknowledge as early as possible everything you do not know. It is much better to enter with a learning mindset, understanding your gaps and working on them, than to assume you already know the terrain.

The second is to look for a proof of concept as quickly as possible. It does not matter if it is very small, very artisanal, or even applied to a problem of your own: what matters is validating that the idea works in reality. In industrial sectors, that initial validation is extremely valuable because it forces you out of the theoretical plane.

And the third is to start early on everything you know will later be required of you, especially certifications or requirements that will be key to selling to large clients. They are often left for later stages, but making progress on them early can make a huge difference.

To close, based on your experience, how can Plataforma ONE help projects like Hotta connect with industry, funding, technological partners, and territories looking for innovative energy solutions?

It can do so in several ways, and one very important one is by facilitating useful connections. When we talk about networking, it is not just about meeting people, but about connecting with real demand, potential clients, technological partners, or open innovation dynamics in which a solution like ours could fit. For projects that need validation and first clients, that can be decisive.

In addition, the funding side is key. Having tools that help filter grants or identify public support opportunities greatly simplifies a process that is normally complex and time-consuming, which is especially valuable for small teams.

It also adds a lot through everything related to guides, procedures, and practical knowledge. When you are building in sectors with a strong technical, industrial, or regulatory component, there is a lot of bureaucracy and many issues that are not intuitive. Having access to clear information and resources that bring order to that path helps enormously to avoid wasting time and energy on processes that are already demanding in themselves.