startupi

Latin Moot Corp’s annual business plan competition is being held this week in São Paulo, Thursday through Saturday. The Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) holds this competition as a preliminary round in advance of the global Moot Corp, which is held at the University of Texas.

Among the eight finalists one is Argentine, one North American and another from New Zealand. The panelists include investors (Confrapar, Adrenax, Direct Talk and others) as well as experts in various fields (including myself and representatives from Sebrae, Universia, Poli-USP, FGV and Fiesp). The presentations for each startup are available on AngelSoft, an online system for viewing the proposals and creating relationships between entrepreneurs and investors. Read more…

I received a question from a new reader of Startupi:

“Hello. Diego, my understanding of startups is that they are companies that finance or make possible new business. Am I wrong? I want to understand this better.”

Let’s see how I handle the challenge. Read more…

That’s it! The value of the purchase by the brazilians was not revealed but it’s said they now own 75% of the company. By the way, almost nothing was revealed about this new acquisition from the heroes of the brazilian startup scene: no traditional press coverage and just a bit mentioned on Twitter (only some colombians retweeting the same 2 colombian posts - and it doesn’t mean we have relentlessly adopted every imaginable method of acquiring information).

Actually, neither the press assistants of the involved companies did communicate this. The acquisition was announced this Wednesday in Colombia, was covered on some sites there, and was shared by Startupi’s friend Alan Colmenares (of TaironaMedia), who had just lectured at Bogotech event.

Read more…

The belief in fast money has long been demystified:  that in this new global digital economy all you need is an idea and you can sell it and get rich. In reality it takes a business plan, a management team and product development to convince investors to give you their support.

Still, you hear plenty of people talking about opening a startup just to seek investment and sell it. This isn’t wrong, but it isn’t the whole story. In Brazil (which is still developing a culture of angel investment in technology startups) and in Silicon Valley (which is full of success stories), there isn’t any single way to make it happen. Read more…

I interviewed Guilherme Cohn, financial analyst for FIEEI Horizon TI, a startup fund begun in December by Confrapar. It specifically targets startups in the state of Minas Gerais.

The big question (especially given the attention investors were giving startups at Campus Party) remains: so when are other experienced and successful people going to open startup funds in other states? Besides the four angel associations that we already have, that is.

Below, my questions for Guilherme Cohn: Read more…

Do you what open innovation is, and how large businesses take over small ones? Do you know about the case involving Xerox, Bradesco and Scopus? Would you like to know how to create a business that is as successful as Buscapé?

Listen to the panel of speakers at the Open Innovation Seminar - which counted among its participants Henry Chesbrough, who helped formulate the concept of open innovation and is the creator of the Center for Open Innovation at UC Berkeley! Read more…