In mid-March, in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency was faced with the challenge of transforming its largest entrepreneurship training program – the Unicamp Challenge – into an online program. The Agency's teams came together as a task force to make all phases of the competition possible through online platforms. Last Saturday, April 4th, the effort had its first positive impacts.
The Unicamp Challenge Workshop, the biggest training activity of the competition, maintained the planned content, with a talk on innovation with Professor Newton Frateschi, executive director of Inova, the lean canvas course, with Patricia Tavares, CEO of the startup Neuralmind, and offering mentoring to participating teams in the afternoon. As in previous years, the tenth edition of the Unicamp Challenge had a high attendance of participants: 190 people followed the webinar live in the morning. In the afternoon, 65 mentoring sessions took place in 3 hours, connecting more than 250 people, through the ExpertiseMe platform, a daughter company partner of the event.
“The fact that we broadcast the workshop online was not an obstacle for us to maintain the quality present in the last 10 years of competition. We had to adapt to an online event that was previously held in person and despite having a smaller number due to the pandemic, the positive point was the participation of people from all over Brazil and even other countries, we had spectators from Portugal and Colombia . The event continued with the function of giving a reality check to people's training in entrepreneurship and presenting it as a career possibility”, expressed Newton Frateschi, executive director of Inova Unicamp.
Patricia Tavares, CEO of Neuralmind, a daughter company of Unicamp located in the Scientific and Technological Park of Unicamp specializing in artificial intelligence, shared her entrepreneurial journey and the success story of the startup that received assistance from PIPE FAPESP (Innovative Research in Small Businesses of the Foundation Support for Research of the State of São Paulo).
One of the highlights of his talk, which explained how to create a lean canvas based on Neuralmind's own practical example, was advising teams on how to prospect customers and partners to validate the business model. Tavares also recalled working at Inova Unicamp and helping to create the Desafio Unicamp competition in 2010, and it is gratifying to see that this initiative continues to bear fruit after 10 years.
“The Unicamp Challenge is getting better and better and is a unique opportunity to stimulate the national entrepreneurial ecosystem. Competition not only trains entrepreneurs, but also professionals and leaders with mindset entrepreneur who, even if they don't open companies, will be able to solve problems in a disruptive way. In this way, I see that the Challenge fills one of the biggest gaps in higher education in the country, which is entrepreneurship. Participants leave the competition understanding and being able to sell products with a real impact on the market”, commented Tavares.
The Workshop is part of one of the Unicamp Challenge training activities, but is also open to anyone interested. According to an evaluation survey completed by spectators, 40% of them had no connection with the initiative and felt motivated to attend the training to acquire knowledge in the area, undertake and learn more about the Lean Canvas methodology. The Workshop can be seen in full on the Inova Unicamp YouTube channel, just click on this link to watch. Frateschi and Tavares' presentations can be downloaded by accessing this address.
Workshop Experiences
The learning opportunity was also highlighted for most participants. 97% rated the event as “good” or “very good”. For Júlia Marques, member of the Esquadrão Fênix team and student of the Physics course at Unicamp, the training was very positive. “For me, participating in the Workshop and receiving mentoring was energizing! We received the necessary explanations about entrepreneurship and the encouragement to use science to make the world go around”, celebrates Marques.
In the afternoon, the teams carried out mentoring through the platform created by a daughter company, ExpertiseMe, which facilitates connections between mentors and those interested in receiving mentoring. Each team was asked to attend at least three sessions to receive assistance focused on business modeling. Prior to the Workshop, the teams were assisted by academic mentors, who were the inventors of the chosen technologies.
The next step for the teams is the first development of the business model, which must be delivered by April 27th. Until then, they will be able to continue requesting mentoring through the platform and put into practice the 10 validations requested by the organization, in the created startup market. Check out the next phases and dates at Unicamp Challenge Schedule.
About the Unicamp Challenge
The Unicamp Challenge completes its tenth edition in 2020 as the main activity to promote entrepreneurship at the University, organized by Inova Unicamp.
This is an entrepreneurship competition traditionally based on Unicamp technologies that has already trained more than 2,7 people in business modeling with support from business and academic mentors.
The sponsors of the 10th edition of the Unicamp Challenge are: neuralmind, FM2S, Solvay Group, ClarkeModet e Speed Accelerator.
The supporters of the 2020 Unicamp Challenge are: Incamp, City Hall of Campinas, Campinas Center, Brazil-Germany Chamber, Creative Space Castle, Venture Hub, Campinas Tech, Entrepreneurial League, Facamp Entrepreneurship Center e Angel Education.
