Four young Uruguayan entrepreneurs from the ICT industry presented their projects in California to a qualified group of investors from Silicon Valley, a leading international city for innovation and high-tech development.
In 4-minute presentations, the entrepreneurs presented their projects to specialists in strengthening startups in California, and underwent evaluations. The first instance was in front of Marvin Liao, partner of the accelerator 500 Startups, and the second at PuenteLabs, under the review of Jasper Lau, from Lumia Capital, and Julian Sevillano, from Via Global.
After listening to the presentations, at a general level, the evaluators pointed out to the Uruguayans the importance of being clear in the proposal and of identifying who the competition is and knowing what differentiates them. In addition, they stressed the importance of knowing the client: their market, target audience and size. They also identified the need to demonstrate passion when presenting a product to an investor.
One of the ventures presented was Armor Bionics, a medical technology company that focuses on 3D modelling for surgical operations. Its raw material is the work with the images taken by the scanner, which are then transformed into volume through 3D printing. Once the piece is obtained, the doctor can manipulate, practice or show the patient and his colleagues what he is going to do. As its founder and commercial director, Pablo Pereira, explained to Montevideo Portal, this idea has the benefits of saving time - since it can be planned before being in the operating room -, reducing risks and costs, and informing the patient in a more graphic way about the intervention to be performed.
Pereira said that the opportunity to present his project at Silicon Valley is "every entrepreneur's dream, not only because of the possible investment, but also because of the feedback, because you are in front of people who have more than 60 proposals per day and know the business, they have a very different vision of the future".
For his part, Sebastián Macías, director of Dronfies, said that the presentation to investors is a challenge because the jury is "top level" and gives them the opportunity to open doors to land in the US, which is their goal, he said.
This growing company offers drone technology that, according to its representative, "tries to change the way this industry works today, where drone operation from a professional point of view is strongly linked to the interaction with a pilot. We are automating aerial operations through software to reduce costs," he said.
This company is working in the area of entertainment with a product, to be launched in December, which will allow photos and videos to be taken with a drone through an application. They are also working in the area of security with a project that seeks to monitor and supervise properties, industrial spaces and farms "where people can have another tool for their security", said its creator.
Another of the ventures presented was 21SUR, a company that provides large-scale remote sensing services through aerial systems with drones that go beyond the pilot's line of sight.
Pablo Sandoval, the co-founder and manager, explained to Montevideo Portal that his company works with drones, "they are like drones, fixed-wing aircraft with an autopilot that makes them fly up to 50 km away. They have multiple uses, but in Uruguay we focus on forestry and agriculture," he said, adding: "this technology allows us to fly for eight hours and can cover a radius of 100 km around, allowing us to map a large area in a short time.
"For forestry work, it allows you to map large areas and calculate the number of trees, calculate the volume of timber to predict what the harvest will be for a given forest," Sandoval said.
The fourth start-up to present in California was Capicúa, which aims to help international brands and companies make better use of the interactions between users and technology to establish efficient contact with their audiences, delivering engaging messages and achieving specific business objectives. They seek to shape commercial initiatives so that they are tangible from design and development.
The visit to California by the Uruguayan entrepreneurs took place within the framework of the Official Mission led by Minister Carolina Cosse in conjunction with Uruguay XXI and the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti). The objective of this trip to the United States -in which government authorities, institutions and entrepreneurs participate- is to strengthen the projection of the national ICT industry.
Source: Montevideo Portal
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