Authorities, businessmen and entrepreneurs participated in the Mission to the United States to strengthen the projection of the national ICT industry through the experience of the experiences and good practices implemented by the leading country in technological innovation, entrepreneurship and investment capital.
For a week, leading North American technology companies hosted a delegation of more than 60 people, led by the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Ms. Carolina Cosse. Among the attendees were representatives of public bodies and organisations, as well as entrepreneurs from the Uruguayan ICT ecosystem.
The plane took off from Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo on Sunday 22 October and arrived in San Francisco on Monday morning. The delegation was welcomed with a cocktail reception at the Three Seasons restaurant in Palo Alto. On Tuesday morning, they travelled to 500 Startups in San Francisco to learn about the startup accelerator programme from Marvin Liao, one of its directors.
Later, they visited Puente Labs, where Fernando Franco, Executive Director, presented the expected indicators and the conditions necessary to raise investment capital in Silicon Valley. In addition, at both 500 Startups and Puente Labs, four of the Uruguayan companies present in the delegation had the opportunity to present their products in a four-minute pitch to receive feedback and suggestions from venture capital experts. In the afternoon, the tour culminated with a guided tour of the design school facilities at Stanford University and a talk by Leticia Britos, Director of Innovation Fellows at the university.
On Wednesday, the delegation travelled to San José to visit Cisco, where participants enjoyed breakfast and lunch, as well as listening to talks by the company. The highlight of the day was the announcement by Minister Cosse of the signing of an agreement with Cisco Networking Academy for technology education and training for UTU students across the country, which will begin in March. In the afternoon, the group split up and while some participated in one of the days at the "Plug and Play" accelerator Summit, others got to know "Runway", which is a coworking space and innovation centre that brings together entrepreneurs, startups, investors, mentors and industry experts. Runway also offers acceleration programmes for high-growth startups and has corporate innovation services to global companies. Likewise, some representatives of the Uruguayan IT ecosystem present in the delegation attended the 500 Startups Demo Day event, which consists of a presentation by the startups accelerated there and about to consolidate, where attendees meet for the first time the new companies, the founders and can establish important contacts. Another part of the delegation visited Facebook' s offices in Menlo Park, where they presented trends and through a tour of their campus they showed the delegation present at the visit their organisational culture.
Thursday began with a visit to the Deloitte Greenhouse in San José, where they presented the current trends they are working on in technology. In the afternoon, the delegation moved to the Googleplex, where they received a warm welcome and listened to a presentation on what's new in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning by Otavio Good.
On the last day, the delegation visited Meltwater, a Media Intelligence company; and later, they went to lunch at UC Berkeley, where they toured the campus, visited the library, and attended a talk on the university's startup, venture capital and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
As part of this trip, Cosse held several meetings with some of the most important technology companies worldwide, such as Apple and Tesla, in order to position Uruguay as a technological port and with the aim of continuing to grow in this sector, taking into account that most of Uruguay's software exports are to the United States.
For Cuti's president, Leonardo Loureiro, "the most important thing is to build relationships and agreements in order to bring Uruguayan companies to Silicon Valley".
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