Our vision on entrepreneurship

 

High-impact entrepreneurship is the leading force behind sustainable economic development and social progress, gearing the venture capital and private equity industry.

 

Entrepreneurship and innovation are driving new ways of learning, living and working. It empowers people within our society and contributes to the development of the private equity and venture capital industry, guiding our way to a healthy and prosperous future.

 

Only by creating an environment where entrepreneurship can prosper and where new ideas are generated we will be able to empower others and ensure that many of Brazil’s issues will not go unaddressed.

 

 

Our approach to entrepreneurial demands

 

For us, the concept of successful entrepreneurship is the result of effective associations between economic agents. Creating an environment where innovative, high-impact entrepreneurship may flourish requires constant interexchange of information, expertise, knowledge, and contacts.

 

 

 

Entrepreneurial stages we target

 

Our Entrepreneurship Hub focuses on businesses with high-impact potential. It is therefore natural we target early-stage companies – from the initial idea development, up to the point of speeding up growth and profitability.

 

 

 

 

Our Undertakings

 

 

Overview

 

Desafio Brasil is the largest and most throughout program focused on the development of high-impact entrepreneurship and technology-based innovation in Brazil.

 

In its six previous editions, Desafio Brasil succeeded in providing assistance to countless entrepreneurs, promoting their capacitation and training, as well as guaranteeing further absorption of an entrepreneurial culture amidst the whole Brazilian territory. Thus, Desafio Brasil encourages the establishment of an adequate environment for the development of Private Equity and Venture Capital nationally, particularly regarding the segments of Early Stage, Seed, Angel and Venture Investments.

 

The Desafio Brasil program lasts nine months, comprehending the period from March to November. In 2012, we will be launching Desafio Brasil’s seventh edition, consolidating the event as one of greatest importance regarding the entrepreneurship and innovation context in Brazil. We will also reach maximum national coverage, extending participation to all 26 states plus the Federal District.

 

The Three Axes of Desafio Brasil

 

We structured the program around three strategic axes, namely:

 

• •     Education, Capacitation and Qualification;
• •     Network;
• •     Competition and Prizes.

 

The Education, Capacitation and Qualification Axis assembles solutions designed for the training and qualification of entrepreneurs and other PE&VC stakeholders. This axis also aims to foster the dissemination of an entrepreneurial culture throughout the Brazilian territory. Thus, we aim to provide entrepreneurs with the tools they need in order to push their businesses forward.

 

The axis is responsible for one of the most unique features of Desafio Brasil. The competition’s goals go beyond the mere distribution of prizes among competitors. Instead, one of our program’s main features lies in the Mentoring Process, which promotes the education of potentially high-impact entrepreneurs through personalized tutoring. This process is conducted by accredited professionals operating in the PE&VC industry.

 

The Network Axis congregates solutions aimed at providing linkage between entrepreneurs and each and every resource they need in order to kick start their enterprises’ development. This means the intensification of contact with and among main stakeholders, plus the opportunity to exchange experiences with successful professionals. The axis, therefore, attempts to strengthen a positive interdependence among the ecosystem’s agents, causing the whole economic environment to advance harmoniously.

 

The Competition and Prizes Axis is the condensed result of six consecutive years of accumulated expertise. It concentrates all initiatives related to the actual startup competition and the awards granted to highest impact enterprises.  Therefore, it effectively promotes interaction among all three axes, making the whole program come true and actively helping transform the entrepreneurial ecosystem into a context enriched by opportunities, skills and potential.

 

Keep informed on Desafio Brasil‘s latest news! Follow us!

 

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The Private Equity and Venture Capital industry has some inherent obstacles. One of the main ones, on the investors’ side, is to find outstanding entrepreneurs and good businesses to invest. Also, on the entrepreneurs’ side, it is often very hard to find a partner that provides not only financial resources, but also non-financial ones, such as management expertise, network access and mentorship.

 

In Brazil, this obstacle is particularly challenging, because the main stakeholders in the ecosystem are notably disconnected from each other – that is, they do not form a dynamic network.

 

These issues inspired GVcepe to create an itinerant program called Investors Network, which has the following guidelines:

 

• •     To promote direct interaction between entrepreneurs and investors;
• •     To create a meeting with the entrepreneurial ecosystem players, in order to increase impacts and outcomes of this initiative;
• •     To foster high-impact entrepreneurship under investment matters and to stimulate the innovation ecosystem, as well as the PE&VC industry.
• •     To expand the dynamism and the deal flow for the VCs and Angels.

 

The Investor Network happens concomitantly with regional and national Desafio Brasil finals. This amplifies the effects towards our main goal, which is the formation of a greater entrepreneurial ecosystem.

 

More specifically, this program aims to connect main stakeholders nationwide, such as, but not limited to, entrepreneurs, accelerators, incubators, tech parks, angel investors, research centers, universities and development agencies.

 

 

One of the biggest hardships for new business owners is their general lack of experience with the whole entrepreneurial process. After all, on top of the every-day issues of owning a business, they have to juggle high risks and uncertainties of a critical nature.  In the end, not uncommonly, the insufficiency of entrepreneurial knowledge leads new ventures to fail.

 

GVcepe believes prosperous, seasoned entrepreneurs might help new ones on the road towards success. After all, behind every thriving business there is a treasure trove of experiences, stories, previously faced challenges and how they were overcome. That’s the underlying motive that inspired the creation of Xpreneur: an initiative designed to promote greater interaction among new, inexperienced entrepreneurs and their more noteworthy counterparts.

 

 

The State Finals’ champion Startups will have the opportunity to participate in the program Meet the Venture Capitalist. In it, entrepreneurs of the best placed Startups up to this phase may visit the office of a Venture Capital General Partner and learn about the daily routine of Venture Capitalists, their relation with entrepreneurship and what features they value the most in a Startup.

 

 

The Executive Summary, a required document for participation in Desafio Brasil, is submitted for  evaluation by judges during the First Screening stage. The Startup that obtains the highest score on this stage, based on Desafio Brasil’s Evaluation Criteria, will win the award Dinner with the CEO. This award offers the Startup with the best Executive Summary in its state the opportunity to dine with the CEO or Director of either an Operational Partner of Desafio Brasil, or an appointed organization of the local Private Equity & Venture Capital ecosystem.

 

About this unit

 

GVcepe’s Entrepreneurship Hub creates a coalition between scholars, mentors, advisors, entrepreneurs, early stage companies, venture capitalists, angel investors, development agencies and the government.

 

Our main goal is to deliver strategic resources such as knowledge, mentorship,  training, experience exchange and network to assist and encourage  entrepreneurs in every development stage of their business, whether it is a business idea or concept, a seed stage startup, a ramp-up stage business or a growth stage one. Furthermore, we provide angel investors, venture capitalists and corporate ventures with a rich networking opportunity, which produces deal flow and industry growth.

 

Many of our Entrepreneurship Hub’s initiatives, especially Desafio Brasil, count with the implacable dedication of GVcepe’s Judges, Mentors and Collaborators.

Click here to access their specific page.

 

For more information on our Entrepreneurship Hub please contact:

 

Adalberto Brandão  

COO

adalberto.brandao@fgv.br