On Tuesday, students from Instituto Superior Manuel Teixeira Gomes (ISMAT) and entrepreneurs from Startup Portimão got together, for the first time, in the same room, to present their projects. But if everything goes according to plan, it will certainly not be the last.
Is that the two entities involved in holding this session want to deepen the ties – and a lot. «We hope to continue the collaboration with ISMAT and to strengthen it, not only through an incubator in the center of Portimão, in premises belonging to the institute, but also through the development of more programs together», according to Luís Matos Martins, of Territórios Criativos, the entity that promotes Startup Portimão.
For Luís Martins, «one of the success factors of an incubator is a close relationship with a Higher Education Institution». This valence must be installed «in one of the ISMAT poles, which is disabled», and will have associated «an executive training school».
For now, the event that marked the end of StartUp Portimão's business ideas acceleration bootcamp was held jointly by ISMAT, Territórios Criativos and Câmara Portimão. In the initiative, held on Tuesday at the Museum of Portimão, participants in this training action presented their projects.
In the same session, the finalists of the degree in Business Management at ISMAT also had the opportunity to “pitch” their business ideas. And it turned out to be a proposal by the institute's students to win the distinction of best project, by a jury made up of professors and experts in entrepreneurship.
But let's go by parts. After all, what is this about the Portimão Startup acceleration bootcamp?
“In this bootcamp we had two meetings lasting two days, one yesterday and today [on the 24th and 25th] and the first one, about a month ago. During these four face-to-face days and a few more virtual mentoring sessions, we worked on the methodology good business model, which consists of creating a conscious business model, which has to combine financial sustainability with concerns such as social impact and the environment», explained Luís Martins
One of the main focuses of this initiative «were the Smart cities, because smart cities are the predominant theme at Startup Portimão».
Among the bootcamp participants are some companies that are already at Startup Portimão. But there are also entrepreneurs who are taking their first steps, although they are no longer “in the idea stage”.
On Tuesday, there was a session to present the projects that came out of this intensive training action, as well as those of ISMAT students.
In a first phase, a jury chose the best idea among those presented by the students and another jury selected two of those presented by the participants in the bootcamp.
The final was thus played by three. Face to face were the Lusomed projects, by ISMAT students Vítor Vicente, Guilherme Teixeira and Chiril Harmoza, “Txirte”, by Filipe Pimenta, and Click2Care, by Luís Silva and Tiago Luís, from the company aTecnologias imaginadas.
In the end, it was the ISMAT finalists who won, with a proposal that advocates the creation of an online platform that aggregates the medical exams of all users of the National Health Service, in order to facilitate their visualization by doctors, making the system more effective.
The victory, as well as the second and third places, serve, in this case, only “as a reference”. But that didn't mean that entrepreneurs failed to take advantage of the bootcamp experience.
«They gained technical skills in the area of management and working methodology good business model. Another advantage is the network of contacts that are created, as well as the opportunity to share with other entrepreneurs», summarizes Luís Martins.
This was the second bootcamp held by Startup Portimão and the idea is to continue doing one a year.
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