SummIT is the most important meeting between national and international investors and IT entrepreneurs for the generation of "early stage" investments in the most promising technology startups; organized by the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti) and supported by ANTEL, BID, Itaú, Guyer & Regules and declared of interest by ANII.
The event began on Friday October 12th at the Sheraton Colonia Golf & Spa Resort with an integrative activity led by José Alonso, Senior Consultant at Geek Creative Economics, with the participation of 13 investors and 20 entrepreneurs from different industries, such as technology, sports, health, economy, games, education, and meteorology.
It was a day and a half of "immersion" out of the routine, which allowed investors a dedicated and detailed attention to make the best investment decisions, in the startups with the greatest potential.
Within the framework of the meeting, Guyer & Regules gave a talk on the most relevant aspects of the Entrepreneurship Bill and its impact, while ANTEL presented its cloud services platform proposal.
On the other hand, Gustavo Crespi, a specialist in Competitiveness and Innovation of the IDB, spoke about the obstacles of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Uruguay and exchanged with the participants key aspects to support entrepreneurship in our country.
The SummIT experience
It is a totally innovative event as it is an activity where entrepreneurs and investors share 36 hours together, staying the night in the same hotel.
In an interview with two of the investors who participated in SummIT: Bruno Gili (Consulting Partner of CPA Ferrere and CPA Innovation) and Pedro Moreira (Manager of Banco Itaú Uruguay); both were surprised by the diversity of areas in which the projects were based, as well as the level of professionalism, knowledge and passion that each one had for their idea.
Pedro commented that "it was a spectacular event and an intense day since we were always evaluating or doing activities together".
For Bruno, the experience was very enriching and interesting to see the amount of opportunities that are generated and how in the market through the use of new technologies solutions to different problems are sought. "From the commercial point of view, I saw some very interesting projects with good development potential," he added.
We also interviewed some of the entrepreneurs who participated: Juan Manuel Urraburu (GoyPick), Luciano Tourreilles (FR9), Josefina Calderazzo (Restorun), and Mathías Lehrer (Yo Calculo). For all of them, the event was a success.
According to Luciano, "it is an ideal activity to meet not only investors, but also entrepreneurs with the same needs as you". Mathías also explained that "the more you got to know the investors, the more progress you made because you generated more bonds and more trust".
Josefina highlighted the possibility of "listening to opinions from different points of view as it helps to think about the business model and grow as a company". She also commented that "having made contact with an investor in the rounds I had and today continue to be linked with him for mentoring is more than enough and positive meeting".
While all agree that what they are looking for when registering for SummIT is to get investment for their projects, they advise not to focus solely on raising capital because the most remarkable thing is the experience itself: from the previous workshops provided by Cuti, by Gustavo Rey and Marcel Mordezki, which help entrepreneurs to better prepare the pitch, to the opportunities that can be generated in the future. What remains of the event is the know how, the tools, the learning, the contacts and the networking that is generated among the participants.
The event lasted a few days, but it was very intense in the preparation. The entrepreneurs commented that it was a challenge to prepare an 8-minute pitch with certain characteristics. Juan Manuel explained that "as an entrepreneur, many times we fall in love with our ideas; the good thing about SummIT is that as you present your project you gain experience and know how to do it and it feeds a lot on the contributions that investors make". In addition, he said that you have to isolate yourself from the routine for things to happen and the fact that it was in Cologne was totally positive because you are 100% focused.
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