Building a startup in Venezuela is genuinely hard. Talented young people leave in search of better opportunities, and getting a technology venture off the ground — let alone a successful one — can feel like an uphill battle.

Yet Venezuelans have always found creative ways through adversity. That drive is part of our identity, and the real foundation beneath it is education and an unrelenting will to improve.

I want to open with two phrases: #LaCosaesEmprender ("The thing is to build") and #LaOpciónEsVenezuela ("Venezuela is the option"). Both circulate as hashtags on social media today, and neither one is mine. Only someone with a deep, genuine love for Venezuela could have coined them — but there's no reason we shouldn't all claim them.

I first encountered these expressions through a good friend and even better mentor: Félix Ríos, a Venezuelan social entrepreneur who leaves a lasting mark on everyone he works with.

Venezuelan team at Caracas Startup Weekend.

Our Story

At the end of my previous article, I promised to share what happened at the 7th edition of Caracas Startup Weekend USB. Here it is.

For those unfamiliar with it: Caracas Startup Weekend is the local chapter of a global competition run by Techstars and supported by Google for Entrepreneurs. The 5th edition was won by INNOWEAR (now @tuRitmio), held at UNIMET.

That winning project was led by Jonny Cabrera and Carlos Dobobuto — the founders of INNOTICA. Together with me and four other talented Venezuelans, they turned a raw idea into a minimum viable product in roughly 54 hours — a single weekend. The goal: detect the cardiac arrhythmia known as Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), which is responsible for 50% of strokes worldwide.

INNOTICA was born from Venezuelan entrepreneurs — trained here first, then abroad — with a real commitment to building in Venezuela. Why Venezuela? Jonny Cabrera, our current Director of Development, put it plainly after winning that 5th edition:

"This is my country, and there is so much to do here — there's talent, there are opportunities, there's capital. Venezuela will move forward if we invest in technology, and that's exactly why I came back." — Jonny Cabrera, quoted by Marah Villaverde, Noticiero Digital, July 24, 2015 [1]

Presenting to the judges at Caracas Startup Weekend.

Does that sound unrealistic? It shouldn't. A good entrepreneur has a finely tuned sense for opportunity — and Venezuela has plenty of them.

That original team of five had already doubled in size within eight months, building what we now call Integrated Automation and Control Networks. When the 7th edition of Startup Weekend came around, the company sponsored three of us to compete. Part of the INNOTICA team joined forces with new collaborators and, once again, took first place — this time with DataTruck: an IoT and Big Data solution for optimizing trucking fleet operations.

We hit our goal. And for those in the group who were facing a startup competition for the first time, they walked away with something just as valuable: the core skills every entrepreneur needs.

DataTruck, winner of the 7th Caracas Startup Weekend USB.

Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in Venezuela

Several organizations and programs actively support startup development in Venezuela:

• NOVOS – UNIMET
• Concurso de Ideas
• Impact Hub Caracas
• PTS Venezuela
• Centro de Emprendedores – IESA
• Wayra Venezuela

INNOTICA is itself one of those spaces — a company built by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, where the drive to innovate is passed on to every person who joins the team.

Eduardo García

References

1. INNOWEAR: emprendedores venezolanos mejorando la salud — Marah Villaverde, Noticiero Digital, July 24, 2015.