Last month, I sat in front of a crowd of over 240 aspiring entrepreneurs in Bogota, Colombia, to help facilitate a three-hour session on how to apply to start and scale up innovative businesses with the support of La Idea and the La Idea Business Competition. I was thrilled to be joined by our La Idea partners Susan Amat, Founder and CEO of Venture Hive; Arnoldo Reyes, Head of Market Development for Ebay/PayPal for Latin America and the Caribbean region and Paula Cortes of Accion International. We were blown away by the participants’ excitement about La Idea and their spirit of entrepreneurship.
La Idea connects entrepreneurs within the Latin American diaspora throughout the Americas to each other and to local and regional small business support centers, to provide resources and connections to help entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level. It promotes partnerships between businesses throughout the Americas and launched the La Idea Business Competition, an opportunity for innovative social entrepreneurs with breakthrough ideas to turn their business visions into reality.
Entrepreneurs convene in Bogota, Colombia to learn more about its Business Competition and ways to grow their businesses and partner across borders. Photo credit: La Idea
Through the competition, ten businesses—which must represent a collaboration between a U.S.-based entrepreneur and a Latin America-based entrepreneur—will receive a coveted spot in the Finalist Showcase televised by Univision Media, where they will pitch their business ideas live in front of a panel of celebrity judges. Winners will receive a prize of $50,000 and tailored support services to help get their businesses off the ground.
In order to attract even more great business ideas, La Idea recently extended the deadline for applications to 5:00 pm EDT on September 20, 2013. More details on the application process and eligibility are available at www.diasporaalliance.org.
In the United States there are over 2.3 million Latino entrepreneurs opening businesses at twice the national rate—making them the fastest growing entrepreneurial segment in the country. Moreover, many countries in Latin America are on the rise. La Idea hopes to unleash the potential of Latino entrepreneurs to promote economic development that transcends borders. By supporting Latino entrepreneurs in the U.S. and throughout the Americas, La Idea aims to translate their knowledge and capital into tangible improvements in Latin America, as well as build on the emerging strength of networks and markets in Latin America.
La Idea is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Boom Financial, Inter-American Development Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Small Business Administration, Univision News, WellSpace, Accion, and FHI 360. It builds on the unique strength of each of the partners, including the U.S. Department of State and USAID’s experience coordinating similar business competition plans focused around diaspora communities.
These business plan competitions have included the African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM), Caribbean Idea Marketplace, and Libya Diaspora Marketplace (LDM). Each of which tapped the power of diaspora communities in the United States—and their strong ties to their countries of origin or heritage—to develop innovative enterprises that support USAID’s development objectives and grow small and medium-size businesses as drivers of economic growth.
Already, the winners of these competitions are making good on their businesses’ potential for development impact. Sproxil, a winner of the 2011 African Diaspora Marketplace, was recognized by Fast Company earlier this year as the seventh most innovative company of 2013 for its product that fights prescription drug counterfeiting in Africa. I cannot wait to see who wins the La Idea Business Competition and the innovative businesses they will bring us for 2014 and beyond.
To learn more about application and eligibility requirements for the La Idea Business Competition, visit www.diasporaalliance.org and join the La Idea community on Facebook.
Note: La Idea has since become the International diaspora Engagement Alliance (IdEA).
