By Daniel Daccarett Imbarack, co-founder of Emprende Tu Mente
There is little left until EtMday 2025, which will take place at Parque Bicentenario in Vitacura, and we expect more than 50 thousand spectators to show up. Three days so that anyone who wants to know how to undertake or present their project to the world has the time and space to do so.
In recent times we have seen an institutionalization of support for entrepreneurship and a development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem itself, not only due to the visibility of new projects and innovations, but also because the union between large companies, on the one hand, and startups and entrepreneurs on the other, has been focused on and prioritized.
However, it has not been enough to encourage other companies to participate and contribute a grain of sand to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and make a difference for everyone involved. The true risk takers are those who enter to play on a new field and give their all regardless of the final result.
What’s wrong with giving space to the new, to innovation, to the creation of a product that can be positioned in the market? What’s wrong with investing in the future?
It is not difficult at all to understand that today entrepreneurship is beginning to be recognized for generating new job opportunities, providing stable economic development for countries and for bringing about the innovation of products and services never seen before.
Startups generate 70% of new jobs in Latin America (IDB Lab, 2023). While in Chile, only 16% of large companies have a formal open innovation area (CORFO, 2024).
The data speaks for itself: it’s time to get out of the comfort zone.
Do you think companies like Apple, Amazon or Microsoft stay at the top by staying comfortable and protected in their bubbles? On the contrary, they are the first Business Angels to contribute projects that become commercial successes. These brands are playing an important role: giving a hand to the next generations.
Organizations must show themselves towards startups, be genuinely interested in investing, forming alliances and offering mentoring in order to generate a massive impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the market. Posing in photos for some media or holding hands is not enough. If you want to achieve change, you have to move and not stay still.
Large companies are like aircraft carriers that have a certain, clear, defined course and nothing stops them… but we entrepreneurs are like those jets that risk everything on a mission: we return, refuel and go on another mission. We both need each other, and it’s the best combination!
Today there is water in the pool, but companies have to be willing to swim without floats and take risks, to allocate resources, to let startups make them uncomfortable and show them what their internal teams are not seeing.
More than a risk or a bad strategy, it is an investment in the future both for their own companies and for the country.
Corporations that don’t invest will be the first to be left behind. I invite you to the grass on November 20, 21 and 22, to talk as equals with thousands of entrepreneurs and startups eager to make lasting connections.
