Universo Nova

In Latam, almost 70% of new businesses close before reaching the 3 years mark. This is due to 3 main problems: Lack of nowledge, resources or allies.

In Nova, we believe in the person before the project, therefore we focus on training our entrepreneurs in several topics required to succeed.

We created a platform where we gather many providers of services for entrepreneurs and users may find content, experts, challenges, providers, online courses, clients and even investors.

We want to unite the firms and entities with the whole entrepreneurial ecosystem and bring a better, affordable and reachable offer in a single place for entrepreneurs in Latam and in the world.

Also, we seek to create one of the biggest communities for entrepreneurs in Colombia and LATAM, with several benefits such as networking opportunities, special offers and lifetime services.

As experts in the field of entrepreneurship, we have found studies that show that in LATAM, almost 70% of startups fail before reaching the third year of operation because the entrepreneurs do not have the tools they require to sustain themselves and their business. The three main problems that cause this situation: Lack of knowledge, resources or allies that support the business on its early years.

Also, even though there are multiple enterprises that support entrepreneurs, the ecosystem is fractured, making it harder for inexperiencied businesses to survive.

In Colombia, most startups are created because of need and not as a life choice. Therefore, most entrepreneurs in the country and the region lack several skills needed to maintain and grow a business. 

We aim to gather several tools to help entrepreneurs no matter the sector, stage or social condition with an affordable and reachable offer.

Nova is a Global Platform for startups where we will connect entrepreneurs with several kinds of providers such as mentors, consultants, investors, allies, universities and more.

We want to create a "market place" like platform where any provider can upload content (free or payed) to reach entrepreneurs worldwide. At the same time, entrepreneurs will find these offers and wil be able to pick among several requests to find the most suitable for them.

Also, we will be collecting real entrepreneurial data to support the public sector to find and reach those entrepreneurs that fit and require their calls on programs, management decision making and provide updated and real market data.

We want to impact entrepreneurs worldwide by proving a network that includes people, tools and organizations that are interested in helping SME's and Startups grow.

Since most entrepreneurs do not have the resources to apply to paid programs we want to offer high quality content with an affordable price that suits the need of the project, no matter the stage, sector or conditions of the entrepreneur.

Our goal is to democratize entrepreneurship, making it accesible as a viable choice for everyone, granting easy access, afordable resources and a great variety of quality content that strenghtens the economy through our SME's and Startups.

We want to connect the existing offer that is currently being limited by physical barriers. Many organizations that support entrepreneurs offer their programs in a specific city or region, making it harder for entrepreneurs in distant places to access this resources. We are focused on creating a platform that can connect the offer with those entrepreneurs in need that cannot afford or access opportunities due to several conditions in the country and the region.

We want to use technology to bring resources closer to entrepreneurs in need at the same time that we boost the capabilities of the ecosystem, by bringing a wider offer of knowledge, funds and actors to play in several countries with a single clic.

We want to create a real community that supports entrepreneurs and SME's worldwide with an accessible offer that can fulfill any project needs by transforming competitors into friends with a common goal.

We apply IA to selection processes with entrepreneurs to guide them and provide an extensive amount of content and tools that they may need for their project. Our technology will help us fin the better fit for unique startups at the same time that is creating a virtual library for books, experts, and data that is accesible through the web.

The platform will be able to make suggestions according to the project development and identified needs that might appear along the road.

On the other hand, organizations that are searching for a special asset will be able to log in the platform and create their own challenges, find providers, allies or even invest in projects, creating a mature entrepreneurial ecosystem that interacts not only in the region but in the world.

We have seen this technology work on several social media sites and networks, such as Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin and on other sites that have their own marketplace. 

As it works, it simply feeds on users data to undesrtand behavioral patterns and the information submitted to provide analysis and results that gives and understanding of our users.

We want to use the existing technologies no support our process and reach entrepreneurs.

By creating an open access platform through the web we believe we can reach remote populations that usually do not have access to the resources the main city have. By widening the offer we allow entrepreneurship organizations to get in touch with this populations and increase their impact.

At the same tame, the platform will help us reduce costs associated with their programs making them more affordable and help small projects grow and boost the region economy.

The first step is to gather several free tools to be distributed through the site and transform it into an appealing portal for both entrepreneurs and experts that want to have show their work and boost their operations. 

The second step is to enable the market place, where the organizations will be able to offer their services to a unexploited segment.

Finally, with the data collected, we will be promote specialized programs to those individuals and project that fit the requirements making the announcements more effective and making the selection phases easier for operators. The data will also be used for market research on universities, NGO's, Government agencies and more.

None. We are currently creating our prototype. The platform is not functional yet but we are close to launching our first MVP.

On our first year, we aim to finish the platform and pivot our model to fit the Colombian Market. We want to have at least 25 different allies to offer their services through our platform and have 5000 Users. On the following years we will be focusing on optimization of the technology and UX, along with a growth on free and paid content on any format (Videos, e-books, courses, consultancy services, etc.).

By the start of year 3 we will be starting our growth strategy to penetrate international markets and seek allies there that will be executed on the next years, reaching more than 50K users, between people, SMEs, government, NGOs, between others.

The main barrier is the internet access in the country. Most remote populations in Colombia have below average connectivity, making it harder to reach them. Colombian government is currently developing several plans to increase the access for this communities in the following years.

Another obstacle is the competence behavior in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since there are so many actors involved we will have to create an offer for them that is not perceived as a competence for their services but as an ally with the purpose of connecting the whole sector and support SME's and Startups all over the world. 

With the growing tendencies in data consumption in the region, we believe there is a spam of time lesser than 5 years to reach most of the population.

On the other hand, since the nature of our business, we will be able to reach international markets and increase our impact. We plan to support national agencies and governments by putting our platform to support their operation in many aspects. By getting close to these entities, we will be able to contribute to the desing of public politics in favor of entrepreneurs.

Right now, we have 2 members working full time on the solution and another 2 additional members working part time.

Our founders have been working on the entrepreneurial sector for more than 5 years and have collected experience on different topics regarding the startup and companies needs. 

We have the knowledge and the allies to support our growth plan.

Augusto Moreno, CEO: Industrial and Mechanical Engineer with MSc. in Mechanical Engineering and Operations Management from the Université de Technologie of Compiègne. Certified in Lean - Six Sigma Green Belt. With studies in Social Entrepreneurship from the Copenhagen Business School. Has worked in Consulting, Logistics and Transport, Supply Chain, Education and Entrepreneurship in America, Europe and Africa. Member of Global Shapers, the youth community ofthe World Economic Forum. Colombian delegate of the One Young World, the biggest global forum for young leaders. Associate Professor at CESA University.

Andrés Marcucci, COO:  BA from the Los Andes University in Colombia. Has been a mentor and consultant in entrepreneurship, innovation and development of new businesses. Worked as Analyst in Corp. Ventures in the area of consolidation and acceleration, working on fields like corporative entrepreneurship, business development among regions and digital entrepreneurship. Led and managed initiatives about innovation, social and business entrepreneurs, training of both mentors and entrepreneurs at national and international level in topics as business models and strategic planning. Participated and managed programs with entities that support entrepreneurs in Colombia such as Apps.co, Bancolombia Fundation’s In-Pactamos, and Innpulsa Colombia’s Aldea. Also, Andrés was the innovation Director at Incube Global, developing programs for entrepreneurs and was in charge of the team of mentors.

Currently, we maintain relations with many top organizations such as universities, entrepreneurial entities, consultants, companies and Startups gathered during our time as professionals.

Our Business model is based on collaborative economy. 

The platform will help companies to get in touch with their clients and Nova will charge a small fee per transaction. Also, Nova will offer it's own services for entrepreneurs, companies that requier training in innovation and government programs.

Our main challenge will be the Nova Platform that will be a showcase and will gather data for further expansion.

The model will be focused on four segments: Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial services providers, government and companies.

We have developed Nova's own B2C offer that includes virtual and personal programs (for individuals and groups), which are based on consultancy services, along with the platform offer.

Our B2B segment will be based on programs such as Co-creation of solution, open innovation challenges and training sessions. Also, we will participate and operate government programs with our team. 

Financial sustainability will be achieved through both of our offers. The platform, once is launched, will help us find customers for our own programs as well as let us have an income from the services sold while the sales team can focus on B2B offers.

We want to find investment capital to increase the speed our process and be able to reach our goals on a shorter term.

We are looking to find many more allies to support our platform. 

The networking offered by the program has a huge impact on our project and could help us improve our model faster with the mentorship and strategic advice from Solve and MIT networks.

In addition to this, the prize is attractive for our operations and could shorten our launching date.

For our model to work, we need to upgrade our platform and services to be accepted in international markets. This also requires better marketing and media exposure, along with legal or regulatory matters needed to operate on countries with different regulations.

We seek to partner with any person or organization that wants to support entrepreneurs, no matter the size, sector or conditions. 

We want to create the biggest international community for the entrepreneurial exosystem.

Our solution seeks to help entrepreneurs on any stage, sector or population to transform their projects into real enterprises with economic, social and environmental impact. 

Also, we want to educate and train our entrepreneurs in several aspects that could potentiate their success rates as a new business or even access well-paying jobs