Brazil's Technology Entrepreneurs

Posted by: Mark Marich on April 14, 2010 Source: Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship

The Christian Science Monitor has lately been reporting on Brazil’s emerging focus on entrepreneurship. Its recent article “Big-business Brazil taps into its young entrepreneurs,” highlights the work of a business incubator in Rio de Janeiro.

The Genesis Institute has helped young entrepreneurs commercialize technologies like operational software for bus companies, new equipment for maintaining oil and gas pipelines, and robotics to measure environmental damage associated with petroleum exploration. “In doing so, the Genesis Institute is helping to grow a new class of technological entrepreneurs in Brazil,” explains the reporter, Sara Llana. She predicts that as a result of pro-entrepreneurship and innovation efforts, “Brazil is, in many ways, poised to transform.” She reports on first hand testimonies:

Mr. Averbug says Brazil's culture of entrepreneurism is changing. "Friends who are graduating from universities today don't just think of getting a job at a big company, they think about opening their own business," he says. "A few years ago, Brazil was seen as a commodity country. I think Brazil now is being looked at as a good country [in which] to do business."

Brazil seems to understand the benefits of entrepreneurship: “The idea is not to just create new products, but new jobs. Each job generated by a new company, Costa says, can generate 10 indirect ones. The Genesis Institute alone has graduated 47 companies that have created 887 jobs.”

For more on business incubators and development, read the CSM article, following this link.

The staff at Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship has been monitoring the state of entrepreneurship in Brazil. Be in the lookout next month for an article on Brazil’s efforts to transform its economy from one that is focused on big-business to a more entrepreneurial one.