Another superb edition of Alumni E.Stories took place this Tuesday, 19th November, with a lot of willingness to share knowledge and ideas, a keen desire to listen and an ability to innovate – which some participants already have and others want to explore. Paulo Dimas, vice president of Product Innovation at Unbabel and João Fonseca, CEO at biosurfit, were the invited alumni.
Paulo Dimas, Técnico alumnus and vice president of Product Innovation at Unbabel, co-founded 2 technology startups and has never been afraid of taking risks, but rather, on the contrary, he considers that “failure is essential to success”.
João Fonseca is the brains behind Biosurfit, a startup developed the spinit technology, the first and only, diagnostics system capable of performing the major PoC blood test modalities. The Técnico alumnus highlighted “teams are extremely important in the creation process of a company, they are the key to success. Startups need a team, not just one person”.
The startups funding, the process of creation and growth of a startup and the technical difficulties were some of the challenges faced by these Técnico alumni. “Sometimes, when we overcome a challenge we almost forget to celebrate because another one is coming our way”, stressed the founder of biosurfit. “Don’t fear failure, they are part of our lives and we can learn a lot from them”, said Paulo Dimas.
Briefly, the alumni advised young people not to be afraid to move forward if there is the will and the idea to do so. “The important thing is to keep working, to fight for our idea and to give our best in everything. It’s okay to fail”, said João Fonseca. Paulo Dimas added “choosing not to take risks means not to be an entrepreneur”.
A the end, there was time to network and exchange of advice between the participants and the two alumni. The student groups presented their projects developed in the entrepreneurship curricular units. Some of these projects will compete in the 2nd edition of E. Awards@Técnico, whose deadline to apply is 25th November. The twelve teams selected will present a pitch before a jury.
