eNTRY 2
Latin America catches entrepreneurship fever
The rate of entrepreneurs are begins to increase in south America!
Article by: BBC.CO.UK
CHAPTER 4: THE ENTREPRENEUR
For generations, the countries of Latin America have relied on the export of raw materials for their wealth.
From Venezuela's oil, to copper from Chile, Argentinean soybeans, bananas from Ecuador, Mexican silver, and timber from Brazil - the vast region is blessed with a fabulous array of commodities the world wants and needs. But Latin America has been less good at exporting ideas. When it comes to entrepreneurship and innovation, the region has a poor record. While the countries of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) spend an average of 2.4% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development, in Chile and Mexico - the only two Latin American members of the club - the figure is 0.4%. In other countries of the region it's even less. Latin Americans just don't invent much. The region is home to 8% of the global population and yet, in 2010, just 2.6% of the world's applications for patent registration were filed from here.
Changing culture
But this is all starting to change. "Until recently, entrepreneurship in Peru was a question of survival," says Gary Urteaga, a Peruvian entrepreneur. "People started their own businesses because they couldn't get a job. They'd sell sandwiches in the streets and wash cars. "But now, for the first time, people are choosing to be entrepreneurs." Mr Urteaga is the co-founder of Cinepapaya.com, an online platform that allows people to buy cinema tickets from their smartphones and tablets. "We started about two years ago with the financing of an innovation fund of the government of Peru. "We didn't know what the word 'start-up' was two years ago. I didn't know anything about it." And Mr Urteaga is not alone. Across the region, Latin Americans are starting to get to grips with concepts that have been commonplace in Silicon Valley for years. In Colombia, a medical start-up called Keraderm has won state funding to develop a new technology for skin grafts. When a patient is brought in to hospital with serious burns or wounds, Keraderm takes a tiny sample of their skin, grows it in a laboratory and within five days produces several sheets of collagen implanted with the patient's cells. The sheets are used to treat the injury and because they are made from the patient's own skin, the risk of immunological rejection is low. "Looking at a country like Colombia, which had several problems in terms of violence and security and all that, we have changed a lot in the past 10 years," says Jorge Soto, Keraderm's chief executive. "Now, developed countries are going to have to start looking at us as a source of new ideas and new companies."
3
Tough Lesson
In Brazil, Danilo Leao learned about entrepreneurship the hard way. He was brought up on a ranch and at the age of 15 made the mistake of selling pregnant cows at market. His father explained to him that he had effectively sold a cow and a calf for the price of each cow.