Co-working in Florianópolis
It has been a month since I arrived in this beautiful country, and I feel quite at home now. I am slowly getting better at Portuguese and can string along some basic sentences and communicate a bit. As I tell people, I understand more than I can speak. Often, if I am in a conversation now, I have a general idea of what is being discussed.
Although, I am multi-lingual, this is the first time I have had to learn a new language as an adult. And I am realizing that learning words is easy (for me), however, I do struggle with finding the right prepositions, tenses and verbs to bring all the words together into a sentence. So individually, I know all the words to say, for example, “this is my bag” however, when I try to bring them together in a sentence, my construction sounds like a cacophony instead of a melody. But, the optimist in me believes that cacophony is the first step towards a melody.
Co-working in Florianópolis
Florianópolis is the Tech hub of Brasil and the second most entrepreneurial city in the country. Given this, co-working spaces abound on the island and mainland of Floripa. I have had a chance to visit and work at a few spaces during my visit so far, that I will discuss here.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Laboratory at UNISUL (iLAB)
iLAB was founded in 2016 by Geraldo Campos along with a few other faculty member at UNISUL with the vision to create an environment of collaboration and support for students and community who wanted to pursue entrepreneurship. iLAB is supported by UNISUL and much like the Think[box] model at Case Western Reserve University, this facility welcomes university members as well as the community at large. iLAB offers one-on-one mentoring sessions to entrepreneurs, offers talks on how to build, grow and scale your business and fosters an environment of entrepreneurship in the community.
During my time at UNISUL, I am serving as a mentor at iLAB, where I meet with entrepreneurs one-on-one to help them with their business. Most of the startups in Floripa fall under one of two categories — Tech or Service. This is a little different from the US, where product-based endeavors that can exhibit the “hockey stick” scale are considered under the entrepreneurship umbrella, and service business are often in the consulting realm.
Impact Hub
Impact Hub is a global co-working space with a presence is 50+ countries. In Floripa, Impact Hub has four locations and I have had the opportunity to work at two locations. The first Impact Hub of Floripa is located in the ACATE (Associação Catarinense de Tecnologia) building. In addition to co-working, Impact Hub hosts regular events to promote knowledge exchange as well as networking. Impact Hub also has an annual festival which is scheduled to be in November this year, at which I will be hosted as a speaker. We are also discussing ways in which I can engage with and support their entrepreneurs.
ACATE
Founded in 1986, Associação Catarinense de Tecnologia (ACATE) is the Technology Association of Santa Catarina. It is the umbrella association for Technology Entrepreneurship hubs and co-working spaces in Santa Catarina. In addition to co-working, ACATE also has the MIDITEC incubator, LinkLab which connects large corporations with startups and Investments services which connects investors to entrepreneurs.
NexxLabs
Started by Groupo Nexxera, NexxLabs was the first co-working space that I encountered in Floripa. NexxLabs was founded with the vision to support entrepreneurs whose technologies can be eventually exited to Groupo Nexxera, which is loosely similar to Johnson and Johnson’s JLabs model. I have had the opportunity to engage in one-on-one mentoring with some of the startups at NexxLabs as well as participate in group mentoring sessions which include an in-depth talk on a given topic.
Phrase of the day
Caldo De Cana which means sugarcane juice.
Growing up in Mumbai, sugarcane juice was a delicacy that I consumed with abandon. You encounter juice vendors (sugarcane, lemon or orange) in Mumbai, like Starbucks in Washington DC. Given the heat and humidity in Bombay, often, a glass of freshly pressed, cold, sugarcane juice with a splash of lime served to quench my thirst and dehydration. It is one of my favorite drinks that I really miss in the US. Imagine my excitement when I encountered my first Caldo de Cana vendor in Brasil. Needless to say, I never pass an opportunity to grab a glass when I see one.
Profile of the week
Professora Carolina Rubin, PhD
Carol was one of the first people I met in Floripa. An amazing bundle of energy, joy and kisses, she greets me with unbridled enthusiasm every time we meet. She also often addresses me as Fofa, which means Cute in Portuguese.
With a PhD in Language Communication, Carol has been a professor at UNISUL for the last 11 years where she teaches Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation and Communication. She has served as a mentor at iLAB for the last couple of years, and starting April of this year she officially accepted the position of coordinator of iLAB. I have had the pleasure of teaching Design Thinking in her Creativity and Innovation class. Students in this class work with existing companies to develop solutions that will help the business grow.
Carol is very passionate about supporting her students and entrepreneurs. This passion shows in her teaching as well as her management of iLAB.
She has a two-year-old son who is her pride and joy.
It has been such a pleasure meeting and knowing Carol and I look forward to working with her during the rest of stay here.
