Global Entrepreneurship Week strikes Mexico

By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la

As many of you know, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) was from the 12th to the 18th of November and every year it is celebrated around the world with activities aiming to foster the entrepreneurship culture. Mexico wasn’t the exception, and this year there were several activities happening around the country.

Startup Weekend, in particular, has been very popular this year. With the opening of its regional offices, this event has sprung like wildfire as an answer for many youngsters seeking to be part of the startup culture. The weekend before GEW started, seven events took place. This is the first time that so many happen at the same time! Then, from the 16th to the 18th, four more events took place, leading eleven start-ups to the Global Startup Battle, a contest that aims to give exposure to the winning projects of the Startup Weekend events during the GEW.

Founder Friday, another important event in the country, celebrated its fifth event in Mexico City at the Google Mexico offices and was hosted by Shaherose Charania, founder of Women 2.0. This event has managed to reach a community of female founders that were seeking for a space to share ideas and find inspiration, and so far it has connected more than 500 women and men since it first started in July.

Vivek Wadhwa was in Mexico again, as part of the GEW activities in the National Polytechnic Institute. On his Washington Post column, he shared his experience after discovering some of the projects presented by the students, “There is no reason a Steve Jobs can’t be born in Mexico…”, an amazing statement that reflects the entrepreneurial spirit that is burgeoning in the country.

Of course many other activities took place: hackathons, app contests, conferences and more, led by Universities and organizations such as Endeavor, Kauffman Foundation, Microsoft and Entrepreneur Magazine.

The amazing thing about this is that at the same time, all over the world, people are looking towards technological entrepreneurship as the real path to take in order to solve their countries problems, especially for generating wealth and job opportunities. Young people prefer to create their own companies rather than work for the government or for big corporations. This generational shift will put the whole innovative, investment and talent engine in motion within the next few years, not only for some countries, but for whomever decides to take the risks involved. After all, that is one of the most powerful elements of technology, democratizing resources.

Emprende.la focuses on entrepreneurial innovation in Mexico.