Grupo Guayacán awards 3 business ideas focused on sustainability and resilience
Grupo Guayacán, sponsors of the I-Corps Puerto Rico entrepreneurial bootcamp, announced the three winners of its 11th cohort, which drew 22 participating teams.
Seed capital prizes totaling $8,500 were awarded with the support of the Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico (MUPR) fund at the Boston Foundation.
The team from Mujerona was awarded the first prize of $5,000 to develop an accessory line made with recyclable materials that also empowers women to recognize their own strength and abilities.
VITAL, an e-commerce platform that offers quality everyday items to minimize the use of plastic and contribute to Puerto Rico’s economy, won the second prize of $2,500.
AssetShelf, a team seeking to develop a marketplace to connect property flippers with contractors looking for solutions to their building materials surplus, was selected as winner of the third prize of $1,000.
The winners will use the seed funding to formalize their business model and accelerate the commercialization of their idea, I-Corps officials said.
I-Corps Puerto Rico is a program that supports students, professors, researchers, and entrepreneurs seeking to validate a business idea to create a scalable business model. The eleventh cohort focused on ideas based on the concepts of sustainability and resilience.
“I-Corps PR helps participants identify if there is a market willing to acquire their product or service. Participants identify their target market through the customer discovery process and start developing a business model to commercialize their idea,” said Laura Cantero, executive director of Grupo Guayacán.
“Thanks to the MUPR fund, we were able to conduct a unique cohort of I-Corps PR focused on sustainability and resilience, critical areas for Puerto Rico’s future,” she said.
Keith McGreggor, I-Corps South Lead Instructor and professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, led the business education workshops with the support of five local instructors comprised of entrepreneurs, professionals, and service providers that have completed the I-Corps PR training, Guayacán officials said.
The next I-Corps PR cohort will take place in Spring 2021.
