Guayacán Venture Accelerator opens call for hybrid edition
Companies dedicated to offering or selling any type of service or product in Puerto Rico will be able to participate in the new edition of the Guayacán Venture Accelerator (GVA), a development and training program for management teams of established companies with accelerated growth prospects.
This year, for the first time, the program will follow a hybrid format, combining in-person sessions with virtual workshops. In doing so, Grupo Guayacán seeks to maximize the time, technology, and resources offered to the participants and resume individual interactions with entrepreneurs to ensure that the peculiarities of each type of company are addressed, the nonprofit said.
The program will run from May 5th to Nov. 17, 2022. Guayacán expects to select up to 12 companies for the program, which is focused on offering tools to propel their business growth plans. Interested companies will have until April 1, 2022, to complete the application, which is available here.
“Back when no one was using words like ‘entrepreneurship’ or ‘exponential growth,’ Grupo Guayacán filled that void in Puerto Rico’s entrepreneurial development. However, it wasn’t until we personally experienced the GVA program that we realized the transformative impact the organization has had on multiple companies, including ours,” said program alumni Ricardo Álvarez-Díaz, of architecture firm Álvarez-Díaz & Villalón.
Grupo Guayacán will offer information sessions for companies and nonprofit organizations interested in applying, where they can learn more about the program and get a preview of the content offered by guest instructors in their workshops:
- On March 11th, instructor Inés Soler will present: Managing by Numbers — Understanding Your Financial Past so You Can Plan for Your Future.
- On March 18th, instructor Robert ‘Bob’ Dávila will present: Accelerating Disruptive Growth with Innovation & Creativity.
- On March 25th, instructor Elaine Eisenman will present: Are Your Company’s Values and Culture Aligned to Thrive in the New Normal?
To register, interested companies should contact GVA Program Manager Natalia Arias at [email protected].
The GVA offers a Pay-it-Forward fellowship founded by Fuller Group in 2014, which covers a portion of the program enrollment cost for eligible businesses. In addition, the program offers scholarships sponsored by corporate partners of Guayacán.
This year, Popular will award scholarships to its clients and a nonprofit, as it did in the 2021 edition. MCS Foundation will award a scholarship to a company in the health sector.
The GVA is also supported by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC, in Spanish).
“Promoting and strengthening Puerto Rico’s competitiveness is vital for our island’s transformation and local entrepreneurial growth,” said DDEC Secretary Manuel Cidre.
“So, it’s crucial that the necessary tools and resources, such as GVA, are made available to businesses, so they can identify their strengths and challenges when facing new commercial opportunities. The world is our market and being ready for what this entails is our challenge. I encourage every business that wants to accelerate their growth to take this opportunity offered by Grupo Guayacán,” he said.
