Depois de 20 horas de viagem, já estamos em Berkeley, Calofornia, onde daqui a 1h terá início o Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Hoje teremos um almoço de abertura, algumas palestras e, o mais importante, a oportundidade de praticar nossa apresentação com alunos do programa de MBA (New Venture Fellows) da Universidade da California.

Amanhã teremos as semifinais, em que 8 equipes, das 19 até então, serão as escolhidas. Os concorrentes que caíram na nossa chave são:

• Gravitonus GP (Russia): 253.000 people live in the US with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), as of June 2006. There is no cure for SCI. Suicide is the 3rd most common reason of death. Total US societal cost exceeds $150 Bln annually, average lifetime cost - $2,9M GRAViTONUS Company was founded by two experienced medical doctors, dedicated to bringing the next wave of accessiility solutions for 700.000 handicapped people to world market. With a big contribution from Intel Corp. we developed an Alternative Computer Control System (ACCS) technology. It turns a totally motionless person into an active individual, who can efficiently control computers, “Intel Digital Home” household equipment and motorized wheelchair take an active part in the life of a family and use unlimited WWW opportunities.
• IVIZ (India): iViZ is a network Security company which has built a technology to emulate intelligent human hackers so that we can find out all possible threat in a network and also its corresponding remedies. The technology can find out attack vectors which are missed out by conventional vulnerability assessment/penetration testing tools.
• Kindisoft (Oriente Médio): Kindisoft introduces a unique and powerful Adobe Flash reverse-engineering protection solution, secureSWF. The product aims to protect the intellectual property of more than 2 million flash developers suffering from code theft since 1998. With the revolutionary Adobe Flash upgrade (Flash v9, scheduled in mid 2007) an enormous increase in the need for our protection solution is predicted.
• Watel Solutions (EUA): In a world where clean, drinkable water is becoming a scarce resource, Watel Solutions has developed a unit that produces potable water by condensing humidity from the air. The unit's comparative benefit lies in its efficiency in producing high amounts of water per kilowatt, allowing it to be powered by solar energy. The Company's business strategy is to tap into virgin markets of the world, primarily Africa, where Watel Solutions is providing a cost-effective solution to the problem of quality and scarcity of drinkable water.

Como é possível observar, o nível dos projetos está altíssimo! Vamos competir com projetos de médicos que provêm soluções para quem sofre de lesões na medula espinhal, assim como com uma equipe que propõe produzir água através da umidade.

Dessa chave, dois se classificam. Vamos ver então até onde vai o fôlego do TravelReach!

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-- AFurtado