Thales Lab: Entrepreneur Meets Intrepreneur

“The Macintosh team was what is commonly known as intrepreneurship… a group of people going, in essence back to the garage, but in a large company,” states Steve Jobs, Former CEO of Apple in a 1985 Newsweek article. An intrepreneur is an employee that innovates within the confines of a company. The term intrepreneur isn’t new, but the power intrepreneurs can have in a corporation is something few recognize.

“Our niche is the intrepreneur,” says Sylvia Chebi, Director of Thales Lab – a Montevideo based company builder that supports technical startups by entrepreneurs and intrepreneurs. “We believe that by promoting intrepreneurs and their ideas within companies, it benefits both the organization and the intrepreneur. The organization has the ability to capitalize on an amazing new piece of innovation while keeping a talented engineer, and the intrepreneur gains access to resources and finances by the organization. It’s a win-win.”

One of Thale’s amazing intrepreneurial start-ups that is gaining recognition is Futbol X – a football (that’s soccer for us Americans) app with over 750,000+ downloads. By using Futbol X, soccer fanatics can watch live games and receive real time stats and updates on their favorite teams. “It’s the official soccer association app in Uruguay and Mexico.” Explains Sylvia. “They launched in February. The app is so awesome that Apple even called and requested that one be made available for the Apple Watch.”

Thales Lab offers $10,000 USD in exchange for 10% equity from intrepreneurs and entrepreneurs that join their program. But, “Even if we didn’t provide money, I believe our start ups would join regardless. The amazing thing about being part of Thales Lab is the connections and support we offer."

da Vinci Labs: "Dreamers of the day are dangerous men"

“Our challenge is to turn local dreams into worldwide dreams and worldwide impacts. That is our main challenge. We empower Uruguayan companies to think globally,” Sergio Delgado exclaims when speaking about da Vinci Labs. Sergio is the co-founder and managing director for da Vinci Foundation and Director of da Vinci Labs, one of the up and coming incubators in Uruguay. “The world is our market” says Sergio, who pushes entrepreneurs to think and bet globally.

da Vinci Foundation began in 2008 to create a networking space of equality and to empower startups. It has since become a startup incubator with a focus on helping young companies develop their differential value and think globally. “People come to us with tons of ideas; we help turn those ideas into actions and to ultimately create value,” says Sergio. “Our mentors and advisors know when and how to look for money for our entrepreneurs.”

da Vinci editors division recently edited and published a book called Founders.UY, which contains stories featuring twelve young entrepreneurs in the internet space. From this book, da Vinci hopes to tell their audience of the innovations these entrepreneurs have created and the positive ecosystem they have established for Uruguay. A free preview is available from www.Founders.UY

In the prologue of the book, CEO of Collokia and previous board member of Endeavor Uruguay, Pablo Brenner, discusses the vast improvements Uruguay has seen in its entrepreneurial movement. He points out the effect one entrepreneur can have on another in the community, which leads to exponential growth. “Knowing that this new generation of entrepreneurs has adopted this pay it forward philosophy is the best indicator of a bright future,” says Pablo.

da Vinci uses a quote by Thomas Edward Lawrence, the renowned British archaeologist, diplomat and military officer, to describe the passion of these twelve entrepreneurs and the many others found in Uruguay:

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream at night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”