Being a solo entrepreneur in a growing world global, specialized and technologically advanced is extremely difficult. For this reason, support and accompaniment programs for the entrepreneur are increasingly necessary. In Spain, there are many public programs to support business creation, but it lacks networks and platforms where entrepreneurs help each other. The entrepreneur wants to talk to people like him.
The entrepreneur can feel in Spain, as Entrepreneur Solo, “like a snowboarder in Jamaica.” Entrepreneurs complain: there is little innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, great aversion to failure and a kind of legitimization of the civil servant life model as the highest aspiration of the sane citizen. All these aspects make the entrepreneur, or entrepreneur, feel alone, and even a little crazy, in the business adventure.
Things seem to change, little by little, however, and enterprise acceleration programs are becoming more common. The entrepreneur is no longer alone and has access to networks in which others like him help him. Business acceleration programs, which were born in the United States in the 1980s, are programs normally run by entrepreneurship gurus -people with a proven track record in creating start-ups- and support new entrepreneurs to overcome the journey of desert to profitability. To achieve this, they use different techniques: training, coaching, networking, support for capitalization…; practical approaches to creating innovative businesses. It is a form of accompaniment that is a little closer to the entrepreneur than that of the Business Angel.
Some well-known examples of these “acceleration programs” in Spain are SeedRocket, Tetuan Valley Startup School, Start-up Weekend and DAD. The list is really long if we look for other initiatives in the world, being Y Combinator from Silicon Valley one of the pioneers. Most of these programs are focused on the creation of ICT companies, perhaps because of the immense potential for business creation that it presents.
At the same time, some essentially training programs of the type MBA, MSc, focused on entrepreneurship. In this case, the question arises as to whether it is possible to teach entrepreneurship from a classroom. Can you teach skiing or riding a bike from a classroom? To learn, you have to venture to get on the bike and start walking, give yourself a few smacks and start little by little to maintain your balance alone…
In any case, in recent years we are witnessing a proliferation of support tools for the “innovative entrepreneur” in Spain. Are you thinking of creating an innovative company? You are no longer alone.
(Image by woodleywonderworks Creative Commons via Flickr)