The activity, carried out in conjunction with Këtrawa and the Volcanes program, with the support of Corfo Los Lagos and the UC Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center, generated a space for direct connection and trust between regional talent and sector specialists.
The offices of SalmonChile were the setting for a meeting between entrepreneurs from the Volcanes program and members of the Salmon Mentors Network, aimed at creating links, sharing experiences and bringing new solutions to the productive and sustainable challenges of the industry.
The event took place in a relaxed, close and collaborative atmosphere, favoring direct conversation between those driving new ventures and experienced professionals in the operation, needs and challenges of the aquaculture industry.
The initiative is part of the coordinated work between SalmonChile, Këtrawa and the UC Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center, with the support of Corfo Los Lagos, and aims to strengthen the capabilities of the ventures in the Los Lagos Region, facilitating their connection with relevant productive sectors.
Representing Corfo Los Lagos, the regional deputy director, David Espinoza, attended this networking event between entrepreneurs and the Salmon Mentors Network.
Regarding this, the manager of Studies and Projects at SalmonChile, Marcela Bravo, highlighted the importance of promoting local entrepreneurship. "We have made our house available so that entrepreneurs and innovators can connect with the Salmon Mentors Network and provide that experience the industry has to develop the enterprises that the Los Lagos Region needs," she said.
In turn, the representative of Këtrawa, María José Urrutia, emphasized the value of these connection spaces. "The most important thing for innovation is to generate trust, and today we are here, in the SalmonChile office, with the Mentor Network and our entrepreneurs, talking and building that trust so that the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem - driven by SalmonChile, Këtrawa, Corfo and the UC Anacleto Innovation Centre - can grow" Angelini - achieve what we all want: position this region as one of the most innovative in the country," he said.
The value of sector experience
One of the main attributes of the Salmon Mentors Network is its specialization and knowledge of the industry. In addition to providing guidance on business models and business development, its members offer a technical and sectoral perspective that allows entrepreneurs to compare their proposals with concrete needs of salmon farming, validate solutions and receive feedback from the user experience and potential customers.
The regional director of Corfo Los Lagos, Víctor Sánchez Redlich, highlighted that this type of meeting is part of the work that is being sought to promote through Këtrawa and the Viraliza Potencia programme.
From Corfo Los Lagos we have supported the work of Këtrawa within the framework of Viraliza Potencia, because strengthening regional entrepreneurship also means connecting new solutions with the experience and concrete needs of our main industries. In this sense, we particularly value that SalmonChile and its Mentor Network make their sectoral knowledge available to entrepreneurs, generating a link that gives them "allows to validate their proposals, strengthen their business models and project solutions with higher chances of impact," said Victor Sánchez Redlich.
The view of entrepreneurs
For regional entrepreneurs, directly accessing professionals with experience in the industry represents an opportunity to strengthen their business models, validate hypotheses and better understand the challenges faced by companies in the sector.
The founder of the sustainable processing venture (LODOX), Daniel Pavez, pointed out that the main strength of the program lies precisely in the specialized knowledge of the mentors.
There are very good mentoring programs, with specialists in areas such as finance, strategy or business development. But the differentiating value we find here is that the mentors know and have directly participated in the industry, so they can even take on the role of a potential client. This allows for much deeper and more concrete conversations about what the industry really needs and what the factors are They can make a solution or a business successful. That knowledge and that closeness to the sector are very hard to find elsewhere," he pointed out.
In the same line, the founder of Boskov AI, Fernando Beck, valued the knowledge gained during the event.
We are very grateful to Volcanes and SalmonChile for the opportunity to get close to the industry, meet people and learn from the experience of those who have already taken this path. For us, as entrepreneurs, it is very valuable to understand first-hand the needs and challenges of an activity so relevant to the Los Lagos Region, to also learn from the mistakes and understand that resilience is a fundamental part of this process. Having the experience and knowledge of the industry allows us to develop better solutions and project how we can contribute from our ventures," he stated.
