Embassy of the United States Lisbon, Portugal

In our ongoing efforts to engage the Portuguese entrepreneurs, academic and business communities, the Embassy has partnered with NOVA Entrepreneurship Society (NES) to develop a project that is built on three major concepts:

Learn: the Embassy and NES will conduct five, one-hour, monthly workshops via digital videoconference (DVC) and livestreamed with top-level American speakers who all have an expertise in entrepreneurship and innovation and who will share their experience/knowledge and demonstrate best practices. An integral part of these events will be the networking sessions for entrepreneurs, business representatives and institutions that support innovation.

Start: In addition to the DVC sessions, students and entrepreneurs will put into practice what they have learned from the experts, in order to develop/improve their own business ideas/plans. The project will include a series of hands on workshops with an entrepreneur/venture capitalist traveling from the U.S. to assist students with their entrepreneurial projects.

Accelerate: The Embassy and NES will organize a final event/competition for ideas, projects and startups from all across Portugal, including the Azores. The entries will consist of a business pitch to a group of experts, who will judge the idea based on its originality, business plan viability, and other key factors. The two qualified competition winners will then be eligible for $12,500 in seed money and a trip to the U.S. which will be tailored to fit their business interests and needs.

The third session of StartMeUp - powered by U.S. Embassy Portugal will take place on February 26 at Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa:

• Session A:
  3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.: Video-conference with Catherine Havasi on the topic of University Spin-offs.
• Session B:
  4:15 – 5:00: Public presentation of the project StartMeUp - Powered by U.S. Embassy Portugal.

Catherine Havasi co-founded and runs Luminoso, a text analytics and understanding company. She is also a researcher in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics at the MIT Media Lab where she runs the Digital Intuition group. Eleven years ago, she co-founded the Open Mind Common Sense project, which uses crowdsourced information about the world to understand natural language text and make computers easier to use. Dr. Havasi also co-founded Learning Unlimited, a non-profit organization that supports college students sparking a passion in middle and high school students by teaching them about everything and anything.

Great initiatives rise from joint commitment and ideas of entrepreneurial minds. NOVA Entrepreneurship Society and the U.S. Embassy Portugal understand that your participation in this event will ensure we are on the right track.

For more information please visit http://www.facebook.com/NOVAEntrepreneurshipSociety