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After four days in Pittsburg for the immersion period of the 2014 edition of the inRes Program, the Addvolt – WeTruck team already has an award in its portfolio. They won the 60-second Elevator Pitch competition in a Techstars/Sprint Accelerator presentation session at Carnegie Mellon University, an event the team was not even scheduled to participate in. The motivation for the upcoming events is now greater than ever. Working in an entrepreneurial environment with startups at Project Olympus, Ricardo Soares and Bruno Azevedo hope to be “better-prepared professionals and entrepreneurs” by the end of this experience. “One of the most important aspects is the direct access to contacts of transport companies and companies in the energy sector that can help us to better understand the needs and problems of this market in order to develop the company’s strategy for the future,” they stress. |
CMU Portugal: What were the most important moments this week, and why?
Ricardo Soares and Bruno Azevedo [RS and BA]: One of the most defining moments of this week was the Techstars Elevator Pitch competition. Gonçalo raised his hand and said that four Portuguese teams would be interested in jumping in and pitching as well. Then pitching our project without even knowing that we would be eligible to win, and afterwards actually winning, was without any doubt, a defining moment. LaunchCMU was another very interesting event since we had the opportunity to talk about the project with different people, receive important feedback, and make contacts. This represents a small demonstration of what we expect to be the next weeks here in the USA.
| CMU Portugal: How do you describe your office at Project Olympus?RS and BA: Project Olympus is a space located very close to the CMU campus where we have conditions to work in an entrepreneurial environment shared with other startups which will allow us to share experiences and visions about our project while working there. |  |
CMU Portugal: In what sense do you feel that this immersion is important for you, as professionals, and for your project?
RS and BA: The workshops and seminars we are going to participate in during the immersion, as well as the network we are accessing, will certainly add to our skills and knowledge, making us better-prepared professionals and entrepreneurs. One of the most important aspects is the direct access to contacts of transport companies and companies in the energy sector that can help us better understand the needs and problems of this market in order to develop the company’s strategy for the future.
CMU Portugal: What are the main expectations for the next weeks?
RS and BA: Considering the experiences we have been through this week and the contacts we have made to follow up during the next weeks, our expectations for the next weeks are very high and certainly we will have much more going on. We are expecting to access key contacts in transport companies that will allow us to better understand our costumers in order to deliver a better WeTruck product.
October 2014
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Carnegie Mellon Portugal Takes Four Entrepreneurial Teams To The U.S. To Accelerate Their Businesses
CMU Portugal Presents inRes To Entrepreneurs
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inRes, short for “in Residence,” is a very early stage acceleration program for entrepreneurial teams working in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in Portugal, offered by the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program.
