An action-packed July! Alumni Week recap and MORE

What a ride these last few weeks have been for parallel18! From the come-alive of our Alumni Program and insightful roundtables with investors as part of our P18Ventures efforts to closing applications for pre18. As you can see, the hands-on work hasn’t stopped and “vamos por más” which is a saying in Spanish that means, “we’re going for more.”

All the while, Gen.8 keeps working towards venture growth. And, in order to focus on implementing more than six weeks worth of feedback, the cohort had a week off from mentoring and KPIs. We called it “hustle week.” This marks the first time we implement the concept of a sprint week in our curriculum, something we took into consideration after our graduated startups suggested it during exit interviews. Now the cohort is back, as energetic as ever, and ready to start showcasing the results from their first half in the program as midpoint evaluations get nearby.

However, hustle week did not mean chill out week for the P18Team. We made the most of the cohort-free time to implement our first Alumni Week, which proved a success in attendance and engagement. Being able to reconnect with graduated companies set the pathway for the P18 team to reminisce about our time in parallel18, where “ir por más” or “going for more” has been the drive for us and the entrepreneurs we nurture.

This has allowed us to access more and more opportunities to keep providing the best tools and resources for all the startups and collaborators that have believed in us.

In the meantime, catch up with what our programs and startups have been up to since June!

Alumni Week recap

Since early March — when the COVID-19 pandemic started for us — our team has been working to put together the kind of Alumni Program our graduated startups need and deserve. The first thing put in place was a Business Continuity Fund which became available for all of our graduated startups as a means to help them overcome any economic hardships they might experience because of the halt to their business. You can read the fund’s announcement here. Then the team curated alumni-focused talks while preparing for the big event.

From Monday, June 29th to Friday, July 3rd, alumni from our seven graduated generations took part in an enlightening virtual time of reunions, KPI updates in our traditional Corillos, and the reassurance that we’re all one big family working together to move innovative ventures forward.

The results? Constructive and reassuring feedback, more than 15 KPI Corillos, and the opportunity to reconnect and make ourselves available to our graduated startups’ needs, something that is at the very heart of our mission as a program. Alumni Week’s KPI Corrillos were arranged by industry and allowed graduated startups from different generations to meet. Likewise, startups from Gen.1 to 5 had the opportunity to get to know the new faces of the P18 Team and share specific asks on how we could provide further support in terms of tools and resources.

Plus, both alumni and participant startups had the chance to learn first-hand from two incredible mentor sessions imparted by G Suite’s Chief of Staff, Alfredo García (on adapting business operations as the product-market fit changes), and Ravi Mehta, Tinder’s former CPO and TripAdvisor’s former VP (on peak product management).

We can’t thank all of our startups enough for trusting us with their businesses. Here you can find a special gift we prepared for them. As of now, we can’t wait for future alumni-related initiatives!

More highlights in a nutshell

• The Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust (PRSTRT) — our parent organization — has won the Zenit Award for the Organization of the Year, granted by the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce (CCPR). These awards are the highest decoration given by the CCPR
• Gen.2’s Brands Of recently launched Brands of Guatemala! Check it out here. Plus, Alan Taveras, the company’s co-founder, and CMO, won the Teodoro Moscoso Award, an honorary recognition bestowed by the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce (CCPR) only to business leaders with outstanding contributions to the economic transformation of the island.
• At the beginning of the pandemic, our Gen.7 #P18Alumnus Abexus released a complete report about the economic impact of COVID-19 in Puerto Rico. Now, the startup is evaluating how their initial assessment. Read their report update here.
• Gen.3 #P18Alumni PickMyStuff is now enabling Sam’s Club efforts to make home and business deliveries throughout the island expanding the options it offers its members to make their warehouse purchases. Learn more about how it will work here.
• Gen.7’s #P18Alumnus Arvada Corporation is opening its own District Container Park (DCP), an outdoor food and beverage, entertainment, and sports venue inside the Convention District in San Juan.
• Gen.6 #P18Alumni ElegirSeguro.com and Yu-Track, will participate in the global acceleration program MassChallenge Mexico. Read more about the companies selected here.
• Puerto Rican #P18Alumnus BookSloth has been featured in People Magazine as one of six amazing apps devised and designed by LATAM founders! Check out the entire list here. Huge shout out to all the companies
• Soy Emprendedor presented its editorial team’s pick for LATAM’s most interesting startups, including #P18Alumni Argentina’s Wisboo, and Puerto Rico’s Abartys Health. Read the entire list here.
• El Nuevo Día, the island’s biggest publication, picked up Gen.7’s #P18Alumnus TAIS’ story and highlighted as a unique recycling initiative that also serves as a motor to promote agriculture in the island. Read the full story here.
• Our Executive Director, Sebastián Vidal, shared enlightening thoughts on how major crises, like the current COVID-19 pandemic, often propel innovation. He shared the examples he’s seen with our #P18Startups’ solutions in this column for El Nuevo Día.

YOU’RE ALL SET! A lot has been happening, but this is about it, for now! If you’d like to keep up with us, remember to stay tuned to our social media for further updates as the month passes by or subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

PS: Don’t miss brand new episodes of #MentoredByP18 now on our Instagram Live in Spanish. The latest episodes have covered topics like investment and storytelling. Catch up here.

We’ll see you soon. Stay safe! :)