Scaling Impact: The MAN Impact Accelerator comes to Brazil!

This month we have completed the second program week of our third accelerator cycle in São Paulo focusing on customer development and impact. We were particularly excited to expand to an entirely new continent and increasing our global exposure by including more diversity in stops. During our visit, we passed some great milestones — from onboarding Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus as new partners, to expanding our network of mentors and entering a new geography which opened our minds to all kinds of stories in the transport and logistics ecosystem.

WATCH THE PROGRAM WEEK FILM TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE BUZZ!

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CONNECTING ENTREPRENEURS TO DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIES IS AT THE HEART OF OUR IMPACT ACCELERATOR

The amount of travel required to get everyone together in our different locations (#Munich, #SãoPaulo, #Lisbon and #Johannesburg) is particularly important  to connect with investors, mentors, partners with different professional, cultural and economic backgrounds. They bring unique perspectives, personalities and challenges to the table.  Giving the opportunity to our entrepreneurs to reflect on the synergies or differences between each of the locations is of great value to them. For example  gaining insight into the differences in size and shape of the market, the scale of the challenges, the needs of the community, the level of government and international support, the availability of investment as well as the difference in consumer mindsets. This is a great way to get them thinking about scale and about the possibilities of entering new markets!

Perhaps to your surprise, São Paulo was picked as a location not for its caipirinhas, but for its emerging market of global entrepreneurship and innovation, as it is now considered one of the hottest latin american city for entrepreneurs.

During the week we connected our social entrepreneurs to +40 mentors from the local ecosystem from companies :  Google, Uber, Grupo Tellus, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus, Instituto Muda, CREN - Centro de Recuperação e Educação Nutricional, Yunus Social Business, Pipe.Social, Desabafo Social, VWCO Foundation, , NESsT, MAN Truck & Bus , Gympass, Mandae, James Insight & Strategy

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The entrepreneurs made huge progress in only two mentoring days and gained clarity around their value proposition, theory of change, their  impact model.  The main takeways is that having a social product is not enough to create impact. They must create a business that delivers clear and understandable value to their customers by clearly defining who their product is for and how it answers their needs.

On our last day we visited the social entrepreneurs of Sao Paulo Gabriel Arcon , Pablo Pires Julia Drezza Thais Cestari Miranda, whose journey inspire us to be better and stronger.

Special thank you to our partners MAN Truck & Bus for making this happen, and VWCO for hosting our 3 day event.  

So excited for the next leg of this incredible journey —>  #LISBON and connect with new experts, mentors and investors to expand our powerful global community!

Please connect with Solene if have any suggestions for people to meet or companies that represent the fantastic Lisboa energy and local ecosystem.