EAE News
Nova Dreams, the key to entrepreneurship
10 de January de 2019
This project from the EAE Lab incubator originated with the aim of becoming an essential tool for entrepreneurs, offering them training and guidance to get their business projects up and running.
Stephanie Sánchez and Erick Reyes, students on EAE's Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, an two other partners, Fabricio Ramos and Miguel Nieto, make up the team of NOVA DREAMS CO, a training platform for entrepreneurs aimed at the Spanish-speaking market.
What does the NOVA DREAMS CO project consist of?
The platform is designed for people who want to launch new business lines, innovate in their company or simply fulfil their dream of becoming an entrepreneur. That is where the name Nova Dreams comes from, making your entrepreneurial dreams a reality.
What market is it aimed at?
Nova Dreams' mission is to revolutionize the entrepreneurship sector in our home country, Panama, and throughout Latin America. In a recently created company, the entrepreneur themselves has to take care of the accounting, keep track of finances, communicate their product, commercialize it and many other tasks. It is precisely that knowledge that we want to provide to new businesspeople.
Tell us about the Nova Dreams team.
The Nova Dreams team is made up of 4 Panamanian professionals with a passion, Erick Reyes, Stephanie Sánchez, Fabricio Ramos and Miguel Nieto. We each have our own different areas of expertise and capacities. Erick and Stephanie are computer engineers, the former specializing in software and website development, and the latter in project management. Fabricio specializes in Marketing and Advertising, specifically in sales, and Miguel is the legal advisor of the startup, based on his background in Law.
How exactly does the NOVA DREAMS CO. platform work?
We provide a training platform for users to learn and embark on their entrepreneurial ventures to make their dreams a reality. To do so, we give them access to real case studies and methodologies, with which we aim to reduce the risks of the project failing. When they log on to the platform, the future business person has access to information on real business case studies, including both ventures that have achieved success and those that have failed, and we analyse why in each case. Moreover, the dreamer (as we call our users) can watch training videos on which we analyse different methodologies that can be applied in their business, such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Customer Discovery and Self Discovery, among others.
At the moment, you are focusing on the market in Panama. Do you plan to break into other markets?
Our solution is designed for the Spanish-speaking market. As it is an online platform, you can access it 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world. Our pilot market is Panama as it is our home country and we know a lot about what is lacking in the market, but these needs can also be found elsewhere, in other Latin American countries.
Did you already have a developed project or have you prepared one especially for EAE Lab?
Our project was already developed. In fact, in the world of entrepreneurship, as one of our ideas had already failed due to a lack of market knowledge, offering technological solutions for entrepreneurs, under the name of Reysan Tech. At the end of 2017, Start by Reysan Tech was founded, which we later renamed Nova Dreams.
At Nova Dreams, our goal is to help entrepreneurs but from a different perspective. In this case, we strive to help them with comprehensive training, providing an adapted common thread that enables anybody to learn to hone their entrepreneurial skills, wherever and whenever they want.
Why do you think that you were selected to take part in the EAE Lab incubator?
We think that our project was selected because we meet all the requirements stipulated by the incubator. In addition, we have put all our best efforts into driving Nova Dreams forward. In fact, it has been a case of many months of teamwork before the incubation period.
We managed to show EAE Lab all our efforts and dedication to project and, in our opinion, that has been the decisive factor in eventually being selected, The School's has enabled is to focus our business model into a single founding pillar: training for entrepreneurs.
EAE Lab accompanies the development of each entrepreneurial project for five months. How has NOVA DREAMS CO. evolved with the help of the team of mentors and experts?
EAE Lab has helped us to consolidate our ideas and purposes. However, most importantly, the experience has corroborated that our project has a really solid base and a lot of potential for the future. Thanks to their support, for example, we changed the name, logo and identity within the first month of incubation.
Turning to the team, tell us a little about each of you and what you bring to the project.
We all have different personalities and characters but which complement each other. The NOVA DREAMS CO. team has members who are joyful, carefree (but hard-working), good organizers, methodical, good presenters, creative, dreamers, realists and analysts.
In terms of the specific functions that we each have, Erick is in charge of the technological development, video editing and production, and monitoring metrics. For her part, Stephanie is responsible for the creation and design of the video content, managing contact with clients and entrepreneurs for the videos and following up on this these contacts. Fabricio oversees everything related to digital marketing based in Panama, and Miguel contributes his legal knowledge in consultancy sessions.
You have turned the project around and introduced changes. What modifications have you made and how has EAE Lab contributed to this turnaround?
Before starting the Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at EAE, we already has a project developed, Reysan Tech, which specialized in website development, market campaigns and social media management for entrepreneurs. When we gained a more in-depth insight from the class, we decided remodel and, in March 2018, we launched Start By Reysan Tech, a platform that took the physical entrepreneurial ecosystem into the online world, underpinned by four pillars: training, real experiences, networking and idea validation. This was the project with which we took part in the EAE Lab incubator, and we narrowed it down to just the training part. We also decided to change the name and logo, by running a competition in which young creative professionals put forward ideas. That is how the NOVA DREAMS name and logo came about.
Do you have any role model in terms of innovation who inspired you to embark on this entrepreneurial venture?
Really, our biggest inspiration isn't someone, it is something: this drive to contribute our dedication, efforts and talent to improve our country a little bit, and maybe even the world.
In a short space of time, you have to develop an MVP. How do you spend your time in the EAE Lab incubator?
As our project in the EAE Lab was the same as for our Master's Thesis, we already had an initial MVP. Therefore, we spend our time in the incubator creating strategies to create a name for ourselves on digital media, making contact with potential clients and generating content for our platform and social media.
Looking back, from the end of your Master to now, how much have you learned? Do you feel different?
We really believe that we have all learned so many things, but the best part of it is that we are putting everything we are learning into practice in Nova Dreams and we are constantly gathering more knowledge. We really feel that great things can be achieved with a lot of dedication and efforts, just as we have done in the past with every objective we have set ourselves.
Do you have any projections for the future or do you currently have your feet firmly planted in the present?
Daydreaming is allowed. We have our feet firmly in the present, which is a project that we are making an attractive as an investment opportunity but, most importantly, creating a solution for our country's entrepreneurial ecosystem. We consider ourselves daydreamers because we can see ourselves in the future as a startup that has managed to consolidate itself and help Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs anywhere around the world.
What is the profile of your investor? Have you thought about it yet?
Forming part of EAE Lab, the subject of investors is always present. For this reason, we believe that investors are an essential part of any entrepreneurial venture.