InterEmprende is the first Entrepreneurs Development Centers (CDE) network in Puerto Rico and was established by a university at a systemic level. Our purpose is to provide an entrepreneurially oriented connection among students and professors across nine campuses, the Puerto Rico entrepreneurship ecosystem, and external communities. The InterEmprende innovative interaction concept (click and mortar centers) facilitates the communication, awareness, participation, and discussion of entrepreneurial news, activities, and events. The combination of physical co-working spaces and an interactive website creates a more complete, educational, and enjoyable experience for participating students, teachers, professors from high schools and other universities, and entrepreneurs.
The focus of the CDE is on the development of the entrepreneurial mindset through a strategic process supporting empowerment, engagement, connection, and discovery. InterEmprende Champions work directly with ideas, businesses propositions/startups, social initiative creations, and opportunity development presented by students, professors, small and medium enterprises (SME), and different communities in Puerto Rico. InterEmprende promotes the entrepreneurial culture in the Inter American University of Puerto Rico (IAUPR) system and connects its nine campuses located throughout the island. Connections between the campuses and entrepreneurial growth culture, in collaboration with small business and technology development centers (SBTDC), partners, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the island, provide the foundation to build economic development throughout the island's educational, interactive, and business activity corridors.
InterEmprende is based on teamwork, collaboration, human ingenuity, entrepreneurship bootstrapping, technology integration, innovation, and a family-oriented value system within an academic environment. This innovative endeavor as an operational reality operates based on four pillars. The first pillar is formed by the outstanding and ever-growing team of creative, entrepreneurship-oriented professors called InterEmprende Champions. Each Champion represents one of the nine main IAUPR campuses. The second pillar is the InterEmprende entrepreneurship student associations that form the heart, mind, and energy that propel the organization and its execution of activities and events. Third, nine new entrepreneurship centers (co-working spaces) operate inside the IAUPR campuses. The final pillar is a fully interactive and educational InterEmprende website dedicated to enhancing communication, interaction, knowledge, and growth of an entrepreneurship-focused online community.
InterEmprende operates based on five fundamental values that include: (a) disruptive innovation, (b) passion, (c) imagination, (d) social commitment, and (e) moral and ethical integrity. Our goal is to understand the world's business tendencies, apply innovative mechanisms and activities to propel entrepreneurship mentally, and produce inventive ways of thinking and doing things that benefit the IAUPR community and Puerto Rico. To grow the passion for positive collaboration, we focus on investing in students and professors, integrating external resources, and applying forces to fulfill our mission and achieve our goals and objectives. To promote creativity, we liberate our minds by thinking outside of the box and expanding on possibilities with our dreams and imagination. InterEmprende members' bond to a social-economic and environmental commitment, following the highest moral and ethical integrity standards to nurture a healthy entrepreneurial culture in the IAUPR and Puerto Rico in an honest and sustainable way.
In 2018, Dr. Alex Rodríguez Ginorio and Dr. Francisco Montalvo presented the InterEmprende concept and a 3-year plan (final draft version) to the IAUPR President. The president approved the concept and plan for InterEmprende and envisioned professors' integration of the association into the curriculum as leading to the growth and development of more and more Champions. That is why the number of Champions increases and will continue mounting parallel to the entrepreneurship spirit and activities awareness, tied together to the strength inside all educators. It is important to recognize the valuable counseling, direct supervision, intense collaboration, and effective mentoring offered by Dr. Rafael Cabrera, former Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Maritza Pagan Inter-Aguadilla) and Dr. María Galarza (Inter-Ponce) during the initial phase of the initiative.
The co-founders and initial champions of InterEmprende were Professor Nancy Acevedo Castillo (Inter-Aguadilla), Dr. Alexander Rosado Serrano (Inter-Arecibo), Dr. José Ortiz Zayas (Inter-Barranquitas), Dr. Grace Di Leo Torres (Inter-Bayamón), Dr. Gerardo Padín Zamot (Inter-Fajardo), Professor Juan Torres Ocasio (Inter-Guayama), Dr. Alex Rodríguez Ginorio (Inter-Metro), Dr. Eileen Ortiz Rivera (Inter-Ponce), and Dr. Zulma Quiñones Howell (Inter-San Germán).
In 2007, Dr. Marcos Menéndez (Inter-Bayamón) shared an idea for creating an IAUPR entrepreneurship institute and a network of centers located in each campus. In 2008, Dr. Menéndez founded the Puerto Rico Business Development Institute (Instituto de Desarrollo Empresarial Puertorriqueño [IDEP] in Spanish) located at IAUPR Central Office. Simultaneously, Professor Alex Rodríguez Ginorio (Inter-Metro) and Dr. Pablo Navarro (Inter-Metro) joined Dr. Menéndez's vision and co-founded the first Center for Entrepreneurs Development (Centro de Desarrollo de Emprendedores [CDE] in Spanish) at the Metropolitan Campus.
Dr. Menéndez began directing IDEP with a clear goal in mind: to set forth an entrepreneurship movement throughout the IAUPR. His efforts resulted in commendable achievements that are a clear example of his entrepreneurial spirit. He promoted changes that fostered the transformation of academic business programs to incorporate the development of entrepreneurial mindset and action as central objectives in the education of our students. Dr. Menéndez also established strategic alliances among the IAUPR, other entities, and companies. These alliances created bridges between academia and the business world that allowed the IDEP to participate actively in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Puerto Rico. Dr. Menéndez and his colleague, Dr. Juan Rivera Algarín (Inter-Bayamón), empowered our institution's participation in the STEP Project, a global research project on entrepreneurship in family businesses led by Babson College. Dr. Menéndez and Dr. Rivera Algarín closely study Puerto Rican family businesses and shared their findings in prestigious forums and academic publications worldwide.
While Dr. Menéndez and his IDEP team worked on several entrepreneurial endeavors, Professor Rodríguez Ginorio and an intrepid CDE team formed by Inter-Metro professors and students, from the newly established Entrepreneurial Students Team (Equipo de Estudiantes Emprendedores [EEE] in Spanish) organized and executed the following: (a) over 350 professional entrepreneurship-oriented activities; (b) 6 entrepreneurship symposiums including Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education Latin America Symposium REELA 2011 in collaboration with IAUPR Metropolitan Campus, Stanford University, and Grupo Guayacan, Inc.; (c) logistics and operational schedules for implementing Myraida Anderson's Árbol Familiar (Family Tree) island-wide initiative in collaboration with the Metropolitan Campus that impacted over 400,000 families; and (d) active engagement and empowerment of the EEE student team.
From 2008 to 2012, both initiatives addressed hundreds of entrepreneurship-oriented research, projects, activities, and events. The IAUPR Entrepreneurship Curriculum & Extracurricular Activities Program, IDEP, and CDE ascended to become the most innovative and complete higher education entrepreneurial venue available for students in Puerto Rico.
In 2013, a team of five IAUPR professors, including Dr. Ivonne Delgado (Inter-Arecibo), Dr. María Galarza (Inter-Ponce), Dr. Maritza Pagan (Inter-Aguadilla), Professor Wilfredo Zayas (Inter-Barranquitas), and Professor Rodríguez Ginorio (Inter-Metro), met to prepare a conceptual proposal to promote the idea, or at least the possibility, to create more CDE's. The meeting was held at Dr. Delgado's house, and after several hours, a rough document with basic guidelines to complete Dr. Menéndez's vision was created. In 2015, Professor Rodríguez Ginorio became part of the Entrepreneurship Program Committee created by the IAUPR Central Office. The members of the committee included Dr. Marcos Menéndez, Dr. Nélida Rivera, Mrs. Carmen Martí, Chancellor Juan Martinez, Inter-Bayamón, and Dean Fredrick Vega, Inter-Metro, among others. The purpose of the committee was to discuss opportunities to improve the entrepreneurship program. In 2015, the committee, with the approval of President Manuel J. Fernós Esq., enabled a team of Georgia Tech University experts to assess the IAUPR entrepreneurship environment.
Mr. David Bridges and Mr. Carl Rust, from Georgia Tech University, performed a 4-month, comprehensive analysis of the IAUPR entrepreneurship environment. Their assessment included hundreds of interviews with students, professors, and administration personnel at the Central Office and nine campuses; visits to each campus; and an extensive evaluation of IAUPR entrepreneurial endeavors. The evaluators concluded that IAUPR demonstrated an active and engaging entrepreneurial environment in its campuses, specifically in agriculture, marine life, technology-video games, and elementary and high school education. Mr. Bridges and Mr. Rust recommended developing an integrated approach to connect the campuses' entrepreneurial environments more effectively. In 2017, a 3-year revised plan was presented to the IAUPR President to create physical co-working spaces via CDEs on the campuses, a virtual platform to provide interaction among the campuses, and the team of Champions to run the initial phase of the project. The 3-year project, prepared by Professor Rodríguez Ginorio, was presented and approved under the name InterEmprende, a combination of the English prefix Inter, which refers to joining elements between each other, and the Spanish word emprender, which means to undertake or take action. Major goals and strategic objectives were established for each year. In the 1st year, InterEmprende built the foundation for the next 2 years. During the 2nd year, InterEmprende Champions operationalized the initiative. Finally, the 3rd year served to enhance the entrepreneurial mindset among the Champions, IAUPR students, professors, and the university administration's decision-makers.
During 2018 and 2019, Dr. Cabrera and former Chancellor Juan Martinez, acting Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs, designed an innovative plan to visit each IAUPR Chancellor and perform one-on-one conversations to present the InterEmprende initiative. After their personalized meetings, the nine Chancellors approved participation in InterEmprende. They approved the designation of the Champions and established the physical spaces for housing the InterEmprende Centers. In just a few months, the inaugural Champions were designated, and the areas on each of the nine campuses were selected for the new centers. By mid-2019, almost all the building blocks to start the InterEmprende operation were in place.
On August 15, 2019, Dr. Rosado Serrano and Dr. Rodríguez Ginorio presented the InterEmprende the objectives outcome report about the 1st year of activities to the IAUPR President and Chancellors. The report noted: (a) the nine champions selected, (b) the nine CDEs opened, (c) the completed entrepreneurial philosophy definition, (d) the 2019-2020 academic year cohesive plan proposal as approved by the Champions, and (e) the accepted communication network's conceptual design. In summary, 95% of InterEmprende's 1st-year objectives had been completed.
After the 2017 Hurricanes Irma and María, the IAUPR community and the island experienced difficult moments that invigorated Puerto Rican entrepreneurial activity. By January of 2020, we found ourselves, once again, in a battle against earthquakes and a pandemic of global proportions. We all faced unexpected challenges that changed the way we would live and act. The main InterEmprende objectives for the academic year 2019-2020 included maintaining the synergy of the participants and promoting and executing entrepreneurial activities at the campus and systemic levels. InterEmprende arose from a bold, proactive vision and collective conscience to continue developing leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset in our university community. The champions designed and implemented an innovative-creative methodology and an integrated human platform to promote, along with other valuable entrepreneurship efforts carried out by the University community, the growth and strengthening of an entrepreneurial culture.
In May 2020, and after 3 months of the University closing due to COVID 19, InterEmprende issued its second annual report. In summary, the InterEmprende Champions and their teams of entrepreneurial students worked exceptionally well together and achieved the following results: (a) 162 activities and events executed, equivalent to a 220% increase compared to the proposed number at the beginning of the academic year; (b) 14 Entrepreneurship projects were started or completed; (c) new students interested in participating directly in InterEmprende increased by 39% compared to the previous year; (d) 12,835 students, educators, and entrepreneurs were impacted; (e) $25,875.00 in-kind money and prizes were generated; and (f) all objectives were completed and surpassed.
Some of the local and international activities, projects, and events performed during the 2nd year of InterEmprende included: (a) Inter Tiger Venture Competition 2020 (ITVC 2021) relaunched event, (b) 11th Entrepreneurship Global Week Symposium, (c) Entrepreneurial student profile study (Fajardo, Bayamón, and Ponce), (d) 2nd Bilateral Encounter among IAUPR and "Tecnológico de Costa Rica" students (Metro, Bayamón, and Barranquitas), (e) Entrepreneurship and Management Development Curriculum revision (Dr. Eileen Ortiz), (f) Housing Department small and medium businesses proposal preparation (Fajardo, Bayamón, and Metro), (g) 6 InterEmprende Open House events, and (h) President Fernós, together with Chancellors Agnes Mojica and Carlos Olivares, inaugurated the new InterEmprende facilities at the San Germán and Bayamón Campuses. In 2019-2020, 60% of InterEmprende's 160 activities and events consisted of 67 presentations and conferences and 29 entrepreneurship projects.
InterEmprende started the 2020-2021 academic year with two significant systemic events. First, Machine Learning, a webinar offered by Dr. Peter Glynn [Stanford University]. The second event, titled 12th InterEmprende Global Entrepreneurship Week Symposium, was the first time all speakers were InterEmprende champions or members (Dr. Grace DiLeo, Dr. Gisela Carrero, Dr. Alexander Rosado, Eng. José Rodríguez, Dr. José Ortiz, Dr. Eileen Ortiz, Dr. Gerardo Padín, Professor Juan Torres and Dr. Alex Rodríguez). IAUPR Central Office, Echar Pa'Lante, and Stanford University collaborated to produce, organize, and execute both events. During 2020-2021, InterEmprende Centers carried out, in addition to their usual tasks, 177 activities, 10 of them at a systemic level, equivalent to 9.3% and 150% increase respectively compared to 2019-2020. The activity growth was mainly due to three aspects: (a) virtual extracurricular activities increases, (b) the InterEmprende Champions' commitment, perseverance, engagement, and unity; and (c) the InterEmprende Metro association's and students' hard work, camaraderie, and empowerment.
InterEmprende launched innovative and creative virtual activities to revitalize professors' and students' connections and reinitiate the campus-level extracurricular experience. Examples of these activities include:
In 2020-2021, 82% of InterEmprende activities and events were mainly virtual presentations, conferences, and entrepreneurship projects. The speakers included students, entrepreneurs, local and international guests such as Dr. Peter Glynn, Stanford University, Professor José Pérez, Pericles, ASHOKA Ambassador-Spain, and Dr. Luis Matos-Spain. The audience included professors, teachers, university representatives, students, as well as entrepreneurial community members. The actions of InterEmprende directly impacted approximately 6,587 people. InterEmprende generated an estimated in-kind donation amount of $52,050.00, equivalent to a 200% increase in revenue compared to the previous year. In May of 2021, the $2,500,000.00 Department of Housing 5-year proposal was approved, representing the first time InterEmprende would be involved in a project of this nature.
In June of 2021, InterEmprende concluded the 3-year plan (Phase I). InterEmprende achieved three strategic operations objectives, provided stability to the program, and demonstrated its potential impact on the university community. First, Champions integration increased with the additions of Dr. Vanessa Santiago, Dr. Lilliam Laboy, Dr. Elsa Correa, Dr. Sasha Aponte, Dr. Lilliam Perdomo, and Dr. Osvaldo Gelabert. Second, entrepreneurial community motivation grew from (a) InterEmprende student chapters starting, (b) student empowerment flourishing and enabling activities organization and execution, (c) numerous students and professors performing as speakers in webinars and competitors in competitions such as Inter Tiger Venture Competition (ITVC 2021) and Educadores-E 2021 (professors' ideas competition), (d) InterEmprende WEB page interface design expanding, and (e) almost 20,000 people being impacted with over $77,000 in in-kind donations being generated in 2 years. Third, requests for proposals or "grants" and commercialization of ideas led to (a) collaboration in the drafting and preparation of the approved Housing Department proposal ($2.5 million) and (b) ITVC 2021 ideas presented and recognized.
It is important to mention that InterEmprende operated without a budget and during the worst natural disasters ever suffered in Puerto Rico (Hurricane Maria, earthquakes experienced at the southern part of the island, and COVID-19 worldwide pandemic). InterEmprende's past and future success is and will continue being possible due to one man's vision, a human-intrapreneur type of collaboration by a team of Champions, entrepreneurially minded students, the IAUPR President and Central Office support, the nine Chancellors' entrepreneurial commitments, and the tiger spirit inside every one of us.
InterEmprende successfully completed its fourth year and began its second phase. The main objectives of the second phase include: a. encourage more students and teachers to discover their entrepreneurial mindset, b. growth of the entrepreneurial culture, and c. strategic training and advice to entrepreneurs. In 2021 – 2022, 75% of InterEmprende activities and events were mainly virtual presentations, conferences, and entrepreneurship projects. Over 255 activities and events were organized by the InterEmprende Entrepreneurship Centers Network, a 41.8% increase compared to the year 2020-21.
Among these 255 activities, InterEmprende completed: a. recording of 30 one-hour television episodes, on Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship, broadcasted by ABC Puerto Rico channel 5, b. 13th InterEmprende Global Week Symposium, c. Inter Tiger Venture Competition 8th edition (10-year collaboration between IAUPR and Coca-Cola Puerto Rico Bottlers), d. 56 webinars and workshops, e. 15 systemic collaborative activities, f. InterEmprende new students chapters, and g. special collaborations with parralle18, Colmena 66 and InterEmprende POP (Inter Panama, Inter Orlando and Inter Puerto Rico). Guest speakers included students, businesspeople, locals, and internationals from Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Spain, and the United States. InterEmprende's actions directly impacted approximately 9,720 people (29.3% increase compared to 2020-2021). InterEmprende generated an estimated in kind amount of $55,550.00, equivalent to a 6.7% increase compared to the previous year.
In addition, during the first semester of 2022, InterEmprende's Small Business Incubators and Accelerators (SBIA) Program [a 5-year Department of Housing proposal] offered more than 100 workshops, webinars and mentorship services to small and medium entrepreneurs. The SBIA program is a systemic effort that operates parallel to InterEmprende’s educational and entrepreneurial efforts. The first SBIA cohort consisted of 252 entrepreneurs throughout the island. The program is administered by a Director in IAUPR Central Office and coordinators in each campus. IAUPR professors, business experts, and InterEmprende champions created and offered workshops, webinars and other follow up services.
InterEmprende achievements for 2021-22 academic year demonstrated continuous growth in all evaluation categories of this initiative and its impact in the University, schools, and entrepreneurs’ communities. Two new champions, professors Maribel González-Doradea and Laura Ortiz Colón, continued the work performed by professors Nancy Acevedo and José Ortiz.InterEmprende registered 258 students in the InterEmprende Students Association chapters, impacted almost 10,000 people (viewers statistics related to 30 one-hour episodes aired on TV are not available), increased the inkind amount, organized and executed 255 activities. Also, performed 15 systemic collaborative events such as InterEmprende POP (international collaboration among IAUPR’s Panamá, Orlando, and Puerto Rico campuses), 13th entrepreneurship symposium, interemprende.com (online interactive platform presented May 26,2022), and the 8th edition of Inter Tiger Venture Competition 2022 (ITVC 2022).
In the last three years, InterEmprende expanded its team from nine to 14 champions and co-champions, impacted over 30,000 people, executed 670 activities and events, raised $135,000 in prizes and inkind, and was selected to coordinate a $2.5 million five-year proposal. In 2022, ITVC 2022 established new competition records that included: 193 IAUPR registered students, 20 finalists, 21 business ideas presented, eight (8) winners, and over $22,000 in cash prizes, internships, and an advanced entrepreneurship workshop. ITVC is possible due to a collaboration between IAUPR (academia), CCPRB (private enterprise), and parallel 18 (Puerto Rico’s E-Ship ecosystem accelerator).
In 2009, The Center for the Development of Entrepreneurs (in Spanish, "Centro de Desarrollo de Emprendedores" - CDE) at Metro Campus started an innovative style of student association called Entrepreneurial Student Team (in Spanish, "Equipo Estudiantes Emprendedores" - EEE). For almost a decade, EEE served as a benchmark and an outstanding student association organizing over 680 professional activities and events. Every campus had similar student associations or student ambassadors. In 2017, InterEmprende Champions agreed to use one name for a systemic student association. InterEmprende, the entrepreneurial student association, was born. To personalize the association, the name of the campus was included (e.g., InterEmprende Ponce). InterEmprende offers learners from all disciplines the opportunity to belong to an innovative and entrepreneurial-oriented island-wide initiative. InterEmprende enables students from business, science and technology, education, and humanities to interact and collaborate in an integrated fashion. The comradery among the members promotes an open-minded and family-liked environment that drives the entrepreneur inside of us. Together with their educational backgrounds, the students' diversity provides a rich foundation to develop creative and dynamic teams.
InterEmprende is a network of exceptional students and mentors willing to create, collaborate, and build a robust entrepreneurial culture across all IAUPR campuses, communities, and the Puerto Rico entrepreneurship ecosystem. Every campus has its InterEmprende chapter. Members exchange ideas and projects among themselves at the campus and systemic levels. The InterEmprende philosophy is to empower, connect, and discover ways to inspire others to be the best human being possible, finding solutions to benefit the university community and society. As a member of InterEmprende, students can participate in (a) creating, organizing, hosting, and executing conferences, webinars, workshops, and special events; (b) entrepreneurial idea competitions; (c) networking with members of the Puerto Rico entrepreneurship ecosystem; (d) developing the foundations for startups; (e) creating valuable local and international relationships with students, professors, mentors, and external entrepreneurs; (f) experiencing speakers and mentors; (g) transforming the world around us.
To become a member of InterEmprende, the student association, you only need to register on the InterEmprende website.
InterEmprende will foster and strengthen a culture of entrepreneurship, supported by an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit that will significantly impact our students, faculty, partners, and communities involved in collaborating on projects supporting the development of a more sustainable Puerto Rico.
InterEmprende is a "click and mortar" organic entrepreneurial network of students and professors that educates, connects with entrepreneurial ecosystems resources, and promotes social and economic development at regional and island-wide levels.
