“And that’s why coffee is for grown-ups!”

My family was in stitches. When I look back on the events of the past year, two incredible moments have brought my MediaTech Ventures family, my own family, and the world, closer together, and both events are thanks to the incredible people of Colombia.

What had us in stitches was the brilliance of Encanto, and a glimpse into the creativity, heart, and wonder of Colombian culture. Juancho the Coffee Kid, one of the children asking Mirabel to share her gift throughout “The Family Madrigal” song, holds a cup of coffee in hand while thrilled with a caffeine rush, prompting from Mirabel, “And that’s why coffee is for grown-ups!” My kids looked at me, smiles wide, during the movie; my tendency to keep my cup full throughout the day is certainly the cause for my sleepless nights.

That rush, that exhilaration, fuels entrepreneurs determined to change the world. It’s not coffee that fuels startups (well, that’s not entirely true, is it?), it’s the passion to make things better, drawn from experiences in which people discover they could be better. This April, we’re graduating our second cohort of companies from Colombia, ready to change the world and braving new markets with us, in the United States.

“For Colombians, coffee isn’t about the energy pump on the way to the office. This beverage is meant to be properly savored. Besides, it’s an essential element of social interactions. Colombians can spend hours chatting with friends and family over a cup of coffee. Given that coffee is such a core element of Colombian culture, it’s only natural that children are allowed to enjoy it too.”

– Mayra Garcia; writer at CBR

Much we can learn from Colombian culture.

PROCOLOMBIA, the institution in charge of the commercial promotion of non-traditional exports, international tourism and foreign investment in Colombia, has spent the last few months with our brilliant mentors and teachers, working with a roster of companies that I’d like to introduce to you now, as we graduate them from our programming in a special event around the corner.

Two Incredible Moments

Two moments, not in watching Encanto and working with so much more of Colombia in this second cohort of our programming; rather, two moments in that this is the second cohort of companies with whom to change the world in your work. By the way, get to know the first group here.

MediaTech Ventures and PROCOLOMBIA are proud to have formed a collaboration that bridges between Colombia and the U.S. market through the focus we bring to bear in the impact of media. From this class, AgTech, video game development, cybersecurity in Oil & Gas, virtual labs for universities, and international financial transfer technology, just a few to share. Not in media? No! It’s through our industry of media, which is why you’ll come to know these companies, why they’ll thrive, and how you’ll connect with them; it’s Media Technology that brings us all closer together, communicates stories, discovers markets, and makes entrepreneurship a little easier.

Umbra 3D

A 3D software development studio for real estate, Umbra 3D offers digital tools to strengthen the sales processes of companies in the construction and real estate sector. Interactive models create 3D digital reconstructions of architectural projects and related environments while practical and intuitive web formats make the experience available throughout devices and applications.

With the incredible boom of development in our backyard of Texas, this is a technology I’d love to see more of with Keller Williams, the National Association of Realtors, and with organizations such as Brandywine, planning entire regions of cities.

Planeolo

Being data-driven, a creative production agency realized that what’s missing most for such agencies, is client relationship management software oriented to the projects underway. Helping brands across the globe drive meaningful growth and engagement, Planeolo reduces manual repetitive tasks by >50%, cuts revision rounds and scope creep, improves client communications, and creates transparency in client-facing project timelines and deliverables, across all touchpoints. Planeolo built the solution making it easy for producers and creative agencies to manage the work with the relationship.

CloudLabs

AI laboratory simulators for experiencing virtual learning environments based on STEM model (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and vocational areas (Agriculture, programmable automata, Technology, electronic, process control, robotics, electrical networks, among others). For more than a decade CloudLabs has been in industry offering innovating solutions to educational institutions through the design, implementation and consolidation of projects that enables the access, usage and development of labs in education.  As the world’s demand for STEM education booms, with Texas, for example, implementing k-12 STEM curriculum in the next couple years, CloudLabs brings the lab to everyone.

Wulf Games

A showcase of that culture I mentioned, Wulf Games is an independent game studio making video games with high production value and high standards, aiming to engage players with new and fresh stories and characters inspired by ancient cultures and mythology.

Simple Agri

Imagine farms throughout the world being able to manage in real-time, what they need to adapt or implement for their land to better produce, higher quality output, increased yields, and environmentally conscientious farming. This is Simple Agri and their mobile, cloud-based platform in AgTech.

Neurona

A fintech platform set on making internal processing of payments more approachable. Neurona can cover transactions from cradle to grave securely. They are truly a comprehensive solution – their payment engine can be used across banks, financial institutions, and credit unions, making the internal process of payments easier, including automatic debits, payroll, P2P, and domestic payments.

OASISCOM

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. Done well, accomplishing this integration is incredibly rare and that’s where Oasiscom is looking to debut their work throughout the United States and beyond. They specialize in cloud solutions that brings ERP together with CRM and Business Intelligence, like none other before. Focused particularly on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Healthcare, Oasiscom is where to look for the solution to enterprise resource integration.

Softipal

Conceive of employee training that uses gamification to integration the role of the training throughout the entire chain of work in which they’re involved. Softipal specializes in optimizing operational processes by developing business training plans that recognizes the entire chain of implementation through virtual training systems accounting for the technical infrastructure and the academic management. On top, they apply eLearning techniques and digital tools such as gamifications, animated infographics, characters, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

Territorio Digital

Digital ads are a huge piece of a promotional campaign, and having the most amount of information available when choosing where to advertise can be a major game changer. Territorio Digital presents digital real-estate statistics, helping you advertise on the best platform for your message.

Within their portfolio of services, you will find DSPs, DMPs, Ad Servers and BI tools that will help improve your digital advertising.

R-Next

Developers of multimedia interactive apps, video games for mobile, VR, AR, PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, this group is as comprehensive in capability as it gets for the world’s largest entertainment industry. This is the group to connect with in gaming, and to get in front of EA, Microsoft, Namco Bandai, Ubisoft, and Activision Blizzard.

I-Optia

Major impact events are just that – major in their impact – and in the challenge of being safer and serving the environment, I-Optia is able to digitally replicate refineries, mining facilities, oil pipelines, and other processing plants. They simulate disasters in hypothetical real-time scenarios so that companies can troubleshoot mechanical flaws before anything even goes wrong.

MVM Software Engineering

MVM utilizes cloud-based tools to harness data and make decisions as Knowledge experts in their own right. A software engineering company focusing in given value to clients by providing cloud tools to harness their data and make decisions smartly, fast and trustworthy.

Tool-be

Interested in jump-starting innovation at a young age? Tool-be’s childhood development lessons and resources target the caregiver as the primary audience. This husband and wife team has created a subscription box with tools, activities, toys, and accompanying music and video lessons to support development within the first 1000 days of life.

They also run a nonprofit that tackles food deserts to help developing children get the nutrition they need. Tool-be will be coming to the United States very soon, so keep an eye out!

Reminder, join us here on LinkedIn, to tune in Friday, April 8th, to the graduation event and some more insight to PROCOLOMBIA and the work between the United States and Colombia

As we wrap our closest time with these great companies, and hope to see you as we celebrate their completion of our program, I have on my mind Nicolás Gómez Dávila, a Colombian philosopher who, throughout the 20th century, was more a critic of modern society than not, and yet, he captured an essence of what it means to be an entrepreneur, I think without realizing it. Certain, he didn’t appreciate how his observation would be all the more true of media today than then, “In an age in which the media broadcast countless pieces of foolishness, the educated man is defined not by what he knows, but by what he doesn’t know.”

Together, we close the gap of what isn’t known, so that we all might thrive greater as the world changes around us. A bit of irony in Dávila’s criticism of modern society that it’s better education and media, that makes it possible. Plus coffee.

[image via PROCOLOMBIA]