The Acredita Portugal Entrepreneurship Contest has already reached thousands of Portuguese applicants in the five editions of the initiative that aims to help business ideas reach the market. The level of participation allows us to define the profile of the typical entrepreneur: urban, Internet-savvy and who sees launching their own project as an employability solution.

Lisbon, January 18th, 2016 - The Acredita Portugal Entrepreneurship Contest has received more than 120,000 applicants in the five editions of the initiative so far. The level of participation achieved makes it possible to define the profile of the typical Portuguese entrepreneur: a graduate, aged 35 and with a balanced gender distribution. With an unstable professional situation - student, unemployed or with a precarious job, they apply to the initiative with only an initial business idea, but one to which they hope to devote themselves full-time.

Their knowledge of entrepreneurship is based only on common sense and information researched online, with no formal training in the area, which may help to explain some lack of confidence in putting their idea into practice, despite the desire to acquire more knowledge and the motivation to commit to the idealized project.

For Pedro Queiró, CEO of Acredita Portugal, "The data from previous editions of the Acredita Portugal Competition is the most obvious reflection of the relevance of this initiative and its transformational capacity among the entrepreneurs we come into contact with. The evaluation process developed within the scope of the competition, implemented using the DreamShaper educational software, makes it possible to fill in some of the gaps in knowledge and define a more complete vision of each project, its possibilities for evolution and viability in the market. This relevance means that half of the candidates who go through this process say that it has greatly increased the likelihood of launching their project.".

There are two competitions run by Acredita Portugal: the Make Your Dream Come Truewith the categories of Trade and Services, Industry and Social Entrepreneurship, and the InovPortugalThe competition runs in parallel with the New Ideas, Web/Mobile and High-Tech categories. The competition Make Your Dream Come True is open to anyone, regardless of their age, level of education or idea; the Competition InovPortugal is aimed at high-impact entrepreneurs with disruptive projects, technological innovation and global ambition.

The deadline for applying to the Acredita Portugal competition, via the association's website, is January 22.