Entrepreneurship
Faced with the enormous challenges facing startups in the market, communication is a fundamental strategy for ensuring advantages in terms of visibility, contact and reputation. Say U Consulting made supporting Acredita Portugal and the projects supported by the association the starting point for developing a response geared towards startups and entrepreneurs.
The ninth edition of the Believe in Portugal has come to an end and for the seven winning projects - chosen from over 10,000 ideas submitted - this is the moment to enter the market and test their viability and acceptance by the public. Against a backdrop of huge obstacles for new projects, the question arises of how to deal with the challenges of communication in the context of a startup and how to create buzz around a product or service without spending a fortune.
The figures point to a scenario of difficulties for entrepreneurs - a third of startups close after a year, having to deal with issues related to a lack of perspective and feedback from stakeholders, limited resources, gaps in the strategy designed or the inability to adapt to the adversities encountered along the way.
In this scenario, the role of communication can be relegated to the background, despite the fact that the ability to communicate effectively supports visibility and contact with potential partners, investors and clients, boosts reputation, acts as a way of creating an original message and leverages the commercial process.
Faced with the challenges identified for projects in this area, Say U Consulting used the experience provided by the partnership developed with Acredita Portugal to create the "GO360º" model, a communication methodology designed to provide a structured communication response to startups and emerging projects and to support their business goals.
Marta Gonçalves, Managing Partner of Say U Consulting, reinforces the consultant's role by pointing out "a current context in the national market that reveals a preponderance of the startup phenomenon and an increased appetite for putting entrepreneurial projects into practice. Over the seven years we have been working with Acredita Portugal, we have seen how important it is to have tools that boost ideas and the relationship between entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. A goal that can only be fully achieved through an effective visibility and outreach strategy for projects that are taking their first steps towards implementation."
For Fernando Fraga, Head of Innovation at Acredita Portugal, "The partnership with Say U Consulting is extremely important for Acredita Portugal from a strategic point of view, allowing us to communicate efficiently with entrepreneurs and potential partners. This support has been central to the sustainable development of a non-profit association that helps thousands of entrepreneurs every year."
Say U Consulting is responsible for publicizing the Montepio Acredita Portugal Entrepreneurship Competition. Since the start of this partnership in 2013, the consultancy has also been responsible for developing the repositioning strategy for Acredita Portugal, publicizing the initiative and providing communication strategies for the semi-finalists, finalists and winners of the competition.
The 7 winning projects in the 9th edition of the Montepio Acredita Portugal competition:
Social Entrepreneurship
- "Pata D'Açúcar" - A project that combines two social causes: reducing animal abandonment and increasing the quality of life of people with diabetes. On the one hand, it contributes to reducing the rate of animal abandonment by rehoming shelter dogs, training them to detect low blood glucose levels in advance and then handing them over to people with diabetes.
Brisa Mobility Award 2019
– "SAFY: your safety in urban mobility" - SAFY wants to create a product that can be combined with various types of electric vehicles (bicycles/scooters/segways). Since safety and signage are scarce in these vehicles, this product combined with an innovative service is intended to be a solution to the problem.
K.Tech Award
- "Alfredo" - Artificial intelligence technology created to organize and bring clarity to the real estate market.
Autonomous Award
- "School.Cinema.Action!" - The School.Cinema.Action! project aims to use cinema as a learning tool, contributing to the education of younger audiences and increasing visual literacy and social inclusion.
H2O Innovation Award by Águas de Gaia
- "SCUBIC" - Intelligent platform that improves asset management in water networks.
Products and services
- "iRcycle - Custom Handmade Sneakers" - It transforms plastic collected from the oceans into sneakers customized by the customer, and can use other recycled and ecological materials.
Health and well-being
– "e-Rehab - Tool online which allows neuropsychological rehabilitation to be carried out remotely using virtual reality, favoring both cognitive stimulation and the psychosocial rehabilitation of people with acquired brain damage, people with degenerative disorders, etc.