Author:

Fernando De los Rios

(

Purpose Launchpad Mentor

)

At the beginning of 2020, with the ExO Sprint Coach certification under my arm, I had the opportunity to participate in the Challenges that Purpose Alliance was starting to launch, with the story that Francisco Palao tells us in blogs about how he started this great movement. In the first Challenge I participated in, I learned a lot, especially realizing how much I had yet to learn and practice. I am grateful to the team of that first Challenge that allowed me to mentor them; I did not know what scenario I was going to face, I was in the initial phase of Exploration. I think it is what best expresses that learning phase, moving from theory to practice.

Thus, I was able to participate in other Challenges organized by Purpose Alliance, and I was getting tools and learning a lot from the participants, mentors, disruptors and organizers, experiences that were improving with each edition of the Challenges. I was accumulating “flight hours” or, as we sailors say, “miles sailed”, and getting to know more and more about the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the region, and why not, in the world, after many years of having been mainly in the “corporate” environment where the rules are somehow already established.

This does not mean that I have not participated in intra ventures, since I have developed almost my entire career alongside technology, since electronics was the “father” of computing, and over the years computing grew so much that electronics became an enabler to exploit all the power that information technology offers us today, and that is increasing impressively, with the variety of disruptive technologies that we see around us. Back to our business, around April of this year we were already maturing with some friends the implementation of a company that helps entrepreneurs to be successful, and we founded Eureka Latam Innovation & Sustainability, to help entrepreneurs to “Take your idea to a responsible and sustainable business model”, understanding as sustainable the preservation of the planet. We understood that in order to provide our services it was necessary to develop our own methodology that, through experimentation, we would iterate to know which tool to use in each stage of the project: Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Value Proposition Canvas, ExO Canvas, Business Model Canvas, MVP, among the main ones.

Months passed; we had already started operations, we had 2 “pilot” projects and Francisco had advanced with the participation of the community in the development of ExO Launchpad that would later come to light as Purpose Launchpad, and it is because it is much more powerful than just ExO and could not and should not be confused but have its own personality, as those of us who have been able to participate in this Certification process have witnessed. When Francisco informed the Purpose Alliance Community that the Purpose Launchpad certification course was open, I was convinced that it was “the wheel we wanted to invent” in Eureka, and I was not wrong.

It has been 3 months since we started this journey masterfully led by Francisco, along with 7 other extraordinary sailors who wanted to make this journey to learn, learn and learn from this new meta-methodology, from the teachings of our Master Mentor and the experiences of our fellow travelers.

I must say that it is a journey like no other, where we were not sure where these waters would take us, but we are sure that when we arrive at our destination we will be satisfied with everything we have advanced, and when we reach the end of this Certification process, the journey has just begun, because we arrive at port with the experiences of this rich navigation only to leave immediately to other destinations with everything we have learned and knowing that there are other extraordinary Purpose Launchpad navigators with purpose with whom we can count on and on whom we can rely when we sail through stormy seas, who with their wisdom will know how to advise us on what maneuvers to do to weather the storms that come our way, but we are sure that with all this teaching, and with the practice that makes the master, we will know how to arrive at a good port and we will accumulate “miles sailed” to take other ships to their destination with the rudder firmly in the center of the rudder. I am sure that this trip will leave us with many lessons and tools that will help us to be successful in Eureka Latam.

In this voyage the captain is Francisco, and the crew is composed of Beatriz Hernández, Ana Simon, Leslie Cortés, Alvaro Espuny, Senén Porcar, Gilberto Grajales, Manel Fernández and a humble servant.

Bravo Zulu! Well done!