Crystal Lagoons and Berkeley University sign alliance to grant entrepreneurship scholarships

7 May, 2014 / News

Empowering Chilean entrepreneurship and talent. That’s the objective of national company Crystal Lagoons that belongs to entrepreneur and scientist Fernando Fischmann. And in this context the firm has just established an alliance with American University of Berkeley that will allow the founders of established innovative companies to apply to the joint “Crystal Lagoons-Berkeley Scholarships 2014” program.

This initiative will allow selected Chilean entrepreneurs to be part of the intensive “Skydeck-Global Venture Program (GVP)”, based on the Berkeley entrepreneurship method, that focuses on strategies, tactics, exercises, culture, infrastructure and contact network enabling the commercial take off of innovators under the go to market concept.

“This alliance between Crystal Lagoons and the University of Berkeley is a tremendous milestone for Chile, as it provides a world class formative impulse”, said Javiera de la Cerda, director of Research and Development for Crystal Lagoons, a multinational that is present in 60 countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, the United States and Thailand.

Ricardo San Martín, coordinator of the scholarships in the United States, said: “This program connects with the fascinating world of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley (…). The experience enables you to meet angel investors and venture capitalists, mentors and possible new members for your enterprise”. He adds that: “The El Berkeley method is unique in the world, because it trains in opportunity identification, team formation, business models and start-up, cultural behaviors that belong to Silicon Valley”.

The scholarship program is wholly financed by Crystal Lagoons, and with it the creator of the giant crystalline lagoons seeks to contribute to our country’s human capital and employment. “We have verified the impact of innovation on job generation. In only five years, our projects in Chile have opened over 10 thousand direct and indirect job positions “, said De la Cerda referring to Crystal Lagoons, a company that is in partnership with important international real estate firms in 300 projects worldwide.

Applications

Applications to the scholarship program that will be carried out in the headquarters of the University of Berkeley in California will be open starting from tomorrow and up to June 30th.

In a first instance the 10 best innovative enterprises will be selected, these will have to carry out a brief personal presentation in English. The initiative’s winners will be selected from this group.

The jury will be formed by the CEO of Crystal Lagoons, Fernando Fischmann; Ikhlaq Sidhu and Ken Singer, co-inventors of the Berkeley Method of entrepreneurship and directives of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (CET), and Ricardo San Martín, coordinator of the Crystal Lagoons-Berkeley Scholarships.

Among the evaluation criteria we will consider how innovative is the line of business, the capacity for development investing and the enterprise’s potential market, among others.

The course starts next August 18th.

Crystal Lagoons Corp. is an international innovation company, founded by scientist Fernando Fischmann, that has developed and patented technology that allows for the low-cost construction and maintenance of unlimited size bodies of water in crystal-clear condition.

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