Columbia Business Expert Motivates Chilean Entrepreneurs During Social Crisis

Daniel McQuade, professor at Columbia Business School’s Venture for All initiative that looks to enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem, visited Chile early January to present “Entrepreneurship in Times of Social Crisis.”

Chile has a special capacity for innovation that is not common in emerging countries, where people tend to copy already existing business models, he said, particularly highlighting the country’s business accelerator program Start-Up Chile and its pre-acceleration program for startups led by female founders, The S Factory.

Referring to the social upheaval  that has affected Chile since end-October 2019, McQuade said that rather than cripple entrepreneurship, periods of disruption can be ripe with opportunity. He pointed to the example from November 2018 when an outbreak of illnesses in the U.S. and Canada was caused by a dangerous type of E. coli bacteria found on romaine lettuce. That incident led him to start his third and most successful venture, using blockchain technology for food traceability.

While in Chile, McQuade also imparted a course on entrepreneurship mentality for high school students from English-speaking schools.

See pictures of the event here and download the slides in the picture below: