Team:Tec-Chihuahua/EntOverview

Erwinions

Entrepreneurship

Overview

As shown above, our project meets all the requirements from a social and political point of view as an ideal practice for Human practices. On the other hand, from an economic perspective by working in the area of entrepreneurship. This, to give a solution to the various problems affecting fruit growers when facing the disease known as fire blight. Achieving this by the formulation of a biocontrol product that is effective, affordable, and can be used by anyone in the world. That is the reason why we have emphasized on a functional prototype (minimum viable product, MVP), which was developed from the value propositions obtained after a thorough market study. Taking advantage of all of those situations where the customer is not satisfied using other products available in the market. Along with the comprehensive business plan presented down below, we have an operating technology, as well as a viable and innovative business model. Both will help us determine the viability of our project in a competitive industrial environment. For all of this, it was necessary to obtain a social, technical and economic validation before starting. Technical and economic validation was achieved based on a series of documents for the entrepreneurship area and interviews with different experts in so, but also with potential customers with a great impact on the Latin American apple market.

We are aware that founding a new company involves many challenges and leads to uncertainty and fear. However, we know that just a few teams from the past editions of iGEM have been set up as startups, although there are many projects with very innovative ideas, not only from a scientific point of view but also from the commercial point of view. Therefore, we work arduously to get a deeper understanding of what led us as a team to carry out our work in entrepreneurship.

Thanks to the most important entrepreneurship program in Mexico, presented by Parque Tecnológico Nova Orión and the Tecnológico de Monterrey Business Incubator, a methodology was developed that would ensure any startup to grow its idea in the best possible way. Going beyond than just sharing our results, we obtained different tips for all iGEM teams that will complement each team´s project.


What were our key outcomes?


At the final stage of the project, we realized that a deep analysis should be implemented to notice the impact of our product as a solution of one of the most phytopathogenic diseases faced by farmers. We argued and got into the same path; there are some positive ways in which our project could be visualized. One of them, the development of a profitable business model that can be replicated by anyone thanks to the support of our mentors and by the application of the process involved with the lean method, canvas tool, and steeple format, just to mention a few.

We realized that laboratory tests were necessary to notice the biological impact that our biocontrol can cause, obtain results that corroborate our theoretical fundament established at the beginning of the project. There is no doubt that small producers and well-established companies will be so beneficiated because the way in which they solve this problem is so inefficient/poor and also highly priced. That’s why Erwinions aims to decrease the investment of the agricultors offering a preventive alternative to avoid the presence of fire blight. Therefore the use of corrective and highly priced products will not be necessary.

Also we are convinced that the efficiency provided by the existing companies will be improved by the use of our biocontrol because its design applies the fundament of the mosquito of malaria; Sterile Insect Technique SIT. Sterile-release methods are based on the distribution into the environment of large numbers of sterile insects. These insects compete against their wild counterparts; a wild female that mates a sterile male will have no viable progeny or fewer than it would otherwise have had, and so the next generation of the target population will tend to be smaller than it would otherwise have been. If a sufficient number of sterile insects can be released over a sufficient period, the target population will decline and collapse.

Thanks to the session with “La Norteñita” we were aware of the need of performing laboratory assays to validate our proposal. René Martinez is convinced about the relevance of obtaining functionality tests that endorse the efficiency of any future product. He stipulated that one of the key factors they evaluate when considering investing in a new product is its functionality through specific techniques that are already approved. He emphasized the fact that any company must show its simulation results of its new process of action, in other words, they must demonstrate the efficiency of the product with physical and visual results to become an upstanding product.

After the discovering and designing process of our business model, we established aims to remain in the market and become an established company. Therefore, our aims for middle and long-term emerged. The middle-term aim is going to be reached within five years; we contemplated the necessary production for the total area of apple at Chihuahua state. The long-term aim we expect to accomplish attached to a profitable investment margin of 40% is a break even point after a year of sales, where we could remain in the market.



References


Adama México. (2016). Cuprimicín 500 Hyper.October 28,2017, of ADAMA México Website: https://www.adama.com/mexico/es/portafolio-de-soluciones/manejo-de-enfermedades/cuprimicin-500.html

Bayer T. (2017). Serenade® Max.October 28,2017, of Crop science Bayer website: http://www.cropscience.bayer.es/Productos/Fungicidas/Serenade-Max.aspx

Bio-ferm. (2015). Blossom protect. October 28,2017, of bio-ferm website: http://bio-ferm.com/en/products/blossom-protect/

Bishoy, M.(2014). A CRISPR Way to Move Things Around.October 28,2017, of SCIENCE translational medicine Website: http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/6/243/243ec113

Conacyt.gob.mx. (2017). Innovation Stimulus Program. [online] Available at: https://www.conacyt.gob.mx/index.php/fondos-y-apoyos/programa-de-estimulos-a-la-innovacion [Accessed 29 Oct. 2017].

Dunhamm M. (2017). BIOLOGICAL CONTROL GLOBAL MARKET OVERVIEW. October 28,2017, of Dunham Trimmer international bio.intelligence Website: http://wrir4.ucdavis.edu/events/2017_SLR_Meeting/Presentations/GeneralPresentations/1%20Trimmer%20-%20Global%20Biocontrol%20Market%202017.pdf.

Garfio D. EDITOR(2015). Chihuahua has the best technological park in the whole country: Garfio. October 25th, 2017, from The Chihuahua´s Option. Website : http://laopcion.com.mx/noticia/81473

Hills G. (2016). Enterprise Assessment. October 28,2017, de Management Ltd – Business Consultancy website: http://www.potestasmanagement.com/Consultancy/category/growth/

Investopedia. (2017). Capital Investment. October 28,2017, of Investopedia website: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capital-investment.asp#ixzz4woyFwjhN

Labs, S. (2017). Grupo La Norteñita. [online] Grupolanortenita.com. Available at: http://www.grupolanortenita.com/en [Accessed 29 Oct. 2017].

Merino S. (2015). Virulence Factors of Erwinia amylovora: A Review.October 28,2017. of NCBI web site: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26057748

Mexican Government. (2016). Statistical Yearbook of Agricultural Production. 27/10/2017, from SIAP Website: http://nube.siap.gob.mx/cierre_agricola/

Negocios, E. and Lopez, S. (2017). WHAT IT IS AND WHAT GOOGLE TRENDS DOES. [online] Revista Escuela de Negocios y Dirección. Available at: https://br.escueladenegociosydireccion.com/business/marketing-digital/google-trends/ [Accessed 29 Oct. 2017].

Nufarm C. (2017). Agri-Mycin®, of Nu farm web site: J.C van Lenteren. (2008). Biological control and sustainable food production. October 28,2017, of NCBI website: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610108/

Octopus.mx. (2017). Digital Market Studies | Octopus. [online] Available at: https://octopus.mx/estudios-de-mercado-digital/ [Accessed 29 Oct. 2017].

Programme, J. (2017). Sterile Insect Technique, Insect Pest Control - NAFA. [online] Www-naweb.iaea.org. Available at: http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/ipc/sterile-insect-technique.html [Accessed 29 Oct. 2017].

Randal J. (2017). The seventh international meeting on synthetic biology . October 28,2017, of SB7.0 website: http://sb7.info/

Simple economic. (2016).Contingency definition. October 28,2017, of economy simple.net Website: https://www.economiasimple.net/glosario/contingencia

Smith,S(2016). Global Synthetic Biology Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2020 - Industry Insights by Enabling Technology (Gene Synthesis, Bioinformatics, Genome Engineering, Cloning, Mutagenesis, Gene Measurement & Modeling, Microfluidics.October 28,2017, of CISION Website: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-synthetic-biology-market-size-share-development-growth-and-demand-forecast-to-2020--industry-insights-by-enabling-technology-gene-synthesis-bioinformatics-genome-engineering-cloning-mutagenesis-gene-measurement---300225756.html

Tecnológico de Monterrey. (2015). Orión technological park. 28/10/2017, of Tecnológico de Monterrey website: http://parqueorion.com/

Van Lenteren J. (2008). Biological control and sustainable food production. October 28,2017, of NCBI Website: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610108/