The City that Never Sleeps Meets the City of Eternal Spring

Socialatom Ventures is pleased to announce a call for applications to its global entrepreneurship program in the digital technologies. This program offers the full package for rapid international expansion from seed capital to mentorship, public relations, and technical support and takes place in two of the most fascinating and innovative cities in the Americas.

All participating teams will spend three months in Medellin, Colombia - known as the ‘city of eternal spring’ for its ideal weather and recipient of the 2013 Citi-Wall Street Journal Award for Innovative City of the Year, and one month in New York (itself a finalist in the same contest). Ruta-N, the public entity tasked with strengthening Medellin’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem, is acting as an important partner with Socialatom Ventures both in strategic advising and co-financing. Socialatom Ventures was founded by serial entrepreneur Andres Barreto, founder of multiple successful digital companies with operations in the United States and Latin America.

Teams may apply directly at http://socialatomventures.com Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, with each round of applications closing approximately one month before the teams would expect to arrive. Socialatom seeks teams with at least two full-time founders, a functional prototype with initial clients or users, and a global outlook. Medellin allows deep access to affordable talent and support for all aspects of rapid scaling, and interested founders should bring the mindset of taking full advantage of these resources and of expansion into the Latin American markets.

The Program

Each team will receive approximately $30,000 on very entrepreneur-friendly terms, and will participate in an intensive 16-week program for rapid scaling of their business. During this time, Socialatom Ventures will assist each team with housing and travel logistics, in addition to planning their four weeks with Socialatom’s New York program to take advantage of US clients, investors, and public relations.

The Mentors

This will be the first program involving Latin America to offer in-depth mentorship, technical support, and public relations from an international team that has worked with globally successful digital companies for their pan-American expansion. All teams will become part of a network of investors, business professionals, and fellow entrepreneurs and will continue their relationships with Socialatom and its partners long after the 16 weeks have concluded.

The Place

Teams will spend their time in the heart of Medellin working in the 7,000 square-feet Atomhouse. The house will offer coworking space, meeting rooms, presentation areas, coffee, snacks, games, showers, and sofa beds, and will host events and activities including hackathons, happy hours, presentations, workshops, public events, dance-offs, robot wars, and moments of quiet reflection. The Atomhouse ensures that all participants have a safe, accessible, and exciting place to pursue their dreams at all hours of the day and night.

The Medellin program will be directed by Erik Stettler, whose previous experience includes working in finance, economics, and entrepreneurship and who holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard. Stettler states that “Behind every one of our teams will be a historic network of mentors, investors, executives, public officials and journalists, and behind every one of these partners are years of dedicating their lives to offering this kind of support to the continents' brightest young talent. We are uniquely positioned to offer the world to our teams and to offer our teams to the world.”

The New York program will be directed by Natasha Petrukhin, who holds a law degree and has work experience in some of the city’s most successful digital startups. Petrukhin adds, “No other city on earth rivals New York’s diverse economic and tech ecosystem - the opportunities and access to global clients, investors, and mentors will be unparalleled. I look forward to helping our entrepreneurs over the course of 4 weeks grow their companies in such a global environment.”

For Eder Holguin, a mentor and ally of the program, promoting entrepreneurial opportunities at the intersection of Colombia and New York carries deep personal significance. Having grown up in Medellin and now a founder of several successful digital media companies in New York, Mr. Holguin’s story epitomizes the opportunities available to global entrepreneurs. “I am really honored and very grateful to be a part of such a great venture. As someone who grew up in Medellin and dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur from an early age; being able to help future entrepreneurs and become a mentor to promote young talent is the best way to give back to this wonderful community”

About Eder Holguin

Eder Holguin, who has a lengthy resume in the Online Marketing Industry, served as CRO at Virtual Fan Network, a Digital Sports Marketing Platform involved in the evolution of Sports Marketing as well as CRO at Integrate. Eder has been a serial entrepreneur, founding many companies including OnDemand Research and Iron Traffic. Eder has been nominated as one of 2013’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars by the Hispanic Coalition of NY as well as been featured as a Trendsetter by Latin Trends Magazine.

About Ideal Media

Ideal Media is a content discovery platform that attracts responsive audiences, engages them with unique content and amplifies messages through interactive channels; allowing advertisers to speak directly to their target market.

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