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Fortalecer tu marca a través de la narración digital

El pasado mes de Agosto durante el programa de AWE: Storytelling Digital para fortalecer tu marca para mujeres emprendedoras, compartimos la importancia de crear tu propia narrativa; vista desde la experiencia propia de nuestra fundadora de Cyntia Hellen:

“Yo salí desde pequeña de mi país y las historias, a veces, eran la única manera para conectarme con mi cultura, mi país y quién soy yo” - Cynthia Hellen

El storytelling o narración es el arte de contar historias para atraer a una audiencia, y en el mundo digital podemos darnos cuenta a través de diferentes plataformas y redes sociales lo poderoso que es este método de aprendizaje. Ya sea en un “storytime” de TikTok o un “Live” o fotografía en Instagram o en cualquier otro medio digital constantemente estamos escuchando y viendo historias.

Ahora, sabemos que hay de historias a …HISTORIAS, por este motivo las personas y empresas que saben utilizar el storytelling a su favor podrán conectar con mayor profundidad con su audiencia.

Pierde el miedo. quizá pienses…¿Para qué me querrán  escuchar a mi? o Mi historia no es lo suficientemente buena. Quizá hay gente con el mismo problema que tienes y no han encontrado con quien identificarse, Nunca lo sabrás si no lo pones a prueba.

Y te preguntarás, ¿Cómo el Storytelling digital me puede ayudar con mi campaña de Crowdfunding?

Contar historias ayudará a tu audiencia a conectarse y sentirse identificado con tu marca de está forma será más fácil qué te apoyen en tus campañas si verdaderamente creen en ti, y por esto hemos creado 5 elementos clave que debe tener un buen Storytelling:

Sencillo: Las buenas historias son fáciles de entender.

Emotivas: La mayoría de las memorables tienen humor, dolor o alegría.

Veraz: Los narradores creen en lo que cuentan y son sinceros consigo mismos y con su público.

Real: Las buenas historias son experiencias de primera mano que el narrador ha presenciado realmente.

Válidas: Independientemente del tamaño de la audiencia, una buena historia funciona para cualquier público.

Aunado a diversas estrategias de crowdfunding, sabemos que con estos elementos base podrás crear una gran historia para tu marca que inspire a otros para así levantar capital en tu campaña de Crowdfunding.

Para conocer mejor cómo levantar capital en tu campaña de Crowdfunding y en qué consisten nuestros programas en RYLEN, no te pierdas nuestro próximo webinar gratuito donde compartiremos algunas de las herramientas clave para escalar tu negocio.

Un agradecimiento especial al Departamento de Estados Unidos en las embajadas de Nicaragua, Bolivia y Ecuador por esta maravillosa oportunidad de compartir con mujeres fantásticas llenas de sueños y metas.

Autor: Monserrat Contreras García

Digital Marketing Consultant and Administrator for RYLEN

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AWE Connect: Accelerate your Business

This past International Women’s Day (March 8, 2022), RYLEN launched a 3-part course series called “AWE Connect: Accelerate your Business” for the US State Dept’s Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE). This course which had guest speaker Jackie Hyland explored, mapped and scaled small and medium size businesses in Latin America.

Only a selected group of AWE alumni, from Latin American countries, were part of this training program. The course helped attendees define an actionable idea to improve their businesses going forward.  It was also an opportunity for women from different cultures to exchange ideas and create new strategic alliances, promoting regional cohesion of the AWE brand and greater engagement among AWE alumni communities in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA).

Attendees walked away with a newfound understanding of the main challenges in their businesses. Giselle Moscoso from Ecuador and many others expressed their immense gratitude towards course facilitator Cynthia Hellen, guest speaker Jackie Hyland and US Embassy partners

“Thanks to Cynthia and Jackie for sharing their knowledge with us, and especially to the embassies in the different countries for continuing to believe in us!!! We have been given wings to fly high, not even the sky's the limit!”

We like to thank the US State Dept and the Embassies in (Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Nicaragua) Latin America for partnering with us.

If you are a Founder of a small to medium size business and need tools, mentorship,  or coaching, RYLEN has a program for you.

More details soon to come.

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Tendencias Digitales 2022

¿Tu negocio cuenta con herramientas para la era digital tras la pandemia?

En nuestro programa Transformación Digital 2022 en colaboración con Espabílate Consulting Group® exploramos las areas de oportunidad y las nuevas tendencias en tecnología e innovación para emprendedores Venezolanos.

La transforrmación digital se enfoca en el cliente cada vez más y para poder satisfacer sus nuevas necesidades, tanto las grandes y pequeñas empresas deben explorar sus ventajas competitivas y hacerlas relucir con ayuda de soluciones digitales.

¿Tu modelo de negocio responde a las demandas de tus clientes y tus grupos de interés (nicho)?

En RYLEN estamos seguros que en 2022 las empresas que no se adapten a la digitalización, no serán capaces de alcanzar el ritmo de sus competidores.

Te contamos sobre algunas de las nuevas tendencias:

Data Journey: transformación de  datos en información relevante. ie. Spotify

Minería de procesos: extraer datos de todos los sistemas para medir lo que ocurre en los procesos, poder analizarlos y conocerlos en detalle, identificando y evaluando las barreras o ineficiencias que puedan existir. ie. Pizza place

IA generativa: Tareas como la creación de código de software, aceleración de ciclos de I+D para el desarrollo de nuevos productos o el marketing orientado al cliente. ie. Self driving car

Hiper-automatización: utiliza tecnologías de inteligencia artificial (AI), aprendizaje automático (ML) y automatización robótica de procesos (RPA). Con estas técnicas las empresas pueden conseguir, no solo aumentar la productividad y reducir costes.

¿Cuál de estas tendencias conocías?

Estamos trabajando en un nuevo programa creado para ti, adaptado a las tendencias de cada sector… Suscribete a nuestro newsletter para ser el primero en enterarte.

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An Initiative to Empower Women Entrepreneurs

Leading European crowdfunding platform, Ulule, has partnered with SMPLCT Lab, New York-based socially conscious lab, and New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE), to empower women entrepreneurs.

For Women's History Month, we’re shining the spotlight on a selection of women entrepreneurs who seek funds for a project! Participate in our "Pitch Pitch Women Entrepreneurs" initiative and you’ll benefit from free coaching to run your crowdfunding campaign and pitch at a special event celebrating women entrepreneurship in New York, on March 27, 2019!  

Each month, Ulule puts the spotlight on creators, makers, and entrepreneurs who need to fund their campaigns with our Pitch Pitch nights in various cities around the world! Participate in our upcoming Pitch Pitch if you’re a creator who wants to crowdfund your project!

Benefits are:

Specialized and personalized coaching to prepare your crowdfunding campaign

A workshop to help you create your Ulule page and launch strategy

The opportunity to pitch your project in front of Pitch Pitch crowd during a fun-filled night dedicated to women entrepreneurs

The chance to showcase your products / service / project to the crowd at a booth during the Pitch Pitch night

Exposure on our Pitch Pitch website and in our social media

The chance to win extra grants

Deadline to launch your crowdfunding campaign is March 27, 2019. Apply to crowdfund your project at https://pitch.ulule.com/en/nyc-1/

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Two Female Engineers Are Helping Newborn Babies Survive and Thrive

(Image credit: Neopenda)

Sona Shah and Teresa Cauvel are cofounders of Neopenda, a global health tech startup striving to engineer healthcare solutions that give newborns in low-resource settings the healthy lives they deserve. 

Shah and Cauvel met at a Masters Biodesign course at Columbia University. It was there that they started thinking about newborn mortality and why it is so much higher in low-resource settings than it is in the US. After much research and interviews, they came up with Neopenda, a revolutionary, low-cost, low-power wearable sensor that continuously monitors newborns' key vital signs.

In April 2016, the SMPLCT Lab team partnered with The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University to judge at 2016 Columbia University Women Entrepreneurs Pitch Competition (WE Pitch). Here is where Sona Shah, Co-Founder of Neopenda, presented Neopenda and won 1st Place at WE Pitch. Cynthia Hellen, Founder of SMPLCT lab recently had a chance to catch up with Sona, and talk startup-life, being a female engineer and the future of Neopenda.

Cynthia Hellen: Where did the idea of Neopenda come from?

Sona Shah: The idea of Neopenda started while my confounder and I were taking a Masters Biodesign course at Columbia University. The course was designed to identify a problem and need, interview key stakeholders, brainstorm solutions, and create a prototype to help solve the problem. We started thinking about newborn mortality and why it is so much higher in low-resource settings than it is in the US. After interviewing many stakeholders and conducting a lot of research, we found that there are too many critically ill newborns and not enough healthcare workers to care for them. We then came up with the idea of a low-cost wearable device that can monitor the vital signs of newborns, and alert when a newborn is in need of immediate attention, so that resources-including nurses’ time-can be used more efficiently and effectively.

Cynthia Hellen: You were a Columbia University student and building a business at the same time. How did you manage both academic and startup life?

Sona Shah: It was tough, but Columbia was a very supportive environment for building a business. While our efforts were mainly focused on Neopenda during our final semesters at Columbia, we valued our academic life at Columbia. We were able to directly apply skills and knowledge we gained in courses to our device and business. Columbia also offered many resources that enabled us to continue our business outside of the Columbia realm- including funding from the Columbia Venture Competition and mentorship.

(Image credit: Neopenda)

Cynthia Hellen: After graduating Columbia, what gave you the push to continue with Neopenda?

Sona Shah: My co-founder, Teresa, and I knew that we wanted to continue Neopenda after returning from our first trip to Uganda in September 2015. We had already completed the course where Neopenda began, and continued to work on Neopenda throughout the summer on top of our internships and research jobs. We thought that what we were really missing was the true understanding of whether our device would have a significant impact in a low-resource setting, such as Uganda. We used the funding we received from the Columbia Venture Competition to travel to Uganda and visit many different hospitals. The validation from stakeholders was overwhelming and inspiring- we came back confident that our solution could greatly improve newborn health outcomes. Since then, Teresa and I have been working on Neopenda full time and are committed to getting our solution to the hospitals that need it.  

Cynthia Hellen: Why is Neopenda so important to you?

Sona Shah: I spent 3 months in a rural community in Western Kenya immediately after completing my undergraduate studies, where I was introduced to a beautiful culture that was unfortunately not as privileged as I was growing up. Since then, I’ve been passionate about providing healthcare solutions to these communities, where too many newborns are suffering and dying from preventable causes. While I fully understand the daunting challenges in creating technologies for low-resource settings, I didn’t think there were enough people focusing their efforts on this neglected part of the world. I’m committed to changing that, through Neopenda.  

Cynthia Hellen: What has Neopenda accomplished up to this date?

Sona Shah: Since the idea of Neopenda began in January 2015, we’ve been able to create our first generation device that will be used in our upcoming pilot studies in Uganda. We’ve raised just over $500,000 in funding to continue our work. We’ve participated in an accelerator program called Relevant Health, that helped us develop our MVP and business plan. We’ve established and strengthened several partnerships, including with the Uganda Pediatrics Association and St. Francis Nsambya, a hospital in Uganda where we will perform our first pilot studies. We’ve earned some key validation and recognition, including features from Global Citizen, the Washington Post, and Forbes. While we have a long road ahead of us, we are excited about the progress we’ve made in just a short amount of time.

Cynthia Hellen: What has been the biggest challenges of building a social enterprise?

Sona Shah: Like all startups, we’re challenged to secure the funding to see our company through the arduous early years, especially with the high costs of product development and manufacturing for a hardware/software product. There’s a lot of risk-and forgone salary-when you take the leap to build a startup and the lifestyle can be challenging at times; though completely worth it. It also can be hard, with a social enterprise like ours where our target market is across the world, to stay laser focused on our mission and users. It’s easy to get distracted by all the things that are going on, and lose sight of the reality in Ugandan hospitals for a bit. We try very hard to embed our values and mission in everything that we do as a company, and stay in constant communication with our partners and friends on the ground in Uganda.

Cynthia Hellen: You serve infants that are thousands of miles away. What about serving infants here in the states?

Sona Shah: Our mission is to bring impactful solutions to vulnerable, underserved populations. In Uganda, the neonatal mortality rate is 4.75 times the rate in the United States, and approximately 80% of newborn deaths are from preventable causes. In the United States, deaths from preventable causes have been very nearly eliminated. Hospitals in wealthy nations are well equipped to monitor and treat critically ill newborns, and while we are interested in pursuing some consumer and/or niche clinical applications of our product in the states, our primary focus is to serve low-resource settings where hospitals don’t have anything like what we are building and it will have a huge impact.

Cynthia Hellen: What would be something you have learned being a woman in technology?

Sona Shah: We’ve learned that in tech and entrepreneurship settings we will more often than not be the minority, and have to be fearless and persistent. We’ve also learned that women’s support of each other is invaluable and empowering; from our peers, mentors, and organizations working tirelessly to balance the scales.

(Image credit: Neopenda)

Cynthia Hellen: What drives you to wake up and do what you do?

Sona Shah: I love being able to spend my time and energy doing something meaningful and mission-driven. It is very fulfilling to be able to see and shape every aspect of our product and business, and see it through from an idea to a product with palpable impact. Of course, there is always so much to learn, which is part of the fun - we get to dig our hands into so many different areas that I didn’t know much about before. I’m proud of how far we have come in the past year, and grateful for the opportunity to be helping solve important problems and saving lives.

Cynthia Hellen: How do you balance your time with your family and business?

Sona Shah: It’s certainly not easy to start a company, but it’s a lot easier when you have a supportive family. I couldn’t be more thankful for my family and friends and the support they’ve given. It’s very easy to get caught up in the startup life and make your company the only thing you focus on. But I’ve learned that it’s not healthy- for myself or for Neopenda- to do that. Everyone needs time to rejuvenate, and friends and family are my sources for that. You have to find the right balance, and everyone’s balance is different. Neopenda and my family are equally important to me, and both are very intertwined.  

Cynthia Hellen: Where do you see Neopenda in 5-10 years?

Sona Shah: Our vision is for Neopenda to thrive as a global health technology company focused on newborn health. In 5-10 years, we hope to have proven and commercialized our vital signs monitor product in Uganda and many other low and middle income countries, and to be developing other innovations from our pipeline.

Cynthia Hellen: What is your message to those who are looking to start a social enterprise or simply use their skills to create change in the world?

Sona Shah: You can do it. You’ll never work harder in your life, but you’ll also never be happier. It is such a rewarding experience full of opportunities, challenges, sleepless nights, and smiles that can’t be forgotten.