El Día: Mi esposa falleció de cáncer y le prometí hacer todo para curar esa enfermedad
By Camila Figueroa, excerpt translated from Spanish
Vivek Wadhwa, a researcher in Silicon Valley, had lunch last week with former President Sebastián Piñera to tell him that there is a technology company in Concón that entrepreneurs should invest in as much as possible. Plasma Waters, Wadhwa explains, has an innovation that artificially enriches water with beneficial properties for agriculture, much like how sunlight enriches rainwater. But the most important thing, adds the professor from Carnegie Mellon and Harvard universities, is that to achieve this result, the water goes through a process where it's possible to see exactly what it contains.
"You can detect the levels of sodium, iron, mercury, lead, and anything else it may have. My thesis, and that's why I'm in Chile, is that we can do the same with blood. I'm convinced that we can see everything in the blood using this technology from a Chilean company. I'm so excited," celebrates Wadhwa, who was one of the founders of the Start-Up Chile business accelerator.
What did Piñera say? "He was very excited because he didn't know all of this. He wanted to talk to Alfredo Zolezzi, the founder of the company. He even recorded a message for him and took detailed notes about the innovation."
Did he offer his support? In the meeting, he told me five times, "Vivek, any support you need, let me know." He gave me a WhatsApp number and said he would be happy to help. This is not just for Chile; it's for the world."
Why didn't you seek help in the United States? "My wife died of cancer, and I promised her I would do everything to cure this disease. I can't do it in the United States because the medical system there is corrupt."
Corrupt? "It's about making money and keeping people sick. When you're a poor country, you have to be practical. In the United States, all the professors care about is publishing articles, whereas in Chile, India, and Latin America, all the money is spent on doing something productive, on helping people. That's how you get promotions."
What do you think of Chile? "I know Chile because I designed Start-Up Chile. It's my baby. But there's a problem with venture capital investors. No one believes that Chile can create innovations that change the world. In your country, there are people who are doing it."
Any advice for growing a company? "Companies are often organized into divisions or departments, and each one focuses on its own problems rather than those of the company. It turns out that divisions have experts, and what do those experts do? They excel at telling people what can't be done. And why do they do that? Because if technology changes, they won't be the experts anymore. All these factors come into play to prevent innovation, and that's why new companies emerge and wipe out the old ones out of nowhere.
Pixar is a good example. "Yes, Pixar has people no one believed in. What I teach is that ideas can come from anywhere in the company, even from the youngest. You have to listen to everyone and have an open mind when trying things. I don't know what your office is like, but I bet it also has that departmental and expert mindset."