I had the honour and pleasure to be involved in a session organised by the Latin American port, in which eight selected start-ups presented how their solutions would help address challenges common to Latin American ports. In the end, two start-ups were selected as winners.
The event was the culmination of a 10-month process which began with the identification of challenges and moved to a phase of support for the participants who were challenged to find to focus for a business case for their solutions in Latin American ports.
Taken from the experience, I would like to share the following four observations. First, start-ups can and do make a real and positive contribution to solving the challenges faced by ports, as clearly demonstrated by the presentation of the winner of a similar competition organised by the Valparaiso Port Company the previous year.
The solution then helped to reduce truck accidents through analysis of the behaviour of drivers, benefiting not only the driver, but also society at large. Engaging with start-ups is not just ‘nice to do’ but is a core ingredient of rising to the challenges that the ports industry faces.
Second, the background of the start-ups also revealed that investing in a ‘start-up ecosystem’ pays off. Many of the competing start-ups had their roots in the efforts of Port of Valparaiso and a leading University in Valparaiso’s creation of HubGlobal (hubglobalpucv.cl/), which was formed to create conditions that encourage start-ups.
Third, the event also showed the value of providing start-ups a platform for ports. After the session various ports showed immediate interest in the services that the start-ups are developing. While conventionally we may be tempted to think that it is up to start-ups to reach out to ports, it may be just as much up to ports to reach out to start-ups.
Finally, there is also clearly a cultural/behaviour dimension to be gained from working with start-ups. They radiate energy and learning (and also sometimes lack of understanding of ‘how the industry works’ — which I perceive to be a good thing), and this energises the port authorities that often through experience have become accustomed to operating in a constrained playing field, sometimes at the expense of ‘freshness’ which start-ups can bring back.