
10 minute read
Business & Development
Mexico, spearhead of the scientific economy in Latin America
Interview with Rogelio Marín
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Mentor, Angel Investor and Orchestrator of 100% Mexican scientific and technological-based ventures. Telecommunications and Electronics Engineer, graduated from the National Polytechnic Institute; business consultant for 30 years and founder of the movement from Rómpela a la Mexicana.
Movement that disseminates and enables Mexican scientific and technological entrepreneurship.
1. What is the objective of the Rómpela a la mexicana project?
The project was born with a concern, in the first instance, to return to my country what was offered to me at the time and, in turn, try to enable something else, that I did not find at that time. I started entrepreneurship at the age of 21; in the process, I found a very important gap of support for scientists or researchers who wanted to undertake projects and who for one reason or another, although they tried, did not find the spaces or the ways to do it. I realized that there were many factors in the different circles that surround entrepreneurship, so I set out to explore the whys to help the realization of the projects, as a way to give back what was offered to me.
Along the way what I built was a purpose; what I have learned over 30 years is that it costs the same effort to do something small as to do something very big, so I set out to do something to transform the economy and the economic model of our country, aligned with the theme of an economy based on knowledge, scientific research and technological development. And for that purpose, we built our objectives. The concept of Rómpela a la Mexicana arose from the idea that we always end up “breaking” it with an initial and impetuous effort, but along the way, for some reason, that effort is diluted; we are very good at helping in times of crisis but when we have to do it sustainably or constantly, something happens to us along the way, and this happens in many areas, such as football, business, family, and so on.
The purpose of Rómpela a la mexicana is the transformation of our economic model and among our objectives is to build by 2025 at least 10 success stories of scientific entrepreneurship that are inserted in the market, either nationally or globally, and by 2030 to have at least one scientific-technological based company valued at one billion dollars.
The concept of unicorns has been heard a lot in the field of entrepreneurship, in fact we have several in Mexico, such as Bitso, Kavak, some Fintech, but we do not hear anything from science-based companies, which undoubtedly exist.
2. What are the keys to achieving commercial success in scientific entrepreneurship?
Our own experience and that of many colleagues who are involved in the subject of entrepreneurship tells us that there are two major profiles: the scientific entrepreneur or the scientist per se, who has the philosophy of “first I think, then I exist and then I do”, and the traditional entrepreneur, who thinks “first I do it and then I think”, that is, first I throw myself and on the fly I compose. Our Latino culture works like this, we use a lot of effort, impetus and desire to get ahead in the beginning.

We give as an example the traditional entrepreneur, responsible for these constructions valued at a lot of money known as unicorns, which are few in Mexico (we have eight only for now), but we have family businesses of great ancestry that are surely well known, such as Bimbo, Femsa, and so many other family businesses that have evolved over the years and that have this profile, that is, they launch and see how they get ahead. The scientist, on the other hand, has another profile, but not because it is different means that he cannot do it, you simply have to focus the effort. So, what we have to do is enable the scientist to the elements so that “first I think then I am” is very fast and we are not in the famous saying that “too much analysis generates paralysis”, in other words, yes you have to analyze things through hard data, but you do not have to wait too long, and less today with so much technology and so many enablers.
Currently, human health has benefited from many accelerators at the scientific level, because before there were tests and too many internal processes to get a vaccine or an antibiotic; now there are even regulations that allow you not even to test on animals but through a computer or digital tests. Time has thus been shortened; obviously, the times of Nature are not the same as ours, but we can help, that is the big difference to being able to make a scientific venture can be close enough to a traditional venture that is successful. For this, we have to make a change of mentality in the scientist so that finally his entrepreneurship transcends.

3. You recently mentioned the knowledge-based economy, in broad strokes, what does it mean and why is it essential to start applying it?
The general concept of the knowledge-based economy has to do with how to build economy, wealth, abundance or economic stability in a country or a region from science, research and formal knowledge; there is ample evidence that countries that base their economy on it have greater resistance and resilience to economic crises, now we saw it in the pandemic. Such countries evolve to their generations, not only repeat cycles or mistakes; knowledge is not only represented by the scientific and technological sector, but also by the learning of the past, of history in order to evolve and build the future based on knowledge and the maturity that knowledge allows.
4. What is your method of supporting entrepreneurship and investment in science and technology?
The first thing we do is work with the scientist, identify the one who wants to undertake, and start involving him in the field of entrepreneurship. It is not a matter of turning his back and putting him in courses, no, we are going to jump into the pool together and take him to the arena of entrepreneurship. In parallel we work with the industry; we have to let the national industry know that there is talent and that solutions can be developed to their needs, with some additional resources that surely today we do not have as available as other countries, such as our northern neighbors or China, so we must build that link and establish that an investment is not only the solution to an industrial need but also the transformation of a national economy. In the same way, we have to link the other extremely important component which is investment.
Both investment funds, angel investors and entrepreneurs themselves have to bet on you; just as they bet on investment from a digital financial company, or a car marketplace, they should also understand why it is important to invest in a scientific venture. The great challenge is that the investor bets on the entrepreneur, not necessarily on the project.

5. What are the strengths of Latin America for the development of scientific projects?
DDefinitely, the greatest strength we have as a nation is talent. The issue of talent drain has two approaches: that talent that does not find the space or fertile land to develop and goes to another country, and probably stays there, and the talent that ends up being employed in a place where it knows that it will be able to do what it likes, which is pure research. But it will give the benefit to others. We believe on the other hand that there is a third reality, and it is the talent that is in Mexico or that even goes to another country, but from its trench can contribute to building scientific entrepreneurship in Mexico. After the pandemic, what we saw was a capacity for unity between scientists and researchers, especially young people, to create community and to feel united and not unprotected. There were a lot of dynamics and they started to build things from scratch, as well as the purpose of building something for the benefit of our country.
For us these are the engines of the movement and such circumstances should not be wasted; someone must do something because if the same thing is not going to happen as always, the efforts are going to be diluted and the young people are going to end up as usual, leaving the country or doing extraordinary things for others, or they stay here at the desk, which is not bad because pure scientific research must continue to exist, but we believe that those kids who bring the seed of wanting to do something more, of doing entrepreneurship, we should not leave them alone and we should help them.
Speaking of the amount available to invest in ventures, in recent years about 15 billion dollars have been made available for investments, not only scientific; only last year the investment ended in about 8 billion dollars at the Latin American level and for this year there will be another one more similar, so we are in the eye of the hurricane, in the eye of investments as a country and as a region, and a piece must be destined to the scientific sector.

Our goal is to put scientific entrepreneurship in the spotlight of the different actors so that they realize that it can be done and decide to invest in these projects. In the end, when you do scientific research, even if it’s for commercialization, you know that the impact is going to be global. For example, if we find a way to make clinical trials more accessible, or that you do not have to leave home now with so much technology, or if we find a way to identify cervical cancer more quickly or effectively, the benefit is global because tomorrow it will be replicated around the world. And the goal is that, that it exists for everyone and that it is accessible because science allows it.
Rómpela a la Mexicana is a movement that we want to encompass all Mexicans both inside and outside the country, and these scientists who have this need to know that there is a space that can receive them, that there is a network that will accompany them and help them and that together we can do more things than if we do it alone.
Official Website: rompela.mx
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