Alexandre Moura’s column: “The spark” of Paraíba
An initiative of MCTI – Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and FINEP – Agency for Financing Studies and Projects, in partnership with CNPq – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development and CONFAP – National Council of State Foundations for Research Support, “Centelha aims to encourage the creation of innovative ventures and to spread the entrepreneurial culture in the United States”.
The program offers training, funding and support to turn ideas into successful businesses. Specifically, in Paraíba, Centelha is led by FAPESQ – Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado da Paraíba, and in the 2022 edition (Centelha II) it is in “Phase 3”, after selecting 39 projects from startups directly and another 19, on the waiting list.
Highlight for Startups: LAN construction; INXEPA and DI FARIA with the support of UNIFACIS and SENAI-PB. In the case of SENAI, the support is through “HUB PB”, a pre-acceleration program, the aim of which is to encourage entrepreneurship and the local ecosystem startups.
Salary survey in the national ICT segment
A very interesting research is conducted every year by the company “P&S Consultoria”. This is the “National Survey of Compensation and Benefits of the ICT Segment” (Information and Communication Technology) which, since 2017, answers a series of questions about “Human Resources” used by Brazilian ICT companies.
For example, a question like: What is the trend of ongoing difficulties in recruiting and retaining the workforce?
This and other issues are addressed in a study by P&S Consultoria, as “Brazilian companies must follow trends to adapt their compensation and benefits policies to the current scenario.”
On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that remote work is consolidated, so companies of different sizes and locations compete for ICT work with national and international companies (headquartered anywhere in the world).
It is worth noting that the “competition for professionals” is a major difficulty for small and medium-sized technology companies around the world.
You can get more information about the survey and how to participate at www.otonicunha.com.br
Banks and shopping twitter
In last week’s column, I brought up the topic of the new “soap chapter” of purchasing twitterby entrepreneurs Elon Musk. Now there is another obstacle, which is not legal but financial, to complete the purchase.
A consortium of banks under American leadership Morgan Stanley and Bank of America and by the British Barclays Plcagreed to make about US$13 billion in financing available to the entrepreneur as part of the payment for the purchase twitter.
It turns out that the idea of the banks was to quickly, after closing the deal (which has not happened yet, and it is not known if it will happen), to “sell that debt” to investors.
Along with delaying the sale (including a US court hearing) and creating financial losses for the controlling company twitterthe consortium will keep the available amount on its balance sheets until there is renewed investor interest in the business.
It turns out that when the financing was arranged, interest rates were low, and now they have skyrocketed, making the “cost of money” much higher than initially expected.
In short: “Rising interest rates and the current volatility of the US market have led investors to stay away from high-risk trades, such as buying Twitter”.
So, the “hot potato” of the business and the inherent interest, at least for now, are in the hands of the banks.
This “job” is becoming more and more complicated.
Brazilian rocket
The first “Rocket made 100% in Brazil” was launched this week. Operation named “Santa Branca” by the FAB – Brazilian Air Force, the launch took place from the CLA – Alcântara Launch Center, located in the state of Maranhão.
The rocket is a suborbital vehicle (spacecraft that reaches the “boundary” that limits the Earth’s atmosphere and space) model VSB-30, from the “Sonda” family of rockets, developed by IAE – Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço, “with Brazilian production and 100% national load capacity”, which has “stages with a solid drive, rotationally stabilized and capable of transporting loads of up to 400 kg, at altitudes of 270 km”.
The VSB-30 on that mission carried the “Suborbital Microgravity Platform Qualification Model (MQ-PSM) Payload Module.”
With the certification obtained from this launch, the PSM will be used to perform experiments in a microgravity environment. (With information “Air Force Agency”).
