After five sessions, sixteen speakers and more than 500 participants, the first UIC Barcelona Entrepreneurship series of seminars 2021 culminated yesterday with an interview with Lorena Bassas, co-founder of Top Doctors and former student of the University, who spoke about her entrepreneurial experience in the health sector.
The rector of UIC Barcelona, Alfonso Méndiz, opened the seminar with an introductory speech alluding to the University’s entrepreneurial spirit: “Creating innovative projects is part of our DNA and is a cross-disciplinary focus of many of our degree programmes”. He also stressed how UIC Barcelona “will always support entrepreneurial talent” through initiatives such as the Innovation Hub for Social Impact or the Driving Ideas Forward competition. “We want to put the University’s scientific talent in different fields of knowledge in touch with the entrepreneurial ecosystem”, he added.
Lorena Bassas gave an overview of her career up until the creation in 2013 of Top Doctors (which has just raised $13 million in its latest round of funding), including a presentation on the highs and lows she has experienced in the business world in general and in the health sector in particular.
Then, the former student was interviewed by the lecturer from the Faculty of Communication Sciences and current news director of Catalunya Ràdio, Francesc Cano, who is also a former UIC Barcelona student. During the conversation, Bassas reflected on the importance of networking with the right people, learning from your mistakes and finding the right balance between risk and recklessness: “An entrepreneur is a courageous risk-taker, and we often have to make decisions that affect the future of the company”. She also described the challenges she has had to overcome as a woman and a mother throughout her career, and praised entrepreneurs for their ability to “create value and generate wealth”.
The Entrepreneurship series of seminars is supported by the FEDER-OTRI Fund and is organised by the UIC Barcelona Alumni & Careers Department and the Vice-Rectorate for Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer. The event was free to attend, and was held online during for the first four sessions and in blended format (both online and in person) for the final session. The organisers have already confirmed that they are working on a second series of lectures on Entrepreneurship for 2022.
Watch the full interview here.
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