The partnership is designed to support the sustainability of entrepreneurship in Mexico and, in the long-term, innovation and business transfer between the United States and Mexico and globalization of Mexican startups.

The partnership was developed as addereMX’s founder and CEO, Mr. Ricardo Valencia, spent a month with Idea Foundry through the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) from mid-September through mid-October. The YLAI Fellowship is a program from the U.S. Department of State, which brings entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean to cities in the U.S. to learn about models here to advance their ventures at home and support social and economic development in their countries. GlobalPittsburgh, the local partner of this initiative, arranged the Fellowship for Valencia with Idea Foundry. Throughout the Fellowship, Valencia and the Idea Foundry team identified similarities in their missions and opportunities to collaborate which would highlight the strengths of both organizations.

“My time spent with Idea Foundry helped me rethink the model for services of addereMX, turning from incubation towards acceleration services which support sustainability and growth.” said Valencia. “Through this partnership and the support of Idea Foundry we are looking forward to filling this gap in services for entrepreneurs in regions of Mexico.”

“Quality entrepreneurial development services which support long term growth are what Idea Foundry has been doing for 16 years.” said Mr. Michael Matesic, President and CEO of Idea Foundry. “We saw in Rick and his company a strong partner to help support this mission and strengthen our relationships in Mexico.” Idea Foundry has previously worked in Mexico, as one of 3 Accelerators chosen to participate in the POSiBLE program in 2014 through the support of Nacional Monte de Piedad and Televisa Foundation. Idea Foundry is planning ongoing work with addereMX throughout the year as addereMX adds acceleration services to their model.