«MobiliseSME has been a fantastic experience for my company and for me» – Interviewing Mondeguitta Produçoes and Yepso!

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Mariana Figueira da Silva is the CEO of Mondeguitta Produçoes, a Portuguese company that provides audio-visual communication services, and Iván Carnota is the technical director of the Spanish training company Yepso!

Together these companies decided to participate in MobiliseSME from July to October 2021. How did their collaboration go? And what did they get from this experience? They told us in the following interview:

– Tell us a bit about your Company and your professional path. Why did you decide to participate in MobiliseSME? 

I am Mariana Figueira da Silva, CEO at Mondeguitta Produçoes, a company that provides audio-visual communication services at global level. We are focused on helping companies to build strong relations with potential clients through videos, humanising the essential tools to achieve effective communication.

With our participation in this programme, we wanted to obtain a holistic vision of the European market, favour our introduction in other countries such as Spain and Belgium and enter a market that interests us, especially audio-visual communication linked to e-learning training.

– And how about you, Iván? Can you introduce yourself a bit?

My name is Iván Carnota Varela, and I am the technical director of Yepso! My professional career is linked to the field of European affairs. I finished my degree in Law and specialised in European Union studies through a MA. I enhanced this training with Philosophy studies. Subsequently, I worked in an information centre of the European Commission and the Ministry of the Economy in Spain.

After both experiences, my partner Carlos Gil and I founded Yepso!, a training company that aims to help people pass the EU competitions and get a job in the institutions. Through our training project, we use technology and educational tools to help our candidates boost their performance.

For a couple of years, we wanted to explore distance learning, but we could not advance due to various circumstances. When we found the MobiliseSME programme, we knew it was our opportunity.

– Mariana, describe the matchmaking process and the preparation of activities with the sending Company. How did the process go? 

The matchmaking process was quite simple. Both companies knew each other before because we had jointly participated in an audio-visual project for a European public administration.

After that collaboration, we talked many times about the possibility of working on a pilot of a new kind of online training. We were confident about starting, however, due to different circumstances, it became lengthy and costly to make it happen.

Once we learned about the project, possibilities, and possible implications of our participation, we decided to move forward. We sent our registration to our closest Local Contact Point, Fundación Equipo Humano, and they significantly streamlined the project. 

We had very easy communication with Yepso! (the Sending Company) and with Fundación Equipo Humano as the intermediate entity. After an interview with them, that ensured that we had all the essential information, and many conversations with Yepso! to define important aspects of the project, we just had to prepare to host them.

Mondeguitta Produçoes

– From a business point of view, how did the collaboration with the Host Company contribute to your company, Iván? Would you recommend participating in MobiliseSME? 

Our collaboration has been vital for the development of our company. We knew how well Mondeguitta Produçoes works, and it has been a fantastic experience for my company and for me. This collaboration allowed us to develop an online course that will help to scale our business model and reach new markets. The know-how provided by Mariana and her team made the process easy. It was a knowledge that we lacked, and it has helped us enormously.

After this fantastic experience, I cannot but recommend participating in MobiliseSME and, of course, I would repeat an experience like this. In fact, on a personal level, it was my first business experience in a country outside of Spain, and it couldn’t have been better.

We have not only developed high-impact audio-visual content for Yepso!, that will have a significant impact on our business model and that will contribute to improving the training for our candidates; but on a personal level, it has been an experience that has broadened my vision as an entrepreneur. We have developed new services, and I have created a great network with new partners. This experience helped me meet people with whom, I am sure, we will continue to collaborate.

– And how did this collaboration contribute to your personal development?

As a co-owner, I have had the privilege of living a double development. On the one hand, it has been very profitable for me as a co-owner since my company has developed a new service that will be key to its growth. In addition, we have established a solid collaborative relationship with the Host Company, with which we will continue to work in the future and develop new products. 

This intense but fruitful experience has been key to strengthening alliances with a company from another country that works in another language. However, these cultural factors have not been an obstacle during our stay. Instead, they have enriched us.

On the other hand, as a Yepso! worker, the stay in Portugal has been very enriching for me as well. It has given me the chance to be in a different country from where I usually develop my work with different rhythms.

I feel that the experience has given me many new tools. Until now, I have faced situations that I had not encountered in my professional career, such as having to record in a studio, getting to work with people in a language that I knew but in which I was not proficient. These circumstances made me live the experience very intensely. 

– And you, Mariana? How did the collaboration with Iván and his company contribute to your company? 

The collaboration between both entities has been very fruitful. For our part, working with Yepso! has provided us with a holistic and comprehensive perception of two priority sectors: services in the European Union and the market for training companies. We have obtained the daily experience of their team. Getting to know their professional priorities has served us to get to know our potential clients better.

For my part, I would 100% recommend participating in the programme. I had two main uncertainties regarding our participation – both were eventually solved. My first concern was about the administrative process, since I was afraid that it could be too complex and the related bureaucracy too demanding. However, the great help provided by both Fundación Equipo Humano and Yepso! made it very smooth. My other uncertainty was combining such a complex project with my day-to-day work, which is very demanding. However, the coordination has been excellent, and I managed perfectly.

From this experience, we obtained a partnership with a company of great importance in the training market on a European scale and many options to work with more companies at that level.

– Do you plan to collaborate with the Sending Company after this collaboration? If yes, how so?

We plan to continue the collaboration with the Sending Company after our participation in the programme.

With MobiliseSME, we have started a journey of collaboration that we want to continue developing together. During these months, many synergies, ideas, and projects have emerged. Yepso!, after this experience, wants to continue testing innovations and implementing them in their communication and training. From Mondeguitta, we want to keep helping them in this process.

We plan to present joint proposals for possible business opportunities at EU level and even develop new products and services on the market together. The next few months will be vital to implementing milestones. We are very confident about our following collaborations!