All-Innovate participant wins $100,000 Oxford x Yope award

It's been almost a year since participants completed the 2024 EnSpire All-Innovate programme, during which they refined their business ideas and obtained funding to test their ventures further.

We were delighted to catch up with Netzahualcoyotl Hernandez-Cruz, Postdoctoral fellow at the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering and All-Innovate alum following his success at the 2024 Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum where he won the Oxford X Yope $100,000 award.

Netzahualcoyotl reflected on this fantastic achievement, his entrepreneurial journey so far, and how the EnSpire All-Innovate programme helped to bring his award-winning startup to life.

I've always been proactive, self-motivated and interested in making a real impact on society. To achieve this goal, I've forged a research career, which has taken me to my current postdoctoral fellow position at the IBME (Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering). However, I always wondered about creating my own venture.

During my first year at the University of Oxford, I learned about the entrepreneurial ecosystem, but, as someone coming from an LMIC (lower-middle-income-country), one tends to believe that these opportunities are exclusive, and not for everyone. 

I hesitated to join any program until I was introduced to EnSpire Oxford and the All-Innovate programme during a seminar offered to postdoctoral researchers. EnSpire was my first contact with the entrepreneurial world, and I'm happy about it as it led me to realise that the entrepreneurial opportunities at the University of Oxford are truly for everyone. 

The All-Innovate programme helped me establish a foundation for understanding the entrepreneurship path and the University of Oxford's entrepreneurial ecosystem. I definitely recommend this programme to anyone who is curious and wants to know more about starting a venture, as it allows participants to explore and test a business idea while making good friends.

One year on from participating in All-Innovate, as well as other EnSpire programmes, I founded my venture, Ultrablanket and went on to win the Oxford X Yope Pitching Award at the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum (OSEF'24).

We can't wait to see what the future holds for Ultrablanket and what's next for postdoctoral researcher and entrepreneur, Netzahualcoyotl. A huge well done from all of us at EnSpire! Want to find out more about All-Innovate and follow in Netza's footsteps? Click the button below.

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