Mexican alumnus Jorge Rivera Rovelo is a Mexican Leaders in Innovation Fellowships alumnus. He was inspired by the difficulty couples face when it comes to natural family planning, so developed an innovation to help women in emerging economies track their fertility cycles easily and effectively. We interviewed Jorge about his innovation and his experience of the LIF programme.
Can you briefly describe your innovation and tell us what inspired you to create it?
MUNAT is a female fertility monitoring and prediction device based on natural methods, which allows users to be aware of and track their fertility cycles easily and effectively, without the need for professional assistance.
The inspiration came while working on a project with a student. I was reminded of how friends of mine had struggled to conceive a baby for a long time, while my wife and I had a baby much earlier than planned. It raised the question of how to make natural family planning more effective. So, I thought, why don’t I try to help couples with this?
Family planning education and promotion is essential in emerging economies. It helps to secure the well-being and autonomy of women, while also supporting the health and development of communities.
What are the main lessons you learned through the LIF training and follow-on support?
I learned a lot of things being part of the LIF community. The first one is to believe in my own innovation, believe that it could be a real product on the market, not just a good idea.
I also gained some invaluable lessons related to regulations, finances, and negotiation skills and learned that we need resilience and mindfulness if we want to truly enter the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
I used this knowledge when I returned to Mexico and the follow-on support was highly beneficial when I came to license the technology.
What impact has LIF had on your innovation?
The LIF programme was a turning point for my innovation; I established new networks and contacts and heard from excellent speakers who shared invaluable experiences, which allowed me to consider new things. It was pivotal in the discovery that MUNAT is not only of interest to people in my region or country, but it is something that could be commercialised worldwide.
Thanks to LIF, I was able to quantify the potential market and I felt equipped to talk with potential investors and companies interested in licensing MUNAT.
What stage are you at now?
We have recently reached a licensing agreement with Volta Robotics. Achieving this agreement was not easy. It is the first time that my University has done such a thing, and to pioneer the process required defining new procedures and obtaining special permissions from different departments. However, the process was worthwhile in the end.
Now that MUNAT has been licensed, I am planning to work on the next innovation, while Volta will do some rounds of investment in order to manufacture the device and place it on the market.
What tips for success would you give to your fellow innovators and researchers?
As a researcher, I thought that entrepreneurship was not the path for me. I think many researchers feel the same, they might have excellent work that could be transformed into wonderful products, but they think “that is not for me”. However, from my experience, it is a worthwhile pursuit. So, my advice to my fellow researchers, no matter if they are from public or private universities, is to dare to take the results of your work towards a marketable product.
As for entrepreneurs in general, I just want to remind them not to be afraid to listen to the market and not to be discouraged if they hear "I don't like what you’ve shown me", because that is what leads you to improve
Anything else you would like to tell us?
To read more about the signing of the license agreement between Anáhuac Mayab University and Volta Robotics follow the links below (Spanish only).
Now that this path has been opened at my university, I hope that more colleagues dare to be entrepreneurs and commercialise the results of their research work!