“I was very, very nervous and it was very complicated for me because of all the projects that we have that are Smart Bets,” Nycollas said. “This was an opportunity for them to pay attention to Brazil and the work that we’re doing in favelas and with students.”
Nycollas pitched an online course teaching entrepreneurship and classical liberal principles, including private property rights, with the goal of reaching 10,000 students. In turn, Students for Liberty Brasil aims for the course to become a pipeline for future student leaders and activists.
Investors in New York clearly liked Nycollas, Yuri, and Giovanni’s plan. Students for Liberty Brasil took home the top pitch competition prize of $50,000. The team is also currently competing for the $25,000 Smart Bets Impact Award, which goes to the most impactful Smart Bets organization in the year following their pitch.
Standing Out from the Crowd
Despite the continued growth of the freedom movement in Brazil, groups like Students for Liberty Brasil face many challenges from both the left and the right of the country’s political leadership.
“Brazilian society has this problem that they always go for the populist strongman and don’t tend to think for themselves,” Nycollas said. “They believe that they should run to the big promises and the big results that these guys promise they can provide, but can’t.”
But by making long-term investments in the country’s young people and working-class communities, the team from Students for Liberty Brasil is nonetheless changing hearts and minds. They say assistance and professional development resources from Atlas Network have been crucial ingredients to their success.
“Every time we partner with Atlas Network, we have the same result,” Yuri said. “We are able to go further than we imagined at the beginning because of their support.”