The Junior Enterprise

Around 1994, already halfway through the degree, I started hearing a lot of buzz about the computing junior enterprise at UFMG, UFMG Informática Júnior. Some of my friends, people I respected a lot, were actively involved, which piqued my curiosity. I started showing up at a few meetings to understand what it was all about. I discovered that the junior enterprise was an association formed by students to offer IT services, working as a kind of practical lab for the course: real projects, real clients, real responsibilities.

One of those meetings was the general assembly to elect a new board. I was just there watching, but it looked like there was a shortage of candidates willing to take on the responsibility. At some point, two colleagues I greatly admired, Kênio and Senna, came over to talk to me and tried to convince me to run. I had never considered the idea, but the fact that two people I respected were encouraging me made me give it serious thought. I ended up agreeing, with the promise they’d help me with whatever was needed.

We were elected. The board ended up being me, Tim, and Zé Albano. We soon hit the first problem: we were all extremely busy with internships, classes, teaching assistantships, girlfriends, and even, for one of us, a second degree being pursued in parallel. Finding a common time for meetings was almost impossible. The solution was unorthodox but effective: we started holding meetings on Saturdays at a pizzeria near Praça da Assembleia. There, with pizza and beer on the table, we managed to keep the company running.

We tried a few improvements, but many were stopped by the university’s bureaucracy. One example was the request for a phone line so clients could contact the company. We took the proposal to the faculty board, but it was rejected out of fear of misuse. On the other hand, we achieved one important win: the computing student council was inactive at that time, so we negotiated the use of its room for the junior enterprise. We also got the formal registration, the accounting, and all the paperwork in order. When we left, we left everything organized.

Even with limitations, a few projects came up. Zé Albano handled most of them, developing systems in Clipper for small businesses, including a vaccine-tracking system for a veterinary clinic. Gisele, my girlfriend at the time, also took on some jobs, offering Microsoft Word and Office courses for small companies — something much needed in an era when only a few people had a computer at home.

We also talked to alumni who had become entrepreneurs. Many of them said they wanted to support the junior enterprise, but they wanted to operate like a traditional consultancy: receive a request, agree on a deadline and budget, and start the work immediately. That was incompatible with the volunteer nature of the junior enterprise. No student was required to take part. For each project, we had to ask who had the time and interest at that exact moment. The effort to put teams together was significant and didn’t always work out. That limitation prevented longer-lasting partnerships and drove some supporters away.

After a year, the next election rolled around. With each of us already close to graduation and thinking about our own plans, we decided not to run again. That’s how our time at UFMG Informática Júnior came to an end.

Today, looking back, I think our biggest failure was not managing to engage more students and bring more people into the company. But on a personal level, I learned a lot: leading a volunteer team, juggling impossible schedules, and trying to keep an organization running was a valuable exercise.