Startup Africa Cape Town
Event on 2013-05-09 10:00:00

Africa 2.0 under the patronage of the Royal Danish Embassy in South Africa is proud to be hosting Start Up Africa from the 9th until the 11th of May 2013 in the city of Cape Town.�

What is Start Up South Africa all about?

Inspired by Startup Weekend, Startup Africa is a 3 days frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The weekend culminates with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback. It is aimed at inovative, dynamic and  high impact business ideas.

Why Start Up South Africa?

The rationale of the initiative is to start a Continental revolution of entrepreneurs that build new enterprises which are innovative, exciting, sustainable and, most importantly, contribute meaningfully towards the social development of communities.

Speaker

Ambassador René Dinesen  

Rene is the Ambassador of Denmark to South Africa, he played a pivotal role in bringing Startup Africa to the City of Cape Town. Rene is a veteran diplomat and administrator.Prior to his current position, he served as the Ambassador of Denmark in Afghanistan, held numerous roles in public service in Denmark including; Director Department for Stabilisation, Director, Strategy and Policy Planning Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Copenhagen as well as Counsellor Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United Nations, New York.

Event Facilitator

Jarrod Hermer

Jarrod has over 11 years’ experience in the Software Development field. Starting out developing mobile applications in the crazy start-up world and successfully raised funding in a turbulent market. In 2011 Jarrod organised and facilitated the first Startup Weekend event in Africa using his passion for the entrepreneurial spirit to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs to push through the challenges of taking an idea to prototype. Recently Jarrod joined Microsoft as a Technical Evangelist promoting all the goodness that Windows 8 and the Microsoft developer ecosystem has to offer.

 Judges

  Ezra Ndwandwe

Ezra is best known for creating and judging the SABC 2 television series The Big Break Legacy.Ezra began his career with blue-chip multinationals such as Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and SAB Miller in executive positions. As a Business Process Re-engineering expert, Ezra has a good understanding of business and what it requires to succeed including improving operation efficiencies. He is the founder and CEO of Dual Point Consulting through which he consults and lectures widely on issues of Corporate Strategy, Business Process Re-engineering. He writes for Business Day, The CEO Magazine and a number of other leadership and management publications.�

   Alan Knott-Craig

Founder World of  Avatar (Smart Apps for Dumb Phones). Former CEO, Mxit. Between 2003 and 2012 co-founded and/or funded 17 companies in the mobile consumer web sector, based and focused in Africa.In 2006 Alan was appointed Managing Director of iBurst, the third largest broadband network operator in South Africa. In 2009, Alan was named as a Young Global Leader by the World  Economic Forum.

  Martin Feinstein

Martin worked as a journalist for a number of local and international newspapers before founding the Concept Group, a marketing agency which counted Shell, SABC and SFW among its clients. He conceived South Africa's first televised music talent search, the Shell Road to Fame, and he and his long-time business partner, Carmen Granger, launched SABC TV-Talk which became the largest magazine in SA, at 1.5m copies per month. In 2001 he launched the Proudly South African campaign for Nedlac, making it a household name within two years. He then launched Enablis, a pioneering entrepreneur development network, which set up a R100-m small business fund. Today, along with Carmen, he runs Traction, a company that works with government to design and implement entrepreneurship and small business development programmes such as the Business LaunchPad, My Future My Business and the Step-Up Technology Innovation Programme. They have also started Bla Bla Bla Studios, an on-line game animation company with clients in the UK, South America and Europe. Martin was a board member of the Small Enterpriser Development Agency for 5 years, and is co-publisher of the new national small business newspaper, Small Business Connect.

 Charles Maisel

Charles Maisel has a company called Innovation Shack which focuses on innovation in any sector. These have included social enterprises such as Shanduka Black Umbrellas, Men on the Side of the Road project, Lavender in Lavender Hill, and the Green Room Trust. And businesses such as The Fundraising Academy, Indledlana Rock Roads Project, and SUP ( Start Up FUND). The core business is innovation with fresh new ideas that are then implemented and tested.

Rapelang Rabana

Coined by CNN as one of Africa’s Marissa Meyers, Rapelang is the founding CEO of Yeigo Communications, an innovative Cape Town based company that conceived, designed and developed some of the world’s earliest mobile VoIP applications.She recently founded technology-driven education company ReKindle Learning that seeks to use the power mobile and internet technology to improve learning for school-goers and corporate employees.  Rapelang was selected as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, listed by Forbes on the 30 under 30 – Africa’s Best Young Entrepreneurs, as well as Oprah Magazine on the ‘O Power List’ for 2012.

Eric Osiakwan

Eric is the executive secretary of the African Internet Service Providers Association (AfrISPA) and a Visiting Fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He was also a Visiting Fellow and Scholar at the Stanford University & Reuters Foundation Digital Vision Program in Palo Alto, California. He co-founded the Ghana New Ventures Competition (GNVC) and served as the project’s Chief Operating Officer for 2 years. From 2001 to 2003, he produced and presented “ICT World,” a radio program on the role of ICTs as a tool for accelerating growth of Ghana’s economy. Mr. Osiakwan is a member of the consulting team that developed a framework for Integrated ICT-led Socio-Economic Development Policy for the government of Ghana in 2001. Mr. Osiakwan has consulted for a number of firms, governments and international agencies in the United States, Europe and Africa, including OSIWA, BusyInternet, UNDP and the World Bank Information for Development (InfoDev) program on Open Access for Africa. Mr. Osiakwan published a research document on Ghana’s Internet Industry he  was invited by the Royal African Society to contribute ideas to Prime Minister Tony Blairs’ Commission for Africa.

Mentors Include

  Roger Norton�

Roger has worked on  projects in Social Media integration, website and product analysis, business consulting, financing the import of 750k vuvuzela’s and finally strategy and positioning for a life coach.He currently helps drive the Cape silicon initiative which is aimed at turning Cape Town into the “Silicon Valley of Africa”.Being passionately involved in tech startups, Roger has been an Ops Man at online tracking company Brands Eye, involved in projects like Easy2map.com and StartupGuide.co.za and is currently launching a new company around PYPE.com. �

Eugen Petersen

Eugen is founding partner of a South African accelerator,supporting African innovation and entrepreneurship. As former co-founder of Zando he was part of Rocket Internet - a German VC fund with over billion under management. After his master degree at LSE, Eugen entered the online space working for eBay Inc. and PayPal. He has gathered extensive  knowledge and international experience in the fields of  Business Strategy, Product Development and Online Marketing.

   Matsi Modise

Matsi is the National Executive Director of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum (SABEF). An avid entrepreneurship activist and also the co-founder of Emerge (Pty) Ltd, a business development advisory company. She has a background in Finance and her experience ranges from Investment Banking at Investec Bank Ltd, and Enterprise Development consulting for Standard Bank, Enterpriseroom, University of the Free State, Ndiza Finance and the National Empowerment Fund. She has been involved in facilitating various mentorship programmes for SMME’s in remote and rural areas of the country. She currently sits on the Free State province Land Use Advisory Board and is a member of the Institute of Business Advisors.Matsi is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.          �

     Stuart Minnaar 

Stuart currently runs Studentology, which is an online marketing and Information company that connects businesses and brands to the student market and provides students with free online services. Prior to Studentology, he moved straight from school into the engineering field and studied BScGeomatics (the study of spatial arrangement) at UCT. In 2010 he started Studentology (www.studentology.co.za) as he noticed a gap in the primitive manner in which students communicate and access information. Studentology has launched a mobile payment app for South African students called Yappo (www.yappo.co.za) which enables students to use their phone as a wallet. Stewart is and Ambassador for the National Youth Development Agency.

 Vuyisa Qabaka 

Vuyisa has experience in corporate communications, business innovation, sales and marketing. He considers himself a business leader, connector and an innovator. He is the Chief Connector at EmpowerWeb, an experiment in creating broad-based BEE groups using the Internet and social networking tools. Vuyisa is also the managing director of Abaphumeleli Business Consultants that provides business advisory services to entrepreneurship and SME networks and forums, and has conceptualized and is in the process of establishing a Financial Services Co-operative.

    Michelle Atagana

Named one of Mail & Guardian's top young South Africans in 2012, Michelle works as Managing Editor at Burn Media. She holds a Masters Degree in New Media and Journalism. She writes a column about technology in Africa for CNN, judges occasional startup competitions and spends her free time working on the final draft of her PHD.

                            Mandla Sibanda

Mandla is a founding director of Invest In Africa Holdings (Pty) Ltd (IIAH) in Johannesburg. Prior to forming IIAH, Mandla was the head of corporate development at Econet Wireless International a pan African mobile operator. Before joining Econet, Mandla started Gallium Venture Capital with AyisiMakatiani an African Internet pioneer. Gallium raised the equity capital for the BEE partners in the Bombela consortium for the Gautrain project. Mandla joined Gallium from AIG Global Investment Corporation where he was an investment analyst in the direct equity group and he was a member of the team that launched the AIG Africa Infrastructure Fund which at the time was the largest Africa focussed private equity fund.

 Prior to AIG, Mandla was an associate at JP Morgan’s Emerging Markets Sales Trading and Research.Mandla is currently a PhD candidate in Materials Science at Fitzwilliam College, the University of Cambridge. He holds an MBA in Finance and Information Systems from Stern School of Business at New York University and MSc in Materials Engineering from the University of Cape Town. He also completed the International Management Program at the London Business School.�

 What’s in it for winners?

Winners will be given 6 months office space at a Business incubator. They will have the following facilities and expertise availed to them -�

Computers, printers, fax, internet access and e-mail and office space
Business software and a database of business tools
Telephone and reception services
Bookkeeping
Mentorship program
Other companies to network with
Marketing
Inclusion in a business directory made available to corporates for business opportunities

Break down of event

Day 1
1. Entrepreneurs converge and pitch their business ideas.
2. Top 10 ideas are chosen based on popular vote.
3. Formation of working groups around top 10 ideas.

4. Participants begin working on top 10 ideas, getting customer validation, Start to formulate the business plan/revenue mode
Day 2
5. Teams focus on customer development, validation and building a minimal viable product.
6. Seasoned entrepreneurs and professionals from the private and public sector mentor the aspiring entrepreneurs
Day 3
7. Mentoring continues.
8. Teams demonstrate their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts, seasoned entrepreneurs and proven practitioners.
9. The Team start the Final pitches in front of the Judges, After all teams have pitched, judges will deliberate and select winners.Spot prizes for participants and winners will also be awarded!!!

Once you have registered, we will carry out a preliminary review of your business idea to ensure it meets our requirements. Should we need more information, we will contact you.�

FAQ

What kind of business idea/s stand a better chance of being considered and being successful during the event?

 Concepts that are a) Commercially viable b) Scalable (can be upscaled) c) Sustainable d) Making or going to make a Social Impact. �

You will receive final confirmation on or before the 25^th of April 2013.

We will endeavour to keep you informed of the progress of your application throughout the process.
    Strategic Partner       

at Block B, 3rd Floor
Woodstock Industrial Centre (Woodstock Exchange)
Cape Town, South Africa