Entrepreneurship
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4 factors to consider before signing with an accelerator
If you were starting a business 20 years ago, you'd typically spend most of your time running around town searching for customers, investors, and mentors. In a single day, you might only have time for one meeting with a customer and another with an investor. If you were lucky, you could squeeze in a meeting with a mentor. Carving out time to work on your actual product generally meant sacrificing sleep. In the mid-2000s, accelerators such as Y Combinator and Techstars changed the startup world. Instead of founders having to go out to visit mentors, investors, and customers, accelerators made it possible for these...
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I launched 5 startups in 2016. Here’s why, how, and what I learned
This year I launched five startups from nowhere. Here, I’ll tell you how it happened; how I ended up venture building before I knew what a venture builder was, how I manage to get through two lawsuits in the space of six months, and how I raised US$7 million without telling investors what they were investing in. How I began Towards the end of 2014, the Malaysian property market was looking as dead as a dodo, (not good for my property development company), so I started looking for something to keep myself busy. My last tech venture had been back in 2010...
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10 defining moments that shaped the 2016 SA startup ecosystem
2016 was the year where fake news was real and real news was fake. We endured motions of no confidence, the Saxonwold Shebeen, inverted Springbok rugby records, sticky Board members, rogue units, rogue presidents, Trump cards, prophets of doom, doomed profits and a cold and broken Hallelujah! But you gotta have faith… Through it all South African entrepreneurs held their heads up high, focused on execution and kept grinding out growth strategies. While access to risk capital is always a scarcity, local startup investors continued to back these entrepreneurs. With our politicians constantly negotiating with themselves, someone had to...
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5 traits that define entrepreneurial success
Being your own boss can be an exciting prospect. But do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? Although there is no "one size fits all" theory for entrepreneurial success, there are certain characteristics that are essential in becoming a successful entrepreneur. All successful business magnets, from Enzo Anselmo Ferrari to William Henry 'Bill' Gates, share some common traits with one another. Here are five key characteristics that you must possess - or develop - to realise your entrepreneurship dream successfully. 1. Resilience & Adaptability The entrepreneurial journey is expected to dish out one challenge after another - not...
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Start Here: a book for entrepreneurs by Roger Norton [Part 2]
In part one of our coverage of the entrepreneurial book, Start Here: A Quick Guide to Building Startups, we spoke to author Roger Norton about his work. Norton was also kind enough to allow us to publish an extract from the book as well. As mentioned in the previous piece, it's not often that entrepreneurs write books based on their experiences. Norton has done just that with Start Here, which lists the steps that entrepreneurs need to follow in order to take their idea to a business. Over the years, Norton has founded two startups, worked with 10 others, and has been involved...
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Start Here: a book for entrepreneurs by Roger Norton [Part 1]
It's not often that entrepreneurs write books about their experiences; a strange thing considering the wealth of knowledge they accumulate over the years. South African entrepreneur Roger Norton has decided to do just that with his book Start Here: A Quick Guide to Building Startups. Over the years, Norton has founded two startups, worked with 10 others, and has been involved with the Silicon Cape Initiative. He currently heads up startup studio Playlogix. In Start Here, Norton writes about all of the steps that entrepreneurs need to follow in order to take their idea to a business. An interview with Roger Norton Ventureburn had a chance...
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Do you have what it takes to raise your own venture capital?
You've got an idea for a startup. You think it's brilliant, but you don't have any money to get it off the ground. What do you do? If you're like most entrepreneurs, you seek early-stage funding from a capitalist. These capitalists have a lot of money and they aren't afraid of risk – within reason. Though they may be willing to put money into your startup idea, they'll also seek ownership or management of your business in order to offset their financial risk. You can give up control in exchange for money, or you can find another way to reach...
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3 key startup lessons from Entersekt’s Dewald Nolte
At a recent Stellenbosch Digital event, held at the Nedbank Stellenbosch LaunchLab, one of Entersekt's co-founders, Dewald Nolte, gave a talk on the company and its journey. What was interesting about his stories were all of the lessons that the founders had learned over the years. The company started back in 2008 in Stellenbosch. It has since grown to over 60 members of staff, with the majority being technical, as well as having offices in Johannesburg, Mauritius, Amsterdam, and Atlanta. It hasn't been an easy journey for Entersekt's team. Here are the three key takeaways we learned from his talk. 1. Make sure everyone is...
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Engaging Africa’s next generation of business and technology leaders
"Africa is on a path to greatness however we need talent to facilitate this growth. And I am not just talking about formal education, we need young leaders who can think on their feet and take bold decisions that will drive Africa forward." These are the words of Uche Ofodile, a senior business leader based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with extensive expertise in building businesses in emerging markets, from a recent interview on 'Forward Leadership' and her passion to see young African leaders at their very best. Her reference to “young leaders who can think on their...
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5 easy steps to a successful seed round
Too often, entrepreneurs go into a meeting with a venture capital firm as if the result is already a fait accompli, assuming that the venture capitalist has all of the power. They could not be more wrong. While the investor may have already formed an initial opinion, their thoughts are by no means final. Your presentation will be the deciding factor. With this in mind, most entrepreneurs should be taking a much more proactive approach to raising their first successful seed round. If you are an entrepreneur and the most you know about seed round funding is from what you...
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