Looking to get into the South African startup scene or scratch up on some of your skills? Well, you’ve come to the right place. There are loads of competitions, networking sessions and workshops happening around South Africa and the rest of the continent (namely Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana) that we’ve rounded up to make your life a bit easier.
This article is part of a weekly series that highlights all the top startup competitions, networking sessions, workshops and conferences around South Africa, and the greater region. If you have any event recommendations for us to add to the list, or next week’s, please let us know in the comments below or send us an email.
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Not all of the events are free and some will require booking in advance. Please click on the event names to find out more information.
Cape Town
Startup Book Club: Future Trends
A book club that focuses on books for startups. Recommended books for discussion are The Fourth Industrial Revolution, The Inevitable, and The Industries of the Future.
Date: 10 October, 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Location: MTN Solution Space, UCT Graduate School of Business, 8 Portswood Road
Pitch Night provides a platform for entrepreneurs to practice pitching their idea to local angel investors and hear what other entrepreneurs are working on. After 3 pitches, Q&A and feedback from the panel, entrepreneurs are free to network and connect with each other.
Date: 11 October, 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, BRIG 9 Portswood Road
Startupbootcamp InsurTech Office Hours in Cape Town
Office Hours are an informal and casual opportunity for interested startups to meet with Sabine VanderLinden, Managing Director, and Jens Hartwig, COO of Startupbootcamp InsurTech, to discuss their ideas, product, and team, and to receive valuable feedback.
Date: 11 October, 10:00am to 1:oopm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock road, The Watershed, The V & A Waterfront
Thinking Exponentially – Making the Impossible Possible through Technology
This month we are very excited to be speaking about Exponential Technologies and would like to invite 3 local Start-ups to present their businesses at our prestigious event. Each representative will be allocated a 5-minute slot between 18h30 and 19h00 on the evening of October the 26th at Workshop 17 in the V&A Waterfront. This is invitation is open to any Start-ups who are either using and/or developing some form(s) of Exponential Technology.
Date: 12 October, before 5:00pm
Location: online
For people working in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly 1-hour coffee that runs a mash-up of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com. Unlike other startup meetups, lean (startup) coffee is agendaless, speakerless and talks about what you care about.
Date: 12 October, 8:30am to 9:30am
Location: TRUTH. coffeecult, 1 Somerset Road, Green Point
#CapeMarketing Workshops for Small Businesses in Woodstock
Are you a start-up, entrepreneur or small business owner? Perhaps you just have an inkling of an idea and need some advice or inspiration. We offer a relaxed and safe space for you to discuss any issues, ideas or success stories. If you have any marketing problems you need help with, you can bring them all to the table and tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge from the group.
Date: 12 October, 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: The Cape Town Garage, The Woodstock Exchange, Block A / 4th Floor, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock
#CapeMarketing Workshops for Small Businesses in Diep River
Are you a start-up, entrepreneur or small business owner? Perhaps you just have an inkling of an idea and need some advice or inspiration. We offer a relaxed and safe space for you to discuss any issues, ideas or success stories. If you have any marketing problems you need help with, you can bring them all to the table and tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge from the group.
Date: 13 October, 9:00am
Location: NA
How Rapid Application Delivery Platforms enable Innovation in SMEs
At our last Meetup we asked the question: Does your Business need an App? This time, we will be looking at the latest-generation rapid application delivery platforms. They promise to supercharge your company to take on older, larger corporations, really breaking down the barriers to entry. And all this with no need to worry about infrastructure or hosting (everything is available ‘as a service’ including business processes and micro services).
Date: 13 October, 5:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: University of Stellenbosch Business School, Bellville Park Campus,
Johannesburg
Startup 101: Using DESIGN THINKING To Validate Business Ideas
This half-day workshop will provide a practical approach to allow you to quickly validate and iterate your business ideas using design thinking methodology. The workshop will be facilitated by Khaya Mtshali
Date: 12 October, 9:00am
Location: JoziHub
Joziconnect Session & Fireside Chat With Tour 2.0
JoziConnect is an event held every month at Jozihub in partnership with HTXT Africa. JoziConnect is where we meet, mingle and be inspired. At each JoziConnect we chat to the founders of some of SA’s most innovative and exciting startups.
Date: 12 October, 6:30pm
Location: JoziHub
You are more than welcome to visit the first edition of the African FinTech Awards where innovative and disruptive FinTech companies are awarded. Don’t miss out the African FinTech Awards featuring international keynote speakers and pitches by Africa’s best FinTech companies.
Date: 13 October
Location: Sandton Convention Center
Startupbootcamp InsurTech FastTrack in Johannesburg
Startupbootcamp InsurTech welcomes you to Johannesburg for a FastTrack day as part of its international tour to support the best talent in InsurTech. The event is free of charge, and there is no commitment to apply to our accelerator program. We want to meet you, and our goal is to provide real value mentoring to the best InsurTech startups.
Date: 13 October, 12:00pm to 5:30pm
Location: Tshimologong Precinct, The DIZ: Digital Innovation Zone, 111 Smit Street, Braamfontein
Kick off a new company (concept and design)
For those who’ve never given a shot at creating a business plan, you’ll find this session a valuable insight into perfecting your own. We’ll be merging this meetup with the East Rand Entrepreneurs meetup, so there will be a few additional people at the same event.
Date: 14 October, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Mugg n Bean, Greenstone Mall
Kenya
Mettā Workshop: Startup Talent and How to Avoid Unicorn Hunting
We are bringing together an incredible panel of startup founders who have built and scaled power house teams for you to learn, engage, and grow. To the founders out there who are struggling to structure a job description, be specific about role goals, and create an objective and replicable hiring pipeline, this event is for you.
Date: 13 October, 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, Belgravia Suite 6A, 14 Riverside Drive, Nairobi
Black & White Debate: Should you get funding when starting or scaling your business?
Black & White are lively debates held every week with the aim to show that there is not a single truth on how to start or grow a successful business. This inspirational session is open for everybody with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Date: 11 October, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Location: The Hub East Africa, Waiyaki Way, Nairobi
Lagos
Financial Inclusion in Nigeria
Next Money is a global network of fintech innovators reinventing finance through design, innovation & entrepreneurship. Next Money has over 6,000 members across 37 cities globally.
Date: 11 October, 6:00pm
Location: TBA
Have a startup event that you want to submit to us? Send us an email.
Feature image: Dion Hinchcliffe via Flickr.
