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 & Somerset West
Join us the first Monday of every month for a day of coworking. Entrepreneurs, remote workers and professionals who want to check out what co-working can do for them, stop by on the first Monday to give it a try.
Date: 6 February, 8:00am to 5:00pm
Location: The CoworKite Office, 39 Blaauwberg Road, Table View
Startup Grind Cape Town: Katlego Maphai (Yoco)
Katlego is the co-founder & CEO of Yoco, a fintech venture in the electronic payments space. Yoco offers an easy way for SMEs to securely accept card payments at the store or on the go, empowering the growth of entrepreneurial businesses.
Date: 6 February, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V & A Waterfront
Lean Coffee is a structured, but agenda-less meeting. Participants gather, build an agenda, and begin talking. Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda for the meeting is democratically generated.
Date: 8 February, 7:00am to 9:00am
Location: Pulp Kitchen – Willowbridge Shopping Centre, 39 Carl Cronje Drive, Tyger Valley
Lean Coffee is a structured, but agenda-less meeting. Participants gather, build an agenda, and begin talking. Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda for the meeting is democratically generated.
Date: 8 February, 7:00am to 9:00am
Location: Knead Bakery Claremont, Palmyra Junction, 10 Pylmyra Road, Claremont
Lean Coffee is a structured, but agenda-less meeting. Participants gather, build an agenda, and begin talking. Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda for the meeting is democratically generated.
Date: 8 February, 7:00am to 9:00am
Location: RCaffé, 138 Long Street
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. We each propose topics, vote on them and talk about the most popular ones for a few minutes. Come visit to see how it works.
Date: 8 February, 8:30am to 9:30am
Location: TRUTH. coffeecult, 1 Somerset Road, Green Point
TechTalkCPT: Emerging Technologies & The Future of Marketing
#TechTalkCPT is an event that brings you the bleeding edge of technology and innovation as presented by a specialist in the chosen topic. The topics are made relevant and accessible to as many people as possible. All events are accompanied by drinks and networking, making otherwise daunting topics fun and attainable. The #TechTalk platform gives the public the chance to have a one-on-one experience with a specialist and find out more about intense, interesting and complicated topics that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
Date: 8 February, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: 22Seven
Fuckup Nights is a global movement born in Mexico in 2012 to publicly share business failure stories. Hundreds of people attend each event to hear three to four entrepreneurs share their failures. Each speaker is given seven minutes and is able to use 10 images. After each speaker, there’s a question/answer session, as well as time for networking (beers).
Date: 9 February, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: 46a Canterbury Street, Zonnebloem
Xtraordinary Women Networking Event: Somerset West
Have you ever felt stuck in any area of your business? Influence and persuasion skills are often the key to getting unstuck and moving forward faster. They are crucial to many aspects of your business, including recruitment and attracting the best people for your business, as well as sales and enrolling your perfect clients. Your business depends on your ability to influence and persuade. You’ll leave this presentation with three distinct practical steps that you can implement immediately to sharpen your skills and take your business to the next level!
Date: 9 February, 8:00am to 11:00am
Location: Erinvale Golf Estate, Lorensford Road, Somerset West
Heavy Chef Cape Town: The New Breed Of FinTech Startups (upcoming)
FinTech is the most exciting area in business right now. And so, we turn our focus to two amazing companies on the African continent: Yoco and JUMO. Our first speakers for 2017 represent the new breed of finance. Young, smart and trail-blazing, Katlego Maphai and Andrew Watkins-Ball are two of the most exciting individuals working in this space. Two very different companies, but with equally compelling stories, this event is not to be missed.
Date: 14 February, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Primedia Broadcasting, 7 Highfield Road, GreenPoint
Johannesburg & Pretoria
“Good to Great” 8-Week Book Study (Rivonia)
Join a select group of small business owners as we dive into Jim Collins’ excellent book Good to Great. “Why some companies make the leap … and how yours can too!” reads the event description.
Date: 7 February, 7:00pm
Location: N/A
Startup Grind Johannesburg: Simon Hartley (WumDrop)
Simon Hartley is the founder of WumDrop, an on demand delivery solution for people and businesses. Simon’s business journey so far has seen him toss a TV scriptwriting degree in the trash to start an online nappy store which pivoted into a national last mile delivery service with customers including Game, Makro, Standard Bank, Zando, Red Bull, and TFG.
Date: 7 February, 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: Hatfield Maxi Cineplex, 1122 Burnett Street
Focusing on building long-term business relationships through word of mouth referrals. We are looking for professionals in selected industries to join us and were we tap into one another’s networks to grow each of our businesses.
Date: 8 February, 7:00am to 8:30am
Location: The Street Cafe (Rosebank Union Church), 40 St Andrews Road
Lean Coffee is a format for interesting people to have interesting conversations. Note that ‘Lean’ refers to the structure and not necessarily what we talk about.
Date: 8 February, 7:30am
Location: Father Coffee, The Zone, Rosebank
Kenya
Masterclass Valuation: Get to know the worth of your business
This week we have the pleasure of hosting Jesper Hornberg, serial entrepreneur, investor and fund manager. He will give us a unique perspective to company valuation: how does an investor look at a company and what is it she/he finds important? & When are you investment ready?
Date: 6 February, 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Location: The Hub East Africa, Waiyaki Way, Nairobi
DEMO Africa Innovation Tour- East Africa (Nairobi)
The tour aims to bring together startups and technology industry players to look at ways to turn innovations into business ventures. Entreprenuers from East Africa will get a chance to pitch to a panel of highly placed individuals in the tech sector.
Date: 7 February, 2:00pm to 6:00pm
Location: Boma Inn hotel, P.O Box 26601-00100 GPO Red Cross Road, Nairobi City
Startup Grind Nairobi: Suzie Wokabi (SuzieBeauty)
Suzie Wokabi is founder of SuzieBeauty, Kenya’s first high-quality African make-up brand. She is also Chief Creative Officer and Brand Ambassador for Suzie Beauty at The Flame Tree Group. SuzieBeauty was launched in December 2011 and acquired in 2015 by The Flame Tree Group.
Date: 10 February, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: Nexus CoWork, Ground Floor, Riara Corporate Suites, Riara Road
Nigeria
VP Acceleration Program “The Hunt”
We are excited about meeting founders, learning from you and answering questions you might have about the VP Program. We will also be giving free office hours. We’re looking for the brightest minds building innovative products and solving real problems using technology. Sounds like you? Or someone you know? We’ll be sharing links shortly so you can sign up to meet up in your city! Spread the word to founders, tech startup entrepreneurs and friends, and give us a shout on social media using the hashtag #VpTheHunt
Date: 7 February, 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: iBridge Hub, iBridge Hub Ibadan, Alabubosa 110 Express, Dugbe to Apata Road, Ibadan, Oyo State
VP Acceleration Program “The Hunt”
We are excited about meeting founders, learning from you and answering questions you might have about the VP Program. We will also be giving free office hours. We’re looking for the brightest minds building innovative products and solving real problems using technology. Sounds like you? Or someone you know? We’ll be sharing links shortly so you can sign up to meet up in your city! Spread the word to founders, tech startup entrepreneurs and friends, and give us a shout on social media using the hashtag #VpTheHunt
Date: 8 February, 10:00am to 12:00pm
Location: Wennovation Hub, Ibadan, Oyo 234102
VP Acceleration Program “The Hunt”
We are excited about meeting founders, learning from you and answering questions you might have about the VP Program. We will also be giving free office hours. We’re looking for the brightest minds building innovative products and solving real problems using technology. Sounds like you? Or someone you know? We’ll be sharing links shortly so you can sign up to meet up in your city! Spread the word to founders, tech startup entrepreneurs and friends, and give us a shout on social media using the hashtag #VpTheHunt
Date: 9 February, 10:00am to 12:00pm
Location: Leadspace Yaba, Simpson Street, Lagos
Free Business Coaching For Start Ups
It is designed for business start ups and small business owners who wish to move their business to the next level. Many business owners are struggling and are barely able to break even in in these times of recession. Opportunity to meet and network with other startups and mentors who have grown several businesses. Also an opportunity to meet venture capitalists who can finance your business.
Date: 11 February, 10:30am to 1:30pm
Location: Benin City Siluko Road, Before Oliha Market, Benin City
Online
Bootstrap Marketing Masterclass: WordPress, SEO, Blog, Social on Startup Budget
Traditional forms of marketing and branding don’t apply to bootstrapped entrepreneurs or startup founders who expect exponential growth on a credit-card budget. Where every dollar and hour spent on marketing can put you more in-debt, you have to get creative to get high ROI on your efforts… and doing what everybody else does just won’t cut it.
Date: 9 February, 5:00am to 6:30am
Location: online
Have a startup event that you’d like featured on next week’s event roundup? Send us an email.
Feature image: Andrew Moore via Flickr.
