Startup Guide calls on those in Cape Town to be part of new guide

Startup Guide, a publishing company, has launched a call for entrepreneurs and those that are part of the Cape Town entrepreneurship ecosystem to nominate themselves to be featured in Startup Guide Cape Town. Nominations close on 20 August.

The call was launched earlier this week. Startup Guide, which was founded in 2014 by Danish entrepreneur Sissel Hansen, calls it the “first-ever entrepreneurial handbook dedicated to Cape Town’s startup scene”. The guide will be sponsored by SAP Next-Gen.

Startup Guide produces guidebooks and tools to help entrepreneurs navigate and connect with different startup scenes across the globe.

Thus far it has produced guides for 18 different cities in Europe and the Middle East — including Berlin, London, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Vienna, Lisbon and Paris.

After the nominations period, the list of candidates for Startup Guide Cape Town will be narrowed down to the top 50 companies and individuals

It also has two physical stores in Berlin and Lisbon to promote and sell products by startups. The company’s 20-person team is based in Berlin and Lisbon.

“One of the most active hubs for startup investment on the continent, Cape Town is attracting more and more entrepreneurs with its relatively low-cost of living, diverse pool of talent and growing ecosystem of investors, accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces ready to support early stage entrepreneurs,” said Sissel Hansen, founder and CEO of Startup Guide in a press release on Tuesday (6 August).

After the nominations period, the list of candidates will be narrowed down to the top 50 companies and individuals based on the results.

Thereafter a local advisory board – which will be selected by Silicon Cape and consists of key players in the local startup community – will vote for the final selection to ensure that there’s a balanced representation of industries in the book.

Startup Guide Cape Town is set to be released in April next year and is set to cost €20 (R310 at the current rate) but those that place a pre-order now can save 20% on the book before the launch date.

The idea behind the Startup Guide books originally came to Hansen when she moved from Copenhagen to Berlin to start a business and discovered how difficult it was to find useful information and local advice about that process.

Despite being rejected by multiple investors, she bootstrapped the project and launched the first Startup Guide book in Berlin in 2014 – and it sold out in less than 48 hours.

Until 20 August, 2018, and anyone in the community can contribute by nominating candidates they’d like to see in the book at capetown.startupguide.world.

Featured image: Startup Guide Cape Town image (Supplied)