Techstars Startup Week events heading for Lagos, Kampala

Techstars, a global network for entrepreneurs, will hold two Startup Week events in Lagos and Kampala, in September and November, respectively.

The Lagos Startup Week will take place between 23 and 30 September, this while the Kampala Startup Week will be held between 11 and 15 November.

This follows the Abuja Techstars Startup Week which kicked off Monday last week (24 June) and ended on Saturday (30 June).

Techstars runs three main startup initiatives, namely the Startup Weekend, Startup Week and Startup Digest

Techstars held its first Africa programme in 2016 in collaboration with the then Barclays Accelerator in Cape Town.

Since then, the organisation regularly holds a variety of initiatives and events on the continent.

In addition to running three-month long mentorship-driven accelerators designed to help startups gain traction through mentor-engagement, rapid iteration cycles and fundraising preparation, Techstars also operates the $150-million Techstars Venture Capital Fund.

Techstars runs three main startup initiatives, namely the Startup Weekend, Startup Week and Startup Digest.

Techstars Startup Week

This initiative brings entrepreneurs and local leaders together over five days to build momentum and opportunity around a community’s unique entrepreneurial identity.

For Techstars Startup Week, participants can choose the events they’d like to attend.

Speakers from the community, and outside it, are brought in to share their story to motivate and inspire the entrepreneurial community.

Local organisers select the tracks they feel are most relevant to their community and then choose speakers based on those tracks.

Techstars Startup Weekend

Techstars Startup Weekend events are run by local organisers in over 700 cities and 150 countries worldwide.

The 54-hour events are designed to provide experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs on how to establish a startup.

Day 1 of the events usually entails dinner and networking, 60-second pitches and team building activities where participants choose a project and form cross-functional teams.

The second day of Startup Weekends sees participants learn from mentors before they start work on their projects.

The events culminate in the teams pitching to judges in five-minute presentations of their solutions.

Techstars claims that to date over 23 000 teams have been formed through this initiative across more than 2 900 events.

Over the past two years Techstars Startup Weekends have been held in Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Uganda.

You can locate the next Techstars Startup Weekend events taking place near you here.

Techstars Startup Digest

The Techstars Startup Digest is a community curated newsletter that covers all things startup.

The digest aims to help entrepreneurs connect with people, places and events around them. Subscribe to the Algeria, Kenya and South Africa digests here (Algeria, Nairobi, Johannesburg).

Featured image: Techstars Startup Weekend Kampala event ( Twitter)