The rise in popularity and profile of entrepreneurship, saw a similar boom in the number of local startup workshop, conferences and talks.
The latest is iAfrikan – the African technology network – Startup Manifesto series of talks and networking events. The first will be held on 29 January in Johannesburg and will feature Justin Spratt (pictured left), the CEO of Quirk, a digital marketing company and the fastest growing agency in South Africa.
Spratt, who has been in the startup scene for 10 years, will present his 10 rules for starting and running a business, as well as the lessons he has learnt from working with some of the best in the industry, including Rob Stokes, founder of Quirk, Yossi Hasson, co-founder and CEO of SYNAQ, Justin Drennan, co-founder of Wantitall.co.za and Insurance.co.za to name a few.
For Spratt the goal of such events is to promote entrepreneurship, raise it’s profile, and most importantly, highlight the role that startups play in not only making a social impact, but helping to grow the economy.
“We are at 2% GDP growth, its obvious that the existing enterprises are not getting us there”. Startups he says, are in the perfect place to meet these challenges because low capital requirements and scalability.
“The challenge is finding good young entrepreneurs, there is lots of money and events” he says.
Inspiration, information and networking
According to iAfrikan’s startup editor, Peter Peele, the event will offer information and inspiration to budding startup founders, as well as a chance to network with potential co-founders, employees or investors.
“Johannesburg startup scene is still very young, people are scattered with no sense of community,” Peele says. The hope, Peele says, is build a community similar to that of Silicon Cape, the community of tech entrepreneurs, developers, creatives and investors based in Cape Town.
iAfrikan has over 40 events planned in the next year across the continent with one taking place next month in Nigeria with Marek Zmyslowski, CEO of Jovago.com, an African travel booking service.
