Standard Bank is about to do it…

So Standard Bank (@StandarkBankZA on Twitter) is getting ready to start its business and technical incubator in the next few weeks with  SW7 (Start with 7 @SW7 on twitter) and Microsoft BizSpark (@BizSparkSA on twitter) as partners. Now I’ve read some articles on this and really wanted to check things out for myself apart from the hype and the launch they had a few weeks back.

Before I get to that I think I have to highlight 4 points regarding South Africas entrepreneurship climate and the job situation from an entrepreneur’s perspective because people really don’t have the time to write anymore unless they are media and take whatever lip service people give them. I personally think that the truth is not spoken for two reasons; 1) They don’t know the truth about what goes on because well, they aren’t entrepreneurs and 2) Even if they do, they don’t care to share it. Buuuut you see, I’ve seen some interesting shit and gained a wealth of knowledge over these 3/4 years I’ve been a young entrepreneur. So let’s get into it for a bit of context before I talk about Standard Bank’s game changer. 

 

1.       The Entrepreneurial Eco-System in South Africa

 

2.       The Entrepreneurs

Well you’re wondering why there wasn’t anything written in the above point and well that was on purpose simply because the entrepreneurial eco-system in South Africa DOESN'T EXIST and that was the simplest way for me to get to the point with a little laugh to it. But ya, it doesn’t exist anyway…

This country’s potential and aspirant entrepreneurs are all over the place. South Africa has for the first time in its history; an intelligent, informed and energetic young population that nobody can simply ignore anymore. You see long gone are the days where they expected young people to go through an antiqued education system that doesn’t engage their senses and extract their creativity, and then expect them to simply find a job in an economy that doesn’t have jobs. Those that avoid unemployment, are met with underemployment because these companies sometimes really have nothing for them to do simply because young people apparently lack the experience or whatever new excuse they’ve come up with now. So more and more young people are really looking for a way and know that they have dreams and ideas that they are willing want to try out if they could. They are extremely motivated and to know that you don’t have to go far. Just pay attention to social media on a Monday morning; it is teaming with consistent motivation of young people pushing each other to extract their greatness. 

So I personally think that we are at a point in our History where government and older people need to understand that expecting young people to simply shy away and take the back seat is long gone and this tweet proves it.

This country needs to really develop a mentality that allows young people to fail. It is only through failure that you learn the entrepreneurial game. 

3.       The Investors 

 

Coupled with entrepreneurs, should be a habitat of investors that should find or be found by entrepreneurs and get things going and in theory it’s simple but it isn’t so. We hear how government will talk about how they plan to give out God knows how many billions of Rands for “Job creation” and SME’s, SMME’s, SMMMMEs or whatever development (Can someone please define this for me because I don’t know anymore). Apparently agencies like the NYDA and IDC are the ones that facilitate these things, but in my experience with them I’ve concluded that these agencies and the people that work for them have no fucking clue about running businesses. This is not me complaining, this is me speaking the truth. How on Earth can you have corporate people (with mostly zero business experience) judging entrepreneurs?? On top of that these people will put you through a 3-4 month “Due diligence” process where you deal with account managers that don’t read nor understand their jobs. My advice to people is to stay clear from these agencies; they’re really a waste of time. They have crazy, rigid mandates and everyone there is afraid to make a decision and so they do all they can to cover their backs because nobody wants to be out of a job.

With any innovation, you want to get it out to the market as soon as possible and a 3-6 month due diligence process for funding is utter rubbish because you might lose your market and/or have international competitors enter and kill you. 

What I’m trying to highlight is that we don’t have a lot of investors that can take on risk and that can see potential in young people. South Africa is still caught up in the whole work in corporate for 20 years, gain experience & capital and then open up a business loop. You see what that does is keep creating service or paper working companies because most people will open a business in a profession they were working in. This is why South Africa is in a situation where we don’t own our own industries and markets but have these overrun by multinational companies. 

Finding investors is a seriously tough game and my advice to anyone is to never take advice from someone who has never felt the pain of raising capital for their Start Up. Most people love lip service till they experience the pain. Take your idea, and shop it around with as many people as you can find and don’t stop till a contract is signed.

4.       The Job situation

So final point, the job situation. Ok so now the government likes to talk about the millions of jobs they want to create using all their nice sounding mechanisms; the NGP, IPAP1, IPAP2, ASGISA etc. Well ok I’ve read some of these long ass documents and I don’t how if they know how and who actually creates jobs but let me tell you quickly. 

You see anyone can have a World Cup or big event, get people excited, hire hundreds of thousands of people to build things and roads and whatever else goes into it and then hit the media and say “We have created many jobs for people.” Look let’s get real, those jobs were and are not sustainable. If you want to create sustainable jobs, you need to cultivate, harness and unleash entrepreneurs to firstly build profitable, sustainable and growing companies while increasing industries or building new ones. But it takes a hell of a lot of work to get a company to a profitable and sustainable point. I had to go years without a salary or anything regarded as an income before I could actually say I’ve created a job for myself. It takes hard work, dedication and a crazy amount of insanity, but it isn’t impossible. You just need to be serious about doing it and really seek out the advice of entrepreneurs to help implement these supposed systems. I mean really that’s all it will take. 

You don’t need to create jobs for young people, just give them the tools to employ themselves and their peers; the thing will be self sustaining. 

The Standard Bank Business Incubator

So I spent a day at their incubator today and I love what I saw but lemme give info first.

They have launched a Business Incubator as well as a Technical incubator with SW7 (Start with 7) and Microsoft Biz Hub as partners like I said above. That’s right, 2 damn incubators at the same time. They will help established businesses in the Jhb area with developing, testing and tweaking of their ideas for the markets they wish to tap into. They will also launch a virtual incubator in Cape Town where people can gain access to support and working space at "Open," (here's the link to the place) http://open.co.za/workshop17.html which is a pretty cool spot in Cape Town. 

The Business incubator will run from Rosebank, across from their main offices with easy access to the Gautrain Station which is pretty cool. They will have offices where entrepreneurs will be mentored and coached by business people. The incubators will focus 60% on Fintech businesses (financial technology) and the rest will probably be other tech and possibly or hopefully some profitable outlier ideas.

The space itself is pretty cool:

The technical incubator in partnership with the University of Johannesburg, will be a place where entrepreneurs can simply work on their product prototypes on their campuses.

Companies will be incubated between three months and two years all depending on the needs of the businesses. 

Outside is also quite cool:

For me this is what excites me about this incubator because truth be told, I’ve heard all this amazing stuff before but this is what hit me.

      1) Standard Bank doesn’t have to deal government in terms of accessing funding. They are a bank and can readily dish out funding with less thrashing and rigidity because they are once again a BANK!

            2) They already have businesses that bank with them, because every business opens a bank account, but this means ACCESS TO MARKET!!! They can readily call up a company and put them in touch with people they incubate. I mean how fucken genius is that.

           3) They have a team behind this that are passionate about entrepreneurship.

            4)  Access to SW7’s international mentorship program.       

 

       5) Access to Microsoft’s expertise and international networks. 

             6) They have money to try and fail regarding decisions they make, to help with getting whatever’s not  working out of the way to simply get on with what works. 

            7) It adds an astronomical amount of credibility on the entrepreneur’s part when they name drop. 

            8) They don’t have to fall under government mandates nor answer to government, which means they can afford to take a bit more risk and really be entrepreneurial. 

             9) The space they’ve created as well as the energy of the place seems like it’s going to be quite a vibey place, especially because they’re getting a liqueurs license too haha! 

        10) LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!!!!

          11) Access to the skills and networks in the bank as well as outside. 

Basically what I’m trying to say is that Standard Bank in partnership with SW7 and Microsoft Biz Park are in a position to radically change things and it only makes me wonder why nobody thought of doing this before. What I saw and heard today really excited me and I really look forward to seeing how this plays out. All they have to do is learn from the mistakes of these “funding agencies” and understand that they are creating an entrepreneurial Eco-System where they can get investors and entrepreneurs together in a way not done before. I don’t expect them all to get it perfect first time around but I respect them for trying because this is big and this country really needs this. I’m fucken excited!

 They have some seriously nice smoothies and cake too...

For more information email: Incubator@standardbank.co.za or tweet @Jayshnaidoo and @LinVlinder

  

Tweet or IG me @Lui_Innovator