How to surf and how to pitch

During the weekend leading up to AfricArena 2019, FSAT Labs had the privilege of hosting 45+ startup founders from across the African continent at a Founders Bootcamp. The purpose of this weekend was to get the startups ready for Africa Arena 2019 but also for the startups to get to know each other before the conference kicks off.

Cape Town is well known for its lovely beaches and great waves and we could not resist to show of a bit b taking the founders to Muizenberg for a surf. This was not only a great deal of fund but also a first for most of the founders.

Following the fun on the beach, we turned a bit serious as we hosted the startups for a session on the “Art of the Pitch” by Nicholas Bjorklund. Nic has become one of the go-to guys for pitch and communications training in Paris and his interactive session on how to communicate effectively was just what the startups needed to get ready for their pitches at AfricArena 2019. We closed off the day with a presentation and discussion by Thierry Barbaud, Digital director of La Guilde on the current situation and perspective of the tech ecosystem in Africa.

The evening was concluded with good old fashioned South African braai with some drinks to give startups the opportunity to share with each other what they have learnt and get to know eachother better.

On Sunday, we booked out Workshop17 at the V&A waterfront located in the heart of Cape Town. We split the founders into two groups to make our sessions more intimate. While one group was receiving one-on-one coaching on their pitches with Nic, the other group were discussing topics like fundraising, product/market fit, pricing (BMs & Pricing), expansion (Beyond launch Market), team culture, hiring, CTO Discussion (Development: Insource vs Outsource), market-entry and timing of scaling. We also hosted a session on “The striking similarities between dating and finding an investor”.

The formalities was concluded with two panel discussions, firstly with three venture capitalists as they shared on what they are looking for in startups, followed by a Vivatech panel discussion, featuring our CEO, Renier Kriel, on the educational role of incubators play in Africa.

 The weekend was ended with a networking event at the Silo hotel where the startups had a chance to meet and mingle with investors.

The quality of entrepreneur that we engaged with during the weekend makes us extremely excited about the future of this continent!