Category: Entrepreneurial

  • VeloCITI 2008 – I’m officially on the programme. Yeah!!!

    velociti-hereicomeMy head is spinning completely after attending the bridging course of the VeloCITI program. Out of all the companies applying (20 odd) who were short listed to attend the bridging course, I’ve made the cut with 14 other exciting new companies who will be given the chance to build their businesses from the ground up with professional help.

    If you don’t know what VeloCITI is all about, it’s the business incubation program sponsored by local government and run by CITI (Cape Information Technology Initiative). It aims to take start-up technology based companies and grow them with the hope of increasing employment and growing the local economy.

    A well known graduate of the programme, Rafiq Phillips was recently seen on Carte Blanche discussing web 2.0. Rafiq made a name for himself with his start-up venture, i-drive and is still out there creating buzz and achieving great things. Other companies like Red Button, one of the winning companies from the 2007 program are making it big with their wireless hotspots.

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  • Wanna start an Agency with me? I’m looking for a partner!

    I am working on setting up a Strategic Communications Consultancy and need a Partner willing to start the venture with me. I’m looking for someone with a strategic mind and who has been involved in some form of Brand Communications at some level.

    The person should be independent, or looking to go independent. Someone with a wide skills or knowledge base and a solid network of strategic connections would help. Someone with previous experience in advertising, brand development, web development or journalism would be suitable.

    Are you an entrepreneur in the making? If you’ve thought about starting an agency or consultancy more than once a month in the last few years, then this may be your chance to do just that. If you don’t need to do a wikipedia search to know what Design Thinking means then I’d love to pick your brain and maybe develop a business together.

    Someone with a highly ethical approach and positive outlook on the environment and development of positive values in society would be ideal.

    Interested in chatting, mail me on [email protected] or contact me on skype with “one-nomad”. Looking forward to chatting soon.

  • Have you heard of the freedom toaster?

    ftoaster-top-250x457Just met Brett from freedom toaster, a great new initiative coming out of the Shuttleworth foundation which aims at bridging the digital divide by providing a mechanism for people to access high bandwidth content.

    The freedom toaster is a kiosk/vending machine type technology which comes standard with USB & DVD burning ports.

    "…preloaded to dispense confectionery, Freedom Toasters are preloaded to dispense free digital products, including software, photography, music and literature." http://www.freedomtoaster.org/

  • Open Coffee Feb 08 was gr8!

    Yesterday’s Open Coffee event held at Origin Roasting in Cape Town was a great success. I met some really interesting people and put faces to a few names I’ve come across online for a while. A little before the event I met with Callum Macdonald from Scotland who’s graced our shores with his nomadic presence for a few months. Very interesting guy indeed. Callum is amoung other things a blogger, web developer and nomadic entrepreneur with an interesting outlook on life and work. He’s the first person I’ve seen actually wearing a pair of black spot sneakers though I’ve read about them online quite a few times. We chatted a bit about business, life and even religion.

    Callum has gotten a WordPress Meetup project on the go, something we’ve all wanted for a while but have been too lazy to organize ourselves. He tells me he has plans to do a Cape to Cairo Trek in the near future.

    I met an American Philosophy Professor as well who shared his world view with us using a few very big words and some little ones in new and interesting ways, always good to know how others see things.

    I also met a Dutchman, Frans, who is an open source enthusiast and uses open source technologies to assist NGOs with their projects.

    Tim Shier was one of the organisers and it was also good to final shake hands in person and share a few words. As usually Dave Duarte was around checking out the scene and a few other online marketing and development types.

    Henk from Skyrove handed out free Skyrove credits worth 50megs which was welcome on the day as I had a few things to send off and download.

    I met a really nice guy who was preparing the coffee called Ghee, which he told me means humility. He’s from Congo and said he was pleasantly surprised that I spoke to him and ask his name even. C’mon people, where’s the Love?

    Business cards were shared and lots of networking and bouncing around of ideas of all types. All in all a great success. I think I might have had a little too much coffee though. Maybe we should start an Open Orange Juice or something :).

  • mmm, Open Coffee on tomorrow at Origin Roasting 2pm in Cape Town.

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    You might have noticed a post I recently wrote which took a look at the trend of drinking alcohol at Networking sessions and other web & entrepreneurial gatherings. Dave Duarte, the mind behind huddlemind.com, posted a comment suggesting I check out Open Coffee which takes place the first Thursday of every month.

    Tomorrow I will “God Willing” be attending my first Open Coffee. The event will be hosted at Origin Coffee Roasting and is organised by Eric Edelstein and Tim Shier.

    Arrive at 2pm on the first Thursday of every month. Bring your laptop if you want to do some work, or show people your site as there’s a wireless network.

    Work if you want… Or spend the time discussing ideas with other entrepreneurs.

    When? Thursday, Feb 7, 2008, 2:00 PM 20080207T120000Z

    Where? Origin Coffee Roasting, 28 Hudson Street De Watekant, Cape Town. call +27 (0)21 421 1000 for more info.

    Who? 13 members registered to attend

    If you have the time and value networking with entrepreneurs and web centric individuals pop around for a coffee and a chat!

  • New School Business Idea no.1: Web 2.0 worker Spaces for rent

    Ok this is something I have been thinking about for a while now and I’ve just decided to go with it. I’ve got an overactive imagination and my mind just won’t leave me alone sometimes. There are times when I can’t even get to bed in the early hours and just have to jot down some ideas before I can get some rest from the continuous mental processes happening up in here.

    I have ideas on a daily basis, ones which I think are great and just have to be acted upon, but a host of reasons prevent me from acting, mostly procrastination and lack of motivation or just feeling bogged down by earning an immediate living. I’ve decided to document these ideas and share them, to see how others react, see what kind of feedback I can get and maybe if I can find some interested parties to collaborate or invest in them or just as a bouncing board.

    IDEA # 1: Mobile Office for knowledge/web 2.0 workers

    With so many of us taking the plunge into self employment or just being on the go and out of the office it has become increasingly difficult to find the right places to meet with our clients or peers, to sit down somewhere and get some work done away from our couches & beds at home and to just have a place of refuge when the creative juices are being dried up by our dry surroundings.

    Onto the scene walks the office away from the “home” office (This is my idea). Imagine a few centralised spaces where you can go, pay a small fee for an hour or 2 or 3, have some coffee, plug in and do what you do best. It’s designed to suite the modern knowledge worker, it allows for booking spaces in advance, you can take your clients there. There’s an open plan area for collaboration, brainstorming, networking & the like, as well as some private or more quiet spaces for concentration or to cut yourself off from the world.

    They offer office services like faxing & printing, places to plug in your iPod and watch the latest TED talks or listen to your favourite podcasts. They sell the latest gadgets which keep us drooling on a daily basis. They have a few techno savvy guys & gals to help with any glitches & bugs. Maybe they even have a few in house businesses running, which offer supporting services to the knowledge worker community like people who know how to set up blogs, wiki’s etc.

    You can go and have a video conference, shoot or record something for your latest podcast. It’s a web 2.0 worker paradise. Think it’ll work? Anyone got anything to add?Anyone got some moolah to throw at an idea like this or know some open minded investors? Jump in and throw your 2 cents or 20 million at this idea. Lets see what we come up with. If anyone’s got connections at any of the big malls or centers maybe get them interested in the idea. I’m sure they wouldn’t sneer at getting peeps like us interested in spending more time in & around their malls.

    Does anyone know of something like this which really exists? If so and it’s based in Cape Town I’ll by you a coffee & a Muffin if you point me to it in the next month. 🙂