This presentation follows the speaker’s journey, guided by Alan Knott-Craig, into the world of South Africa tech startup’s. It then looks at the shift in focus from pure moneymaking-startup ideas to initiatives that help governments improve the lives of its citizens.
He was employee #1 at Project Isizwe, the largest government-funded public WiFi network in Africa.
With Happimo, a non-profit organisation, the speaker is about to launch Namola – a smartphone solution aimed at helping the Tshwane Metro Police Department provide a better service to the citizens of Tshwane.
Happimo has also identified a number of key government issues that can be easily solved by tech startups. The plan is to launch a new initiative every month for the next year.
Instead of building the solution for each problem Happimo looks to connect the dots between government and tech Startups..
Techstars is a world leading accelerator of technology start-ups. At its essence, Techstars is a network -- of programs that span 12 cities, 600 companies, thousands of mentors, and a host of corporate partners. We are coming to Tech4Africa to talk about our plans for the continent as Africa is becoming key to our growing network. The session will cover the history of Techstars and more specifically the most important themes we see coming out of Africa and how it is that we help build the virtuous cycle of successful start-ups and ecosystems. We will also be covering an important announcement that will be coming just days before the conference.
WeThinkCode_ is a new kind of peer-to-peer tech institution launching in Johannesburg in 2016, dedicated to transforming technology education in order to bridge the gap between undeveloped talent and the desperate IT skills shortage in South Africa. The magic of WeThinkCode_ lies in its selection criteria that enable us to source high potential programmers in the most unexpected pool of young talent.
