Tanzania, with over
10 percent unemployment is looking for an innovative way to engage her citizens
in productive employment. Many people these days are being creative and establishing
their own companies. These people are called entrepreneurs, and to support
their growth and lay a good entrepreneurial foundation, the GIST Startup Boot
Camp is convening dozens of mentors and trainers from the US, Tanzania and
other parts of the world to share experiences with entrepreneurs and to advise
them on the way forward.
150 entrepreneurs
from East Africa will convene on Tuesday and Wednesday May 7 and 8 at the
COSTECH Building for the GIST Startup Boot Camp, hosted by Dar Teknohama
Business Incubator. DTBi is an
autonomous entity of COSTECH functioning as a public-private sector programme
assisting early stage ICT companies by lowering the cost of business and
increasing the chances of business survival because of: (a) access to shared
resources and building infrastructure; (b) facilitating access to finance and
markets through credible support, guidance and business management; (c)
targeted mentoring and coaching; and (d) networking for technical trends and
opportunities to access markets. DTBI is a business driven but a
"Not-for-Profit" entity. The
Incubator has its own Board whose members come from the Private Sector (including
Banking sector), Government, Civil Society, Telecommunications sector and
Academia
The GIST Startup
Boot Camp is a two-day experience
designed to teach entrepreneurial skills in a hands-on environment and enable
entrepreneurs to launch and grow companies. Twenty entrepreneurs hail from the
6 surrounding countries of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar and
Mauritius, with the support of infoDev
and the United States Government. GIST Startup Boot Camps cover all aspects of
entrepreneurship, including assessment, brainstorming, ideation, team building,
product development and execution. The program includes a mix of simulations,
hands-on exercises, lectures, mentorship, as well as an opportunity to pitch
and get feedback from investors. The GIST Boot Camp has two main goals: enhance
the skills of tech entrepreneurs and inspire them to start new companies.
On the first day of
the GIST Boot Camp, entrepreneurs will learn various skills that will enable
them to critically analyze strategic business decisions. They will also partake
in exciting training sessions that will teach them how to pitch ideas in a
confident, organized and efficient manner. On day two, forty pre-selected entrepreneurs
will be invited for a one on one discussion with the global and local mentors.
These forty entrepreneurs shall also get the chance to participate in the
venture pitching sessions in front of a panel of experienced investors and
venture capitalists. The chance to
participate in the GIST Boot Camp offers great opportunities and allows the
entrepreneurs to become part of the international GIST network, which
continuously strives to empower youth by engaging and inviting them to partake
in the various mentorship and training activities around the world.
GIST has
trained over 1,000 entrepreneurs during 11 seminars held in 8 different countries.
These skills-building events represent 28,075 hours of training. During these
skill-development events, GIST has mentored nearly 470 ventures. The event in
Tanzania will be the 12th entrepreneurial skills development workshop
organized by GIST.
The GIST Startup
Boot Camp is made possible by many partners: it is organized by the GIST
(Global Innovation through Science and Technology) initiative, a partnership
led by the non-profit CRDF Global and the U.S. Department of State; hosted by
DTBi, a top Tanzania-based tech incubator; powered by LIONS@FRICA, a
private-public partnership encouraging entrepreneurship in Africa; done in
partnership by infoDev, a department of the World Bank that fosters innovation
worldwide and further sponsored by Nokia and Microsoft.
To learn more,
visit tiny.cc/gisteastafrica.
For more information
on DTBi, visit: www.teknohama.or.tz
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