What is the Youth Technology Innovation Fund and how can you get funding ?
We are constantly being told that the future is based on entrepreneurs. People running small businesses who hire local talent to expand and slowly grow. And yet, in South Africa, we don’t seem to have a viby start-up culture. There is still a big stigma and embarrassment associated with starting a venture and failing but failure (and learning from it) is a core factor to running the next amazing business. When I chat to successful entrepreneurs failure is something that they don’t hide from – is a fact. They also always attribute their success to having learnt valuable lessons from these failures. [check out Vinny Lingham’s tips for running a great business]
So where does one start ? where does someone with a business idea begin?
One such place could be a tech hub or an incubator which not only helps the entrepreneur with technical skills but also mentorship of how to run the business, how to market, how to employ and how to expand. When I looked at My World of Tomorrow, I noticed that Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) is going to be there. TIA, according to their website, “was established with the objective of stimulating and intensifying technological innovation in order to improve economic growth and the quality of life of all South Africans. This is done through developing and exploiting technological innovations. TIA’s core business objective is to support the development and commercialisation of competitive technology-based services and products.”
Funding the Youth
Clare Mattes, took the opportunity to chat to Dr Sibongile Gumbi, Group Executive of the TIA about their role in the South African economy and what they are doing to fund the youth who are the future of the country :
