Lagos, Nigeria – The Global Entrepreneurship Network is excited to announce the re-opening of its Startup Huddle chapter in Lagos, Nigeria, with the goal of supporting the growth of the local startup community while crowdsourcing advice and support for its entrepreneurs. Lagos joins a global network of more than 80 Startup Huddle chapters and hosted its first event during Global Entrepreneurship Week on Nov. 16.
In addition to providing direct support to entrepreneurs, the Startup Huddle program addresses a critical element of success for all entrepreneur ecosystems – connectivity. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report, startup communities with higher levels of local connectivity translate to an increased number of startups within those communities – and that founders with high levels of connectivity grow their revenue twice as fast as those with lower levels.
“There is a fast growth of startups in my city and very limited community to support them,” said local organizer Uche Buna. "Seeing how Startup Huddle has done in other cities, this can create an impact and can grow to a large community where startups find ease.”
At each Startup Huddle event, local founders give six-minute presentations outlining challenges facing their companies. Each presentation is followed by a 20-minute conversation with an audience of peers, mentors, educators and advisers who provide constructive criticism focused on finding solutions and increasing founder know-how. With new founders cycling through each gathering, and previous presenters joining the audience to give back, the community continues to expand while connections deepen.
“We hope to have a long-term sustainable community who will eagerly wait for the day of the month to come to our events and exchange new ideas with each other," said Buna.
Startup Huddle Lagos is supported by GEN Nigeria. To learn more about Startup Huddle Lagos or to join a local event, visit www.startuphuddle.co.
About Startup Huddle
Run by the Global Entrepreneurship Network in partnership with local organizers, Startup Huddle is a program designed to help one entrepreneur at a time while strengthening the local ecosystem. Entrepreneurs discover challenges to the solutions they face through purposeful engagement with a broad array of voices from their local community. Currently, there are local Startup Huddle chapters in more than 80 cities around the world. For more information, visit www.startuphuddle.co.
About the Global Entrepreneurship Network
The Global Entrepreneurship Network operates projects and programs in 200 countries to make it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business. By fostering deeper cross border collaboration and initiatives between entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurial support organizations, GEN works to fuel healthier start and scale ecosystems that create more jobs, educate individuals, accelerate innovation and strengthen economic growth. For more information, visit www.genglobal.org.