Sandton, South Africa – The Global Entrepreneurship Network is celebrating the opening of a new Startup Huddle chapter in Sandton, South Africa to support the growth of the local startup community while crowdsourcing advice and support for its entrepreneurs. Sandton joins a global network of more than 80 Startup Huddle chapters world-wide, and plans to host its first event on December 1st.
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 GEN research, startup communities with higher levels of local connectedness translate to an increased number of startups – and that founders with high levels of connectivity grow their revenue twice as fast as those with lower levels.
“Startup Huddle is important to this city because it will drive the motivation necessary for the formulation economic ecosystems amongst the various income brackets and socio-economic classes.” said Startup Huddle Sandton organizer Lwazi. “We are excited to launch Startup Huddle in this city because it will allow lessen the rising dependency on the already scarce jobs and be an aid to the lessening of criminal acts with the central business districts.”
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.
“Through this program, we hope to achieve a progressive economic ecosystem made up of new innovative startups that will bring with them solutions to the many socioeconomic challenges,” said Lwazi. “Joining the local Startup Huddle community is an excellent way to network and gain solutions to challenges facing startup entrepreneurs.”
Startup Huddle Sandton is supported by iFundi, Fariba Bowen, and Stefan Lauber. To learn more about Startup Huddle Sandton 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.