On the 12th-14th of August, 2011 Nairobi, Kenya will be hosting the IPO48 for the second time. Last year it was the first city in Africa to hold a 48-hour ICT bootcamp investment event. What makes IPO48 different from all the other tech-events?
An investment of 2.5 million KShs. has to be made at the event within these 48 hours. Which makes it interesting not only for the entrepreneurs but also for the investors who all have agreed to play by the rules.
Secondly, it is all about the people. Many similar events focus on pitching and presentation. IPO48 is about candid interaction between mentors and entrepreneurs before and during the event. It is about building something, taking action, showing that you as an entrepreneur got what it takes for the little guy in a competitive market with big players.
“Ideas are in abundance, good entrepreneurs are not. IPO48 is about finding the good entrepreneurs, most of the ideas will mostly be adjusted or changed when they meet reality,” says Kresten Buch, co-founder of HumanIPO. The first IPO48 event changed the lives of the 3 entrepreneurs from M-Farm who won the event last time. “It not only had us creating our company on next Monday after the event, but also catapulted us into media frenzy, “ says Jamila Abass, one of the co-founders of M-Farm. With appearances already in the BBC News World, CNBC Business magazine, NTV, “The Standard” and “The Daily Nation” they got instant marketing most startups would kill for. And to top it all – M-Farm was just picked by the by the infodev a subsidiary of the World Bank, as Top 20 SME in the world during the 4th Global Forum on Innovation&Entrepreneurship in Helsinki, Finland.
About IPO48:
IPO48 is an event made by HumanIPO and has already taken place in Nairobi (Kenya), Prague (Czech Republic) and will go to Copenhagen (Denmark) after the 2nd edition in Nairobi. HumanIPO is a social media platform that aims at accelerating entrepreneurship by connecting entrepreneurs to professionals, co-founders, employees and angel investors. It was founded by Danish serial entrepreneur Kresten Buch and David Owino former COO of Kenya Data network, now Executive Director at The BCS Group Limited.
Add a Comment