Learn From Those Who’ve Done The Coolest Stuff – BRIDGE East Africa
Information ain’t fairly distributed – inspiration even more so. Even true for swag.
Now as we jump to some stats, a statutory warning that this could blow your mind away.
Only 4% startups make it to their second year of operation. Yes. Moving forward means making your own mistakes and failing more often than succeeding. But these mistakes can be costly and can even destroy your business.
Coming back to the fact that information ain’t fairly distributed. No entrepreneur, no matter how talented, can know everything about everything. And while most information is ‘googleable‘ these days, new trends that emerge in the tech industry on weekly basis are sure not something you get so handy.
Beyond knowledge, the more important thing is insights and new perspectives – that you learn from other speakers and attendees. There are simply those things that you can’t pick up from an online course or by reading.
By listening to people about their journeys and having them within reach – is like having a mentor and a business coach – a great way to enrich yourself. These are people who have already made their share of mistakes – and you can learn from these and avoid at least some.
It can even spare you from having to hire a consultant to tell you the same information you can get by attending a conference. Your creativity needs to be fed by new sources every so often.
Many entrepreneurs have come back from conferences with an altogether new lease on life – with inspiration that only someone right in from of your eyes can give to you.
Author and investor Tai Lopez recommends attending conferences frequently. It is one way “to invest in your brain” and lets say your heart too.
So here are a couple of ingenious speakers coming to BRIDGE East Africa (the coolest thing you could do in Dec) to throw around some maverick ideas they routinely brew – and you can find the list of others right here.
So don’t miss the action and book your slot here !
Andreata Muforo, Partner, TLcom Capital Partners
Andreata is engaged in local partnerships with tech entrepreneurs, accelerators and incubators for deal flow generation and mentoring. TLcom capital Partners currently manages a fund corpus of USD 40 Mn for African tech startups.
Grant Brooke, Founder & CEO, Twiga Foods
Grant is the founder and CEO of Twiga foods. Having extensive academic work on Kenya’s informal markets, and holding a Doctoral degree from Oxford, he is today at the helm of one of the highest funded startups of Kenya.
Addis Alemayehou, CEO, 251 Communications
From doing Room service in a hotel to owning Ethiopia’s leading communications and branding company, Addis will be flying from Ethiopia to share insights at BRIDGE. He is the founder of 251 Communications & also the co-founder of Kana TV, Ethiopia’s first TV station to dub international content into Amharic.
Ben Peterson, Senior Partner, AHL venture Partner
As a senior partner at AHL, Ben oversees all new investment opportunities in Eastern and Southern Africa. AHL is an investor in companies like Twiga Foods, Zoona & Tulaa amongst others.
Takuma Terakubo, CEO, Leapfrog Ventures
Takuma runs a Japanese fund focussed on early stage investments in technology driven companies in Africa. In just 6 months, Leapfrog has invested in 11 African companies. Leapfrog is also the co-organiser of BRIDGE.
Kanini Mutooni, Chair, Global Innovation Fund
Kanini is the chair of Global Innovation Fund, a USD 200 Mn international economic development charity. She is also the Director for Investment and Technology, East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, USAID.
