Day 2 of MIT Start-up Workshop

Wow! What a day! Almost every event was superlative.

A session on Entrepreneurship Support Structures was highly relevant to our work at the Entrepreneurship Centre. It started with a very provocative question and one I continually grapple with at TSiBA: how on earth can a non-profit organization (university, incubator, government agency) teach entrepreneurs to make a profit? Can a non-profit truly produce the aggressive tigers that thrive in the market place or do they produce tame lions that die once they are let out into the wild? A troubling question with no easy answer...

Another highlight was Mansoor Mohamed (pictured above), Executive Director for Economic, Social Development and Tourism of the City of Cape Town, whom Leigh and I had just met in his office last week. He gave a compelling overview of the steps that the City is taking to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. One of his pet projects is an innovation hub, an area of about 10 hectares; where organisations in the entrepreneurship space will be housed together to create synergies and economic opportunities beyond their individual potential. One of these is a well-known provider of a tertiary degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership. :-) A serial entrepreneur himself, it is heartening to see a dynamic business person like Mansoor in such an influential position within city management.

And just when we thought it couldn't get much better, Alicia Polak, an ex-investment banker who left Merrill Lynch well before their demise, told her story of starting Khaya Cookies, a very profitable venture targeting unemployable women from Khayelitsha to produce high-quality cookies both for local consumption and for export to the United States.

The icing of the cake goes to Cebisa, who entered the Elevator Pitch Competition. He did really well, and tomorrow we will learn whether he can go through to the finals. "I have never been so nervous in all my life", a visibly relieved Cebisa confided to me after the event.

And just as we were completely exhausted, the Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Kenneth P. Morse, pulled off an entrepreneurial show of epic dimensions. Whatever I try to say about his performance, you wouldn’t believe it. So I won’t even go there…