The City of Cape Town’s Social Services Directorate is giving young people an opportunity to realise their entrepreneurial potential, with its #YouthStart Challenge.
The competition is open to South African citizens aged 18-35 who reside in Cape Town and have existing businesses or start-up ideas that have the potential to create sustainable job opportunities or are already creating jobs. This year, the competition will include a digital solutions category to cater for entrepreneurs dabbling in technology.
#YouthStart was born from research around the challenges young entrepreneurs face, including:
- Access to capital, equipment/tools and space (many work from home)
- Lack of experience and mentorship/guidance
- Lack of confidence and contacts to promote their business
The competition is an accelerator programme for start-up entrepreneurs and supports youth capacity development and job creation. It provides a further benefit by offering support to the entrepreneurs in commercialising, expanding and monetising their solutions/businesses. The level of support will vary, but focus on developing both the entrepreneur and the idea through a robust training and mentorship programme.
To be considered for #YouthStart, entrepreneurs will be required to complete an online application form and upload a short video to pitch their proposal and why they think it has the potential to succeed. The top 100 entries will be offered 10 weeks of after-hours mentoring and training to help them assess whether there is a place in the market for their products and services, after which 20 finalists will be selected for the play-offs. This group will be offered further mentoring and then 10 will be selected at a hackathon to participate in a “demo day”. During June the top three will be announced at a gala event. Various prizes as well as business support will be on offer, including access to a network of partners that will provide the winners with business support and mentoring. Entries can be submitted via the following link: www.capetown.gov.za/youthstart
