My Business

DISCLAIMER - I have given up trying to format blogs on LetterCrash and have asked management to investigate getting a WYSIWYG interface........... There should be bullets and paragraph breaks in the missive below.

On Thursday the official launch for the Silicon Cape initiative was held in Camps Bay.

I thought this was quite an important initiative and truth be told I was a little disappointed with the slow media coverage of the event considering the rampant “Tweeting” which took place all day.

In a nutshell you’ve had a group of venture capital and technology guys getting together to establish a “Silicon Valley” in the Western Cape and try to find ways to allow investors and innovators the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas.

A couple of things stood out for me which I thought I would throw out there for discussion:

• Upfront – I thought it was a bigger news story than the rest of the media seemed to think. We’re talking 500 investors and innovators getting together to talk about how to stimulate investment in South Africa and develop our intellectual capital. A big deal in my humble opinion
• The amount of “Tweeting” going on! I do my little bit on Twitter but to imagine these technology geeks sitting around furiously updating their Twitter statuses every few minutes in awe of something that was said in the presentation? A bit odd if you ask me...
• .... HOWEVER – for a few moments the phrase #SiliconCape was one of the most referenced phrases in the world. Get your head around that for a moment – hundreds of thousands of people across the globe started talking about a brand. Powerful stuff!
• There was a good comment made by tech industry expert Darren Smith when he said: “Silicon Valley is about so much more than just web stuff. Why then does Silicon Cape have such a web centric focus?”
• It was good to see a business heavyweight like Johann Rupert throwing his weight behind the event and talking about things like tax-free zones and incentives to make the climate more conducive to investment
• I got the sense that there was a lot of talk out of the day but now all eyes will be on follow through. What I felt was quite a positive contribution was that 4Di Capital – run by Justin Stanford - had announced investments in tech firms Skyrove, and Springleap.com prior to the launch. A good sign that these guys are serious about doing business.
• It would be good to see this concept stretched across the country to develop and stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation across SA.

I asked Stanford what were the major concerns that were raised at the event and one of the comments he made was: "If we (SA) don't become a net exporter of IP, we'll remain a net exporter of talent."

Other issues he pointed out was that the regulatory framework in South Africa is a headache for venture capitalists and areas where we need to focus attention is around FAIS, Exchange Controls, the South African Reserve Bank and tax laws.

These things can be tackled when people start debating them so they do need to be highlighted.

As you can probably judge from the tone of this blog post I think this is a really great initiative for South Africa as a whole and something that we need to try and take forward. It helps to have heavyweights like Helen Zille and Johann Rupert behind it but it is going to be incredibly important to see the talk to flow through into actions at all levels.

If we get this right, we might be on the path to developing a culture of sustainable small business in South Africa.