From 26-28 November 2021, about 150 developers/entrepreneurs consisting of innovators, coders and entrepreneurs developed technology-based solutions to boost entrepreneurship as part of Startup Business Hackathon organized by the Startup Business Festival in association with Geekulcha under the theme “Building a living entrepreneurial ecosystem”.
The Startup Business Hackathon was Powered by Microsoft and hosted in partnership with ITWeb Brainstorm Magazine, GeoInt Corp Africa, Red Bull Basement, University of Johannesburg Centre for Entrepreneurship and RS Components. The hackathon was hybrid with teams participating virtually from home and the others, physically at The Business Clinic’s startup campus.
In an effort to put their best foot forward, over 30 teams participated while only 21 finalist teams submitted their solutions for review by a panel of judges from academia, funding/investment and tech industry at large.
The judges selected Hack-A-Ton, team of three ladies and two males which came up with a solution that provides entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector with data analysis of their products to determine if the produce will be profitable or not. The team walked away with R10 000.00 in cash.
Second place went Team Array Technologies from Pretoria who developed a fire detection solution for informal settlements and scooped R 3 000.00. In third place with a R2 000.00 cash prize was Team Android 4, who also worked on agricultural solutions to help ease market access for entrepreneurs.
The Best Female Star, Ms. Zenande Mbane, walked away with a business book collection from The Business Clinic.
Mr. Lucky Litelu, the CEO of ICRD Group Holding and The Business Clinic said: “It was quite inspiring and astonishing to witness how passionate and driven the teams were to accomplish their visions. The results attest to their dedication and depicts what can be achieved when people with the right mix of skills collaborate toward a common goal.”
The teams were tasked with developing Minimum Viable Product (MVP) solutions with the support of expert mentors like Ms. Lebogang Modise, Microsoft’s Azure Developer Audience PMM (MEA), to help prepare the entrepreneurs/developers for success. Majority of the ideas were concentrating on social, economic, environmental and cultural entrepreneurship vectors.
“We are proud to be part of the Startup Business Hackathon, the teams that participated in this event really delivered. “The winning teams will have an opportunity for a potential business incubation with The Business Clinic” said Dr. Charlotte Wu, Geekulcha representative.
Additionally, solutions will be considered for support through partners such as Tech Invest to be market ready.
The month-long hybrid Startup Business Festival was launched in commemoration of the Global Entrepreneurship Week with the aim of celebrating, appreciating and putting a spotlight on the entrepreneurship industry.
