Week 6 of the pre-acceleration program:
- 8 Start-ups
- 12 Interactive sessions
- 3 Pitches performed
- 2 Guest speakers
- 1 Crash course
This is part of what has happened in the past six weeks of the pre-acceleration program! The eight start-ups have set goals, talked to their customers, discovered their problem/solution fit and learned about different aspects of setting up their business.
Besides the interactive sessions with Aurora, the cohort had the honour to welcome both Alexandre Tourre and Natalia Abboud, who talked about different topics important when running a successful business.
On the 7th of December, Alexandre Tourre, founder of Easy Solar, talked about the journey of Easy Solar. He also addressed, among other topics, the do’s and don’ts of setting up a business in Sierra Leone, the value of market research, how to position yourself and the importance of pivoting to make sure you address the needs and pain points of your customer.
Natalia Abboud visited on the 8th of December. The CEO of Transnational SL focused on the importance of marketing and how to use marketing tactics to your advantage when starting a company. She furthermore touched upon the importance of collaboration, consumer trends and how to use storytelling in creating your brand.
On the 14th of December, Alfred from Byte Limited engaged the cohort in a full day crash course on using Microsoft Excel. Most of the start-ups did not use Excel before, and during this day the entrepreneurs got a good insight in how to use the basic functions to start budgeting and bookkeeping.
For now, the start-ups are working on their set goals and we will be resuming the sessions on the 4th of January after a well-deserved Christmas break!
