"Whilst more funding and opportunities are available for startups, we need to benchmark where we are and which areas need improvement - we have therefore developed South Africa's first start up survey," says Jeff Miller, non-executive chairman of Seed Academy.
"The survey aims to get a national picture of startup entrepreneurs, what challenges they face, what issues relate to funding, what sort of additional support is needed to increase success rates. We hope to get up to 1000 responses and we will share our findings. This national survey will develop impetus for industry and government to align efforts to create a more sustainable and successful startup culture in South Africa. It's essential that we succeed to create an economically successful country and to reduce our high unemployment rate."
The survey, which targets startup entrepreneurs who have been in business for less than five years, should take about five minutes to complete. Those that participate could win one of three places at Seed Academy's entrepreneur training programme valued at R48,000.
The results will be revealed at Seed Engine's SA Entrepreneur Funding Summit 2015. This one day summit will involve all stakeholders in the SA entrepreneur funding ecosystem and will come up with practical ideas to enhance, grow and develop the funding networks for entrepreneurs in South Africa.
Seed Academy, a school for entrepreneurship, which initiated SA's first startup survey, is part of an ecosystem that supports startup entrepreneurs.
The focus of the Seed Academy training is on personal and leadership development, sound business skills, creation of a business plan as well as pitching skills to attract funding. Entrepreneurs are offered experiential learning and are equipped to either launch or improve their own businesses. The practical programme which runs over ten weeks, once a week in the evening, is facilitated by entrepreneurs giving the programme credibility and relevant insight.
150 early stage entrepreneurs are being offered an extremely valuable opportunity to join the Seed Academy entrepreneurial programme in both Johannesburg and Cape Town. Seed Academy provides after hours training, once a week, over ten weeks with support for up to 18 months post programme.
For more, go to www.seedacademy.co.za
