New Venture Creation

[Justin Beswick]

I spent a day and a half attending a workshop on ‘New Venture Creation‘ - presented by Stephan Lemprecht of Venture Solutions…

The name ‘Stephan Lemprecht’ sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place my finger on where I’d come across it before..However, I had a positive association with the name, so I figured the workshop would be worth attending..

So off I went to the University of the Western Cape. On my arrival I met up with my fellow peers for tea and coffee before the day’s program kicked off. Immediately, one could tell that the attendees were from an academic background and that they had spent the greater portion of their days in Biotech labs. But, WOW, the atmosphere was great – having scientists (which I am myself) address technology from a different angle (Business & Commercialization as apposed to research) certainly creates loud excitement and sends waves of energy rolling around the room!

The attendees, although having to engage in technology in a way they were not proficient in doing, they really put a lot of thought and personal interest into the discussions and lessons addressed during the workshop. This I believe is a great indicator that entrepreneurship within the South African Biotech sector has immense potential, and much like most sectors; the inhibiting factor is again traced back to the fundamental’s of education and more specifically, the ‘know how’ of the steps needed for starting a business.

I really should mention what great work has been done by Cape Biotech Trust (one of the Biotechnology Regional Innovation Centres) in encouraging entrepreneurship within the Biotech sector here in the Western Cape. It is wonderful to see that institutions such as Cape Biotech Trust are devoting soo much energy and resources into Human Capital Development and educational workshops such as this one. I for one have been a fortunate benefactor of these Human Capital Development initiatives offered by Cape Biotech Trust, and they have been instrumental in getting me to where I am today…I still have a long way to go..but none the less, they have helped me develop my business concepts significantly!

Time will tell if a meaningful return on human capital will be achieved from their efforts – I believe it will.

So apart from a great workshop that helped scientists draw a clearer picture as to what lies ahead of them when venturing into entrepreneurship I will list two key points that I took from the workshop:

Epiphany – knowledge that bridges thoughts and produces answers.

This was the definition offered by Stephan, I think it’s a fair definition and reiterates that the more diverse your knowledge base, the greater the likely hood of you having epiphanies will be.

Get your product out and make the first sale
The key message that I took home, was the importance of getting that first customer to your business. By driving your efforts into making the first sale forces you to go out there and find who exactly your target market is, and what they want! This may seem obvious, but it is seldomnly carried out by the entrepreneur.

And I have to admit, even though I say this, I still fall into the trap of thinking ‘I know what my customer wants/needs’ – in fact, yesterday when I did my first significant sales pitch to a prospective customer for the business I’m currently launching, I was reminded that I don’t know exactly what my customer needs – however, their feedback was immensely helpful and my product is now being adjusted accordingly..which will then make my next sale that much easier!

[Justin Beswick]

Thanks Phomello - There are some truly amazing workshops and presentations being held in Cape Town as well as JHB (are u based there?). Just keep checking the events being advertised/listed here on Huddlemind - i've attended two from here, and I gained immense value from both!

[Phomello S. Mushwana]

Very enlightning synopsis....I'm keen to attend the next event taking place within the foreseeable future!