Africa-Press – Cape verde. Between the 15th and 30th of September, 50 participants will be able to study a real problem and develop a business idea as part of the first edition of the Startup School summer program, promoted by Cheetah Start, in partnership with UNDP. Applications are open until Wednesday the 14th.
The Startup School summer program, which will take place at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas e Empresariais (ISCEE), in Praia, will host a maximum of 50 participants who, during 15 days of intensive work, must work on the development of business ideas and projects.
The initiative of the NGO Cheetah Start is open to people who already have a business idea or who are already in the market with a work team, but also to people who have not yet identified an idea or even know if they would like to undertake it, as he explained. , to A Nação, the executive director, Samir Pereira.
It is an educational program, whose purpose is to establish a link between theory and market practice, and which is divided into some stages until reaching the final structure of the business idea.
identify a problem
“Initially, the participants will work on the development process of their teams and carry out all the validation of the approach to a problem. Usually people want to leave right away to work on a business idea, but we take the opposite approach”, explains Samir Pereira.
In this logic, instead of focusing on the idea, the first approach will be focused on the problem to be solved.
“Studying the problem in the best possible way will allow us to find the best solution. When we already understand the problem, we are able to work out the solution better”, he explains.
For Samir Pereira, the market always has opportunities, but they often end up being normalized and not seen as opportunities.
Involvement of potential customers
During the program, participants will have the opportunity to receive feedback from potential customers and use that feedback to inform the improvement of the product or service.
“Sometimes we have an idea, but it is worked on in a very closed way, with our team and, when we put the product on the market, we run the risk of being what we want, but not what, in fact, satisfies the needs of our customers”, underlines the promoter.
The program also includes working on the communication and marketing strategy that will be applied to the project, especially in the initial phase, with the first clients.
Captivate potential investors
The program will also be accompanied by potential investors to whom the projects will be presented in a final demonstration session.
“We will not have a group of people to evaluate the work that each one did during the 15 days, but a group of investors will be there who will attend the final presentation and their feedback will be the evaluation they will receive”, indicates Pereira. .
In this way, he considers, participants will receive “very real” feedback from someone who is already in the market and which will be very useful for those who will develop their project.
“The idea is not only to bring in trainers, but also people who are in the market, who already have the experience of doing, practicing and implementing the tools that will be passed on”, explains our source.
educational program
The Startup School, according to Samir Pereira, is, above all, an educational program.
“In Cape Verde, we often end up associating startups with contests, but the Startup School is really an educational program. We focus a lot on the development of technology-based projects, but the focus is very educational”, she maintains.
The participants, he guarantees, will receive all the tools, knowledge, networking and all the important resources for the development phase of the project, “This is the great prize they will receive”, he says.
The program is designed both for university students, recent graduates and even professionals who are already in the market, but who want to develop their skills in terms of entrepreneurship.
There will be 15 days of intensive work starting at 9 am until 5 pm.
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