Growing the South African Startup Ecosystem

This is a keynote talk that I delivered at the IT Growth Conference, organized by First National Bank of South Africa.

1. FNB  IT  Growth  Conference   4  June  2014  
2. Hello!     I’m  Tim  J     Dir.  Developer  RelaDons  |  SendGrid                          I@sendgrid.com  |  @Dmfalls  
7. boulderbeta.co  
12. …[South]  Africa…?  
16. Since  November  2010…     SeaRle   Portland   SF   LA   SLC   Las  Vegas   Denver/Boulder   AusDn   Chicago   Washington,  DC   Boston   NYC   Miami     Montreal     Mexico  City   Sao  Paulo   Buenos  Aires   Montevideo   Rio  de  Janeiro   SanDago   Istanbul   Tel  Aviv   Amman   Dubai     Singapore   Bangkok   Jakarta   Kuala  Lumpur       Tokyo   Seoul     Bangalore   Mumbai   New  Delhi   Cape  Town   Johannesburg   Pretoria   London   Birmingham   Brighton   Paris   Amsterdam   Berlin   Stockholm   Gothenburg   45  ci?es   25  countries  
17. Now,  back  to  that  email  thing…  
19. 2009    2010    2011    2012    2013    2014   3  founders     +1  employee   $750k   customers   partners   5-­‐20  employees   $5M   new  CEO   20  -­‐>  40  employees   revenue  doubling   40-­‐90  employees   $21.6M   90  -­‐>  180  employees   4  US  offices   people  in  10  ciDes   66  new  employees  YTD   UK  enDty   13  BILLION  emails  per  month   3.25B  /  wk   464M  /  day   19M  /  hr   322k  /  min   5373  /  sec  
21. Lessons  learned  
22. Building  a  company     BIG  problem  -­‐-­‐>  Simple  soluDon     $$:  only  when  you  need  it…or  when  the  deal’s  too  sweet  to   turn  down     Culture  Culture  Culture     1)  Employees   2)  Customers   3)  Investors     RelaDonships  =  everything  
23. Building  a  community     give  first     contribute  value     be  yourself     inclusivity  =  key     connect  +  communicate     cooperaDon  +  compeDDon    
24. Now,  back  to  that  South  Africa  thing…  
25. SA’s  got  it  goin’  on!     People     Infrastructure     Problems     Ideas     Money     Market     Lions,  Elephants,  Rhinos,  Giraffes,  Leopards…?  
26. Examples  of  awesome  
28. MySmartFarm.info  
29. RoboHand.net  |  RoboBeast.co.za  |  house4hack.co.za  
30. www.brothersforall.org  
31. tompsa.co.za  
32. Ac?onable  takeaways  
33.   Community  members:  get  involved,  meet  new  people     Entrepreneurs:  lead  by  example     Investors:  take  risks,  add  value  beyond  $     Accomplished  folks:  mentor  your  successors     Service  providers,  big  co’s:  feed  the  ecosystem     Govt  /  EducaDon:  think  friendly  &  forward  
34. The  pieces  of  the  puzzle  are  here.       We  just  need  to  put  them  together  in  the  right  places.         Let’s  do  this!    
35. Ques?ons?       @Dmfalls    I@sendgrid.com