African Entrepreneurial Forum

If you’re young, and you are entrepreneurial, your single greatest asset is your age. What they fail to tell you in school is that being “older” doesn’t necessarily make you “better.” What it makes you is different. When you’re older, you see things through a lens created through years and years of varying experiences. In your industry (and/or tangential industries), you’ve learned what works, what doesn’t work, what people want and what they don’t want. You know the rules of the game. You know how people operate. And above all, you know enough to where you don’t feel not defeated when someone says that scary word, “No.” Your 20s are meant for hustling. While your friends are enjoying “Sunday Funday” and going out on a Thursday night, you can be growing your own business and laying the foundation for your future success. Millennials and Gen Zers have an amazing opportunity at their fingertips. While our parents’ generation had to put in the time and work their way up the corporate ladder…

There are some skills which have always been debated to be inherent in a person’s nature like leadership, communication skills, confidence etc. Entrepreneurship is also one such debatable issue. One school of thought believes entrepreneurship has to be taught and learned in management schools by pursuing professional management courses. On the contrary, the other school of thought believes it to be inherent or genetic or by birth. They are of the opinion that business skills and entrepreneurship have to be in the blood.

You Need to Have the Vision to be an Entrepreneur By definition, entrepreneurship means setting up of a business unit and seeking profits while undertaking risks. Logically anyone who is willing to take risks after making some investment can be a businessman. Successful or not, is absolutely a different side of the story. It is all about having the vision to create value to a product or make a new product. Anuj Gupta, MD of NIFCO International says, “The idea of setting …

Who doesn’t know Uber? Uber became an instant hit from its very inception and the model has spread to many locations around the world. And the man behind Uber is the young entrepreneur Travis Kalanick. But once you take money from an investor, you cede some element of control. Travis Kalanick found that out over the past few weeks. He resigned as CEO of Uber Tuesday night, after being pressured by his board, which is made up primarily of his investors, including First Round Capital, Benchmark Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures, and Fidelity.
We can all imagine the pressure mounting, as allegations of sexual harassment from key executives became public, with added reports of a cutthroat culture that encourages sub-optimal behavior, and let’s not forget that the company continues to lose a ton of money every month. Just look around and ask any Uber driver this simple question, "What do you think about Uber and its policies, attitudes, and public image?" Yesterday, I aske…