SW7 (Start with Seven), one of Africa’s largest technology acceleration teams, are partnering with Microsoft to bring a series of workshops to South Africa, aimed at technology focused businesses. Often dubbed the ‘rising continent’, Africa is filled with startups that are looking to accelerate their trajectory into the wider market. SW7 provides such companies with advice on enabling their businesses to grow and scale – at a pace they can dictate, depending on resources. SW7 has helped over 200 South African businesses in the last five years, and have recruited over 100 technology focused CEOs to mentor for them.
This year, SW7 has grabbed the opportunity to pair with Microsoft in an effort to combine missions, and provide more South African startups with the correct support and advice. Odette Jones, the co-founder of SW7, states that this move should be unparalleled and exciting for South African technology markets.
“South African technology markets are B2B. The Azure stack and the access to market provided by Microsoft means they offer huge value to the ecosystem of growing and scaling technology businesses.”
Azure, one of Microsoft’s clouds will be offered to businesses for them to develop their applications and services. Ilana Baragwanath, lead of Head Start – the recently launched programme by Microsoft for startups – is adamant that this will strengthen local startup systems and prepare them to sell to the global marketplace.
What makes this collaboration so special is that the startups who involve themselves will have the opportunity to become Microsoft partners. Ilana excitedly states that this extra dimension of support is what makes this partnership unique.
What you need to know:
Duration: 6 months.
Where: Microsoft Offices, Bryanston
When: 12th March
Details: The workshops are available on demand. Businesses can access the tools and content digitally or otherwise, at a pace that suits them. It’s always open. Businesses may join at any time when they have the time and capacity to focus on their cloud business. Businesses are curated. Assessments are based on where businesses are, what their definitions of success are and are provided with the tools, processes and content to help them move towards their goals.
