Founders Dinner To Feature Lerang Selolwane
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday August 10, 2020 12:53
Selolwane is the founder of Lucient Group, an industrial engineering company that employs over 500 people and has operations in both Botswana and South Africa.
The brains behind the Founders Series, Matshego Lethola explained that through the series, they offer a platform to aspiring entrepreneurs to discuss business challenges, ideas and network with fellow business leaders, pioneers and other stakeholders of note in their different spheres.
Lethola said the next dinner slated for September will be held under the theme 'Building Local Sustainable Brands'.
“We believe it is time as Batswana we shift from just being consumers to being producers. Before COVID-19 we seemed to be okay with consuming not producing, post COVID (19) you see things have changed, more entrepreneurs in Botswana are standing up showcasing they can produce too and compete with international brands,” Lethola said.
Lethola added they need to start conversations around product quality and find out if these products can compete internationally hence the engagement.
Since inception, the sessions have hosted business magnates amongst others Base Sebonego, Tonderai Tsara, Samuel Mpuchane, Ebrahim Mohamed, Regina Vaka-Sikalesele and Mompoloki Mogobe amongst others.
Lethola told BusinessMonitor it was after his first business magazine publication when he realised that most of the Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) need to be mentored and can expand through the right networks.
According to Lethola, the platform exposed aspiring entrepreneurs and SMEs to resourceful information, ideas, leads, business opportunities, financial capital, power and influence, emotional support, even goodwill trust and cooperation.
“We are passionate about helping founders, entrepreneurs and start-ups to succeed. We intend to make their business journey less lonely, more connected and more memorable,” he added.
From a cocktail reception to a sit-down dinner, the evening provides the perfect opportunity for business founders, business managers, venture capitalists, creatives, aspiring entrepreneurs and freelancers to sit together and build meaningful relationships.
Through the sessions, start-ups also get the opportunity to pitch their ideas before these investors who then decide if they can invest some capital, mentorship or business startup toolkit.
To date some businesses have successfully found funding while some have been offered mentorship.