This evening I attended the Google Umbono event and I can tell you with confidence that the startup scene is alive and kicking in Cape Town! What a super evening it was to mingle with founders of the Umbono project and meet other influential people in the Silicon Cape community. Hats off to all the organizers of the event especially Justin Beswick(@JustinBeswick) who MC’d the evening.

The startups who presented were:

1. Sampleboard – Professionally present visual concepts to clients. A slick looking online tool to make the lives of interior designers, architects, fashionistas and wedding planners’ lives much, much easier. Unfortunately the founder Rosslyn Tebbutt was not feeling well, so couldn’t make it – but a really nice looking service and execution.
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2. LocalSort – Enables hotels, guesthouses and B&B’s to offer their guests better service, while earning extra commission. Another beautifully crafted website and a great idea – but the founders announced they had decided to end the project and were instead going to focus on their other startup, TravelGround. TravelGround is the fastest and easiest way to find accommodation in SouthAfrica. It was clear that this had been a tough decision for the guys to make, but they were very excited about the eCommerce scene in South Africa and felt that TravelGround was perfectly positioned for amazing growth in the years to come. Best of luck guys, and kudos to you for following your gut!
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3. TaxTim – The fastest, easiest way to do your tax! These guys did a great job presenting a solution that every South African wishes for at least once a year – A simple way to do your taxes! I’d love to see SARS get behind this two-man team and wish them great success with their product.
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4. Pashash – Snap & tag products you find in the shops and share with your friends! A young member of the Umbono project, this duo is set to take the social enjoyment of shopping to the digital realm. Currently in the “Alpha” stage of development, keep an eye on their blog for regular updates.
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5. PeachPayments – Payment solutions for emerging markets. Peach Payments provides merchants a myriad of payment methods to accept money from their customers. I think this is a very exciting business especially because it solves a real problem in the context of an emerging market, like South Africa. Great work guys.
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6. Gigham – Answers that burning question “What can we do tonight”? I’ve always wanted an app like this. I mean – there’s a lot of sites out there that answer this q, but often they’re missing a lot of the events and you never get a full picture of “the spread”. Enter Gigham, and it launches in Cape Town this week!
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After the presentations, an insightful Q&A session was held, after which everyone headed upstairs for beer, pizza and networking. I had neither the Craft beer nor the pizza, but got my fill on a power networking session, where I got to meet another two founders of up and coming startups and many more influential people. It as a blast – and the energy was definitely contagious!

I just love how all of these startups have a .COM domain and I think it’s a clear indication of the vision they have. There is no doubt that the Google Umbono project is opening doors and opportunities that these teams could never have dreamed of, and in my little way I’d like to say thank you to Google. It makes me proud to be part of a bustling entrepreneurial community in a country that is on the verge of great things – eCommerce, mobile, community and social development – I’m proudly South African and so happy that a company like Google is providing support to our local startup scene.

After the Q&A session each of the groups were asked to mention their advice to entrepreneurs in the community, and those wanting to get with the Google Umbono program.

Their advice was:

1. Make it scalable – think big.
2. Solve a real need.
3. Articulate what is the smallest thing you can do – then do it.
4. Build something that does a job that everyone hates. (tax!)
5. Cultivate a culture of commitment and enthusiasm within your team, think long term.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment below to let me know if you enjoyed the post.

~ Mark
20120423