Mentorship Briefing

The launch of our mentorship pilot is one of the outcomes of our Business and University Innovation Programme which aims to enhance the relationship between corporate business and the universities in our region. This is specifically to support the innovation value chain from R&D to commercialisation of ideas through spin-out/start-up companies.

Our four universities are some of the most innovative universities in South Africa accounting for 48.6% of patent activity of SA universities from 2009 – 2015. Stellenbosch University and UCT have several spin-out companies and one of the requests was whether business can support start-ups by providing mentors and board members. The aims of this mentorship pilot are to:

• Encourage business professionals to play a role in the innovation ecosystem by supporting start-ups/SMEs through mentorship
• Build relationships with established incubators and determine what additional assistance our universities require to support their programmes if they do not have an incubator
• Determine the process that business professionals go through when mentoring and what additional support they require to effectively mentor start-ups/SMEs. This feedback will be shared with the various incubator programmes and inform additional mentorship programmes.

Briefing Session

• 12:30 – 12:40: Registration and lunch served
• 12:40 – 12:50: Overview of Mentorship Programme – Juliet Prowse, Programme Director
• 12:50 – 13:20: Overview of the incubators/accelerators involved in the programme:
  • LaunchLab – JD Nel, Portfolio Manager, LaunchLab, Stellenbosch University
  • Grindstone – Andrea Böhmert, Partner, Knife Capital
  • MTN Solution Space – Sarah-Anne Arnold, Solution Space Manager, UCT Graduate School of Business
•  13:20 – 13:40: Difference between mentoring and coaching – Daniel Beukes, Organisational Development Consultant and Executive Coach, Centre for Coaching
• 13:40 – 14:00: Q&A and next step discussion with mentors and incubators/accelerators