The Silicon Cape Initiative has gained significant traction and coverage since it’s initial inception and launch event, which attracted several high profile speakers and attendees from all over South Africa.
The basic vision for the Silicon Cape Initiative is to establish both a brand and geographical region, in this case the Western Cape, much like that of the infamous Silicon Valley where technology innovation and investment can flourish.
However the focus on this initiative benefiting the Western Cape has left some entrepreneurs from other parts of South Africa feeling a bit left out. As an entrepreneur from Johannesburg, I actually don’t feel left out at all and I will share why.
Firstly, the organisers of the Silicon Cape Initiative invited me to attend the event as an entrepreneur from Johannesburg and to sit on the entrepreneurial panel discussion. Besides being personally involved, I feel that this demonstrates that initiative does have a keen interest in supporting entrepreneurs outside of the Western Cape.
Secondly, as an entrepreneur building a start-up that has global ambitions. I find that South Africa doesn’t have a strong technology brand in the global start-up and investment scenes abroad. Indeed we have several successful global entrepreneurs and start-ups from South Africa, but nobody is really shouting “I can’t wait to see what comes out of South Africa next!”.
Therefore the fact that the Silicon Cape Initiative is attempting to boost the profile of a region within South Africa is a good enough reason for me to support it. I have no doubt that once someone looks within the Western Cape, it won’t be long before they look at South Africa as a whole. Before we moan about where the focus is, lets get people from abroad focussing here first!
Thirdly, the geographic distance between the Western Cape and Gauteng is really minimal when compared to Silicon Valley and Boston, New York or Atlanta where several other start-up hubs reside. We can do business in both provinces and until the Western Cape receives regulatory benefits (tax benefits, etc) we really have no reason to feel excluded. I would suggest everyone who can and is willing should get involved.
On that note, Marc Ashton and Catherine Luckhoff are planning on organising a Silicon Cape event in Johannesburg sometime soon, so if you are interested please keep an eye out over at the Silicon Cape website.