IP Insights | GrowthHub

The founders of GrowthHub are building a community amongst the South African start-up scene that you should keep an eye on. They hold regular events and aim to add value to the start-up community by bringing in guest speakers from a range of sectors and offering entrepreneurs within the network the opportunity to showcase their exciting projects.

Recent events they have held included “How to pitch for funding” and “The importance of sales, marketing and PR”. You can see videos and highlights of these exciting events here.

The IP Live team often get asked what events they should be attending or communities they should join to learn more about developing a flourishing business. In our view, GrowthHub is exactly the sort of community you should join.

We had a few questions for the founders of GrowthHub, Ross Mains-Sheard and Hjalmar Venter.

IP Live: What really excites you about the GrowthHub community?

GrowthHub: The opportunity to share learnings and network with fellow entrepreneurs and seasoned experts in fields relevant for startups. It also gives likeminded people a platform to ask the questions and learn the things that you can’t necessarily find in a textbook or online. Entrepreneurs learn from doing, and we are trying to create an eco-system where that knowledge is shared, sowed and ultimately harvests innovation and growth.

IP Live: The events you’ve held so far have been a great success. Is GrowthHub all about the events or is there more to it than that? 

GrowthHub: Not at all, the events were an obvious starting point for us to get a bunch of likeminded people in a room together and offer them a little something to take away. However the magic starts to happen once these people start discussing their ideas and working together after the event. We are already starting to hear success stories of people who have collaborated with others who they have met through our community.

IP Live: Who do you wish to see at the next GrowthHub event?

GrowthHub: We are very excited that we have 2 great speakers at our next event. Nic Rosslee from Adams & Adams is sharing some insights on how to create value and protect that value through Intellectual Property. Secondly, we have Brent Shahim, the founder of Aqua which is one of the largest digital agencies on the continent. Brent is shedding some light on how he grew his business from a startup 18 years ago to a 400 employee business and eventual exit to the world’s largest advertising network WPP.

Sign up for GrowthHub’s event on 14 March 2017 at 1 Chadwick Avenue, Sandton here.