by October 24, 2015
Ye! BoostCamp at Impact Hub, Amsterdam
The African Association of Entrepreneurs was represented at the first ever Ye! BoostCamp by staff member Betty-Ann Ananeh-Frempong. The complete Ghanaian team also included Audrey Forson, Nafisah Adam, Kyerewaa Atta-Krah, Prince Boadu, Obed Paks Mensah, Kwame Basoah and David Essien.
The Ye! Team in Amsterdam welcomed all the participants and partners from Ghana, Kenya and the Philippines with a welcome dinner attended by Ron van Akker and Jie Xue, the founders of the Ye! Community, part of Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI).
Defining objectives
All participants and partners met Philip Harris from CYFI on Monday morning at 8:45 am to go to the BoostCamp venue, the Impact Hub.
At the Impact Hub, the teams from Ye!, the Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI) of the Miller Centre, iHub-Kenya, Young Entrepreneurs Society Philippines, the Young Entrepreneurs Hub East Africa (representing Kenya) and the African Association of Entrepreneurs (representing Ghana) were introduced to all participants and partners.
The BoostCamp began with Steve from GSBI taking participants through their personal objectives, target market and value proposition. They then were given exercises to try to define their business objectives, target markets and value propositions. This was led by Steve from GSBI.
Marketing, sales and partnership training
On the second day, Steve of GSBI delivered marketing, sales and partnership training, including practical exercises. And Jaspar Roos, the co-founder and chief inspiration officer of XL Family, gave an inspirational speech.
The second day also included learning how to draw up a business model and value chain. This presentation, along with its exercises, was led by GSBI. Another inspirational speech came from Laurens van Nues, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Magnet.me.
The day ended with meeting start-up teams from Amsterdam in an informal setting and a group dinner.
Business finances
The third day’s topic was how to manage the finances of your business and the presentations with exercises were led by Ernst & Young (EY).
There was then a pitch training session by David Beckett who is the creator of the Pitch Canvas and a TEDx Speech Coach.
Pitch practice and being investor ready
On the fourth day of the camp, the participants practised their pitches and critiqued each other. GSBI also took the entrepreneurs through growth strategy ideas as well as how to be investor ready. They also led the group to set up their goals for the 2016.
There was also a meeting of the partners to discuss the problems they faced in bringing entrepreneurs together in their various countries.
Pitch competition
The last day of BoostCamp was the main pitch event at De Nederlands Bank, the central bank of the Netherlands.
Ten participants were chosen for the pitch event. From Ghana we had Audrey Forson, Prince Boadu and David Essien. From Kenya, there was Beverley Mbeke, Dickson Ayuka, and Brian Kipkoech Bett, while the Philippines were represented by Philip Chino Atilano, Louise Ivan Payawal, Rachel de Villa and Valerie de Leon.
The pitch event was attended by the De Nederlands Bank president, Klaas Knot, and the Deputy Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Doris A.D Brese. There were also several Dutch investors and employees of CYFI in attendance. The entrepreneurs pitched in front of a panel of judges made up of Dutch investors from organisations that invest in Africa. The judges questioned the entrepreneurs on their business and gave advice on their pitch.
Everyone then attended a farewell dinner at the WestCord Art Hotel. After dinner, the Ghana group moved to the airport hotel for their flight in the early hours of Saturday morning and arrived in Ghana safely at 3:50pm.
