The much anticipated third annual Hackathon Business Bootcamp, hosted by the innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, finally kicked off on Friday 10 May 2024 at the picturesque African Enterprise Conference Centre, Pietermaritzburg. 

A cohort of student entrepreneurs from DUT’s Durban and Midlands campuses, selected following a rigorous selection process, descended upon the plush, green, African Enterprise lawns to a warm reception from the innobiz team. 

Following a short period of acclimatization to their surroundings, which they would call home for the next three days, the official business of the Hackathon Business Bootcamp commenced with the official opening address delivered by innobiz DUT Centre Manager Ms. Nontokozo Ngcobo. 

Ms. Ngcobo brought the entrepreneurs up to speed on some of the exciting business growth and development opportunities that the Centre, in collaboration with its various strategic partners, has on offer for student entrepreneurs meeting the requirements to be absorbed into the Centre’s incubation programme.  

Amongst some of the exciting opportunities listed by Ms. Ngcobo included the trip abroad, to Thailand, for the Global Entrepreneurship Camp where students’ entrepreneurs interact with their counterparts from around 60 partner universities from around the world, the annual EDHE Intervarsity Competition for the top student businesses across the 26 public universities in South Africa, and numerous funding opportunities for business deemed by the Centre to be market ready.  

Ms. Ngcobo explained to the students the variety of programmes available to them to them and their enterprises that would ensure that by the time they leave the University they have stable and thriving businesses.  

Continuing her address to the student entrepreneurs Ms. Ngcobo highlighted the University’s commitment to their success.  

She explained: “We offer a variety of programs specifically designed to equip you with the skills and resources needed to build stable and thriving businesses by the time you graduate.” 

In a presentation by Mr. Siphesihle Mpungose, innobiz DUT Business Support Intern, the student entrepreneurs were addressed on the importance of linking their businesses to solving the challenges in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030, including No poverty, Zero hunger, and Gender equality, Decent work and economic growth, and Industry, innovation and infrastructure.  

“The importance of the SDGs 2030 is that you have to be able to indicate which of the 17 SDGs are addressed by your business and show how your business aligns with the SDG.  

“The reason we want your business to address some of the SDGs is to ensure that it also speaks to our University’s ENVISION2030 and what it contributes towards this,” Mr. Mpungose indicated. 

Amongst some of the clarion calls made by ENVISION2030 is for entrepreneurship and innovation that leverages new knowledge and solutions for societal impact.  

The activities of the bootcamp’s first day continued into the night as the student entrepreneurs were put through their paces on Design Thinking by Mr. Khothatso Memela, innobiz DUT Community Engagement Coordinator.  

“Design thinking is a way of thinking, a way of seeing things. It’s a systematic process of problem solving, it encourages creative thinking, and it leads to innovative solutions, and it can be applied in almost every phase of the business. 

“You can never say you’re done with Design Thinking because it’s a never-ending process,” Mr. Memela said, breaking down the process of Design Thinking to the student entrepreneurs. 

Mr. Memela explained that a key aspect of Design Thinking was empathy from the entrepreneurs, where the entrepreneurs put themselves in the shoes of the customers that they provide a service to. 

“Amongst some of the main reasons why we have such a high start-up failure is that entrepreneurs tend to develop businesses or solutions that don’t really resonate with the needs of the market as they usually come with something that is already there in the market,” Mr. Memela explained. 

He added that such mishaps could be avoided by applying the process of design thinking which would prevent the unnecessary loss of monies and time invested into a product that was not required in the market.  

“The first and most important step of design thinking is to empathizing, trying to walk the journey of the customer, seeing things from their perspective and trying to understand how the challenge is affecting them and trying to find out what they were currently doing to circumvent or resolve the problem or challenge and seeing what is missing in the solution they are using,” Mr. Memela added.  

The final workshop of an engrossing first day was on Prototype Development which was presented by Ms. Thabile Ndaba, innobiz DUT Business Support Coordinator, who gave a detailed presentation on how and why prototyping was a vital component of the entrepreneurial journey.  

Ms. Ndaba told the attentive student entrepreneurs that prototyping was critical because it allowed businesses to validate and fine-tune their ideas by building physical representations of their products or services.  

“Entrepreneurs can save time and costs by getting input from potential customers and stakeholders early on. Prototyping also helps to reduce risks and expenses by identifying potential issues and technical feasibility prior to making large investments,” Ms. Ndaba highlighted.  

Furthermore, Ms. Ndaba explained that well-executed prototypes can attract investors and partners since they serve as physical evidence of the entrepreneur’s vision and value offer. 

“Furthermore, prototypes enable an iterative approach to product creation, allowing entrepreneurs to constantly improve their offers depending on consumer input. This iterative approach results in the development of products that better meet market needs and customer expectations.  

“Prototypes are also used for market testing and early adoption, allowing entrepreneurs to collect real-world input and determine the product’s market fit. This information is extremely useful for informing marketing strategies, pricing decisions, and overall product positioning,” Ms. Ndaba stated.  

Additionally, Ms. Ndaba said that prototype development contributed to intellectual property protection by assisting entrepreneurs in documenting their discoveries and establishing proof of concept, both of which are critical in obtaining patents and copyrights.  

“Overall, prototype creation is a crucial milestone in the entrepreneurial path, offering businesses several advantages and improving their chances of success,” Ms. Ndaba said as she concluded her presentation. 

Buoyed by the exciting activities of the first day of the 2024 installment of the Hackathon Business Bootcamp presented by innobiz DUT the cohort of student entrepreneurs entered Day 2 eager to absorb more knowledge prepared for the betterment of their enterprises.  

Day 2 saw a host of activities lined up for the student entrepreneurs in the quest to impart theoretical and practical information and skills that will play an indelible role in their journey towards becoming accomplished entrepreneurs.  

First on a packed line up of activities was an incredibly informative session by Mr. Thabiso Msomi, Senior Lecturer in Management Accounting at DUT, who showed the student entrepreneurs the ropes in the significant aspect of costing their products and services.  

Mr. Msomi outlined the variety of costs, including fixed and variable costs, that the entrepreneurs can incur while conducting their businesses.  

“Those fixed and variable costs also differ because there are direct costs that you can actually see in a product and there are costs that can’t be seen in building a product, but all of those costs need to be accounted for and included in the product because they ensure the success of that product,” Mr. Msomi explained the significance of proper product and service costing.  

He said that he had also built a costing model for businesses, that was shared with our budding entrepreneurs to work on, to record the items that they buy, and the profit that they wish to achieve. 

“The model speaks to the costs that they incur, that they record there and see how much they are spending on costs, see how much they are actually targeting as profits and it gives them summaries on if they are achieving what they are intending to achieve,” Mr. Msomi said, further divulging the details involved in the costing of products and services.  

Another highly informative session was delivered by Ms. Lithakazi Ndlamla, a Trainer from the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), on the generation of a business idea which focuses on the entrepreneurs and the business idea that they want to pursue.  

“It’s about molding that business idea so that once they get into the second fold of the training which is ‘Start Your Business’ their business idea is feasible, they already know what they want to do, how they want to do it and they already know what form of assistance they require,” Ms. Ndlamla said.  

Ms. Ndlamla added that another significant part of the ‘Start Your Business’ phase was the conducting and collection of the relevant research regarding the business that the student entrepreneurs wanted to pursue so that they know what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.  

Ms. Ndlama also touched on some aspects that make a business sustainable and stand the test of time in the face of the expected challenges that come with running an enterprise.  

“What we found out is that for a business to be sustainable it requires a lot of passion, interest, skills, and knowledge about the business so that it is able to be sustainable and to operate for a long time. What we don’t want to see is a business being here today and gone tomorrow,” Ms. Ndlamla said.  

The student entrepreneurs also had their interest piqued by the presentation delivered by Mr. Thintani Dlamini, Business Support Coordinator at innobiz DUT, on Day 2 of the Hackathon Business Bootcamp.  

Mr. Dlamini gave a detailed presentation titled “Pitch My Business” that highlighted the importance of delivering a comprehensible pitch that would draw the attention of the entrepreneur’s target audience.  

“The entrepreneur needs to be well aware of the aspects of pitch, including a professional dress code, having their pitch thoroughly practiced so that they can maintain eye contact with the audience instead of only just relying on what is projected on the screen.  

“They also need to prepare and tailor their pitch with the audience that they are presenting to in mind, be it potential investors or any other organization that the business might be needing assistance of any form from,” Mr. Dlamini added.   

Londiwe Gumede, a second-year student in Business Administration who owns and runs Phikankani Ceilings and Partitions, was one of the student entrepreneurs in attendance and expressed that the expectations she had when arriving into the Hackathon had been exceeded. 

Ms. Gumede, whose business is based in Durban and currently services areas around that city, said that she was fairly new in the business space and she wanted to soak in as much information as possible at the Hackathon. 

“I have learnt so much, in fact I realised that I did not know anything and even some of the things that I thought I knew I now understand that I was still lacking. I am going to try by all means to take what I’ve learnt here and put it into practice in my business,” Ms. Gumede said.  

Ms. Gumede highlighted that some of the important lessons she took from the Hackathon included the importance of costing, saying that it dawned on her just how significant this aspect was in whether or not her business thrived.  

“I was actually not good at costing and had to source out somebody to do that for me, but I have now learnt how to address that through the presentation we received here and the model shared with us on costing. I also learnt that I am responsible for setting the standard on how I want people, and customers, to treat me and the business,” Ms. Gumede concluded.