Pictured: DUT student entrepreneurs during the Hackathon Bootcamp 2025.

The innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Professor Fulufhelo Nemavhola recently hosted a successful Hackathon Bootcamp 2025 that saw a total of 82 new prospective student entrepreneurs put through their paces.

Students from both the Midlands and Durban campuses were bussed into the picturesque African Enterprise Conference Centre, nestling in the leafy Montrose suburb on the outskirts of the Pietermaritzburg city centre, yearning to have their entrepreneurial spirit galvanised.

Over the three days of the Hackathon, several key DUT stakeholders graced the event and shared their valuable insights and experiences with the cohort of prospective student entrepreneurs.

Amongst those who shared words of wisdom with the budding entrepreneurs were the DUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor: People and Operations Dr Vuyo Mthethwa, the Midlands Campus Director, Dr Nonhlanhla Mthiyane, Mr Bheki Zulu, an innobiz DUT Board member, Dorinda Borg from the Department of Somatology, as well as the DUT SRC President, Solomzi Zoleka and SRC Secretary-General, Melusi Tshabalala.

Their presence underscored the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation in shaping the future of the students and the broader community, aligning with innobiz DUT’s vision for entrepreneurship development and DUT’s ENVISION2030 strategy.

Pictured: DUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor: People and Operations Dr Vuyo Mthethwa

The Hackathon aligned with the encouraging words of DUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Thandwa Zizwe Mthembu, earlier this year when addressing the intake of first year students at the ADAPT@DUT First Year 2025 Orientation address.

Prof Mthembu implored the students to make use of opportunities availed by entities such as the innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to be creative, innovative and entrepreneurial, to ensure that they become job creators instead of job seekers.

“We are no longer training job seekers, but inventors, innovators, who will create jobs for the 400 000 fellow matriculants who have not had the opportunity to enrol at a university. The jobs that you might be hunkering after are jobs that were created by certain individuals like yourselves. So, why do we not support you to become inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs?” Prof. Mthembu pointed out in his address.

Additionally, the Hackathon Bootcamp 2025 was aligned with the vision and ethos of the University, particularly its ENVISION2030 vision which seeks to have innovation and leveraging new knowledge and solutions for societal impact.

It also speaks to Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research Innovation and Engagement, Professor Fulufhelo Nemavhola’s statement in 2024 when he touched on the University’s strategy to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship amongst DUT’s students.

Prof Nemavhola said that the institution was committed to innovation and big on trying to create an environment where both entrepreneurship and innovation can thrive.

“We have got a number of mechanisms that we use to inspire that vision or that goal which is about starting and providing access incubation, acceleration programmes, offering trainings and mentorship around entrepreneurship,” Prof Nemavhola shared.

Before the intensive workshops and addresses from experienced business practitioners commenced, the much-awaited Hackathon Bootcamp kicked off with a physically demanding, yet refreshing, hike under the forest canopy at the African Enterprise Conference Centre.

The hike saw the cohort of close of prospective student entrepreneurs, carefully picked to form part of the Hackathon following a rigorous selection process, soak in the picturesque scenery offered by the trail as they trudged its three kilometres long distance.

As well as the benefits of the physical exercise, the hike was also an opportunity for student entrepreneurs to take in a variety of significant entrepreneurial lessons as the trek closely resembled the entrepreneurial journey and its pitfalls and successes.

The various stages of the three kilometres walk depicted the highs, lows, plateaus, and slippery slopes that are to be expected on an entrepreneurial journey.

Pictured: Midlands Campus Director, Dr Nonhlanhla Mthiyane, Mr Bheki Zulu, an innobiz DUT Board member and Mrs Dorinda Borg from the Department of Somatology during the hike session

Ms Nontokozo Ngcobo, innobiz DUT Centre Manager said that the Hackathon was critical to the students’ businesses because it laid the foundation of their businesses as the Centre assisted them in formalizing their ventures.

“Some of the practical tools that we took them through is Design Thinking, Lean Business Canvass, Practical Business Modelling, Financial Literacy and the Pitch Training which is a practical tool for business communication which they need to learn as early as possible,” Ms Ngcobo explained.

Critically, Ms Ngcobo added that it was important to ensure that the students are taught to have a healthy relationship with money, hence the significance of financial literacy training.

“My biggest takeaway from this cohort was how receptive they were to the information shared with them. On the first day, they shared their business ideas which were raw, but they evolved over the three-day process,” Ms Ngcobo said.

Pictured: innobiz DUT Centre of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre Manager, Nontokozo Ngcobo

Kicking off the series of lined up workshops was a stimulating session presented by Dorinda Borg, who detailed to the student entrepreneurs that Design Thinking was a central element to the success or failure of their venture.

She described the process of Design Thinking as a buzz word that all entrepreneurs needed to embrace going forward, building it in the DNA of their business to give them a competitive edge.

“It is different because it deals with whoever you are providing the service to, it is human-centred, and you must try and find what the people’s pain points are, if you do not know the pain points of your customers you will not succeed. Design Thinking needs you to keep ahead of the game, it’s not what we think our customers want, this methodology looks at exactly what your clients need. Empathise, this is where you must show empathy to the clients and listen to what they want,” Mrs Borg explained.

Another exciting and engaging session was delivered by Mr Luvo Gugwana, the Founder and CEO of Green Arch Innovation, an innobiz DUT Centre alumni who presented a thorough pitch training presentation to help the cohort of student entrepreneurs with the understanding of selling their ventures to potential investors.

“This is about helping students understand the essentials of pitching, why it is important to understand the pitching essentials so that they can better communicate their business idea from the perspective of what problems are they addressing and what solutions are they bringing about to address those problems,” Mr Gugwana explained.

He emphasised that it was critical for student entrepreneurs to have a thorough understanding of the sort of businesses they were creating, and the businesses were addressing the problem while applying the principles of business modelling including whether the business was making money, how they were delivering the services to the clients, the scale of their market, and the team behind the business.

Pictured: Mr Luvo Gugwana, the Founder and CEO of Green Arch Innovation

With financial literacy being a cornerstone to the survival of an entrepreneurial venture, the student entrepreneurs had Ms Fundiswa Zuma, from financial services giant Nedbank.

The interactive session saw Ms Zuma outlining various aspects of financial literacy in relation to entrepreneurship and how finances impact the entrepreneur’s business and its success or lack thereof.

She outlined the various types of businesses, including knowing the critical differences between entrepreneurship and tenderpreneurship, as it was of great importance for an entrepreneur to understand how their business is structured.

“When you know how it is structured it becomes easier for you to have goals set in place with the structure of the business mind. These are two very different businesses that are run differently, and the biggest contributor to the failure of business is the mismanagement of funds, the cash flow, said Ms Zuma.

Pictured: Ms Fundiswa Zuma of Nebank with students

She added that the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs often made was that once they had money and they qualify for financial products from financial institutions they consume that money while the business does not afford that particular consumption.

Samkelo Mtshali