Have business ideas or want to discuss about your entrepreneurial projects?
Our business coach is here to help you out.
Get a taste of how Incubation program coaching works.
Working on your own is not always easy.
Turbine Co-working comes with the right dose of fun, meet ups and focus. Try it.
Got business queries?
Why not discuss them with our business coach?
Book an appointment free of charge for the 24th January 2019.
Every last Thursday and Friday of the month, we offer free Co-working passes!
These passes are for those who wish to experience what it is like to co-work in an open space environment.
Our co-workers are entrepreneurs, innovators and various professionals (Architects, Accountants, digital marketer, developers…and many more), who form a strong community of like minded people helping each other out.
One free pass can last a full day, 08h30 to 17h00, at our open space.
The next free co-working open days are as follows:
– January 24th and 25th
– February 21st and 22nd
– March 28th and 29th
**Not to forget** The offer also implies Free Coffee and other amenities (kitchen, WIFI and games) !!!
When: Tuesday 04 December, from 18hr00 to 21hr00
Believe it or not, there is an art to networking, if you are to ensure your ROI.
During this session, we will share tips and ideas on how to get the most benefit from the netWORKing events you attend.
And we will share with you how to build the kind of relationships that lead to quality business referrals and ensure you netWORK rather than sell.
This event is a must for anyone who:
Would like to grow their sales pipelines or feel more comfortable meeting large groups of people.
Entrepreneurs who would like to improve their ratio of turning contacts into referrers.
Business people who would like to get the most benefit from netWORKing.
Or just any curious minds who want to become better networkers are most welcome.
Fees Rs 500/Person
20% Discount for JCI, MBN Members and Turbine’s Community.
Venue: Turbine Business Incubator,
Vivea Business Park,
Moka.
When: Monday 29 October, from 16hr30 to 18hr30
“Is it interesting to accelerate my company’s growth with the financial and strategic support of external investors?”
Compass welcomes at the end of this month Lars Lindgren, Venture Capitalist and Swedish Business angel accumulating 35 years of experience.
Lars will lead two workshops on the capital investment:
- A training for the entrepreneurs
- A discussion for the active or potential investors
The workshop aims at helping you understand the advantages and inconveniences, to build a partnership with investors: business angel or investment fund.
The purpose is to give you elements of reflection to think about a partnership, but also to explain the different stages to build and maintain it.
This initiative is an essential requirement for the take-off of innovative projects in Mauritius: something that means a lot to us!
We are pleased to invite you to this first meeting. The presentation will be in English but Lars is bilingual.
Go on Facebook for more info!
If the idea seduces you, if the subjects presented below interest you, then confirm now!
To book your spot, RSVP on hello@compass. mu or hello@turbine.mu, or contact us on our website! Limited places available.
Turbine co-organized the Fuck up night along with Red Dot, DodoWorkPlay and ICT.IO. The Fuck up night is an international movement that runs in over 250 cities and is an entrepreneurial platform where biggest failure stories are shared and celebrated. Yes, that is correct, celebrated: Professional failure are often associated with feelings of embarrassment, guilt or shame. Fuck up nights were conceived with the aim of changing mindsets and the perception around failure to turn it into an opportunity to learn, become stronger, and connect through sharing. In Mauritius, rather than taking initiatives and give it all even if it may fail, many people prefer not to take any risk at all. This is because there exists a huge stigma around failure and which is crippling our entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The Fuck Up Night Mauritius
We were honored to have 5 speakers come out and share their biggest Fuck Up stories with us, inspiring and demonstrating others how failure is a fundamental step in the path to success.
Fuck up night speaker: Kelly & Wesley Oxenham, Founders of Farmcity,
Looking at them, so happy and positive, one will never have thought that they have been through so many hardships in building Farmcity. Kelly and Wesley, came forward bravely and honestly when sharing their failure story with us. First, they had to face a raging fire that ignited in a neighboring sugarcane field which burnt all their crops. With only 1 year ‘s earnings to live off of, they had to start again and this time they a had a new challenge: dealing with the unethical behavior of a contractor. Upon learning about the contractor’s misdeeds, Kelly and Wesley fired him, only to later have the contractor sue them for damages worth for Rs 2 Million. In the 6 months that followed, they spent sleepless nights, frustrated and desperate, worrying about where and how they could amass that sum of money. According to Kelly, when roots are strong there is no reason to fear the storm. Despite all the storms, today Farmcity is flourishing. These failures and difficulties taught them a few lessons which are key for any entrepreneur.
- know the people you are working with,
- allow the bad phases to pass
- always exercise patience and perseverance.
Fuck up night speaker: Ashley Saddul, Founder and CTO of Recruiter.com
Ashley is a serial entrepreneur. He avidly shared how he had launched his various businesses and encountered several issues. He faced stagnant stock, mismatched of markets and a misadventure in partnering up with a phony individual who had little experience in what he claimed to be his expertise and who was in actual fact, a part time actor and before that, a full time teacher. This venture led his business to suffer great loss.
When asked about how he got up from this massive failure, Ashley said that people in Silicon Valley, America, do not turn their back on you because of failures. They celebrate and give respect and support because they believe that failures make you a stronger person; You took the step, tried, failed, lived it and learnt. He admitted that it took him a few months to heal, reflect and strengthen his mind. Ashley added that every entrepreneur has that spirit to get back to business regardless of the deceptions faced.
After 8 times of facing dead ends, one does get stubborn and persistent though it is imperative to know when to stop. With experiences, one does get tuned and Ashley knows that really well. He has developed his own way of proceeding; according to him, any process should not take more that 2-3 weeks to get done. If it takes more than that, then there is a must for immediate action.
Fuck up night speaker: Aisha Allee, Founder of Blast Burson-Marsteller
A brave woman entrepreneur whose passion for communication was tested several times. She narrates her story;
Aisha launched a company with two of her friends at the start of her entrepreneurial journey. The company had everything to succeed; they had clients, the work was being done, clients were satisfied and money was being generated. Trouble started when money started to flow in. The 3 partners started to fight a lot. Aisha found herself out of the company overnight after a board meeting; her two friends had decided to put an end to her partnership. She was left feeling betrayed and with a bank account amounting to zero. Aisha had invested all her savings to this company. A mother of two children, Aisha narrated how she faced that difficult phase with the only support of her children who were very young at that time. She knew that she had to fight back for her family and find a way. She described how she practically camped infront of the doors of CEOs and knocked at each and every door until finally one opened. From then on through word of mouth, deals flew in and Blast became a successful company proudly managing communication crisis for its clients. Aisha remembers telling herself during those critical phase of her career; Even if things are not sound, she has to do what she feels is right so as one day she does not have any regret.
She believes that “One’s success is defined by oneself. ” That is the you define your own success.
Fuck up night speaker: Kim Andersen, Managing Director at Kim Andersen Consulting
Kim opened a Japanese restaurant named Benkei which sold sushi back in 2006. She and her friend invested in this business without conducting any market research. Kim had a day job back then and her partner was managing the business. Kim was clueless that like her, her partner had no experience with the Japanese culture or in business. One day on her way home, Kim learnt that the business went bankrupt and that her partner has fled to another country. The result of this “fucked up” venture was that Kim not only lost her investment but also all her assets including her house. Kim said she also lost her arrogance on that day… The next phase of her life included a lot of self questioning and she meditated back to her core values. She remembered seeing a quote from Indira Gandhi which said “If I die today, every drop of my blood will invigorate the nation.” This inspired Kim and made her work on herself. Kim forgave her partner as she understood that it was her own decision to invest in that business. With the support of her family, Kim’s entrepreneurial spirit finally emerged. She became strongly opinionated and from that day on, she wore her “fuck up” as a crown, like a queen. Today Kim is a Board Advisor and has her own training agency for various professional development.
As organizers, we aimed to change the mindset of people about failure. We are proud and satisfied to learn that people who attended this first edition have really enjoyed and learned from our guest speakers respective fucked up experiences. Many felt inspired and decided to go ahead with their plans.
Stay tune. We will run the next Fuck up night session soon! Follow us of Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Turbine proudly hosted the Digital for change summit which was organized by the Digital Marketing Mauritius. This event had for purpose to share knowledge on digital transformation, promote the creation of a network of digital marketers and encourage entrepreneurs and individuals as well to make the best use of digitalization.
Digital Marketing Mauritius
The Digital Marketing Mauritius was launched in 2017 by Jason Bholanauth and joined later by Madevi Subramanian, Dylen Citta, Jemilla Greedharry, and Pahlavi Tilloo. This group of dynamic digital marketers started with the vision to provide a platform of knowledge sharing and learning about Digital Marketing since this field is still new and vast, constantly changing and interesting.
Digital for change Summit
The event was well received by the audience, there were a total of 184 registrations. We were honored to have 3 inspiring speakers who shared with us their experiences.
Natacha Emilien, the Co-founder and Managing Director of Red Dot, shared with us how in her quest of satisfaction and self fulfillment. She changed her career path from engineering to accounting. After 13 years as an employee, she is now an entrepreneur who is much more happy, with the feeling of being free and having a bigger purpose. She encouraged the audience to go forward and try things, the first choice may not be the right one though the experience is worth it.
Chen Hindi, General Manager and Head of digital at Quantum, explained how the various tools of digital marketing can be exploited for more concrete information and thus better strategic decisions. She also believes that despite the lesser response rate, email marketing retains people who are genuinely interested and give their undivided attention to the mail while they read. Chen gave some foolproof examples of companies who are successful through digital marketing.
Sean Fourmacou, Founder of YouthSceal, brought another aspect of digital marketing: a platform to sensitize people and address social issues. He explained that social media allowed him to reach the mass population whereby his messages were heard, seen through videos and people could connect and engage. Sean learnt how to make use of digital marketing to meet his purpose. He showed the various actions that have been done by YouthSceal which were very impressive. Sean also encouraged the audience to make best use of digital marketing so as to connect people and get things done for a better society.
The feedback that this event received was very positive. each person who attended this event learnt at least 3 new things. The dynamic interaction that followed between the speakers and the audience after each presentation showed the intensity and success of the event.
What is next?
Follow Digital Marketing Mauritius on Facebook and stay tuned for their next event.
Turbine incubator is making sure that our incubated start-ups have all the up to date information and tools needed to better prepare them. In that view, our 5th workshop for our incubated start-ups has been Cash flow and Budgeting.
The Guest Speaker
Jean Roland Béchard, Director at KPI Chartered Accountant and Associates Ltd and Financial Director at Early Birds Consulting Services Ltd. JRB is an expert in reinventing finance and accounting to promote innovation. He helps companies on their annual report and advises on their business platform and financial strategies.
The workshop
From the various types of budgeting to the items we need to consider, JR Béchard explained the whole concept of budgeting. He emphasized on its importance and benefits which are to better attract investors, have clear sales goals, better decision making, tax preparation, liquidity and line of credit.
JR Béchard also explained cash flow and used case studies to make it simpler. He showed our start-ups tools to use, such as the “youngentrepreneursltdfinancials.xlsx” doc he prepared which makes it easier to record and process the cash flow. He explained that there are however many cash flow problems; poor business management, poor inventory, decline Sales, no KPI, poor credit and debtor management.
He mentioned “Business Reengineering and Rescue”which can reiterate a business cash flow issues. This includes to identify and analyse potential problems or current ones and tackle them. Although, the business reengineering and rescue depends mainly on the management and normally they may take too long to identify, analyse and implement the changes needed to save a business in distress.
Accounting is no easy task but remains essential. All entrepreneurs, even if you may employ an accountant or get help, it is a must to understand the concept of accounting. Here is an article JRB recommends reading.
We proudly collaborated with the US Embassy Port-Louis on the GIST TechConnect event – a live webchat on Fintech: The Future of Finance, on the 12th of June 2018.
The aim of this live webchat was to allow people, especially entrepreneurs, to learn how their startup can benefit from fintech through a series of questions on Financial Technology, from giving and receiving payments to getting loans and managing your financial accounts and how they can apply its knowledge in their business.
The Fintech Revolution
Financial technology is by far one of the biggest transformations going on in entrepreneurship. Fintech is technology that allows a company to better shape its financial aspects.
Blockchain is a Fintech innovation which will allow companies and individuals to directly manage contracts and transactions. Mobile technology, biometric information, machine learning and more, are making financial transactions not only easier and cheaper but also faster and more secure.
Bestowed with the presence of the US Ambassador David Reimer, the US Embassy staff, Turbine, Red Dot and 60 Fintech curious participants, the live webchat started at 6 pm sharp. Along Mauritius, a few other African countries joined in the live webchat.
Miles away in the United States of America, two Fintech experts sat for 1 hour to answer questions on finance and its future;
Dale Nirvani Pfeifer,CEO & Founder, GoodWorld, social media payments company that makes charitable giving frictionless, viral and secure and works with over 3000 of the world’s top charities.Goodworld was recently named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies and a World Changing Idea by Fast Company magazine, one the Fast Growing Companies in Washington DC, and won a Timmy award as DC Best Tech Startup in 2016.
Viktor Brandtneris, Owner, Brandtneris Consulting Group Inc, started his career in financial and strategic planning roles in the computer industry with IBM & Computervision. He subsequently co-founded a start-up in the financial services industry with responsibility for daily operations, investor reporting and regulatory compliance.He is active in consulting and coaching early stage companies employing the Business Model Canvas, and is a National Science Foundation’s I-Corps instructor.
Fintech is disrupting the traditional banking industry.
A few questions were raised on whether traditional banks will disappear with the new fintech services.
We all know that the banking sector has reduced their borrowing and how difficult it is for SMEs and start-ups to successfully access finance. With the rise of FinTech entrepreneurs delivering innovative products and services, the gap between banks and SMEs and start-ups can now be significantly reduced. By acting intelligently and making best use of the available Fintech innovations, entrepreneurs can now expect greater flexibility, price, transparency, access and convenience from banks. Even banks will have to be compliant , though major banks might survive.
Fintech is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to benefit from various existing and upcoming programs since major banks will have to build adapted programs in order to keep going. Other opportunities may also include partnerships with large commercials and the big banks.
The main questions asked on Fintech
There were many other questions such as
1) can alternatives of credit cards be an app allowing people to pay through purchase orders and others, since in many countries people do not have access to credit cards
2) blockchain evolution
3) how to adapt with this digital movement going on
4) whether crowd lending and crowd funding is a legitimate source of financing for start-ups.
5) can Fintech play a role in developing economy.
6) how can Fintech facilitate international money transfer
7) how can a social entrepreneur integrate fintech in their venture.
We recorded a Facebook live of the webchat. Do check it out here on our Facebook page to learn what the experts had to say about the above questions!