Brett Webster started the University of Cape Town Entrepreneur Society (UCT ES) in 2011, but was relaunched “properly” this year to fill the gap of sustainable support for young entrepreneurs studying at UCT.
UCT ES is best described as a personal development and entrepreneurial incubator with the intention to locate, develop, sustain, grow and incubate young student entrepreneurs in all disciplines from UCT.
Speaking to HumanIPO, Webster, a founder of UCT ES, said: “2013 we started it (UCT ES) properly and launched it on campus from [almost] nothing to a functioning society.”
It seeks to facilitate students who would prefer to start a business while studying, rather than after they graduate.
Webster saidLudwick Marishane is the best example of what can be achieved through the UCT ES.
Marishane was incubated by other people, but has also “[came] out of the UCT system”, and is a speaker for UCT ES.
“He is associated with what we’re doing and I think he is a good example of what we’re doing and I think he is a good example of what can be done from UCT.”
Marishane is in the business of biotechnology and has created the successful DryBath, which is described as the world’s first germicidal bath substituting skin gel.
Apparently applying the gel eradicates the need for a bath and can provide personal hygiene for more than two billion people who do not have access to clean water.
UCT ES has 200 members thus far and is currently in the process of incubating them. The incubation process involves a five-step curriculum and the final stage includes finance.
“At the moment, what we are doing is getting established entrepreneurs to come and talk to our members. What we’re doing on top of that is basically mentoring or having one-on-one sessions with guys who want to go further,” said Webster.
Webster said social media plays an important role in communicating UCT ES to the outside community, since the society does have future plans to offer their services to those who are not students at UCT.
“When we started our LinkedIn profile two years ago we got about 2,500 people on that. It (social media) is very important for us because there is a lot of interest outside of the student body. We have a lot of potential members on our LinkedIn profile and we have our twitter account.”
Webster said one of the main reasons UCT ES was set up us is because “it is to uplift an individual and get them to realise their full human potential. One of the things that we want to do is start this at UCT, grow it at UCT and then eventually offer it to outside people if they want to join our society or join the program. From next year we want to be able to do that.”
UCT ES makes use of all the departments at the university, which makes many resources openly available to the young entrepreneurs in the program.
Webster believes UCT ES is necessary because: “There is so much potential at UCT and the exciting part is there is so much student potential at UCT it’s crazy!”
