Working Together – Cape Town
Anyone who has been following my twitter feeds @permjotvalia will know that I am in gorgeous Cape Town at the moment and loving it.
Recently, (since last year), I have got involved in helping local governments with some advice on encouraging angel investment and helping start ups. That work has took me to some great places including St. John’s, Newfoundland, Szczecin in Poland and now to Cape Town.
I have seriously been blown away by the beauty of Cape Town. Absolutely stunning and you can see why the natural landscape encourages creativity and dreaming about possibilities. But there are two things that are really striking about the people I have met so far.
Firstly, there is a real focus on working together and helping each other to make the digital sector become world class. This works through all the organisations I have met so far either private, not for profit and government organisations.
It reminds me of the reason that I fell in love (and remain in love) with www.seedcamp.com. This was the first time I saw lots of people get together and put their expertise into something that was for the greater good in business rather than to try and get a deal for themselves.
Cape Town has that same spirit in abundance. I even got to meet all the VC’s from the area sat together in the same meeting; unbelievable!
The two things I really think help entrepreneurs to be successful is being able to understand percentages and having coachability.
The other thing that I have picked up (and I really was not expecting this) is the total humility of people here in the Cape. They are totally open to new ideas and advice and despite meeting some people who are already more successful than I will ever be – they are keen to listen to me.
When I was a student in the late 1980s, I dreamed of visiting a free South Africa. That dream has come true. And I would encourage digital entrepreneurs to visit Cape Town (if you let me know if you are coming here – I will happily introduce you to some great people to meet). And it is a great place for a holiday, especially as they have their summers when we (Europe and Canada) have our winter!
I have so far seen dolphins (swimming with the boat I was on), baboons and penguins all in the wild – and breathtaking scenery. And if you were to come and have at least one ‘business meeting’, your holiday expenses could become partially tax deductible!
