Can South Africa be positioned as a Startup Hub?

[duncan drennan]

If South Africa tries to create the right environment, do you think we could become a startup hub?

This essay got me thinking, and in particular, this bit,

If another country wanted to establish a rival to Silicon Valley, the single best thing they could do might be to create a special visa for startup founders. US immigration policy is one of Silicon Valley's biggest weaknesses

Currently, I don't think we have the environment, or attraction to be able to do this right (am I wrong? any points against this?) Stellenbosch has Technopark which is a small startup hub, and the Pretoria has the Innovation Hub (although I don't know too much about the environment there).

What is required to create a good environment for startups? How do we attract people from all around the world to our country to start businesses?

Here are the things I can think of,

• Startup friendly legislation (i.e. labour, immigration, ease of creating new companies)
• Other successful startups
• Investors
• Cheap and accessible broadband
• Abolition of BEE

What can you think of?

[Dave A]

This is an interesting quote from the same page that reminds me of our local diamond beneficiation program.

And that's why startups thrive in startup hubs like Silicon Valley. Startups are a very specialized business, as specialized as diamond cutting. And in startup hubs they understand it.