CAPE TOWN -The second event of Junxion’s series of networking events took place in Cape Town on Wednesday evening and saw a diverse group of social media influencers, tech companies, corporate slayers and innovative brands meet up in the real world to form new bonds and deals.
The event was hosted by Junxion, the social media networking platform and the African News Agency (ANA), together with supporting partners Independent Online (IOL) and Fast Company at popular city venue Souk in Long Street.
The event was held with a special focus on Fast CompanySA, its brand and media properties, and also offered innovative brand and Cape Town-based Outsourced CFO a chance to share its story and services.
Speaking at the event, Kyle Villet of Fast Company told guests that the company had a special focus on building a community that favours entrepreneurship and supported the entrepreneurship journey.
“I was fortunate that I had to be part of the team that joined Fast Company when we launched Fast Company here in South Africa in 2015. When we launched, everybody was like, 'you guys are crazy, it’s 2015 and why you guys are not digital because print is dead',” he said.
“Three and a half years down the line, I think we have built an amazing community, a community that really engages, focuses on tech, focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship and supporting the entrepreneurship journey.
“We really embarked on the journey with the entire group of bringing this together. We want young entrepreneurs and innovators to really be able to strive and this is a platform that we feel is going to work. Fast Company magazine talks entrepreneurship, disruption, innovation and this is where these communities really start creating a path for us as well, so we come out with eight editions a year,” added Villet.
Featured speaker, Louw Barnardt of Outsourced CFO, said that entrepreneurs needed assistance in many aspects involved in getting the business off the ground, as they usually face many challenges, including cash flow, finding and implementing the right technology at the right time for the company, and dealing with the cash, among other challenges.
“Whatever the problem is that entrepreneurs face, I want you guys to think about that problem and that is, if you had to go to fin experts who could roll up their sleeves, jump in and solve those problems, so that is basically Outsourced CFO. We are a six-year-old CFO company based here in Cape Town, I think we found a gap in the market based on different mega trends that I think are influencing the way business is being done in our days,” said Barnardt.
“The first one that I want to mention is the entrepreneurship mega trend. I think corporate groups don’t always have the same opportunities as they used to. If you look at South Africa as a landscape, dozens of South Africa’s listed companies are scaling down their employment forces and that is shifting a lot of people’s career paths into entrepreneurship,” he said, adding that Cape Town was a thriving example of an ecosystem where entrepreneurship has evolved over the last decade to an unprecedented level where so many people were empowered to start and run their companies.
“The technology has changed to a point where you can set up, market, run and execute on a new product so fast,” he added.