Happening Now...

Couple of events ongoing in the ideas world..


National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance- San Francisco - March 25-27, 2010 here

..supporting technology innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education to create experiential learning opportunities for students and successful, socially beneficial businesses. This conference holding at San Francisco at the end of this week features entrepreneurs, researchers and grant making institutions.

 NCIIA also has a Sproxil Inc link.. The organization is a good resources for grant seeking persons in the US with great ideas, and capital handicap

Africa Gathering Conference- Washington DC - 23 & 24th of April, 2010 (London & Nairobi Later in the Year) here

Africa Gathering provides a space to bring technophiles, thinkers, entrepreneurs, innovators and everybody else together to talk about positive change in sustainable development, technology, social networking, health, education, environment and good governance in Africa.

Couple of speakers in DC including Teddy Ruge, a recent introduction. Sounds like fun networking opportunity for future innovators on our continent.

Side notes:

Then again, another classic by Friedman in NY Times..

In today’s wired world, the most important economic competition is no longer between countries or companies. The most important economic competition is actually between you and your own imagination. Today, just about everything is becoming a commodity, except imagination, except the ability to spark new ideas.

Featured Start-Up: Sproxil Inc- Nigeria

An idea session with mentor, spurred me to research on mobile verification technology. Interesting that a Ghanaian is spurring such innovation in Nigeria; with beta testing ongoing. WSJ article here , discusses the challenges of start-ups, and especially obtaining Venture Capital funds in Nigeria and Africa at large.

Indeed, the comments from readers on WSJ I must comment shows a very shallow understanding of emerging markets (of course ignore the snarly ones). I think this product can be successful if the pricing/marketing model is tweaked. I am not sure if users will be willing to pay for scratch cards to verify a drug that can be fake or real? What if it is fake? Double cost? I think there might be room for collaboration here..

Contacts of the day:

Wullf Capital: 

Frontline US based VC Firm focused on Africa's frontier markets led by the affable Marsha Wullf. Am encouraged by their activities in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Healthcare & Energy are core competencies.

National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance

This organization provides grants, supports innovators and organize conference. Open 2010 in San Francisco is upcoming. Register today!

Want Money to fund your ideas??

Well, try these guys out..their angel list is now tops http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/03/startuplist-angel-investors/