Old Mutual wants to “Do Great Things”

Creative thinkers with great business ideas can now learn directly from successful entrepreneurs in the technology sector through the new ‘Do Great Things’ Entrepreneurs’ Guide from Old Mutual.

Launched in Cape Town at Net Prophet’s annual conference yesterday, Old Mutual’s Digital Media Head Jack Kruger said, “We have undertaken this project to help the budding entrepreneurs of tomorrow to put their ideas into practice. The initiative is based o¬≠n our philosophy that knowledge and experience equate to wisdom, and that wisdom shared and practically applied inspires others to do great things. We approached successful, local entrepreneurs in the technology sector with the proposition that they, in turn, share their wisdom to motivate and assist others to start up and grow their businesses.””

The Entrepreneurs’ Guide was originated and produced by Old Mutual Digital, and co-developed with Cognician, Another Love Productions, Electric Storm, Image Incubator and Creativo.

Comments Cognician co-founder Patrick Kayton, “”Entrepreneurship creates jobs and is crucial to the future of our country. The purpose of the Entrepreneurs’ Guide is to support entrepreneurs o¬≠n the tricky road to starting your own business. Gaining access to this material is like having no fewer than 38 entrepreneurs as your own personal mentors.””

Compiling Old Mutual’s Entrepreneurs’ Guide required a series of direct interviews with selected entrepreneurs in the technology sector and months of information-gathering across South Africa. The accumulated material has been edited into respective categories covering some 170 individual start-up topics. The proud end-result is the o¬≠nline Entrepreneurs’ Guide website where users can access all the video material and related transcriptions, as well as post comments or add contributions.

The 38 creative entrepreneurs featured in the ‘Do Great Things’ Entrepreneurs’ Guide are : Justin Stanford (4Di Capital), Guy Taylor and Jason Norwood-Young (10Layer), Matthew Buckland (Creative Spark), Barry Kayton and Patrick Kayton (Cognician), Mark Levitt (Chesscube), Mike Stopforth and Craig Rodney (Cerebra), Eric Edelstein and Eran Eyal (Evly.com), Robyn Astl and Christian Astl (Faithful to Nature), Shana Kay (Infointeg), Justin Spratt (ISLabs), Marlon Parker (Jamiix), Jason Adriaan (Local List), Nic Haralambous and Vincent Maher (Motribe), Catherine Luckhoff (Mango OMC), Richard Mulholland (Missing Link), Jason Xenopolous (Native), Barbara Mallinson (Obami), Jaco de Wet and Sheraan Amod (Personera), Rob Stokes (Quirk eMarketing), KK Diaz (Rekopane Payroll Services), Rob Gilmour (RSAWeb), Wesley Lynch (Realm Digital), Henk Kleynhans (Skyrove), Yossi Hasson and David Jacobson (Synaq), Mark Allewell (Tourism Radio), Kerrin Black (Talent Finders), Duncan Forrest (The Dating Lab), Peter Flynn (White Wall Web), Rapelang Rabana (Yeigo) and Andrew Smith (Yuppiechef).

Rubbing shoulders at the Net Prophet 2011 Annual Conference at Mutualpark (Cape Town), were (from left) – Patrick Kayton (co-founder of Cognician), Dave Russell-Rockliff (Old Mutual Digital Media) and Andrew McElroy (Creativo)

Deep in techy conversation with Jack Kruger, Head of Old Mutual Digital (centre), were Rob Gilmour (RAMP Group, left) and Mark Slingsby (RSAWeb, right)

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