Three Startups from a recently held Local Startup summit in Ho have commenced a ten-week incubation program to build their ventures at the Ho Node Hub in Ho.
The Startups will receive Business Development training and technical support to build their products and grow their ventures.
The Business Development training is to take the Startups through Design Thinking, help them refine their business models and take their product to market. The Startups will also be offered technical support to build their products and make them market-ready.
The three teams that won the pitch at the startup summit include an all-female team – Girl Coded who are building a booking App that helps tertiary students book a decent and safe means of transport to their campuses.
Team Imparters which came second at the pitch held as part of the summit is working on a handy labour market platform dabbed Asidor. Asidor connects professional and reliable artisans to people who need their services.
The third team – Team Cruise is building a mobile app that reduces the search costs that tertiary students incur to get accommodation in the Volta Region.
The Startups are expected to participate in an activity called the Entrepreneur Hustle which seeks to give them an initial entrepreneurial exposure.
This activity involves the sale of local products or services from a Startup in the local community by the businesses in incubation. The Startups will also embark on an Empathy field trip to engage their target markets in user research to explore and better understand their pain points.
The three Startups are expected to build Minimum Viable Products (MVP) and gain traction. Traction will be in the form of users who will begin to pay and use the platform. The team will also have to show some revenue accruing from the business.
At the end of the ten weeks, an in-house pitch contest will be held to select the best performing Startup to represent the Volta region at the Ghana Startup Summit where winning teams from other parts of the country will present their ideas for funding opportunities.
The Startups will be given what is dubbed post-cohort support after the incubation program. This support includes an introduction to mentors and investors, programs and co-working space.