The convenience that smartphones have brought to doing business is incredible, with a mere touch screen; only a decade ago this was sci-fi movie stuff.
Nonetheless, there is a downside to this: the dearth of one-on-one networking, which before the advent of the digital age, was the DNA of business. Even when there are attending an event where they are supposed to hobnob and trade business cards, people cannot just stop “liking” someone’s status on facebook or ‘whatssupping.
But one man is at the forefront of a mission to create a niche for one-on-one networking in the corporate world where smartphones and related gadgets rule. He is Selebogo “DrLifesgud” Molefe, founder of The Hookup Dinner, whose approach is hosting events.
The Hookup Dinner is a networking community of like-minded people all aspiring or already in the journey of entrepreneurship across Africa. “It is a platform created for collaboration amongst start-ups with three core values: to connect, engage and contribute to each other’s success,” he says. “We just happen to produce an interface and a pipeline of emerging entrepreneurs that policy-makers, capacity development practitioners and corporate organisations can engage with for their mandated programmes.”
Established in 2012, The Hookup Dinner is owned by Lifesgud Global Investments (Pty) Ltd and serviced by a network of independent start-ups called #TeamHAVOC across East, West and Southern Africa. The “meet-ups” take place every first Friday of the month countrywide.
In terms of business, The Hookedup has not been doing badly. It landed a two-year national contract with SABkickstart, whose conditions stipulate that The Hookedup was supposed to the programme’s footprint partner for reaching entreprenuers across the country.
