Savannah Fund chief inspires local entrepreneurs
American internet entrepreneur, Paul Bragiel has challenged local entrepreneurs to aggressively pursue their dreams. “Real entrepreneurs do not give up,” said Bragiel addressing technology driven entrepreneurs in Gaborone last week. Bragiel was in the country to scout for investments and entice youth to consider businesses aligned to Internet of Things (IOT).The Savannah Fund founder’s visit comes weeks after President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s entourage to World Economic Forum (WEF) met and convinced Bragiel to visit Botswana. Savannah Fund is an early stage technology fund focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa and is actively investing across the continent.“We want people with big visions. The key thing is for you to get me excited, we get a thousand of ideas always,” said Bragiel, encouraging young entrepreneurs to apply for the Savannah Fund. Bragiel encouraged youth businesses to not only have appetite for business but also consolidate it with passion.“People are hungry and trying but they are not putting any effort,” said Bragiel, cautioning technology engineers to avoid designing products without doing any market survey first.“Typical engineering problem is we like to build things without identifying a market.”Through Savannah Fund, Bragiel has collectively invested in seed rounds of over 250 plus companies which includes holdings in other billion dollar companies like Niantic (Pokemon Go), Unity and Zappos. Bragiel’s experience in internet entrepreneurship has also been utilised by Uber where he sat on the advisory board of the car-sharing service from 2010-2016.In addition to his work, Bragiel started regional funds in Silicon Valley - Bragiel Brothers and in Asia - Golden Gate Ventures and vertical funds in gaming – Sisu.