i) What is DEMO Africa
DEMO Africa is a premier platform for the best and brightest companies throughout the continent seeking to launch their products in front of a global audience. DEMO
http://www.demo.com has been organizing pitch events around new technology for 22 years and came to Africa for the first time in 2012. The second DEMO Africa start-up launch conference will be held on 24-25 October 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya. DEMO Africa’s application process is powered by the VC4Africa community;
https://vc4africa.biz/demo-africa
ii) How does the application process work?
Many entrepreneurs already have venture profiles on VC4Africa platform, making the application process really easy. In this case, all they have to do is go to edit their venture profile and select that they want to be considered for this year's event. We will follow up to confirm the categories. Each venture can choose to participate in two of five categories. The categories are Mobile, Cloud, Social, Enterprise and Consumer.
We of course welcome new entrepreneurs as well. Know that we will expedite the application of any entrepreneur who you feel should be considered for the trip to Nairobi. As we did last year, each of the entrepreneurs you nominate for DEMO will receive a badge recognizing their participation in your program. This helps to promote your efforts and creates wider visibility for your organization. Also to make sure people know where these entrepreneurs have been incubated.
At the end of the application period, scheduled for July 30th, completed applications will be reviewed by a committee of judges. Only the top 40 ventures will be selected to demo on stage at the actual event.
iii) Tips and tricks
The jury are looking for the top 40 ventures. The pitch should describe the idea, why it is so important, and its big potential. A few tips for the entrepreneurs:
- Upload a video pitch. Nothing is more powerful than a strong pitch in 60 seconds;
- Make sure to keep the activity stream up to date;
- Social traction counts. Build up a following and engage followers;
- Make sure to add team members and advisers to the team page;
- Use the documents tab to upload anything that gives context to the business i.e. pitch deck.
