Denis Opudo
The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Company (Teec) was founded by Repelang Motsumi in 2009. The startup started as a matchmaking services startup. It used to link the needs of entrepreneurs with support groups. Motsumi is a degree holder of bachelor of business administration. Furthermore, he underwent training from different incubators. The incubators included Awethu Project, Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship and Shanduka Black Umbrellas. He is also the DB Entrepreneurship Consultants’ chief consulting officer. Moreover, he is a director at EBonoko Foundation and project manager at BM Production.
Teec started by offering small business compliance services and various SME consulting services. During that period it realized that many companies required more help. But they did not know where to source for that help. This is according to Motsumi.
Teec has from that point changed to become a firm that offers information. It shares the existing opportunities in various sectors with entrepreneurs. The main beneficiary of the services offered by the startup is an entrepreneur. They are connected to support institutions at the cost of participation of the corporate. They, therefore, contribute a BBBEE spend for supplier and enterprise development.
The company is on the verge of coming up with a website that will be linked to a database portal. The website will receive the profiles of entrepreneurs’ business via a submission form. Teec will deliver on its third stage of their growth which is to introduce the Teec App in 2019. It will help the company simply its operations and reach to many clients according. The business is scalable according to the founder. Teec has clients from a wide range. The clients include TechnoServe, SA Breweries, Standard Bank among others.
Motsumi noted the government’s effort in coming up with a lot of initiatives that aimed at helping entrepreneurs. However, the initiatives lacked a proper communication. Many people still do not have any knowledge about them hence not using them. Motsumi has carried out training for small businesses at the National Youth Agency. Furthermore, he has been in charge of programs for Junior Achievement South Africa. He works on creating an enabling environment for small businesses to be successful. Teec has a corporate social responsibility like putting up health and business gatherings. They offer a platform where business leaders hold discussions. Furthermore, people get opportunities to conduct health screening tests at no cost. Motsomi says that entrepreneurship is the only way of moving out of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. Unemployment rates are currently at 26.7%.
