Taking tech start-ups to the next level
WeThinkCode to open Cape Town campus, powered by Accelerator
SOUTH African tech start-ups are on the rise in the country, evident by the growth of tech-based businesses such as WeThinkCode (WTC), who are opening a campus in the Cape Town CBD soon. WTC is one of the success stories of techbased businesses that have been through Accelerator, one of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation programmes helping startups take their fast-growing businesses to the next level.
The firm trains and develops talented software engineers for corporates.
According to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report for South Africa, one of the most critical constraints to entrepreneurs was education and training, which included mentorship and business support for entrepreneurs, and support structures needed to be more effective to assist entrepreneurs in getting to a sustainable state in a short period.
Arlene Mulder, co-founder of WTC, said she and fellow founder Camille Agon learned to have the confidence to scale up their business.
“Going through the Accelerator programme as co-founders enabled us to work on our strategy together.”
Mulder said the new Cape Town WTC campus would be in operation by the end of the year.
“Due to the success we experienced while taking part in the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Accelerator programme, we experienced a 240% revenue growth in the last year. The programme has been very beneficial to scale WTC to the next stage. It has given us valuable insights and tools to refine our vision, strategy and day-to-day operations.”
She said the Cape Town campus would be their second, after one in the Joburg CBD where there were more than 300 students.
“We are looking at two locations in Cape Town city centre, to welcome 200 students as part of our 2018 cohort. All our students study for free. Tuition is paid by our corporate sponsors, who sponsor students to study with us full-time for two years. On graduation, our students have job opportunities with our corporate sponsors.”
Mulder said 107 students had been placed from WTC’s first cohort in internships and estimated that more than 600 jobs were set to be created from the first three intakes.
“Anyone between the age of 17 and 35 can apply – not even matric is required. We are looking for people who are ‘born to code’, regardless of your previous education or economic background. We are looking for passionate, motivated young people who would like to be rock-star software engineers.
“If you think you might be ‘born to code’, all you need to do is take your online test at https://apply.wethinkcode.co.za,” she said.
Mulder added that there was, however, a rigorous application process and WTC received 30000 applications for the first cohort.