Griffinworx Inc

Programs: Wecreate awep: wecreate awep: the awep wecreate project is established to support women entrepreneurs to address barriers faced in starting and operating a business through startup and accelerator programs in zambia and kenya. Additional resources include opportunities for linkage to potential markets, business development services and access to financing offered in a positive female oriented environment that fosters opportunities for women led enterprises to flourish and succeed. The wecreate project in zambia launched on june 5, 2015, and has since reached out to over 9,000 entrepreneurs. In kenya, a total of 4,692 participants & attendees were impacted. Programs that have been rolled out and are currently being accessed include the startup academy, build-a-business workshops, networking events (schmooze), mentor trainings, rampup, specialized trainings, wecreate challenge and other business development programs. Programs are implemented in ahyper-local environment, tailored and delivered according to the needs of the community. Wecreate zambia has many potential long-term funds when it comes to engaging with the local government's national strategy. Outside government support, the center currently has two high potential funders interested in funding the center: citi foundation on the micro entrepreneurship program, and winrock international on the rural entrepreneurship and women's economic empowerment program. Sustainability of the wecreate kenya center is an essential element of the program as well, and we incorporated a commercialization model that has served as a channel to create multiple funding streams. As part of the sustainability strategy, the center engaged and supported local entrepreneurial programming designed to enhance in-country programs to build the capacity of local organizations for ongoing entrepreneurial ecosystem development. Wecreate project in zambia has reached out to over 8,000 women entrepreneurs and male champions with close to 3,000 accessing programs on an ongoing basis. This has so far resulted in:10,833 female entrepreneurs impacted3,970 jobs created248 new businesses1,316 existing businesses benefit from programs1,351 mentors trained and certified61 male change agents trained as supporters of female entrepreneursin kenya:1. Launched the wecreate center in lavington, nairobi, kenya, with local staff of at least 3 people since november 2015. 2. Since then, we implemented 11 operating entrepreneurial programs with separate sessions for the startup cup acceleration program sessions, startup academy, build-a-business workshops and extreme weekends, rampup program, and men and boys championship program, ultimately supporting a total of 2,179 women entrepreneurs, and about4,692 participants & attendees. 3. As a result, we launched 370 new businesses out of the 175 new startups targeted for kenya. Of these, we have 948 existing businesses that participated, and roughly 255 new jobs created as a direct result of the center, and about 765 indirect jobs estimated. Unfortunately, given that the grant has been terminated as of may 19, 2017, we havemissed the opportunity to continue the momentum of growing businesses until the pass-off of the center expected for up to august 2017. 4. We trained and certified 318 mentors and coaches and 95 male & boy champions of women entrepreneurs. For our master mentors program, we were able to train 7 master mentors - these master mentors were trained and certified to be able to independently train and certify other mentors and conduct build-a-business workshops locally.

ebay foundation corporate advised fund: in 2017, ebay foundation engaged griffinworx to conduct start up cups in four cities: berlin, germany; brooklyn, new york; mumbai, india and washington dc. Over 500 participants applied to the initial extreme build-a-business weekends. These businesses were represented by at least 27 nationalities and 40 industries. From this initial group, 103 teams were selected throughout the four cities to continue in the 5-month acceleration process. After intensive mentorship, the top 12 teams who achieved the most progressive results were selected to continue in the program. After several weeks of continual evaluation and mentorship, the final top 7 teams were chosen to enter their final pitches and judges decided on the top 3 teams from each city, who were recognized in award ceremonies. To create an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem, griffinworx certified mentors and trained ebay employees. Griffinworx also partnered with local organizers, universities, incubators, and financial institutions. Collectively, these partners provided teams an opportunity to address the endemic technical and financial challenges crippling entrepreneurs from disadvantaged and underrepresented communities. As part of the selection and as an outcome of the ebabw launch event, 103 new ideas/businesses were selected to further participate through the ebay startup cup acceleration program, re ning their businesses through mentoring and a bootstrap funding methods. 179 volunteers participated as mentors, coaches, and judges throughout the top 25, top 12, top 7 and final top 3 sessions that occurred from may to october 2017, which was close to our mentor/startup ratio of 1:2. 271 startups and small businesses received coaching and mentoring as part of the ebay startup cup challenge program. 93 new businesses are in operation and continuing to build their businesses as a direct outcome of their participation in the ebay startup cup. The total amount of jobs estimated from these new businesses account for 669 jobs, directly and indirectly. And a total of 1,711 coaching sessions were calculated, amounting roughly 713 hours accumulated by our volunteers. There were targeted meetings in each city about fundraising and local sponsorships to help cover event costs, prizes, venues and organization of the startup cup. These discussions and partnerships are being advanced in 2018.

amazon project: on april 28, 2017 as part of a two-day amazon web services extreme build-a- business weekend in san jose, costa rica, the griffinworx team convened a group of stakeholders, business service providers and entrepreneurs from within the costa rican/south america entrepreneurship ecosystem to gain a fresh perspective on the gaps and needs for the entrepreneurs in the country. The stakeholders were graphically facilitated through a two-hour ecoboost session where we collected insights into where costa rica's entrepreneurial ecosystem currently is, where stakeholders want to take the ecosystem, how are stakeholders going to accomplish their goals, culminating with the co-creation of a six-month action plan.