Ashwin Ravichandran is the Managing Director of MEST Africa, the Pan-African entrepreneurial training program, seed fund and incubator. Since joining the first in 2015, he has worked with portfolio companies including Asoriba, Complete Farmer, Leti Arts, and Kudobuzz.
It started in 2013 when I was working with startups in India. My background is in computer science and engineering and I went to a school that was expanding and wanted to scale around the country. I already had some knowledge of the Lean methodology and knew how to position SMEs in that space so I was able to help them with that project. I also worked on the innovation team at Honeywell.
Eventually, I left to work at MEST as a Technology Teaching Fellow and relocated to Ghana. I went on to work as an Incubator Manager and Director of Portfolio Support, before taking on the role of Managing Director. I’m now overseeing a staff of 60 people and a community of 500 as we continue to expand.
One of the biggest issues we face has to do with resources. It’s always a challenge to find quality mentors for our founders. There are not enough experts out there that can actually work with startups and help them.
Overall, it was a great experience. I really enjoyed learning alongside other managers from accelerators and incubators around the world. I think I already understood some aspects of the day-to-day running of a program, like cross-collaboration or collecting and analyzing portfolio data, but I really learned a lot from 500. Specifically, how they work with other local partners and enable other organizations to think more sustainably.
There are a few things. First off, the culture of the 500 team. It’s a hard thing to teach, but their staff was so helpful. Understanding how you manage data was also really impactful – the entire data modeling setup was amazing. And finally, I think hearing what other different ecosystem players were already doing in the market and then getting to implement some of those best practices after the program.
You really need to start off by thinking about the intent of your organization. There are so many organizations out there today interested in funding an accelerator, but do they actually align with your organization? If your intent is rock solid, then understand what the outcomes should be. How do you measure success?
It started in 2013 when I was working with startups in India. My background is in computer science and engineering and I went to a school that was expanding and wanted to scale around the country. I already had some knowledge of the Lean methodology and knew how to position SMEs in that space so I was able to help them with that project. I also worked on the innovation team at Honeywell.
Eventually, I left to work at MEST as a Technology Teaching Fellow and relocated to Ghana. I went on to work as an Incubator Manager and Director of Portfolio Support, before taking on the role of Managing Director. I’m now overseeing a staff of 60 people and a community of 500 as we continue to expand.
One of the biggest issues we face has to do with resources. It’s always a challenge to find quality mentors for our founders. There are not enough experts out there that can actually work with startups and help them.
Overall, it was a great experience. I really enjoyed learning alongside other managers from accelerators and incubators around the world. I think I already understood some aspects of the day-to-day running of a program, like cross-collaboration or collecting and analyzing portfolio data, but I really learned a lot from 500. Specifically, how they work with other local partners and enable other organizations to think more sustainably.
There are a few things. First off, the culture of the 500 team. It’s a hard thing to teach, but their staff was so helpful. Understanding how you manage data was also really impactful – the entire data modeling setup was amazing. And finally, I think hearing what other different ecosystem players were already doing in the market and then getting to implement some of those best practices after the program.
You really need to start off by thinking about the intent of your organization. There are so many organizations out there today interested in funding an accelerator, but do they actually align with your organization? If your intent is rock solid, then understand what the outcomes should be. How do you measure success?