On 2/17/16 9:51 AM, Turbine Mauritius wrote:
> Good morning everyone,
>
> Just a quick note regarding SM's comment " I don't see university
> students showing interest."
>
> Having a open event or a kiosk where students are expected to show up
> doesn't work in most environment, whether in Mauritius or abroad. This
> has been my experience everywhere across the world.
>
> However, when interacting with a closed audience (some would say
> "captive" - the best way possible!), the students quickly start
> sharing fantastic ideas and projects that they never would have
> discussed in any other setting. This has happened while visiting 3
> different universities in Mauritius, when interventions in specific
> classes led to great exchanges.
>
> To link this back to Vincent's suggestion to hold the event during
> DevCon, it seems like a great idea because 1) the audience will have a
> certain interest just for showing up to the DevCon itself 2) it will
> be a "forced" opportunity for said audience to meet the start-up
> community, whether they act on this opportunity or not, and 3)
> hopefully it will spark some members of the audience to have discovery
> moments such as the ones witnessed during my campus tour last year
> that were great eye-openers for everyone involved.
>
> By the way, Fast Company published their list of the world's most
> innovative companies
> <http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/sectors/africa>
> yesterday and it just so happens that Africa's third most innovative
> company is African Leadership University
> <http://www.alueducation.com>, based here in Mauritius. Having been a
> facilitator there, I can vouch for the discovery moment method that is
> proving to change the way people think about education, but mostly how
> people think about *changing mindsets*.
>
> If this thread on developing the start-up ecosystem in Mauritius
> should serve any purpose, changing mindsets should be at the top of
> the list.
>
> Just my thoughts :)
>
> E.
>
It's not only on the students side. We have to admit that a lot of
founders are partly to blame. Founders are partly to blame here. I will
try to elaborate on that:
There are founders who are *only* interested in getting bright minds on
a short-term basis. Their idea is that they might try to get him a
decent salary but are already planning on removing/driving the bright
minds out once the product is shipping. They are aiming to replace the
most productive engineers with mediocre engineers who will only maintain
the product. On top of this, they want you to document everything so
that a smooth transition is possible. I have seen this a number of
times happened to 2 very good software engineers in Mauritius. They
decided to work for a big company and never look back, despite having a
"routine" job. They don't trust the words of start-up founders anymore.
Why would someone work hard for a start-up when he knows that he will be
driven out once the start-up stabilises ?
Received on Wed Feb 17 2016 - 08:00:18 PST