Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis (22nd July 2016): Quintessence Consulting Inc. through its foundation InnovatetheNext and Prohaus VC together with strategic partners, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) and others will be hosting the Summer of Impact Summit in St Kitts and Nevis from the 26th to the 29th of July 2016, held at ECCB Headquarters in Bird Rock, Basseterre.
This packed Summit has attracted over 60 registered participants from St Kitts and Nevis alone, with additional virtual participation regionally and internationally. Participants include founders of existing and startup companies (SMEs), managers, marketers, women in business, and members of the general public.
The Summer of Impact will concentrate on accelerated customer acquisition strategies (growth hacking) which is a process of rapid experimentation across marketing channels and product development to identify the most effective and efficient ways to grow a business. The sessions will also concentrate on investor readiness for SMEs and founders who are in the process of raising capital. This will include preparation of financial kits (pitch decks and other relevant documentation), and how to find, engage and negotiate with investors. Finally, SMEs will be exposed to a plethora of creative fundraising strategies.
The overall objective of this Summit is to improve the entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem in St. Kitts and Nevis and by the extension the Eastern Caribbean by supporting the growth and development of high growth sustainable Startups and SME.
Managing Director of Quintessence Consulting and Founder of InnovatetheNext Foundation, Ms. Telly Onu, stated that the Summit was also designed to celebrate the graduation of the 1st Cohort of the 14week Pre-Acceleration Programme for Tech Startups which was implemented under the partnership with PitchITCaribbean, a programme funded by the Canadian Government and implemented under InfoDev/World Bank Group under the Entreprenuership for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC) Programme. In addition, as the co-Founder of Prohaus VC, she stated that the Summit also gives recognition to 40 global high growth startups registered in their virtual datadriven ecosystem and venture network.
Featured speakers from Silicon Valley include Adi Abili, Program Director at Draper University and Founder of VC fund, Glassroots Ventures; Milan Koch, Managing Director of AngelHack HACKcelerator, Milan currently manages a portfolio of USD $38MM+ in total with recent exits of companies such as Airpost.io (Acquired by BOX in 2015), Appetas (Acquired by Google in 2014); and lastly a renowned Silicon valley impact investor Cassandra Elwell, Founder of Aspire.Capital and creator of a fund for impact investing to support grassroots innovation for social change.
Other speakers include Melissa Boutin, a born and raised Kittitian,who is the founder of Youmoneyworth.com, a platform that provides personal finance resources for Caribbean Millennial graduates residing in the Caribbean and the United States, and Prohaus CoFounders Telly V. Onu and Mckenzie Slaughter, both with an extensive background in finance and technology with a passion for pioneering new funding models and startup ecosystems throughout the Caribbean and worldwide.
The event brings the richness of insights and lessons learnt in investor readiness and successful fundraising strategies from Silicon Valley to the Eastern Caribbean, making this knowledge much more accessible to persons in our region.
This event is the precursor to many other events that will be promoting the Federation as a Destination for Venture Development. Future activities to be launched in 2016 include; Virtual Acceleration programmes, Destination Accelerator programmes and a regional virtual social impact competition in association with the SLUSH Global Impact Accelerator (GIA). This will stage a virtual competition to select the Caribbean regional representativess to attend SLUSH in Finland in November 2016 where the selected startup founder will have the opportunity to travel and attend one on one meetings with Investors.
About the InnovatetheNext
InnovatetheNext launched by Quintessence Consulting Inc. was named in the second Microsoft BizSpark Partner in February 2016 in the Caribbean. InnovatetheNext is a global network of acceleration programs implemented in partnership with key strategic partners, to empower entrepreneurs around the world ready to build innovative and impactful companies. We help early stage startups transition into revenue generating companies to position themselves for strategic growth and go beyond local markets to leverage global opportunities.
About the Prohaus VC
Prohaus VC is a holistic way to build a venture with a private network of entrepreneurial programs and tools. We know the entrepreneurial journey is also a personal one. Our holistic platform challenges the traditional venture development model through a network of venture brands that accelerate growth, both personal and professional, and foster meaningful relationships between entrepreneurs, investors, and advisors.
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