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88mph will be sending one entrepreneur to Silicon Valley this summer to participate in Blackbox Connect Summer ’13, a two-week immersion program for startup founders based outside of the United States, taking place July 15-26, 2013 in Atherton, California.
88mph is leveraging the competition to pull in even more talented startups for their Nairobi three-month accelerator program that begins August 26, 2013; applicants that apply to 88mph Nairobi before May 31, 2013 will also be considered for a chance to go to Silicon Valley. 88mph alumni are also invited to pitch and participate.
The selected Blackbox Connect Summer ‘13 entrepreneurs will come to Silicon Valley and live at the Blackbox Mansion for two weeks, where they will have the opportunity to live and collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs from all around the world and take part in an intense agenda of meetings and workshops with entrepreneurs, investors, experts and executives. Program speakers and mentors in the past have included Valley veterans Dave McLure, Tim Draper, Keith Teare and Robert Scoble.
88mph, already partnered with Google for Entrepreneurs, was selected as one of eight Google partners to join as the only organization operating out of Africa.
Startups can apply directly on the 88mph website at www.88mph.ac and will need to indicate in the title of the application whether they are interested in going to Silicon Valley in addition to uploading a video about why they are interested in participating in the Blackbox program.
Startups based in Nairobi are invited to join 88mph for an event at their Nairobi Garage on Thursday, May 30, where the 88mph will be holding in-person interviews and live streaming the event on both the 88mph website as well as Blackbox’s Youtube channel so that startup enthusiasts across the globe are able to see what kind of startup ideas are coming out of Kenya.
“Innovation is often born from necessity in Africa. Because of certain challenges here, whether they be infrastructure, government or funding related, Africa technology has had to leapfrog and we’ve had to work with a little to successfully produce a lot,” says Nikolai Barnwell, 88mph Nairobi Program Manager. “Mobile, for instance, has changed Africa and as a result, Africa is changing mobile. The learnings we can offer, and those from others around the globe, will make for an invaluable exchange of ideas this summer.”
In an interesting catch, 88mph will also be holding interviews across the Bay Area while the staff is in town for BlackBox Connect during July 15-26, 2013, possibly bringing international talent to Africa for the next three-month seed fund and accelerator that begins August 26, 2013 in Nairobi.
“88mph supports startups and companies that build useful technology for Africa,” says Nikolai Barnwell, 88mph Nairobi Program Manager. “We’re looking for anyone who is interested in mobile/web in Africa to get involved, regardless of where they’re from. The more international companies and investors that we can bring to this endeavor, the better.”
88mph opened in Nairobi, Kenya in 2011 and has since made 23 startup investments. The seed accelerator started operations in Cape Town, South Africa in February 2013 and plans to expand to Lagos, Nigeria next year.
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