Eric Edelstein

I was at a concert a few days ago. Not one of the large entertainers from across the shores who have graced us South African’s with spectacular performances, but a concert mainly of high school students. Just a few high school students entertaining a mostly over 70 crowd. And yet one things stood out that night - talent - huge amount of unharnessed talent, which with the right resources and mentoring, would be spectacular in years to come.

This was raw talent, with a few years (or some of them having a few weeks) of training behind them.

With the right guidance, many of these bright shining young stars are going to be entertaining in a much bigger way in the years to come.

So how does this relate to Internet projects and 2.0?

Simple - I truly believe in South Africa we have the ability to create an environment similar to Silicon Valley or one of the other Internet Hives. There are so many young, hungry entrepreneurs in South Africa with plenty of great ideas (well, maybe at the moment, simply run of the mill copycat ideas, but with the potential of becoming innovative unique cutting edge ideas). But the energy, passion and hunger are there. All we need to turn these entrepreneurs into success story’s is to get them access to funding, and to give them the support and guidance.

And JHB, Cape Town or one of the other hives of entrepreneurial energy around South Africa could be the first South African valley!