August 9, 2024 - Building African Entrepreneurs Willem Gous and Instinct Branding Leslie Zane

School for Startups Radio

Willem Gous – Human Entrepreneur in South Africa

We do not provide any funding for these beginning African entrepreneurs.
In fact, we do not allow the language of funding in our classroom because
it is a limiting belief. Our company has reduced the cost of job creation from
over $20,000 per job to just at $1000 per job. We can create jobs quickly
and cost effectively.

Willem Gous has reduced the time to create a job to 5 weeks and the cost to just over $1,000, and they can do it at scale. They can literally create 100’s, even 1,000’s, of these businesses monthly. They do it through a unique human-entered entrepreneurship development process focusing on mindset. Their work makes entrepreneurship accessible to everyone. South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world at 32%, and if you earn $85 USD per month, you are in the top 40% of salary earners. He is the Winner 2023 of the Startup Mentor of the Year, Winner 2023 of the Entrepreneurship Education Programme – The Human Entrepreneur, Finalist 2022 of the Startup Mentor of the Year and Finalist 2022 of the Incubator of the Year. He was a Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Lean Startup 2022 & 2023. He calls Johannesburg home and take pride in being a single father to his 14-year-old son. I’m an avid reader and enthusiastic about personal development. For a bit of fun, I’m also a qualified firewalking instructor. His academic background includes a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Liverpool, U.K., where his dissertation delved into applying various innovation methodologies within established businesses.
Leslie Zane – Award-Winning Marketer, TEDx Speaker and Author of The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion in Business and Life

Brands must connect with all different aspects of people’s lives. That is the
key to excellent branding. You see, you can’t grow your brand’s market share
until you first have grown it’s mind share inside the mind. Mind share must
proceed market share.

Leslie Zane is an award-winning marketer, TEDx speaker* and authority in harnessing the instinctive mind to accelerate brand and business growth. Founder and CEO of Triggers, the first brand consulting firm rooted in behavioral science, Zane champions the primacy of the instinctive mind in brand decisions. Zane pioneered the Brand Connectome and Growth Triggers, helping define today’s understanding of human decision-making to unlock brand and business growth. An alumna of Yale, Harvard Business School, and Bain & Company, Zane is a recipient of the Congressional Women of Distinction and the Ogilvy Award. She coined the term Covid-stasis, forecasting the pandemic’s lasting psychological and behavioral effects.