About Startup Grind

Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting more than 3,500,000 entrepreneurs in over 450 active chapters. We nurture startup ecosystems in 125+ countries through events, media, and partnerships with organizations like Google for Startups, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Oracle for Startups, and American Express.

The cornerstone of our global community are monthly events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs build their businesses, connect with strategic partners, and secure funding and investments.

Our Mission

Giving startups everywhere the education, opportunities and access they need to build, grow, and scale their company.

Our Values...

We believe in making friends, not contacts.
We believe in giving, not taking.
We believe in helping others before helping ourselves.

Startup Grind - Yola, Northeast Nigeria

Approved in September 2020, and powered by DISRUPTORS' Sanctuary, the Yola chapter, which is now part of 33 chapters across Nigeria, was established with a vision to catalyse the Northeast entrepreneurial ecosystem in order to provide an across-the-board platform for innovative entrepreneurs to create and develop their own startups and SMEs.

When you join Startup Grind - Yola, one becomes part of an interconnected global community of entrepreneurs, investors, creators, experts, innovators, thought leaders, change makers, dreamers, believers and hard workers. We are here for those who are trying to navigate the landscape of the much dreaded, but interesting world of entrepreneurship. We also serve to contribute to the conversation as we all work to grow our entrepreneurs and startup founders.

About the Northeast of Nigeria

Made up of six states, (Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe) the Northeast region is no longer the best-kept-secret as a zone that has gone through huge challenges in the last decade. But, the resilience of the region and its people is surprisingly astonishing. Deeply rich in natural resources its home to agriculture, livestock. solid minerals, and tourism. With innovation, technology, and disruption, future founders can create startups around AgTech, FoodTech, EcoTech, EdTech, FinTech, Renewable Energy, Circular Technologies, etc.   

The Entrepreneurial and Startup Ecosystem...

The startup community often talks about ‘Ecosystems’, expressing the notion that startups do not operate, (and certainly cannot thrive), in a vacuum, rather, they grow best when surrounded by a rich network of different organizations, both private and public, from which they can draw resources. Some connections may be formal, others very informal, but either way networks and systems play a major role.

An entrepreneurial ecosystem is the operational combination of a set of factors that enables businesses to realize their growth potential. There are six main constituent factors of these environments: markets, human capital, accessibility and diversity of funding, regulations, culture and support systems.

Before one can comprehend the notion of 'Entrepreneurship Ecosystems', its best to have an overview of some terms commonly used in this context:

Entrepreneurship - Entrepreneurship lies in the ability and willingness of individuals or groups of individuals, inside or outside of an existing organization, to perceive and create new economic opportunities and bring their ideas to the market, facing uncertainty and many obstacles, in making decisions on location, form and the use of resources and institutions. There is a difference between subsistence entrepreneurship, which is driven by the need to create a business in order to survive, and growth entrepreneurship (also known as innovative entrepreneurship), which is instead driven by opportunity, with the ambition to innovate and grow a business.

Subsistence Entrepreneurship vs Growth Entrepreneurship - A subsistence entrepreneur is a person who engages in an entrepreneurial activity primarily to derive a source of personal living income. A subsistence entrepreneur does not create, neither does he/she aspire to, create job opportunities for people outside his/her immediate family circle. A growth entrepreneur is a person who sets the goal of creating a dynamic company, which must reach a critical size and therefore offers opportunities for employment and income to outsiders, as well as the potential to innovate.

Our Goal for Startup Grind - Yola, & The Northeast Region...

Creating and nurturing growth entrepreneurs in the region... 

Our goal in the Northeast region is to create the ripple effect that will set in motion accelerators, incubators, VC funding, support organizations and government policies in the interest of developing growth entrepreneurship over the next ten years. Whether you're in the ideation stage, fundraising, looking for talent, or whatever stage of your endeavour, there're some incredible support available. There are incredible people, international organizations, and non-profits working very hard to ensure the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem around the world is well supported.

Our Events...

We host Workshops, Summits, and Panel Discussions from expert practitioners and thought leaders around all the components of an entrepreneurial ecosystem - finance, human capital, culture, markets, infrastructure, support systems, and regulation. We also organize Competitions for our entrepreneurs to test their skills against the best around the world - Pitch Battles, Hackathons, and Business Plan Competitions. We highlight local CEOs, founders, ecosystem builders, thought leaders around our flagship event - SG Fireside Chats, which will be hosted bi-monthly.

SG - Yola, being a new chapter operating in an underserved community, will be exploring very important themes that contribute to having an effective and successful ecosystem, starting with Culture, Human Capital, and Funding. Also in our package is a specially curetted interview series we'll be launching in the second quarter of 2021 (from May), which is intended to explore very interesting topics as well as provide a deeper understanding of challenges and opportunities found in ecosystems around the continent of Africa.

Join Us...

Join the most connected startup network in the world. For 10 years, we’ve educated, supported, and connected entrepreneurs and startup teams through the best in-person experiences at thousands of local events and conferences. And now we’ve evolved our offerings to make sure Startup Grind meets you wherever you’re at – online or in-person – anywhere in the world. Enjoy supercharged community support with an exclusive virtual membership which includes access to high-quality resources, online experiences, and a curated network of the best companies in the world.

Want to Participate...?

If you're an entrepreneur (or aspiring entrepreneur), ecosystem builder or support organization, domain expert, investor, interested in speaking or participating, please contact host on: haaris@startupgrind.com

About Our Upcoming Events...

Details coming soon.