‘Stimulate student entrepreneurship by working together’

COLLABORATION between tertiary institutions and businesses will help stimulate entrepreneurship among students.

This is according to StartUp Malaysia co-founder Dash Dhakshinamoorthy, who spoke on building a culture of entrepreneurship yesterday morning at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Cape Town Hotel School.

An invitation from US President Barack Obama to attend the 2010 Presidential Summit of Entrepreneurship in the US was one of the experiences that inspired him to establish StartUp Malaysia.

“I was completely blown away by what I saw at the summit. It was a massive movement with young people completely embracing entrepreneurship,” he said.

“The White House gave me a fellowship to study entrepreneurship at universities like Harvard. I learnt so much. I realised that ‘mining’ for diamonds in entrepreneurs starts at schools and colleges where you can teach young people to become problem solvers.”

Dhakshinamoorthy also has a start-up initiative in Asia, teaching schoolchildren about innovation.

His company, Global Startup Youth (GSY), started in 2013, brings together 500 youth from 105 countries to discuss solutions to the world’s biggest problems in education and healthcare.

“The idea is to bring about global connections. Now is the best time for young people to go into entrepreneurship. The internet is where the opportunities are and you no longer need huge capital.

Dhakshinamoorthy used examples such as top online company Uber. “One of the biggest car hire companies in the world, but they don’t own any cars. The business models are changing,” he said.

Dhakshinamoorthy said at tertiary level it was easy for an entrepreneur to become a teacher, but not so easy for a teacher to become an entrepreneur. “The way universities can promote entrepreneurship is through partnerships with private sectors where experts can provide their experience,” he said.

Western Cape MPL Cameron Dugmore, who hosted Dhakshinamoorthy’s five-day visit, said the country had had two decades to consolidate democracy but there was still unfinished business. “We have an untransformed economy, serious crime and corruption challenges, and education is a critical challenge. We have made progress but we need to grow this economy and allow our youth to have hope.”