In Sierra Leone Sensi has taken the mantle of hosting Product Hunt events for local product. The first event will be held at Sensi Tech Hub. The event theme People’s Product will give startups, existing businesses and innovation professionals a platform to showcase their products, meet, connect, collaborate, and innovate. The idea for launching a Product Hunt series is that Sensi wants to celebrate and give exposure to real local products, share real stories, real experiences and see how people can gain more from what they and we aren’t always willing to share. There are many great products in Sierra Leone but usually there isn’t someone playing an active role in contributing and growing local products, which ultimately means no one, hears or knows about the product.
A Product Hunt event makes perfect sense to create a platform so that businesses can showcase local product, grow their networks and make valuable connections. As Sensi is placed in the market to create a platform for innovation and tech, it will be hosting these events once a month to bridge the gap between people and products.
These events will focus and showcase ‘products’ as a way to bring the people closer to the product so that they can touch, feel and even taste them. Our panel discussions will be from the producers themselves, and they will share their real life experiences on creating the product but more so on how people can have access to their products.
The panelist for the very first event will feature four (4) of Sensi’s Fire-Starter Business Training course (see previous post for more info: (http://sensi-sl.org/13-reasons-why-sensis-firestarter-business-training-is-right-you/) and Fire-Starter Grant (http://firestarter.sensi-sl.org/) beneficiaries.
The aim of the Product Hunt People’s Product event and subsequent planned event is to be the place to discover the ‘next big thing’ in Sierra Leone and a place entrepreneurs can use as launch-pad, investors as a hunting ground; and for anyone that wants to just stay in the know.
For entrepreneurs, the events are set so that they can build a following for their business (es) as many entrepreneurs don’t think about building a following (audience). There is a lot of value in creating an audience and we don’t mean by just increasing your Facebook likes, but if you can start building an audience of people within some sort of similar demography or interest, it will be valuable to build from and grow because you will have people that are interested in buying your product.
The first official Sensi Product Hunt event will take place at Sensi Tech Hub 67, Sir Samuel Lewis Road on Friday 20th July 2018. Join us for drinks and mingle with fellow start-up and retail people, entrepreneurs, investors, designers and potential partners. The fast growing Sensi Tech Hub community is THE place to learn and share about building, designing, managing, launching, marketing and growing amazing products.
Making a product is hard and starting a start-up is really hard. Learning from others is not. So come hear from other start-ups who have walked the product road before, hear how they planned, executed, the tools they used and the lessons they learned along the way. More importantly, come and experience and acquaint with some of the best local products Sierra Leone has to offer.
