Thinkroom Consulting

Breaking into a corporate supply chain as a founder can be a huge hurdle because access is rarely clear, simple, or built with SMEs in mind. Read more about it in our latest blog: thinkroom.co/thinkroom_reso…

Founders, welcome to 2026! Fresh energy & a fresh chance to make an impact.   Our main goal this year is simple: to help you grow as a founder & help you ignite the growth of your business.   May 2026 bring you a mosaic of small daily wins that add up to something remarkable.

If you’re reading this, it means you’ve hustled through another year of building, dreaming, failing forward, & keeping the cogs turning. Today, we’re hitting pause with you. From our Thinkroom crew to yours: Have a joyful, restorative #FestiveSeason. You’ve earned every second.

As we wrap up this collection of unfiltered founder words of wisdom & industry quirks, we hope it reminds you to look back & appreciate the journey. Here’s to stepping into 2026 with courage & more lines you’ll be quoting. We’ve heard it all & we can’t wait to hear more!

When you took the leap & began your founder journey, you probably thought your days would be spent building & strategising. No one warned you about the time spent talking about “the deck”. Imagine tallying the times the word “deck” was typed in Teams, email, & Slack in 2025!

It can be hard to decipher all the TLAs in our industry. Whether you're a SME, VC, PE, GP, or LP, your vocab can sound like code.   So, we've put together a TLA Survival Guide for 2026 to avoid any WTF ("what the feathers...naturally) moments at your next ecosystem event. Enjoy!

Two days at @AFRICARENA Grand Summit & one thing stood out: supporting founders is a shared responsibility. Founders are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. They're creating jobs, challenging sectors, & driving growth. But they can't do it alone. They need the ecosystem's support!

We love how @AFRICARENA Grand Summit turns the ecosystem into a small world. We bumped into this group of incredible entrepreneurs from across Africa today, a full-circle moment after hosting them at our offices on Friday for a conversation about the Cape Town startup scene.

It's day two at the @AFRICARENA Grand Summit, and the energy has picked up right where we left off. Today, we're diving deeper into more learning, connecting, & conversations about what founders really need to thrive. If you are here, come say hi. We'd love to connect.

It’s that time of year, & we’ve arrived at @AFRICARENA Grand Summit.   Every year, this event brings the ecosystem together. Founders, investors, partners, & supporters all showing up with a shared purpose of supporting African innovation.

#GEW exists for one reason that truly matters: when entrepreneurs thrive, economies grow. This year, we leaned fully into that idea to deliver high-impact engagements that went beyond inspiration and into tangible outcomes for founders. Read more here: lnkd.in/dawYqWv3

We loved celebrating @savant_sa's incredible Build Programme last night. Thinkroom jumped in to back the founders with Thinkubate access and corporate identity design packages to help each SME show up as its best. #GEW2025 #TogetherWeBuild #GlobalEntrepreneurshipWeek

If you don’t know & understand the life stage of your business, how can you set goals & make plans to grow? It’s #GEW, so take a moment to check in on your business. Take the free assessment to understand your life stage to plan your next steps: survey.alchemer.com/s3/5361231/ef8…

As a founder, your decisions, partnerships, & pivots all start with you. The way you respond to challenges shapes how your company grows. To understand your strengths, patterns, & blind spots, take the free Thinkubate Individual Assessment this #GEW: bosidna.com

And the winner is Kim Nxumalo-Henwood and Seria Masilela, from LUNA Hair + Body! Try LUNA for yourself: lunahairandbody.com Well done to all the founders who pitched! Thank you to our judges and everyone who voted. This is what GEW is about: celebrating entrepreneurs!

A huge shoutout to our judges from today's Rising to the Top Elevator Pitch Competition! Anthony Catt from @Ventures54 @craigivy10 from @KnifeCap Cydney Chambers from Oracle Group Eswatini Obakeng Maema from @ESquaredSA #GEW2025 #TogetherWeBuild #GlobalEntrepreneurshipWeek

And here they are, our top 5 finalists for the 2025 GEW Rising to the Top Elevator Pitch Competition! 🎤 Charmaine Joubert 🎤 Cindy Mkwanazi 🎤 Kim Nxumalo-Henwood & Seria Masilela 🎤 Nakhokonke Mngadi 🎤 Akani Tshabalala #GEW2025 #TogetherWeBuild #GlobalEntrepreneurshipWeek

The votes are in, and The Rising To The Top Elevator Pitch Competition is on! Well done to all founders who pitched & put themselves out there! Stay tuned to find out who's in the top 5 and will be pitching live. (Ts & Cs apply) #GEW2025 #GlobalEntrepreneurshipWeek

We have added a $1000 cash prize to our GEW Rising to the Top Elevator Pitch Competition. If you needed a reason to jump in, this is it. Applications close 8 am Nov 17th. The top 5 pitches will be announced and pitch live (online) on Tuesday! Apply here: wkf.ms/3WDj9dT

Founder Fanelesiyibonge Mabuza combines mechanical skills with #tech #innovation through Carfiniti, a digital #autocare platform that manages maintenance, compliance, and value tracking of #vehicles. Find out more: facebook.com/share/1V4Cnm5C… #Eswatini #SMEgrowth