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Beta Collective | Building Anew

Howdy! Thank you for taking time to read Beta•Mode, a publication by The Beta Collective. My name is Ukeme Daniel the Creator of The Beta Collective an online community for Africa focused entrepreneurs, investors and professionals.

Ukeme Daniel

Jan 31, 2021 • 5 min read

🌟 Building Collaboratively!

In This Issue 📰

Pivoting with Beta Collective
Current Projects
Upcoming Projects
Building the Beta Collective Team
Upcoming Events

Surviving 2020 was an Extreme Sport! 🙆🏾‍♀️

Dear friends,

Its been a while, and first of all congrats on surviving the chaos that was 2020. But at least yesterday’s inauguragtion event is definitely a start in right direction.

I know its been a while since yall heard from me,, and no I was just trying to survive 202 which juggling life and a pandemic :| And also just finding the right pivot to survive our new reality.

After much pondering, we have chosen to fully embrace a “virtual first” beta collective community model which is different from our initial city “live aggregate” model where we would have live events in different cities.

Of course, ‘virtual living’ is our new normal, but thankfully tools like notion and Discord are quite usefule for putting together an interactive virtual experience. For now our Discord platform will be opened to members only (more info on membership coming below).

In addition setting up new platforms, we have also put together some really great events for you guys. Our first event of the year will be an interactive community chat with one of our members Ayo G., co-founder of VC firm Curo Capital about opportunities in the metal commodities market. I know!! I am pretty excited too! More details below in the event section.

In other great news, we will be doing things a little differently this year and hopefully the new features I have added and the new projects I have initiated will allow us to function as a collaborative community. Check out the current and future project sections below 👇🏽

Current Projects 👩🏽‍💻

Beta Mode, the Podcast

So far the podcast episodes we have, have focused more on tech founders, we want to change that. We want to be a platform to hear more varied ideas voices and viewpoints. So things are about to get interesting. Podcast page here.

Membership

Membership will cost $5 a month or $50 a year. It is still free this month and subscriptions will commence next month. I have decided to go on the paid membership route, firstly because we need a way to sustain The Beta Collective, its servers, and all the sweat equity involved and y’all know money makes the world go round! Secondly, we will be using a portion of the revenue to fund the community projects we will be embarking on later this year.

Still not convinced? Well here is a great synopsis of all the membership perks you get when you join a great ecosystem like ours .

Community Chat

This will be an interactive virtual event free for members. The format will be a fireside style chat with the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions, better understand the market and make new connections in that space.

The event will be held on our Discord platform. The first one will be held in February more details in the events section.

Partnerships

We will be partnering with businesses in our network to provide tools to our community. I think this is a win-win. The business gets more community exposure and we get access to great resources.

If you would like to participate in this please send an email to hello [at] thebetacollective.com or you can use the contact us page if you prefer.

Community Sprints

Our Community Sprint events are project-based challenges that can be done with fellow beta collective members. If you have been putting off building your company, we hope initiatives like this will help you jump-start the process. We essentially want to help you all build businesses we did say we wanted to make an economic impact after all!

Customer discovery is a necessary prerequisite to building a minimum viable product (MVP). I mean you don't want to build a product no one wants right?!

We will provide tools via notion and our discord channels and weekly inspiration to keep you on track. At the end of the event, you will have the opportunity to share your findings with fellow participants and learn how to chart a course for the next segment which is creating your minimum viable product. (MVP)

Full details below in the events section.

The Team 🧠

Because I almost single-handedly run The Beta Collective’s website events, initiatives, newsletters, and podcasts, the content may fluctuate in regularity alot more than I would like. So I am looking to bring on team members that share in the vision. We want to build a network that our fellow entrepreneurs can tap into and find the tools they need and reach a global audience of people also passionate about creating social and economic impact. If these words make you want to get up and cheer, then its pretty safe to say you belong on the team! But seriously though if you interested in contributing your talents network for a limited time instead please let me know. I can be contacted via hello [at] thebetacollective.com. You can also find out more about me and my background, and why I would dare to pull an initiative like this off from the about page.

I’ll be looking out for those emails 👀

Future Projects 🔭

Community Project

Starting next quarter and every quarter thereafter we will invest a portion of our membership funds into businesses, founders, and projects in our greater network poised to create or already creating impact in communities in Africa. More Info coming soon.

Match Making

We also hope to begin matchmaking early stage companies seeking funding, advisory services with vetted partners. Let’s make some money already!!

UpComing Events 🎊

Community chat with Ayo Sopitan

Ladies and gentlemen may I present the prolific Ayo S. He is an experienced business executive and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience. He started his career at Ernst and Young LLP in Boston Massachusetts and later in Toronto where he was technology analyst.
He is currently CEO of Metalex Commodities Inc, a global commodity trading firm, CEO of Curo Holdings Inc. a holding company with several franchise small business assets and a partner at Curo Capital, an investment firm with more than 15 companies in its portfolio.

Date And Time

Thu, February 18, 2021

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM CST

Full Event Details: https://thebetacollective.com/events/opportunities-in-the-african-commodities-market/

Community Sprint Event

3-Week Sprint Launch: Discover your target customers

This is a 3-week sprint focused on customer discovery. It begins 1t 9 AM (Central) on the 31st of May, 2021, and ends with a closing event at 12 PM on June 18th.

Customer discovery is a necessary prerequisite to building a minimum viable product (MVP). I mean you don’t want to build a product no one wants right?!