Our Story
Sw7 started as we saw many founders bootstrapping and struggling to find a way to get the support they needed when they needed it. Founders were constantly being pushed into three or six month programmes that took a small number of businesses, excluded many worthy applicants along the way and “success” in joining these programmes usually meant giving away equity.
From personal experience, we know that building a B2B product-led technology business takes anywhere from nine months to three years before you get to market. B2B sales cycles take time and selling to Corporates and enterprises takes more time. The larger the organisation, the more stakeholders need to be involved and Procurement alone can be three to nine months depending on the size of the organisation. If you are lucky, your deal can close in three months however, it can take up to three years and many meetings, if your offering is “strategic”. By the time you get to market, find product market fit and get those sales funnels working, the reality is that it can take up to seven years before you breakeven and start readying yourself for true scale. This journey is not for the faint of heart and can be a long and lonely endeavour.
Over the years, we experienced first hand that founders and CEOs of product-led B2B technology businesses needed access to a flexible solution to support them on their journey to scale. We also felt that founders should be offered the option to hold onto as much equity as possible whilst they build their business ensuring that they have a better chance of a fairer fund raising deal when and if they decide to raise. Finally, we saw the need to level the playing field, to be inclusive and to create the opportunity for founders to access acceleration and the mentoring and support that they need when they need it on a journey that often takes personal money, time, a huge investment of effort and where founders make many sacrifices along the way.
Sw7 is one of the leading independent technology accelerators in Africa ensuring that founders and CEOs of B2B product-led technology businesses can find the support they need when they need it. Since 2013, Sw7 has mentored and worked with over 300 technology businesses from pre-funding and Seed to Series B and has run nine acceleration programmes including the first Fintech Accelerator in Africa with insights, support and contributions from over 100 experienced Tech Founders, C-level leaders, Mentors and Investors. In 2019, Sw7 joined forces with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch Africa’s first virtual B2B SaaS accelerator for product-led technology businesses. Sw7’s LinkedIn Group, Tech Startups Founders & Developers Africa is growing daily and is one of the largest tech startup groups on LinkedIn.
What makes Sw7 different? There are a number of differentiators:
Always open - You can join anytime from anywhere
Equity - Sw7 believe founders should hold onto as much equity as possible. Sw7 do not take equity (unless invited) but rather charge an annual membership fee and a small % fee upon success for introductions to Funds
Platform-based - Access to the Network Resources and Platform Support Partners are available via the platform which is focussed on accelerating product-led B2B technology businesses and ISVs
Network driven - Sw7 members can tap into the collective intelligence, knowledge, shared insights, learnings, guidance and support of an experienced B2B technology business network that includes mentors & investors complimented by a library of curated and crowdsourced resources, data, insights and learnings can be accessed anytime, from anywhere.
Self-service - automated onboarding, self-service Playbooks and Meta-Modules with supporting content and resources
Self-paced - You can move as fast as your appetite, headspace and resources allow
Outcomes focus - The focus is on driving measurable outcomes with Sales Ready Product, Go To Market and Funding, guiding you to work on your business not just in your business
Data driven - providing insight via data, reports and dashboards on where you are at and what you need to do to execute your strategy and move your business forward
Portfolio management - for Funds, VCs, Angels, Accelerators and Incubators who want to offer additional support to their businesses.
Curious about where the name Sw7 comes from? Sw7 stands for Start with Seven. Why Seven? This 1956 paper from Princeton, ‘The magical number. Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information” is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology and this research outlines their findings that the optimal number of things for us to manage and focus on with any sense of clarity is seven (plus or minus two!). Whatever you are trying to achieve, to give yourself the best chance of success, start with seven. The Sw7 process is based on this and is structured around making your strategy formulation and execution process, simple, digestible, and manageable. To optimise high performance, aim to have seven people in each team with seven direct reports and focus on or measure seven KPIs or OKRs.
What about the Sw7 team? With over 30 years of experience in the Technology sector, specifically in performance management and business intelligence, a listing in London in 2009, two fundraises & six acquisitions along the way, Sw7 work with funds, investors and product-led technology businesses, pre and post fundraising to create predictable revenue, increase access to market, access to funding and accelerate businesses focussed on scale into new locations. Work has included: setting up and running the first technology accelerator for the largest bank in Africa; launching and running the first Fintech accelerator in Africa; sales and strategy support with a focus on Go To Market and Partner Channel setup and activation; business due diligence, valuations, fundraising, finding matching funding, post-funding support; offshore structuring and expansion into the UK, US, Africa, Board Advisory and finding the right buyer when it comes to selling or exiting your business. Whilst our primary focus is on creating commercial transactions and assisting with fund raising, equity transactions are considered on a case-by-case basis.