Across the continent, startup competitions have been giving forward-thinking entrepreneurs the opportunity to claim seed capital for developing the most innovative and status quo-breaking concepts. This year, ActivSpaces is proud to be involved in Cameroon’s first open challenge for technology-based startups organized by Sanaga Ventures and VC4Africa.

Sanaga Ventures, VC4Africa and ActivSpaces invariably have the same objective: to foster tech entrepreneurship and innovation across Africa. Entry criteria, eligibility, success measures and all details for Cameroon Startup Challenge 2012 are available in the press release.

ActivSpaces will be organizing and hosting a variety of workshops and power sessions during this period in both the Buea and Douala locations and we would like to forward three reasons for stepping up to the challenge:

The Sanaga Ventures Motive
Sanaga Ventures is a seed stage investor and the prize for CSC2012 is a no-strings-attached $5,000 award. Even if you don’t win the cash, you’ll be placing your venture in sights of Sanaga and they may have some useful tips for you. If you do win, there is the possibility of follow up investment given that your venture gains traction in the marketplace.

The VC4Africa Motive
VC4Africa is the largest social network for connecting entrepreneurs and investors in Africa and, as part of the entry criteria, challengers must be registered VC4Africa members. By putting your venture on this platform, you’re not only open to CSC2012 opportunities, but to the potential of all the investors connected to VC4Africa.

The ActivSpaces Motive
ActivSpaces is Cameroon’s leading technology incubator and innovation is constantly cooked up at the hub. While the winning venture is eligible for incubation at ActivSpaces (both the Buea and Douala locations), we’re hoping to see several more projects get involved in our program through this challenge.

Follow @sanagaventures, @VC4Africa, @ActivSpaces and the #CSC2012 hashtag on Twitter for all updates and news about the challenge. Alternatively, share your contact details with us so we can keep you posted via email newsletters as well.

It’s time to rise to the challenge!

It’s the eve of the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope. Both athletes and tourists are pouring into Buea to experience Africa’s most grueling footrace; a 24 mile sprint up a live volcano and down again. Conquering the mountain means braving cruel conditions: 50 degree temperature fluctuations, altitude sickness and a harsh path of volcanic stones. 50% of the participants will give up, defeated by the gods of the mountain.

Mt. Cameroon Race Of Hope - covered online by Wasamundi

As entrepreneurs, the Race of Hope is analogous to our daily lives. The stats are even worse; 90% of startups fail within their first year and the ones that survive can’t claim to have done so without taking a good beating. So perhaps it’s symbolic that our inaugural session of #subCMR starts tomorrow morning as we’ll be taking off on our own mini “race of hope”.

We’ll be using CoverItLive (the frame below) to communicate and live-blog our progress. Be sure to join us and learn about the project — TopUpDesk — meet the volunteers, give feedback to the team and share the marathon with us ;)

It’s February 11th, National Youth Day in Cameroon and a future generation of leaders are parading the streets in representation of their presence and aspirations. A great leader once said: “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. John F. Kennedy’s statement inspired us to join Harambe Cameroon on the Am I Doing Something? campaign where we interviewed 30 youths below 35 around the country to talk about their entrepreneurial efforts despite the hardships faced in this Third World economy.

Having asked the question “Are you doing something?” to so many Cameroonians, it’s only fair we ask ourselves the same.

What Are We Doing?
We’re organizing #subCMR, a monthly intensive weekend-long workshop with the purpose of building seed-stage solutions for Cameroonian startups. Our inaugural #subCMR event will be hosted from February 18th-19th at AppsTech Douala. We’ll be working on one of ActivSpaces’ most recent ventures — TopUpDesk.com.

TopUpDesk is a remote airtime refill utility that allows subscribed members to top up their mobile communication airtime from virtually anywhere and at anytime. The founders hope to serve a growing clientele of tech-savvy professionals and build an association of operators who do not have to spend their entire day seated behind a “call box” waiting for clients. The details are intriguing so keep your specs on for ActivSpaces’ new Ventures directory that we’re publishing next week for all updates.

#subCMR is powered by doers in the local business community and this consists of resourceful youths who are volunteering to innovate and make a difference in the everyday lives of Cameroonians.

And you, what are you doing?
You’re going to stop thinking about limitations and get creative. You’re going to explore ways in which you can contribute to efforts like #subCMR and help bring in game-changing initiatives to Cameroon and Africa at large. At ActivSpaces we’ve realized that strength lies in unity and with #subCMR we’ll be demonstrating the potential impact of a group of determined individuals.

We’re eager to see startup boosters spring up in other cities and in other African states. The model is simple: capture an idea, summon a group of volunteers, and construct. Rendezvous next weekend at AppsTech — we can’t wait to see you there!

The West Cameroon leadership therefore opted to transform a “National Day” into a “Youth Day” as a tool for nation-building and consolidation, and greater mobilization of the population, most of whom were youths.

-Youth & Nation-Building in Cameroon by Churchill Ewumbue-Monono

The origin of Cameroon’s Youth Day was in itself a well calculated innovation. So it makes perfect sense that ActivSpaces takes Youth Week extra seriously. In the spirit of entrepreneurship and youth mobilization, we’re using Youth Week to launch our newest program — the StartUp Booster.

The Origins: Start of an Era
Last month, some of the most active players in Cameroon’s startup/tech community met up at AppsTech in Douala to chart a way forward for 2012. Collectively, we realized that now more than ever, we must encourage collaboration and unite as a force if we want to see our objectives of sustainable development realized. Identifying that coaching and finance were the highest barriers to success for local entrepreneurs, we agreed to pool our resources and expertise to help implement the most promising startups of the era.

#subCMR – All Action
#subCMR is a StartUp Booster program for Cameroon facilitated by ActivSpaces and powered by the local business community. Idea-bearers and action-takers come together once a month for an intensive weekend workshop with the unique goal of building and launching solutions for local startups.

February 11th
In the attitude of action-taking, the first #subCMR event is coming up soon this month and we’ll be announcing it on February 11th — Cameroon’s Youth Day. Follow @ActivSpaces and the hashtag #subCMR on Twitter for more details. If you are interested in finding out how you can participate in a #subCMR event then just contact us for the full package with details on all levels of possible engagement.

#subCMR is all about demonstrating the power of positive action and the time for action is upon us. Stay tuned ;)

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”
-Anne Frank

When I first came to Buea to join ActivSpaces, a night walk through the suburban residential areas revealed one outstanding insight: the paths stretched out into total darkness. It was only a matter of time before I heard the accounts of accidents, outright robbery, and other mishaps due to the absence of adequate street lighting in the small town. Identifying this problem, I took it straight to the African Center for Technology Innovation & Ventures where I was already involved in a real estate project.

Nurturing Ideas & Collaborating
My first idea was to write up a project for the erection of light poles around residential areas. These would have a display panel affixed to them which could generate advertising revenue to keep the lighting solution sustainable. While theoretically feasible, Sebastian Prengel, a member of ActivSpaces and one of best engineers I know, cautioned me on several difficulties with this approach, the most pertinent being finance.

Sebastian and I debated until we hatched out a smaller version of the original plan, where we would build an innovative lighting unit that could be attached to public infrastructure as opposed to setting up entire light poles. The main objective would still be reached and even better, this was a project we could easily set up in the lab.

The “Rebirth” of Bisou
Sebastian and I set to work gathering the material needed to build the first model of the street lighting unit. After a few days of purchasing and assembling pieces, we had a working prototype ready for testing. It was however on this fateful day that Sebastian’s cat, Bisou, who had kept him company during all the tinkering, tragically passed away. As homage to his cat, we named our street lighting device “Bright Illumination & Sound Unit” – Bisou.

The Kiss of Light

Bisou is effective, cost efficient and an easy hardware hack. We connected a lamp with a motion sensor to a pair of speakers and an MP3 player. The lamp only comes on when there is motion to minimize consumption. Once the lights are triggered they are accompanied by audio media which can run a message such as “This light is sponsored by ActivSpaces“. Our 2nd Bisou prototype featured an encasement to protect the unit against weathering and to facilitate secure installment on outdoor structures.

Moving On
After test-running Bisou in a student residential area and recording positive results, we applied to the town council for the approval to operate the project in Buea. The Mayor of Buea, Charles Mbella Moki, was delighted with the initiative and being formally employed at AES-SONEL (the national power utility company), he pledged to support the necessary negotiations that would need to be established with them. With the mayor’s endorsement, we knocked at AES-SONEL’s door to forge the final alliance we would need to make the project work.

After dozens of meetings, presentations, field studies and technical assessments, AES-SONEL finally validated the street lighting project for Buea and authorized deployment of Bisou units in January 2012.

24 Hour Action
On the 15^th and 16^th of December, the 1% Club is hosting their annual 24 Hour Action and the Bisou team at ActivSpaces is a participating action group. For our launch, we are inviting the whole community to ActivSpaces to donate to the street lighting effort, record their own audio messages and hear them played across the streets of Buea when we deploy our solution with AES-SONEL in January.