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Audrey !Haosemas: Namibia’s tech start-up ecosystem can thrive

• 2 Weeks Ago - 2024-05-03 00:00:00

Audrey !Haosemas (27) is a business developer and founder of Windhoek Slush'D who has travelled across the globe to witness the growth of tech start-ups.
!Haosemas fell in love with technology when she attended a start-up and innovation course in Seoul, South Korea. Soon after, she had the opportunity to attend RISE Hong Kong, Asia’s largest tech conference, where she experienced start-up culture first-hand.
!Haosemas speaks six languages: English, Afrikaans, Khoekhoegobab, German, French and Korean.
Due to her linguistic abilities, she has been able to live in Finland, Germany and South Korea, which helped secure her a position as a sales development representative for the DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) market.

Community growth
Tech startups and entrepreneurship have always interested !Haosemas, but it wasn’t until 2019, when she attended her first Slush’D event, that she was properly introduced to this space.
!Haosemas believes entrepreneurship is an excellent way to change a community for the better.
For this reason, she wants to create a flourishing investment ecosystem with the help of Slush’D. “A community shouldn’t be denied the resources to better itself,” she said.
She also emphasised the role start-ups play in community growth.
“Someone shouldn’t struggle to contribute if they have a good idea," adding: “We should get to a point where, no matter your socioeconomic background, you should be able to succeed in being a start-up entrepreneur.”

Joining a global community
Slush’D is a community-driven movement that empowers teams across the globe to create events for their local ecosystems – all in the spirit of Slush’D’s mission “to create and help founders that change the world.”
After her introduction to Slush'D in 2019, !Haosemas' interest was piqued.
The timing, however, could not have been more unfortunate, as Covid-19 put a damper on all such events.
In 2021, she was finally able to volunteer at Slush'D events. She began by handing out name badges to attendees, but worked her way up to becoming a group leader for investor events for the next two years.
Towards the end of 2023, as part of her work in business development at the AI ethics and governance start-up, Saidot, !Haosemas contributed to the national artificial intelligence policy for Rwanda, which aimed to protect consumers against the negative effects of AI.

Welcome to Namibia
Most of these events took place in Europe, where Slush’D aims to promote the start-up ecosystem in nascent economies.
!Haosemas believed that these events could offer a great opportunity for Namibia and pitched the country as a possible host for the event.
She shared her experience of meeting young people in Finland – the founding country for Slush'D – and seeing them succeed without a formal education background. !Haosemas said she believes Slush’D Windhoek will offer the same opportunity to Namibians.
While Namibia is home to many innovative entrepreneurs, the investment culture is not that active. Often, start-ups are undervalued and investors aren’t that keen to invest, she explained.
Two weeks after she pitched her idea, it was confirmed that Slush’D would be coming to Namibia on 27 May. If the event goes well, it will be a recurring event for the next five years.