Young entrepreneurs frequently have promising business ideas but require structured training, business planning support, access to seed capital and continued mentorship to turn those ideas into viable businesses. The challenge was therefore to provide more than entrepreneurship training alone by creating a structured pathway from business idea to business planning, competitive selection, funding and ongoing enterprise development.
IED designed and implemented a two-year training and mentorship programme under the KBL KickStart Programme to support young entrepreneurs in developing and growing viable businesses. KBL provided seed capital to selected beneficiaries. Entrepreneurs were selected through a process that included the development and assessment of business plans, followed by a competitive pitching contest. IED provided structured entrepreneurship training and ongoing mentorship to help participating entrepreneurs translate their business ideas into viable enterprises, strengthen their business capabilities and make effective use of the seed capital.
The programme therefore combined entrepreneurship training, business planning, competitive selection, seed funding and sustained mentorship. 50 young entrepreneurs were trained, of whom 15 were selected for funding. The programme supported the entrepreneurs through the training, selection, funding and post-funding mentorship stages. A total of 50 entrepreneurs were trained, with 15 entrepreneurs receiving funding amounting to P1.75 million in total. The two-year mentorship component provided continued business-development support beyond the initial training and funding stage, helping entrepreneurs strengthen their capabilities and improve their ability to build sustainable enterprises.
The KBL KickStart experience reinforces IED’s model of combining entrepreneurship education with competitive selection, seed funding and sustained mentorship. This approach can be adapted for future youth enterprise programmes where partners want to move beyond training and support participants towards actual business creation, survival and growth.
Strategic Advisors
Will Keyser
Senior Strategic Advisor & Mentor
Email: will@venturefounders.com
Will Keyser is a veteran entrepreneur, business adviser, management consultant, author and entrepreneurship educator with decades of international experience in venture creation and enterprise development. He has spent much of his career advising entrepreneurs and organisations on starting, developing and sustaining successful enterprises, focusing on budding entrepreneurs who want to start a new venture, and particularly those who seek to make the world a better place for all.
Will began his career in public relations and advertising before moving into management consulting, where he worked extensively in socio-economic development, public enterprise and employment policy. He edited six books published in the Netherlands on public enterprise in the European Union, and co wrote one on State enterprise, published in Sweden.
He later established and led his own management consulting firm for 11 years, working with clients across banking, finance, energy, engineering, electronics, food manufacturing and government. He and his co-founder ‘sold’ the business to the 30 employees for one symbolic British pound sterling. His career has also included serving as a UK Government adviser in economic development, a board member of a venture capital company devoted to employment creation (France), a big retail food coop (US), President of a (European) management association and council member of an employers’ federation. His volunteering also included being a night guardian at a homeless shelter and working with people referred to a restorative justice programme rather than being incarcerated.
An experienced entrepreneurship educator, Will taught Sustainable Business Strategies and New Venture Creation in the USA: on an MBA in Managing for Sustainability. He is also an accomplished writer and has published extensively on entrepreneurship, enterprise and venture creation. Later in his working life, Will mentored both graduate MBA students and other budding entrepreneurs. His own mentoring experience was with the late Jeffry Timmons, a professor at Babson and Harvard, and author of two seminal books, The Entrepreneurial Mind and New Venture Creation. Having lived, studied and worked across the United Kingdom, United States and France, Will brings a rich international perspective to entrepreneurship and business development.
Will has been a longstanding mentor and strategic adviser to IED and its Founder, Bonang Sealetsa, providing invaluable counsel, perspective and guidance throughout IED’s journey. His contribution has helped shape the institution’s thinking around venture creation, entrepreneurship education and the practical development of entrepreneurs.
Analilia Silva
Strategic Advisor- Entrepreneurship and Curriculum
Email: analilia@20degreesconsulting.com
Analilia is a program designer and entrepreneurship expert with over 15 years of experience building business acceleration and leadership programs in Africa and Latin America. She founded 20Degrees Consulting in 2013 to design programs that equip advisors, facilitators, and entrepreneurs with the strategic and practical skills needed to build sustainable businesses.
In Botswana, Analilia has developed entrepreneurship programs for kids and youth, helping instill an entrepreneurial mindset from an early age and equipping young people with the skills to turn ideas into businesses. She also designed and led Accelerate, a train-the-trainer program that has certified over 50 facilitators, who have gone on to independently reach more than 5,000 small business owners.
Before moving into program design, Analilia spent over ten years in sales and marketing roles at 3M, Johnson & Johnson, and Nokia in Mexico and the United States. That corporate background, combined with years of hands-on work across Latin America and Africa, shapes how she approaches program design: grounded in real business needs, not just theory.
Analilia also works in partnership development and teaches entrepreneurship at the university level, bringing an academic lens to how she designs and evaluates programs. She holds an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Indiana University’s – Kelley School of Business and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from Tecnológico de Monterrey.
She brings to IED a valuable combination of corporate experience, academic expertise and practical entrepreneurship development experience across different countries and cultures. As a longstanding adviser and mentor to IED, Analilia has contributed particularly to the development of IED’s entrepreneurship curriculum and programmes, bringing an international perspective to how the institution develops entrepreneurs and builds practical, action-oriented entrepreneurship education.