The Botho University Entrepreneurship Lab (Elab)

The Student and Alumni Affairs Department (SAAD) is responsible for the in-house incubator known as the Entrepreneurship Lab or ELab. The Botho University Entrepreneurship Lab (Elab) was launched in June 2016 to provide a space where students across the curricular spectrum can come together and share ideas, access resources, and come up with innovative approaches to problem-solving. The Elab is like an in-house incubator that supports students, graduate entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. Student and graduate entrepreneurs are selected to be a part of the Elab after a rigorous process where their idea or business is vetted by experts from the industry and academia. Those selected become members or Elab Residents. Every year the Elab supports about Five (5) Elab residents.

The primary objectives of the “ELab” are to be:

• Be a mechanism to support the development of BGP traits amongst BU students and graduates
• Promote Student Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• Enhance the culture of risk-taking
• Provide ecosystems that promote the ability to think creatively
• Support the development of local enterprises

The Elab currently operates from the Botho University, Gaborone Campus in Botswana.

The ELab was established with the following in mind:

• To encourage students and graduates to develop ideas into innovative solutions that can in the short or long run be turned into entrepreneurial ventures. This resulted from a growing demand from the community of student-entrepreneurs to create a space to collaborate and turn their bursts of genius into something tangible. The Elab is an initiative meant to assist the Botho University students and graduates to identify practical applications to current issues, problems, and needs.
• To identify, mentor, incubate, connect and support outstanding student/graduate-entrepreneurs and facilitate their success beyond Botho University, into the community

The Elab offers the following major activities to selected student and graduate entrepreneurs:

• Dedicated one to one Mentorship by relevant industry experts
• Seed Funding
• Expert Coaching/Training/Workshops
• Entrepreneur Competency Analysis & Development Intervention
• Business working space with WiFI, Computers, Meetings rooms, Printing Services etc
• Secretarial Services
• Professional Networking opportunities