The Stellenbosch Network

The Stellenbosch Network - Supporting local innovation local entrepreneurship

As of June 2022, the current national unemployment rate in South Africa was 34.5 percent, with market trends expecting that percentage to grow to almost 40 percent by 2030. In light of the country’s growing unemployment crisis, it is difficult to overstate the importance of entrepreneurship in the South African economy. In addition to unlocking job creation, entrepreneurship fosters economic growth. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that South Africa has one of the highest start-up failure rates in the world – with a failure in entrepreneurial education and valuable business skills being cited as one of the root causes of this. Despite this, the evidence seems to suggest that purpose-driven entrepreneurship is taking place at a grassroots level in South Africa and has the ability to transform the future of business sustainability in the country.

Launched in November 2019, the Stellenbosch Network aims to fill exactly that niche and offer entrepreneurs and businesses the leg-up they require to become successful. Launched as an initiative of Innovus and designed to proactively establish a formal network of various stakeholders in the town, The Stellenbosch Network is a cross-sector and inter-disciplinary membership organization that aims to support local innovation and the local entrepreneurship ecosystem in the greater Stellenbosch Area. Funded through the Regional Innovation Support Programme (RISP) – a branch of the Department of Science and Innovation - the network currently has over 200 members consisting of corporations and SMMEs from various fields and industries. In addition to hosting a series of in-person and online programmes and events, the network also runs an annual mentorship programme – an eight-month long programme that aims to match mentees with business mentors to provide them with adequate support and access to resources as they embark on their entrepreneurial journeys.

Hanli Brink

Hanli Brink is the Operations Director at the Stellenbosch Network and is responsible for everything from planning events and matching mentees, to developing long-term operational strategies that help meet company objectives. Wearing so many hats in her day-to-day life, Hanli believes her secret to success lies in always staying organized. She credits her success in life and business to the strong female role-models she is surrounded by in her everyday life: including her network of friends and family who she considers to be an inspiration to how they approach the many roles they fulfill in her life, and her mom – a woman who she describes as “glorious and glamorous” and taught her the value of hard work and to never to be idle in life.

Hanli believes that creativity, resilience, and perseverance are some of the most important tools in any entrepreneur’s toolkit. She also believes that one of the most important skills any entrepreneur should have is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and consider something from another perspective - something she believes has stood in her good stead even beyond the business world. Her advice to her younger self: “It is going to be okay in the end – even if something doesn’t work out the way you had hoped, there will always be a new opportunity to grow from.”