“Without a shadow of a doubt, the most exciting thing for us has been the launch and continuance of the TAQA podcast and our partnership with Nal’ibali in doing so,” said Qhawe. In the future they would like to also partner with the government and other organisations.
Pivot Qhawe explains that TAQA began in 2018 as a company that did translations from English into African languages and vice versa. “We did this for around a year and did fairly well but felt we were making minimal impact and the business idea was not very scalable in manual form,” he said. “We then pivoted in late 2019 and focused on building a digital library of children’s video books.”
“While I think it is important to maintain your core values and vision, we have found joy in pivoting and being able to imagine alternative ways of achieving our ends.” 106 / CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE 2021
Now, they are in the process of developing a Prototype of the TAQA app. “We are very excited to roll out our first pilot project in the coming months. Our second focus at this point is to build a community of people who believe in our vision.”
Advice to budding entrepreneurs Qhawe says that the best advice he has received is to start with what you have. “Try to find a way to deliver some of your value proposition to customers without requiring funding,” he said, explaining, “In our experience, it is often difficult to raise funds if you do not have a kind of proof of concept and something that demonstrates your commitment to potential funders. He also advises entrepreneurs to be fluid and open to change. “While I think it is important to maintain your core values and vision, we have found joy in pivoting and being able to imagine alternative ways of achieving our ends.”
