Cashing in on the knowledge economy seems simple ces jours, as entrepreneurs with innovative ideas have grown start ups to million dollar companies regardless of domicile. The misconception had always been that you had to be in Silicon Valley, San Francisco for you to have an opportunity to own a successful tech start-up, but with increased globalisation, never again will that be status quo!

An example is 29-year old Justin Stanford, a self-made Software millionaire entrepreneur who has managed to create a technological innovation hub christened Silicon Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. His first two business ideas didn’t work out and left him penniless, before his discovery of an anti-virus software product in Eastern Europe which became his get out of jail ticket. Now, the IT geek from Stellenbosch, Cape Town, who dropped out of High School, aged 18, to launch his first online venture  from a friend’s garage, sits atop an information technology empire.

Discover your passion sooner rather than later and conquer adversity

Justin Stanford fell in love with computers at a very tender age. His strange habit of tinkering around with his father’s PC ensured that the intricacies of a machine that many had yet to become familiar with became self-taught. Eventually Stanford, would drop out of high school and try his luck at business.

“When I was in prep school, I was an A-plus student, top of the class. My mom always pushed me to do well, so I did. It was the same in the early part of high school, but when I was in standard seven (grade nine) my whole family was involved in a massive car accident. My mother and my sister were killed, the rest of us, my brother, father and I were all lucky to make it out alive. When this whole thing happened, it turned my whole world around,” said Stanford.

“Firstly, I was a bit amazed to still be alive. Secondly, you realise that anything is possible; you don’t actually have to do things the way everybody thinks that you have to do them. I was always interested in business and had always wondered about this idea of starting up my own company. So I started losing interest in school, and was thinking much bigger than that. I was already looking out into the world, looking for ideas, and doing little businesses on the side,” Stanford further elaborated.

“I was always fascinated by business and technology. I ran a few businesses on the side, but eventually had to go back to school. I hated it! One day, I couldn’t stand it any longer and told my dad about my plans,” Stanford once remarked. Although, many of his peers and elders scoffed at his risky move, Stanford remained undeterred in his relentless desire to venture into business, because he figured that he had nothing to lose.

Develop your passion and create your own opportunities

“I was always interested in technological stuff, even from a young age. When I was nine, my dad bought us a PC. I liked fiddling with it and breaking it. I had a talent for it and I understood it. So I was understandably excited when the internet came around in 1994. I didn’t have internet access myself, but I knew people who did, so I would always screw around on their computers or whatever. And at the same time that I was thinking about business, I also thought about what kind of business and I realized that technology was the best way forward,” says Stanford.

”In the mid-1990s news of young guys abroad selling their online start-up ventures for millions started filtering through to SA. I was inspired and decided that I wanted to get involved. I left school early and struggled for a few years before launching my first successful venture – ESet, a global anti-virus software programme that’s now utilised in 20 countries. I had no formal training; I learnt everything I know for free online. Back then people thought I was crazy and that I could never pull it off, but today there are loads of crazy young people doing it; the new generation has a different approach,” Stanford further explained.

Even without money, you can still be a successful entrepreneur; a penniless Justin Stanford discovered his goldfield in Eastern Europe.

“I told them that if they could see to a more user-friendly interface and repackage their product for Western consumption, I wanted in,” says Stanford, referring to ESet, a Slovakian anti-virus product that was astonishingly good technologically, but marketed poorly.

Humble beginnings and bootstrapping

After convincing his principals to do business with him, they never suspected that he was a one-man show with a door for a desk and no money. After Stanford went for three years with no luck and in the wilderness living off R2,000 (about $200) a month, today, Eset’s Nod32 which is a multi-award-winning anti-virus product has made it possible for 4Di Capital to branch out into the comprehensive ESet Smart Security Suite. Eset has been rated one of Deloitte &Touche’s 500 fastest-growing technology companies worldwide for consecutive years. Stanford sits on its global marketing taskforce and provides critical input into new product development.

Stanford says, “I applied my mind and devised some low-cost distribution and marketing techniques. I realised we could produce and disseminate quality press releases cheaply by applying our industry knowledge, leveraging virus outbreaks as our angle, and employing the broad wires.”  While doing a good job of shoestring marketing, he also built an online distribution platform that auto-generated invoices, issued licences and allowed download, all this without any human intervention.

Inspiration for the Silicon Cape Initiative, and Venture Capital

A strong belief in South Africa’s potential to become a leading technology innovation hub, led him to co-founding the Silicon Cape Initiative, a non-profit, community –driven movement that aims to turn the fertile cape into Africa’s own Silicon Valley.

“When I started out there wasn’t an IT ecosystem in Cape Town. Start-ups worked individually and there was a perception that you had to leave SA to make it big. Vinnie Lingham and I wanted to create a community to promote a virtual concept of Cape Town as an innovation hub, and we wanted to connect businesspeople with a vested interest in technology to resources and to each other. We expected a hundred or so people to attend our launch in 2009 and it was so oversubscribed – over 1000 responded – we ended up having to turn people away,” he boldly stated.

And capital was poured into his venture capital fund by one of the wealthiest families, and one of the richest men in South Africa.

Investment group E. Oppenheimer & Son, a family trust for the South African mining dynasty, boosted the investment capacity of early technology venture capital firm 4Di Capital after investing an undisclosed amount in its 4Di capital Fund.

“We are very pleased to have the Oppenheimer family on board to assist us in capitalising on the growing number of exciting new technology opportunities that need start-up capital and support to penetrate the global market,” founding partner Justin Stanford said.

Another notable investor in the fund is the Reinet Fund – chaired by Johann Rupert, one of the richest men in South Africa and chairman of Swiss-based luxury-goods company Richemont, as well as of investment firm Remgro.

“Venture capital is one piece of the puzzle that has started to fall in place – there was never much to go around in South Africa in the past. Now, it’s not just wine sloshing around in the vineyards around Cape Town, but also old money flowing to interesting investments. The venture capital scene is still small – but there is far more enthusiasm for tech investment than there was a decade ago,” he added.

Already, mobile community start-up Motribe was sold to social network Mxit. “There  has been an explosion in start-ups over the past three years,” said Stanford, founder of security company ESet Southern Africa and CEO of Investment holding company 4Di Capital last November. “People are moving down to Cape Town from Johannesburg and we’re seeing some quitting their jobs to become entrepreneurs.”

“Like San Francisco, we have the right mix of people to get things happening – geeks, young people and people with money,” he emphasized.

The major attraction to Cape Town for Tech geeks, and the future of the industry

“It’s a confluence of things. Techies gravitate here because here they’re generally driven more by their environment than money. Geeks like me like things to be organized and Cape Town is not only the most beautiful city in SA, but also the most organised. The universities act as anchors and the coastal geography lends itself to a more relaxed lifestyle. Also, to make initiatives happen you need innovative ideas and wealth to get the ideas off the ground, and the lifestyle here trends to attract wealthy investors,” he hastily stated.

Stanford further says, “We’ve got a lot of bright young people here and the capital they need to grow business. Expats are returning from abroad and people are moving here from other cities in SA because this is where it’s all happening. My venture capital company 4Di is re-investing in the next generation of start-ups, and individual angel investors and initiatives like Google Umbono are identifying good ideas and growing them. Internet access is widespread and relatively affordable here and there are opportunities for technology to contribute to economic development and create social change. It’s a strong tool for empowerment and a potential economic driver, and it’s a great enabler that doesn’t require physical infrastructure.”

In conclusion, Justin Stanford’s story is testament to the undisputable fact that a combination of resilience, passion, hard work and vision, will eventually help you to achieve anything you desire.

” What got me to my real beginning, without a doubt, was just perseverance. You also need to be a good observer and a good listener. I spent a lot of time listening to what much older and much wiser business people had to say. I still do it today,” he remarked.