No mission statement. Four rules that let us scale without losing what makes the programme different.
Every example, mentor and case study is rooted in African contexts. We are not translating Silicon Valley.
Most "global" innovation curricula are American case studies in disguise — Stripe, Airbnb, Uber. We use EduYetu, BasiGo, Komaza, GreenLead, Twiga. Our mentors operate in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra and Cape Town. The benchmarks we set are achievable on a 256kbps connection from a residence hall, not in a fully-funded YC dorm.
Applying, learning, attending and pitching stays $0. Cost is never the reason a young African doesn't try.
No application fee. No cohort fee. No pitch fee. No certificate fee. Our funding comes from MK-Africa consulting work, partner sponsorships and grant rounds — not from students. The day we charge a student is the day we stop being who we are.
Every course ends in a working MVP. Every Challenge ends in a public Demo Day. No theoretical certificates.
A theoretical "innovation course" with no artefact at the end is a CV line, not a venture. Every Academy course ships a sketch, a deck, or a working prototype. Every Challenge cohort ships a live Demo Day in front of investors and press. Top three each year go on to a Cambridge ISL scholarship — but only if they shipped.
We report cohort sizes, completion rates and venture outcomes annually. No vanity metrics.
We publish the cohort size, the completion rate, the number of ventures still operating 12 months later, and the cumulative jobs created. We don't round up. We don't conflate "applied" with "enrolled" with "completed". If a number goes sideways, we say so in the next annual report — that's how we earn the right to keep doing this.
Our annual cohort report tracks every venture we have backed — including the ones that stopped. Read the latest in the Resources Centre, or watch the year-by-year story unfold on the journey page.
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