Judges and Mentors

Over the years, startups that have participated in the challenge have all agreed about one thing: they go in for the prize money, but once in they are getting something much more valuable; the feedback and guidance from experience entrepreneurs. It’s priceless in comparison.

The ZOL Startup Challenge judges and mentors are selected carefully so that they provide unique insights on all all aspects of building a tech business in the Zimbabwean and African context. There are many realities about business here that only guidance from a mentor that has been through it can help. Not blog posts on Techzim and certainly not those on TechCrunch.

Here’s the list of judges and mentors for 2014

	David Behr David is the founder and CEO of ZOL Zimbabwe‘s largest Internet Service Provider. David is also an Executive Director at Liquid Telecom, a company which owns and operates one of the largest terrestrial fibre networks in Sub Saharan-Africa in addition to other services.
	Bester Zambuko Bester is the founder and managing director of Adrenalin Advertising and Design Consultants. The agency is one of the country’s leading marketing and communications companies and began in the late 90s on the back of trailblazing projects like Sun River Manor (Borrowdale Brooke). The agency has grown phenomenally over the years, having acquired exclusive affiliate status with Openedge media Group of South Africa.
	Geoff Goss Geoff has over two decades of experience in the technology markets of Sub Saharan Africa. He was the regional director for Compaq Computer Group Corp, former director of Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe. He has also been a panelist at a number of high profile technology events on the continent, like AfricaCom. Geoff now operates the country’s pioneer tech focused venture capital firms, Matamba Anonaka Technology Holdings (MATHs). He will judge the startups on their investment/financial attractiveness.
	Joseph Bunga Joseph Bunga has leadership experience in the following sectors – Hospitality, Micro-Finance, Fund Raising. He is passionate about capacity building and loves to see a team come together and solve problems while making a good financial return. The project he is currently leading is Area 46.
	Victor Chaitezvi Victor is currently working with Microsoft South Africa as a Business Development Manager in the Equity Equivalent Programme. This is a multi-million US Dollar programme that funds small software companies of which Victor looks after a couple of the companies. He operates at a strategic level as a trusted advisor to the executives of the businesses and also advises at an operational level.
	Garth Drummond Garth is founder and CEO of Webdev Africa. Webdev runs the Zimbabwe’s largest classifieds property, www.classifieds.co.zw. The company also operates the Paynow payment gateway that enables Zimbabweans to accept payment online from local mobile money wallets, regular local bank accounts as well as international cards.
	Leon de Fleuriot Leon has more than 15 year experience implementing internet technologies in Africa. As CTO of iBurst Africa, Leon led expansion of iBurst into Kenya, DRC, Mozambique and Ghana. Currently, he’s General Manager: Products and Services at Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.
	Brenda Matanga Brenda is currently the Managing Attorney of B. Matanga IP Attorneys. She leads the Intellectual Property, Real Estate and Conveyancing department. The holder of a Masters in Intellectual Property Law (LLM) from the University of Turin (Italy) in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) B. Matanga are one of the rare firms in Zimbabwe focusing on IP. In the Challenge, Brenda helps startup teams understand IP & legal.