Our biggest cohort yet! - Virtual Incubation Program Cohort #6

Our biggest ever graduation took place 23rd February 2022. This cohort had 8 businesses represented and all 8 of them successfully completed the program. For the first time hosted by Lady G, this graduation was definitely one for the books.

Here is a reminder of the modules they covered over 2 weeks:

Hack My Business

Business Modeling

Design my brandkit

Blueprint presentations

Social Media

Investment readiness

Pitch Perfect

Take a look at the different businesses below:

Dieudonne Sarels - Dee's Tutoring

We help parents to support their children in their educational journeys by providing extra educational assistance through inspiring, empowering, and motivating young minds.

Dee tutors grades 4-12 in various subjects including special needs students.

Vathiswa Mpoqane - VathyM Models

We create a space for diverse models to up-skill and freely express themselves without the fear of being judged. 

Vathiswa helps get their portfolios done so she can represent them. She encourages them to attend her workshops to upskill themselves and to get professional photos taken.

Roulda Charles - Young Designs

Young Designs make the impossible possible by giving our customers an experience to feel comfortable within our designs. We alter dresses to the customers size, making them feel comfortable.

Chenay Phillips - Hair On Point Unisex Salon 

We educate and help women and men to look and feel good by providing hair care products and services. 

Hair on point is a full service salon. We have a wide selection of products to enhance your natural beauty. We are also able to help people with hair up-keep at home and offer beautiful color services. We are determined to provide every customer with an extraordinary experience.

Teri-lee Dilgee - Incipient patterns 

We help individuals to experience a sense of freedom and an escape from reality by unlocking their creativity with colouring books, tailored patterns (designed to fit clients request), and virtual design classes.

Christina Chirwa - Tina’s Hair Solution 

At Tina's Hair solutions we help a variety of clientele with unique customer service and consultation by styling and educating them whilst doing their hair.

At Tina’s Hair Solutions you can expect that special treatment while you sip on your cup of coffee, while getting your styling done.

Jolene Barnes - Prettyful (Pty) Ltd

We help women feel prettyful by promoting self-care through using our products.

Our purpose is to support women whenever they need some extra self-care by providing bath and body products that are 100% natural, friendly to all beings in nature and made with a mothers' love.

Laetitia Piers - Shea by Design

A Premium Product at a Reasonable Price: Shea by Design manufactures and packages quality hair, body, and skincare products for the whole family.

Shea by Design is an affordable line of natural, vegan, and Paraben, Sulphate & silicone-free hair and skin care products.

Later in the evening these ladies joined the Pitch Night and took part in an exciting 3 rounds of business pitching for investment.

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A Dedication to the Women from Cohort 6 of the Virtual Incubation Program

 This poem captured the 2 weeks we spent with Cohort 6 in January 2022.

****

It all started with a video pitch,

A group of brave ladies asked themselves what, how, why?

Which is which?

They arrived into the VIP program, nervous and unsure,

But the RLabs Women facilitators brought the hype,

And that was the cure.

Hack my business. What a way to begin!

Cohort 6 took one look and said,

We’re going in!

Golden circles, pain points, what is my customer’s Persona?

We have a Wonder Woman in our midst,

Young Designs’ very own Roulda.

Business modelling gave us a reminder about Empathy,

It also had the mighty BMC,

Let’s figure out these Incipient Patterns,

With the creative Teri-Lee.

Speaking of modelling,

Have you heard of VathyM?

She wants us to express ourselves in every way,

Vathiswa gets us ready for the runway.

Design my Brandkit,

Which logo will be it?

Building your own websites,

But which colours are okay?

Just keep your Hair On Point,

Let’s call up Chenay.

Time to create your presentation Blue Print,

No time to rest,

This was definitely a sprint.

Although there was some confusion,

You all persevered,

Just ask the fabulous Christina, she’ll give you a Hair Solution.

Social media, please no spam

LinkedIn, facebook, twitter, and Instragram

So many options our brains were running out of RAM.

It’s okay to admit that it was quite stressful,

Luckily we have Jolene,

To bring us back to Prettyful.

Investment readiness,

How intimidating!

But not for Cohort 6,

They said: “Let’s keep it moving!”

Laetitia impressed us all,

Natural, vegan, and paraben-free.

Get your products from Shea by Design,

Before you know it, your hair will be growing like a tree.

Pitch perfect arrived with a movie cast,

Two weeks flew by so very fast.

But as you know, we all have our limits,

Just make sure you keep it under 3 minutes.

The power of storytelling was a running theme,

Let’s make sure the investors know what you mean.

With a fancy name like Dieudonne,

Kids stories from Dee’s Tutoring,

Always made our day!

So now you know the whole situation,

And look at you now,

Sitting at your graduation.

Beautiful, Capable, Confident, and Strong.

We knew that you could do it all along!

Late nights, sickness, and technology fails,

Your sacrifice did not go unnoticed.

You made it through to the end,

It was amazing to see you so focused.

We know this program sometimes pushed you to the extreme,

But we can see a change in your self-esteem.

We are so grateful to be on this journey alongside you,

And we cannot wait to see what else you will do.

Please enjoy the evening and what we have planned,

Continue to dream,

No matter how hard it may seem,

With love from,

The RLabs Women Team.