Why We’re Doing This
Pay-it-forward responsibility: we’ve benefitted from the SA tech community. The Hub returns that by lowering the activation energy for credible founders and QSEs.
Execution over theatre: less pitch-deck coaching, more platform builds, governance guardrails, and sales motions that actually convert.
National outcomes: local jobs, export revenue, and operator capability that stays in the ecosystem.
How It Works
Operator Clinics
Weekly sessions on landing zones, security baselines, FinOps hygiene, SLOs, data platforms, and GTM mechanics. Real artefacts: IaC, runbooks, dashboards.
Tooling & Credits
Curated stack with credits and sensible defaults: cloud, CI/CD, observability, ticketing, docs. Guardrails baked in to avoid surprise spend.
Market Access
Introductions to buyers and partners, co-sell opportunities, and “first logo” pathways — with referenceable outcomes and proof-of-value framing.
QSE Accelerator (Pay-It-Forward)
Who: South African Qualifying Small Enterprises and early-stage startups in cloud, data, AI, platform, or security services/products.
What we provide: technical baselines (AWS/Azure/hosted), reference architectures, DevSecOps pipelines, FinOps discipline, bid support, and leadership coaching.
How we fund it: CoreCloud time, partner credits, and corporate sponsors who view this as real corporate responsibility — not a line-item donation.
Corporate Responsibility, With Evidence
Transparent metrics: published dashboards on jobs created, revenue enabled, exports, certifications achieved, and R&D velocity.
Audit-ready artefacts: SOWs, change logs, attendance, and value tracking per cohort — suitable for ESG/CSI reporting.
Local first: preference for SA-resident data and suppliers where practical; POPIA-aware designs by default.
Outcomes We Track
Who Should Apply
Founder-led QSEs with paying customers or credible pilots, ready to standardise delivery and scale.
Productising services teams turning repeatable consulting into packages, platforms, or managed offerings.
Early SaaS / data products seeking infra discipline, security baselines, and enterprise-grade posture.
Cohort Flow (12 Weeks)
Weeks 1–3: Baseline
Identity & access, network guards, IaC repo, CI/CD, observability hooks, cost controls, and basic sales instrumentation.
Weeks 4–8: Ship
Thin-slice value to a real customer. PoV framing, SLOs, backup/DR tests, and security evidence packs.
Weeks 9–12: Scale
Pricing & packaging, partner motions, case studies, and a governance rhythm that holds under growth.
FAQ
Cost to founders? Sponsored seats are free; otherwise a subsidised fee. We avoid equity by default — exceptions case-by-case.
Do you invest? Not a fund. We enable execution and can introduce to aligned capital once the engine is working.
What stacks? AWS, Azure, or hosted private cloud — with data, AI, and security guardrails.