Roo Rogers had a problem, an unusual disturbance in team cohesion. A problem that, given everything else he has to contend with, he could have well done without.
Rogers is the son of architectural nobility, Richard Rogers and River Café founder Ruth Rogers. Tacking away from his bohemian upbringing, he has pursued a career in technology, serial entrepreneurship, social enterprise, and now acceleration and incubation. He was a partner in Yves Béhar’s Fuseproject, founded five successful start-ups, including a film production company and eco-friendly car service in New York, and established the Spring accelerator that has helped grow business across Africa and Asia.
Last year he launched an African offshoot of the UK-based start-up accelerator Founders Factory. Rogers and his team are committed to birthing and backing 140 new tech-based start-ups across Africa over the next five years. Founders Factory’s USP is its reliance on blue-chip corporate investment rather than funding from VCs and other smaller speculators. And tapping the corporate well in Africa means being in Johannesburg, the city where many of the international giants have established beachhead HQs.
Rogers wants to provide hothouse conditions for his new businesses, drawn from across Africa. ‘We have a makers lab. We have technicians, designers, engineers, who can rapid-prototype ideas. And then we have space for the incubator. And we have space for all the other support people.’
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2020-Ausgabe von Wallpaper.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2020-Ausgabe von Wallpaper.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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Guiding Light - Designer Joe Armitage follows his grandfather's footsteps in India, reissuing his elegant midcentury lamp and creating a new chandelier for Nilufar Gallery
For some of us, family inheritances I tend to be burdensome, taking up space, emotionally and physically, in both our minds and attics. For the London-based designer and architect Joe Armitage, however, a family heirloom has taken him somewhere lighter and brighter, across generations and continents, and into the path of Le Corbusier. This is the story of a lamp designed by Edward Armitage in India 72 years ago, which has today been expanded into a collection of lights by his grandson Joe.
POLE POSITION
A compact Melbourne house with a small footprint is big on efficiency and experimentation
URBAN OASIS
At an art-filled Mexico City residence, New York designer Giancarlo Valle has put his own spin on the country's traditional craft heritage
WARM FRONT
Designer Clive Lonstein elevates his carefully curated Manhattan home with rich textures and fabrics
BALCONY SCENE
A Brazilian island hotel offers a unique approach to the alfresco experience
ENSEMBLE CAST
How architect Anne Holtrop is leaving his mark on the Middle East
Survival mode
A new show looks at preparing for a post-apocalyptic landscape (and other catastrophes)
FLASK FORCE
A limited-edition perfume collaboration between two Spanish craft masters says it with flowers
BLOOM SERVICE
A flower-shaped brutalist beauty in Geneva gets a refresh
SECOND NATURE
A remodelled museum in Lisbon, by Kengo Kuma & Associates, meshes Japanese and Portuguese influences to create a space that sits in harmony with its surroundings