Addis Ababa: 10 days, 25 founders, and a lot of learning

It’s been quite some time since I posted on LinkedIn.

I’m not going to lie — I missed it.

The past few months have been full. Work, building companies, travel, new experiences, personal commitments… and somewhere in between all of that, LinkedIn became quieter for me.

A few people have actually asked me, “Where have you been?”

So instead of trying to squeeze everything into one long post, I thought I’d share five updates over the next five days.

Starting with one of the experiences closest to my work in entrepreneurship.

As part of my role as Entrepreneurship Development Manager at ALX ETHIOPIA, I had the opportunity to co-lead a 10-day entrepreneurship bootcamp at the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute (EAII) for founders building AI-driven ventures.

The program brought together 25 founders working to turn ideas and technologies into ventures that can actually solve problems, reach customers, generate revenue, and scale.

Across the 10 days, we went from customer discovery to problem validation, business models to pricing, Go-to-Market strategy to institutional sales, team building to investment readiness.

But what stayed with me most wasn’t the curriculum.

It was the founders.

Spending 10 days in the same room with people who are deeply passionate about building solutions using AI reminded me why I enjoy this work so much.

There were questions I didn’t have immediate answers to. There were perspectives that challenged my own thinking. And there were founders whose determination made me rethink what is possible when the right people are given the right environment and support.

I went there to help equip founders.

I left having learned a lot from them too.

And that, for me, is what entrepreneurship ecosystem building should look like — not simply teaching founders, but creating spaces where everyone learns, builds, tests, and grows together.

A very meaningful 10 days.