Sinapis Launches Aspire: a New Program for Idea Stage Entrepreneurs

The Aspire program is a 9-week discovery process that prepares faith-driven entrepreneurs to turn their business dream into reality. The journey from idea to launch begins with a well-honed process to test the validity of each business idea. But great ideas also need great leaders, so Sinapis spends just as much time investing in each entrepreneur’s leadership potential and helping them to view business through a Kingdom lens.

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Aspire is a curriculum-based incubator developed in partnership with CO.STARTERS and tailored to the local context of where the entrepreneurs will actually launch businesses.This is HUGE for three reasons!

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1 : We can serve a broader range of entrepreneurs already coming to Sinapis for help.

Our field staff estimate that 70% of the prospective students we meet are at the idea stage. Both the Sinapis Entrepreneur Academy and the Fast Track Fellows Accelerator are designed for already established small and growing businesses (SGBs). Aspire will meet the training needs of the other 70%. And as their businesses grow, many Aspire graduates will be perfect candidates for the Entrepreneur Academy.

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2 : It brings hope to the youth unemployment epidemic.

The youth unemployment epidemic is massive. At Sinapis, we’re known for touting how investing in established SGBs builds the economy and creates jobs. Yet the burgeoning population boom in Africa and in other emerging market nations desperately needs to focus on incubating new businesses, too. Aspire’s focus on creating new businesses plays a vital role in stabilizing countries and bringing hope. Investing in the future pays off.

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3 : Partners have been asking for this.

In almost a decade of operation, we have partnered with quite a few accelerators, nonprofits, and churches. There are always business owners in the pews that we can equip to be successful Kingdom entrepreneurs, but there are far more congregants dreaming of launching a business. Churches are talking about what it looks like to be an oasis of hope in each community. Churches have been asking us to train more congregants how to bring ministry to the marketplace and serve their communities economically, socially, and spiritually.Stay tuned as we continue to launch Aspire cohorts in Kenya this year.