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By Chinenye Anuforo
Bincom Dev Center has launched a three-to-six-month pre-incubator programme, LABs by Bincom, with the aim of bringing participants together to build tech products that can be valuable to society.
It is a programme designed to help participants build ideas into a minimum viable product (MVP), which can be used by clients and help the participants gain practical experience and exposure.
LABs by Bincom is open to tech professionals, NYSC members, fresh graduates, freelancers and student interns. The combination of skills that will be needed in each team during the programme includes PHP, FrontEnd/Mobile App, Backend Development, Python, Project management, Digital Marketing, UI/UX and Design, Product management, Infrastructure and much more. The program is currently only available restricted to members of Bincom Tech Network who are enrolled in a Bincom program.
Bincom Dev Center regularly hosts training sessions to enlighten participants as they build their idea into a digital product.
The latest of such events held earlier in April 2022 was aimed at explaining the program details and the materials available to participants. This was the first stage of the program—onboarding of participants and project brief.
The first training session was facilitated by Mudi Ogboru, chief operating officer of Social Lender. He described how to build a MVP. He said when the MVP gets adopted, any tech entrepreneur can start building it until the growth phase and then the maturity phase after which they decide to exit or sell the product. To go through the aforementioned process, you need adequate knowledge, which means continuous learning and keeping yourself up to date. Many investors mainly invest in teams, based on the impact the teams’ ideas will have on society.
LABs by Bincom Dev Center has adopted the Tech Nation Digital Business Academy as part of the starter pack used as a guide for the participants of the program. There are different resources on the platform to learn from and build skills.
LABs by Bincom runs in parallel with Bincom Academy A team will consist of up to 10 members to create a Product Led Digital Technology startup that can solve at least one problem. Each team is also assigned to a mentor. There are three stages in the programme.
At the end of stage one, participants must have at least a project brief or a business idea for their startup. The process of what to do and how to do it must also be documented at the end of stage one which will last for about a month. An understanding of the market is also key in this stage. In addition, the team mentor’s approval of the business idea is required before proceeding to the second stage.
Stage two is about building the MVP, which lasts for around a month and involves project execution. Here, participants commence all that is required to bring ideas from stage one into existence.
Stage three involves releasing what has been built in stage two to the market. Users get to use the solution and judge its functionality. This stage also has a fixed duration of one month.
According to Dare Matthew Edoh , the coordinator of LABs by Bincom, each team is required to meet their goal for each stage within the time limit or they may be removed from the program. If at the end of the program (sixth month) a product team shows great potential, it will be brought into the Bincom incubator program, otherwise, it will be dissolved.
