Meet Catherine Lückhoff, the founder and CEO of the highly successful HQAfrica, a strategy and business development consultancy which helps companies launch and expand their business in Sub-Saharan African. With years of experience in the industry, HQAfrica aids companies going into the M-Commerce, mobile, music, and data industries launch and grow their business in Africa through localization and strategic business and development practices, which drive revenue and promote lasting relationships in the market. Prior to founding HQAfrica, Catherine solidified her status as an entrepreneur to watch with her first start-up, Mango-OMC, which holds the title as one of South Africa’s leading integrated PR communication agencies. After seven years of working in the trenches and giving her all to Mango-OMC, Catherine sold her shares in the company, and embarked on a new business opportunity with Bozza. After a successful run at Bozza, she decided to take a sabbatical leave to understand how the start-up ecosystems in various parts of the world work, and how best to apply the different strategies and platforms to the African market, and the rest, as they say, is history.
What you will learn
The Big Idea
How she started her first company (Mango-OMC)
Her involvement and experiences with Bozza
What inspired her to start HQAfrica
How she built up her team

How the start-up scene in South Africa differs from other African countries
The start-up space is a lot more formalized in South Africa (Silicon cape)

Why betting on yourself works , especially for her
The Heretic (Pascal Finette)
“DO EPIC STUFF!”

The initial obstacle and challenges she faced in setting up and running HQAfrica
How the trust factor plays an important role in attracting clients to do business with you
Can you deliver what you say

Some of the successes she has experienced since starting HQAfrica
Entrepreneur she admires
Elon Musk

Her new business venture (NicheStreem)
Key Advice
To entrepreneurs looking to venture into the African market:
Don’t bring preconceived ideas with you. Be prepared to be open to what the market holds, as opposed to what you think it holds.

To young Catherine starting out :
Get the proper structures in place.
Good contracts make for good relationships.

Biggest mistake:
Allowed the business to take over her life.

Resource
Silicon Cape
The Heretic
Contact
HQAFRICA