Everyone is in the room. But no one can find each other.

Everyone is operating within the same ecosystem, but too often they cannot find one another when it matters.

Across South Africa and much of Africa, entrepreneurship has never lacked attention. Governments have launched schemes and support mechanisms, funders have built programmes, corporates have expanded supplier development, and ecosystem actors have multiplied.

The intention is right, and much of the investment is necessary.

Yet, for many entrepreneurs the experience remains deeply frustrating, not because nothing is there, but because nothing quite connects.

That is the contradiction at the heart of entrepreneurship support.