Hugh Molotsi

I had the pleasure of attending the Kwazulu-Natal Industrial Hubs Investment Forum in Durban, South Africa on March 19th and 20th.  The forum was an opportunity for investors to learn about the 11 industrial hubs that the KZN province is setting up to promote economic and job growth. My presentation to the forum was to apply lessons from Silicon Valley where entrepreneurship has driven dramatic growth and the rise of well known companies like Apple, Google, and Intuit from very humble beginnings.  While the Industrial Hubs look to attract investment from large global conglomerates, it's my hope that there will be investment to help educate and nurture entrepreneurs. Below are a few photos from the event. Yours truly and Lucky Masilela, Project Manager for the Electronics Hub. Yours truly and Alan Knott-Craig, CEO of Project Isizwe. Zeph Nhleko - Deputy Director-General of EDTEA, ..., yours truly, Professor William Gumede of Witwatersrand University, Pu...

Here's the presentation I gave at this year's Lean Startup Conference:

Zambians Promoting Leadership in America (ZLA) hosted a black tie event in Atlanta to celebrate Zambia's 50th independence anniversary.  I was honored to be asked to speak about giving back to support the next generation of Zambians.  Congratulations to Freda Mwamba Brazle and the ZLA committee for organizing a wonderful jubilee. Here are a few photos from the event. Receiving plaques of appreciation: (L-R) Thomas Konditi, Senator Donzella James, Innocent Mulenga, yours truly, and Freda Brazle. With Mrs. Naomi King, wife of civil rights activist A.D. King and sister-in-law of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With my better half Michelle. With Dr. Felicia Mabuza-Suttle

Intuit held it's first ever QuickBooks Connect conference at the San Jose Convention Center this week.  The conference was the biggest gathering of small businesses, the accountants who serve them, and developers who provide solutions for them.  The conference featured an all-star lineup of speakers including Magic Johnson, Arianna Huffington, and Martha Stewart. Here are some photos from the event. Yours truly with Magic Johnson With Dan Wernikoff, GM of Intuit's Small Business Group. With Shelly Scott and Christine Byrne from the QuickBooks Business Development team. With Tristan Walker, of Walker and Company who make the Bevel System. With the phenomenal Matt Rhodes, Intuit's VP of Investor Relations and Corporate FP&A

I had the pleasure of meeting members of a trade mission delegation from Kwazulu-Natal (South Africa) who were visiting the San Francisco Bay Area.  The group aspire to develop an innovation hub in the Zululand region.  Above is the picture of members of the group at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco with Consular-General Cyril Ndaba to whom I owe thanks for making the connection.

I had the pleasure of attending this year's Hult Prize dinner at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.  This year's challenge to students around the world was Healthcare: Non-communicable Disease in the Urban Slum. Students from over 150 schools competed and this year's winner was Nanohealth from the Indian School of Business who received $1,000,000 to fund their social enterprise. Below are some photos from the event. President Clinton announces the winning team. Some of the winning Nanotech team. The panel of judges (L-R): Hitendra Patel (moderator), Sanjay Gupta, Fadi Ghandour, Ashish Thakker, Muhammad Yunus and Kathleen Rogers (not pictured). Yours truly with Saul Minkoff (last year's finalist from the Pulse team) and Hult professor Michael Grandinetti. A pleasant surprise to run into René Carayol .

The article " Innovation: Failure is an Option " was first published on Intuit Labs . The road to innovation is paved with failure. And that’s just fine. Just ask Hugh Molotsi, who received Intuit’s first Founders Innovation Award in 2011, in part for creating and launching a business that allowed storeowners and others to accept credit card payments and link it to their QuickBooks program. But he’s also racked up his share of failure along the way. “Failure comes with the territory” says Molotsi, a serial innovator who is also vice president of the Intuit Labs Incubator. “You’re going to have to fall down and scrape your knees a few times. You learn more from your failures than your successes. And if you call it an experiment, you can’t fail.” For small business owners who may be struggling to pay the rent and meet payroll, innovation may seem too intimidating to attempt. And many are reluctant because they confuse innovation with invention. While invention ...