SDC's frameworks come from ongoing research into how founders build ventures across African markets. Each one is sampled, reviewed and revised as a working paper, then published here in full.
Annual reports, briefings, working papers and the State of Startup Education series.
Founder identification, venture-building models, the SME-to-startup transition, and ecosystem intelligence.
Each framework is listed here once it is named and cleared for public release.
Quantitative analysis, founder pipeline intelligence, and sector-specific reports compiled from SDC's research desk.
Our core work is building frameworks and models for venture building in the African context. Innovation drives and SDC OS are where those frameworks get used, tested and refined.
How to tell someone building an SME from someone building a startup, and what marks out high-potential founders at the earliest stage. This work produced SDC's Founder Personality Assessment.
Outputs. Founder profiling methodology and assessment tools.
We study how startups are actually built in African markets and write frameworks that reflect that reality. Then we test whether those models hold up in other markets.
Outputs. African venture-building framework and stage-gate models.
A structured model that helps SME owners decide whether to move from running a lifestyle business to building a startup, and how. Few researchers work on this question.
Outputs. SME-to-startup transition framework and readiness criteria.
We track and publish data on early-stage startup education in Africa and beyond, including founder outcomes, programme completion rates, and long-term tracking of SDC alumni through SDC OS.
Outputs. Annual State of Startup Education report and outcome datasets.
We co-produce original research with universities, funders and institutions, and advise on venture building and founder development.