Emray May, a South African entrepreneur building a digital marketplace for the  event and wedding industry  — Lionesses of Africa

What inspired you to start your company?

My partner lost his job in 2018 and I just gave birth to our daughter. We needed an extra income and when we decided to have a small birthday party for her we did it in the most cost effective way possible. We have a pretty big family so we ended up negotiating prices for everything. Before I left I would ask everyone if they would give me the same price should I come back next week. When all of them agreed I knew I could start a business doing parties for little ones. After I started the business I realized that the market was over saturated. I also noticed that even though there were so many bakers, caterers, event planners, event photographers etc. very few people knew about them. This is when I realized a platform connecting these businesses to their customers would solve the problem not only for the businesses but also for their customers.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

Partee is industry specific. It caters only for businesses that deal with events, parties and weddings. There is no other platform like that in the world and we are first to market.

Tell us a little about your team

Benoit Chiawu – is Congolese and resident in South Africa. He is currently studying and then part-time he does app and website development. He is a very hardworking young man that hopes to achieve greatness in South Africa and return home to change the future for his family. He developed The Partee App that is available on Google Play and is busy updating the website which will be launching 31 July 2020.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

My entrepreneurial journey started from a very young age. My parents, who are both teachers, had a tuck-shop and for my spending money I had to work in the shop after school. It wasn’t long when I started renting out our VHS movies, at the tender age of 11. This was just the beginning of many more businesses that I would start with me being extremely passionate about it and then result in it either failing or in me losing momentum. I’ve honestly failed more than most people have tried. My last failed attempt was as a student when I opened Emma’s Boutique, a clothing store that aimed to import high quality fashion from China to South Africa and then sell it here.