About us
Your part in our story
Your involvement makes all the difference. Your participation enables us to provide our life changing entrepreneurship training to the talented South Africans who need it.
How we started
TalentProjX started in October 2022, following discussion about impact between Robert Lorriman and his Swiss mentor Pascal Gueissaz.
The goal of TalentProjX was to help the millions of unemployed South Africans to develop the skills to successfully deploy their talent to fix their own problems and the problems of their communities and country.
Following in depth research (we used a Design Thinking approach), we discovered that the missing "skills" that neede development are:
Self confidence. Believing in your ability to succeed enough to believe that it is worth starting on something new and then to persevere when success doesn't come in the first iteration.
Solution finding skills. The critical thinking skills, the openness to learn, the discipline to understand a problem in all its minute detail, and the structure to work towards solutions that not only address the problem but are also usable by their target customers.
Collaboration skills. Not only skills to find out about other's needs but also to work in a team to effectively get tasks done.
As our means to develop skills we choose to assemble small teams and get them to complete short projects of their choosing in their communities from conception all the way through to their solutions being adopted. A big but achievable ambition in a mere three weeks. We chose the theory of the learning curve as our framework for building self belief, Design Thinking as our methodology for building useful and usable solutions to difficult problems, and finally we chose Scrum as our approach to collaborating in a team and getting things done.
Our timeline
Our first year saw a number of tests of our prototype. We developed our solution and evolved to a four week course which we now call the Entrepreneurship Development Course.
We employed our first employee a year after starting. Ofentse is an alum from one of our pilot courses. He started his Masters in Internal Trade Law at the University of Cape Town in February 2024. He is concurrently setting up our first centre outside of Gauteng Province in Cape Town's oldest township called Langa.
More employees followed in December 2023. Katiso and Tebogo, both alums of our programme, joined us to lead and deputy the establishment of an Independent Centre in Kwa Thema near Johannesburg. Finally, Mahlodi and Hope joined us: one to build our wider offer, and the other to prepare to establish a new centre in Limpopo Province. Naturally everyone has gone through the programme.
Our Team
Robert Lorriman
Founder & Executive Director
Robert spent 13 years in the British Army. He was an infantry officer in the Welsh Guards where among other things he trained and mentored hundreds of soldiers, often from underprivileged backgrounds, additionally he led an independent leadership training academy preparing hundreds of young talent for promotion into more senior roles.
Robert left the army in 2008 to try his hand at strategy and business. He did this via an INSEAD MBA and a stint at McKinsey & Co., in London. Roles in strategy, sales and startups have followed. One of these brought him to South Africa.
South Africa is Robert’s adopted home. He has fallen in love with South Africa for the warmth of its diverse peoples, its magnificent landscapes, and the richness of its flora and fauna.
Katiso Lekeno
Chief Instructor & lead facilitator Kwa Thema district
Tebogo Mtjali
Deputy facilitator Kwa Thema District, Gauteng
Hope Mosehla
Start up manager and lead facilitator elect for Limpopo
Ofentse Ntsane
Start up manager and lead facilitator Langa, Western Cape