Issue link: http://endeavor.uberflip.com/i/414924
CARLO GONZAGA , the founder of the res- taurant conglomerate Taste Holdings, hosted Abdulmohsin Al- Rabiah, the founder of Shawarmer, a Saudi restaurant chain. PAYMENT GIANT First Data, acquired Gyft, the virtual gift card pro- vider launched by serial entrepreneur Vinny Lingham. The news was covered by The New York Times' DealBook. Vinny was also selected to be a "Dragon" on South Africa's installment of "Dragon's Den." FOCUS Wilter du Toit COMPANY Virtual Mobile Technologies INDUSTRY IT YEAR SELECTED 2007 REVENUE GROWTH, 2013–2014 300% WILTER JOINED Endeavor with his first venture, Yeigo Communications, an innovative mobile Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider. In 2008, after a majority stake of Yeigo was acquired, he left the com- pany to launch his second venture. Virtual Mobile Technologies (VMT) is a platform technology com- pany that allows large enterprises to rapidly create and deliver any mobile application to both internal staff as well as external customers across all the various mobile tech- nologies, specifically native applica- tions (e.g. iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, Java etc.) In August 2013, Wilter partici- pated in an Endeavor Global Acceleration Panel. Six panelists reviewed his business's performance since selection by Endeavor and offered suggestions on how to struc- ture BlastCast, VMT's latest product. BlastCast is a simple-to-use business communications tool that allows companies to send thousands of instant messages to their cus- tomers and employees and immedi- ately get insight into delivery, views and responses. Endeavor South Africa supports 23 entrepreneurs leading 16 companies. ENDEAVOR MAIN OFFICE Johannesburg (2004) CAPE TOWN (2011) ENDEAVOR ARRANGED for five MBA students from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business to work with Rob Dennison and members of his team at Trainiac. The students analyzed the merits of extending Trainiac's offering from bespoke to "off the shelf" solutions. AS PART OF a competition celebrating youth entre- preneurial excellence and innovation, Bevan Ducasse, the founder of WiGroup Proprietary, received the Maverick of the Year award. 54 ENDEAVOR IMPACT REPORT 2013–14