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Pair turn start up into multimillion - rand empire (published March 2013)

NMMU graduates, Charles Stretch and James Pearce, founders of the SMSPortal, the multimillion rand headline -making venture, says long hours, hard work and a light-bulb moment are paying the dividends for the pair.

The two, who started their venture in Pearce's parents garage in 2002 now boasts a company turnover of R300-million, a success story that has made national headlines and even appearing on the cover of the March issue of Entrepreneur magazine. They first started off with a student website called blueworld.co.za where students could submit their partying pictures. Only after being approached by club owners to market their events on their website that they had the multimillion - rand bulk SMS business brainwave. 

SMSPortal's main role s to send SMS messages to its clients' clients. The business is now one of the country's biggest in the field.  

 


 

Top IT firm established by NMMU graduate (published March 2013)

 

ALUMNUS and BCom accounting graduate Braddon Mc Clelland, is now leading the way in information technology support in Port Elizabeth. The former Grey High School pupil is managing director of Network Associates - Computech IT in Cape Road and recently made it on to the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber's Top 40 Under 40 achievers' list.

Mc Clelland, who is also an accountant, established his company - which provides a wide range of support from server solutions to network installations - in 1997.

 


 

Entrepreneur chosen to participate in TV show (published March 2013)

 

Nelson Mandela Bay entrepreneur and MBA graduate, Ismail Hassen, has been chosen from 25000 applicants to participate in season two of The Big Break Legacy, hoping to win a R5-million investment.

Hassen is currently the managing director of CSR-Africa positioned in within the shipping container industry. CSR-Africa is the only company in South Africa and Africa that offered expertise in repairing specialised accident damage shipping ISO containers.