Complete the following
sentence:
What if Mark Zuckerberg was a Kenyan …………
Who would have invested in him in Kenya?
Would the Facebook we know today exist?
Who would be the local Peter Thiel, Sean
Parker??
Who would have been patient enough for 5
years after making the early investment?
Will there be a Sequoia kinda VC fund with local partners?
Now as you think about
that in relation to the current Tech-startup scene in Kenya here are a few
sobering things you need to put into perspective.
We have Konza City coming
up, its many things to different people…popularly called the silicon savannah
but with all honesty we cannot replicate the success of Silicon valley easily. Why?
Silicon Valley has no geographical boundary. It’s an ecosystem made up people,
companies and systems. It’s a way of life, an approach to fixing problems and
making serious money out of it. The valley comprises of universities that
supply the great talent & knowledge, the entrepreneurs who do it all to
work on their ideas, the angel investors who identify and invest in these
daring teams at early stage, the incubators that nurture the talented teams and
brood over their ideas, the mentors that shine the light, the successful
entrepreneurs that share their experiences, lessons, knowledge and tricks, the
media/blogs that expose these people and push their products out to users who
adopt and pay for the products these startups create. When these products
become sound businesses it is the VCs that put in the big money to scale their
operations. That’s what Silicon Valley is to me.
Of-course we have the big
brands that acquire these products or acquihire talented teams. Or screw them
up altogether. It’s competitive. You win or your startup dies.
Now back to Konza; this
noble concept will not save boot-strappers in KE hubs and incubators any time
soon. Well not soon! I have heard someone mention a KE tech bubble, but I
forgot to ask who of the local guys in tech making serious money or well
funded. Not Jumia, not Olx, not Cheki…not apps that win prize money at
hackathons, not poorly developed clones, not fancy sites built from free
themes.
Tell me about people
building serious proprietary software, founders who aren’t running a social
enterprise to monetize on grants and donor funding, the Kenyans who built
something techie-ish and made serious money without funding.
Tell me about the guys who
developed something you use today from their dorm room in campus. Talk to me
about the local entrepreneur, investor, billionaire, celebrity or corporate
honcho turned angel investor in KE tech. As you think of that remind me of the
few locally owned startups with young founders who got adequate funding for
their ideas at early stage.
This is #Kenyaat50, so
after you read and share all the nice features on VB, Mashable or TC always
remember where you’re from. Until fear is gone to talk about our tech ecosystem,
our failures, struggles and lessons we’ll always make minimal strides in
entrenching a successful startup culture in the country.
We have miles to cover
here to get where this needs to be to look sexy as it is elsewhere, and this
requires the persistence and resilience so let’s not rush this or benchmark
ourselves with Silicon Valley. Let us do this our way, make our mistakes,
develop our own case studies and work on our success stories.
To do that we have to make
the decision to be courageous to get the authentic story out there.
Above all Blame no one!
Expect nothing! Play your part! Do something!
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