7 hard truths
TRANSCRIPT
Mentor. Accelerate. InvestDeveloping tech entrepreneurs in subsaharan Africa
www.savannah.vc
7 Hard Truths on Africa Startups
@mbwana
@savannahfund
Savannah Fund Today
• 15 startups. Accelerator to Series A stage
• $2M revenue run rate, raised $8M, 100 full time jobs
• Connecting up the continent through Venture Capital.
• Accelerator, over 300 startups applied, 10 selected
E-commerce39%
Education11%
Entertainment10%
Financial Services10%
Logistics9%
Social/Mobile20%
Rest of World11%
Ghana19%
Kenya27%
Nigeria9%
South Africa24%
Uganda10%
Waterhole
• Resource to help bridge knowledge and experience gap in startups in Africa
• Fundraising in Africa
• UX/Design
• Product
• Engineering & Scaling
• Expats....
www.savannah.vc/waterhole
Venture Capital Course in Africa
• Reduce the VC process knowledge gap.
• $1,000 for corporates
• $350 for "qualifying startups"
• Savannah fund will sponsor 11 startups inc. Pivot East winners
#1You are nothing special, but have potential
• Startups are increasingly getting caught in the "Africa rising" hype
• High Valuations and availability of "soft money" lead to a distorted view
• We are seeing the rise of Nigeria and Ghana
#2 talent development, mentor networks
• Not enough experienced coders for growth. Especially on process.
• Investment in emerging platforms Facebook, Android, Web stack/Cloud
• Not enough awareness and utilization of product managers and UX
#3 Safaricom dependence is not healthy
• Safaricom (and every other mobile operator) wants to be the Alibaba of Kenya
• Startups want to reach Safaricom's mobile subscribers. Beware of Monopolistic behavior
• There needs a clearer strategy and options between "revenue vs growth". + Differentiation
#4 Need to Develop a Growth mindset
• Starts with deeply understanding your customers
• Expand competence and learning new skills
• Thinking multi country or multi product line expansion
#5 Hustle hard, otherwise it's 2 steps forward and 3 back
• Nothing gets done unless you do it yourself
• Especially business development. Knowing when to cut your losses.
• Find workarounds... There is always a way
#6 Relentless focus. not working on the same thing everyday
• .... Nor doing a million things at once
• Prioritization vs Distractions
• Clearly defined objectives and strategy to succeed.
• Dealing with Uncertainty
#7 problem is often you problem definition
• Bounding the problem taking with cultural contexts.
• You are often dealing with multifactorial problems.
• Unit economics and industry structure matter. Especially when you copy/clone from elsewhere to Africa
http://savannah.vc/2014/04/16/problem-definition-problem-in-africa-solutions-for-a-diverse-continent