A startup challenge that celebrates Cameroon’s top innovators

When Bill Zimmerman (my co-founder at VC4Africa) approached me with the idea for the Cameroon Startup Challenge, it took me about 3 second to make my decision….this is just something we just have to do! The competition offers a cash prize of USD $5,000 for the most innovative web, mobile or hardware-based business venture in Cameroon. Sanaga Ventures, a joint seed stage investment company between Bill and myself, puts up the prize money.

My first trip to Cameroon was about a year ago. Bill and I were working intensively on the launch of VC4Africa and had decided to build most of the site with colleagues in Buea, a student town at the base of Mount Cameroon (or what the local techies like to call Silicon Mountain).

The trip was a chance to meet people like Helen, Valery, Fua, Mohamed, Fritz, Al, Churchill and many others in person. Much of this community was connected through ActivSpaces, an upcoming tech hub that is now the country’s leading platform for tech entrepreneurship. On this trip we facilitated a business model workshop with some of the ActivSpaces members and hosted VC4Africa meetups in Buea and Douala. Needless to say, my time in Cameroon convinced me there is talent capable of innovating on a continental (Njorku is widely claimed as the continent’s first Job search engine) and global level. See a video for an impression.

Since this trip we have only increased our activities. Now VC4Africa is for the most part developed and maintained by Zinger Systems, a local software firm. We have also developed other projects including the VC4Africa mobile website with two developers Mohamed and Ebot. And as a community (people like Al Banda, Valery, Fua, Rebecca, Bill, myself and many others) we work to support the development of ActivSpaces as the leading platform for tech entrepreneurs in the country. Finding support hasn’t always been easy as Cameroon is not often ‘on the list’ in the same way support is channeled to Kenya, Uganda or Ghana. Exceptions are enterprising organizations like Indigo Trust. But step by step, these various pieces are coming together and a lot of progress is being made. We learn of new projects and promising ventures every day. Now we have a chance to build on these foundations and to extend our efforts to new networks of entrepreneurs in the country. If anything this challenge is a precursor to what is possible and to show the world what kind of innovations are coming from this space.

See the details for the competition and we look forward to announcing the winner in July.

What does Africa look like in terms of population?

I like HackerNews because I always find one or two surprises. This DayOneData project by Peter Main was the latest find. He basically looks to re-imagine the world in terms of population. India and China crowd the global map, and the US takes a commanding third. Looking closer at the African continent we can see usual suspects like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco. But more interesting is the size of the population in countries like Ethiopia (+/- 88 million), Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. These countries don’t usually get a lot of positive press, but looking at their potential consumer base, are potentially major economic engines in the making. It is expected that Ethiopia could become the most populous nation on the continent, eventually surpassing Nigeria. Given the continent’s youthful population it will be interesting to see what this map looks like in 2050.

VC4Africa and the emergence of an African startup culture

Want to know more about VC4Africa and our work to support starting entrepreneurs? Here is a presentation we recently recorded. I outline some of the recent trends and developments we are witnessing in the space and some of our thinking on how we can do more to support the emergence of an African startup culture.

VC4Africa Infographic, 2012 the year of Entrepreneurship in Africa

We have been wanting to produce some visuals for some time now and it was fun to see this project come together for the start of the new year. Instead of some card with a bunch of happy faces we thought we would visualize a trend we strongly believe in. We witness and champion a general shift of attention that we hope will see more focus placed on the continent’s entrepreneurs. Really the most underrated change agent if you ask me.

The infographic starts with some background on VC4Africa and where the community is at in terms of its development. We then follow the introduction with statistics that give a strong indication of just how fast things are actually changing on a fundamental level. We highlight the challenges we still need to face concerning some of the resource constraints (human and capital) and answer this challenge with our peer-to-peer driven network approach we feel is a viable way to start filling the gaps.

This graphic was done in partnership with our designer Joppe Rovers. Check out his website. Also see a higher quality version of the VC4A Infographic – 2012 the year of the Entrepreneur (280KB).

Fast Moving Targets: Africa as promising investment frontier

Here is an interview I did last week with Fast Moving Targets, a new series dedicated to showcasing innovation in media, technology and communications. They are very much tapping into Amsterdam as a creative media lab and the beginnings of a promising startup culture here in the city. Importantly, they ask the question, ‘what’s going on, what does that mean for whom and how do you actually get new trends and technologies to succeed?’

It’s great to see initiatives like this come online. It adds to The Next Web (many people do not know they are based in Amsterdam) and Hackers and Founders Meetups as important platforms for engaging the community, identifying key developments and highlighting protagonists in the space. Fast Moving Targets is an initiative of ‘The Crowds‘ and hosted by Erwin Blom and Roeland Stekelenburg. They have a great production team and it was nice of Johan Schaap, the founder of Probaton, to make the connection.

The show is filmed live which gives it an interesting character and streamed via the site. They film the chit chat before and after the actual show (so be aware:) and take questions from people watching via Twitter. The show has an interactive and relaxed feel to it. Mostly because of the Palm beer. It was also great practice for my Dutch!:) Here is the description as posted on the site: ‘Ben White van VC4Africa probeert werelden bij elkaar te brengen. Investeerders en ondernemers. Europa en Afrika. Omdat hij ziet hoe groot het talent in laatstgenoemd werelddeel is, omdat hij overtuigd is van het zakenlijk potentieel, maar ook omdat hij een idealist is die van Afrika houdt. VC4Africa gaat over geld, maar nog veel meer over netwerken. Met al duizenden aan boord. Een aflevering van Top Names van Fast Moving Targets.’

The Rise of a Startup Culture in Africa [Video Presentation]

Technology + Entrepreneurs + A vision = Startups in Africa in need of Venture Capital.

This is a one line summary of the presentation I recently gave at the 1% Event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In the presentation I talk about the rise of the techprenuer in Africa and the cheetah Generation that is now empowered with the knowledge and tools they need to change the world. This presentation builds on a lot of the ethnographic research I did in Kampala, Uganda and my experiences working on the ICT Entrepreneurship program at Hivos. I also talk about AfriLabs as a network organization connecting technology incubators in Africa and VC4Africa (Venture Capital for Africa) as a platform for crowdsourcing network, information and capital via the web.

VC4Africa pitches for the Accenture Innovation Award

hehe, nice photo:)

Accenture published the nominations for their annual Innovation Awards. I think its great our community was selected out of hundreds of applications to continue to the final round. Now the winner will be decided by the public and this means you!

The project that collects the most votes will win the coveted Blue Tulip. I encourage everyone to review our video pitch and to show your support for the community by adding your email address on the top right corner. Once you have voted you will receive an e-mail notification and will need to confirm your vote by clicking on the confirmation link. Every vote counts….

If you can, please share this news with friends and colleagues as we build support for our concept on a global stage. We are using the following link to promote our application [http://shar.es/bb0nB].

Vote now!

Pitfalls for the African startup, why do they fail?

Building a successful business is one of the hardest things to do. For many entrepreneurs building companies in different parts of Africa assumes extra challenges. But from all of the different reasons that might cause an African based startup to fail respondents to a recent poll selected poor execution as the leading cause. This point was followed by lack of finance and an unwillingness to adapt to changing market conditions.

So despite often times a challenging business climate i.e. lack of infrastructure, difficulty attracting qualified staff, poor legislation, unfavorable tax climate, etc…. respondents suggested the failure of most startups rested solely on the shoulders of the entrepreneur and their poor performance. This result reflects the findings of a recent study published by the Startup Genome project. Their recently published report found that 90 percent of startups failed primarily because of ‘self-destruction rather than competition.’ The study looked at 3,200 high-growth technology startups and pinpointed ‘premature scaling’ as a key trend. Specifically this idea that the entrepreneur is getting ahead of the game before they actually have the necessary foundations in place first. This ‘skipping’ of steps might give the impression the startup is finding success early, but lacking key pieces in the business model creates much bigger problems later in the business lifecycle. And given these are fundamental building blocks the startup is too often unable to recuperate and is forced to fold the business completely.

There are many ways this occurs i.e. possibly spending money on unnecessary things like an expensive office, hiring too many employees too early, not spending time on proper market research, running expensive customer acquisition or launching the product before it is ready. According to the Startup Genome report bout 74 percent of Internet startups fail because of premature scaling, while those who scale properly typically see growth that’s 20 times faster. Those companies that scale properly end up attracting more capital and servicing more customers. They are also the businesses that end up hiring more employees. But in how far can we compare this study focused on startups in Silicon Valley with the startups in Africa? Growing too fast was also an option in this weeks survey but surprisingly the option only received a single vote. The results of this week’s poll seem to place more emphasis on the inadequate abilities of the entrepreneur (poor implementation) than on their efforts to grow the business too fast.

Marieme Jamme, the founder of Africa Gathering, raised the point that entrepreneurs behind failed startups too often lack a long term vision. Jitesh Naidoo, currently researching the subject for an upcoming book, added, ‘Many of the start ups have very little managment skills that would allow them to run a business and grow it on a sustainable basis. They have the initial drive, but become shipwrecked when they encounter problems that require specific skills to overcome. Skills also allow a person to separate personal from financial matters.’ He goes on to explain that entrepreneurs behind failed startups lack essential business acumen and forward thinking. He expands, ‘Very often those at the helm of startups lack the business foresight to make decisions that are business based.’ This hints to the second point highlighted in the survey suggesting that many entrepreneurs behind unsuccessful attempts fail to adapt or change their plans needed to meet a dynamic and changing marketplace. Possibly the point also hints to the need for better market research, deeper customer understanding, more prototyping and rapid iterations needed to better close this gap.

Brian Maphosa an entrepreneur currently running a startup countered Jitesh, ‘Is this exclusive to the African continent? Do we have a statistical analysis to back this argument? I am saying this based on my own personal experience running a start up and the issues I see as potential sources for business failure. It takes discipline, personal character, the integrity, the controls/systems, funding, work ethic of those involved, etc… to pull a business through. As far as I am concerned these are universal issues that any startup would grapple with.’ John Priddy concludes the point, ‘Failure is the inherent nature of start ups. It’s about risk-taking and the creative destruction impulse that drives innovation and growth.’

Clearly the African startup process shares many similarities with other parts of the world. In the end, building a successful company is simply one of the most difficult things to do wherever you are located. But for many entrepreneurs in Africa the context does seem more complicated (albeit many times the business is complimented with greater potential). Given the density of Silicon Valley’s startup culture it is reasonable to think entrepreneurs there have an easier time following a beaten path. There is arguably more entrepreneurial infrastructure in place. Can we then say that in the context of Nairobi or Lagos there are simply less success stories and examples to follow? This forces many entrepreneurs to figure it out on their own and that means many entrepreneurs are facing certain odds unprepared. Taking that into consideration respondents to this poll do seem to be asking entrepreneurs to step up their game if they are going to compete on an international level. They are asking for better/smarter implementation and more flexibility/adaptiveness to the changing business climate around them.

So the million dollar question remains. How do we better support entrepreneurs and the development of their startup DNA? What are your thoughts on the subject?

It is time to move to VC4Africa.biz

The time has come to close VC4Africa.com. Originally constrained by Linkedin, the VC4Africa.com site really gave our community the chance to grow. We saw the number of members increase and many discussions come online. Members shared an incredible amount of content and we met in person at over 26 meetups around the world. Here are some of statistics reflecting some of the progress we achieved with the community so far.

We registered 4589 members and saw visitors to the website from 208 countries. The exceptions were Chad, Turkmenistan, Western Sahara, French Guiana and North Korea. I think it is fair to say the business interest in the African continent is very much a global one 🙂 We served 1,327,433 page views and facilitated 364 active forum discussions, promoted 157 events focused on business in Africa, hosted 38 Incubators and generated 886 blog postings.

Top African countries were South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. A ranking that reflects number of internet users, significance of economy, geographic location and the promising future prospects for each country. These countries were followed by Ghana, Senegal and Uganda. Without surprise, the most popular article published on VC4Africa.com was the, ‘Time to Invest in Africa’ with 2,486 reads. Clearly there is a growing interest in networking as a community of Entrepreneurs and Investors and together we are better able to organize the network, knowledge and capital needed to realize opportunities on the continent. We take this mission forward with the new website VC4Africa.biz.

Over the past year we have run a number of surveys, opened discussion groups and spoken to many members (both entrepreneurs and investors) and countless experts from a variety of backgrounds. We have collected everyone’s feedback and done our best to process the collected ideas. Most importantly we recognize the need for a more robust and secure platform that facilitates targeted interactions i.e. if you are interested in solar energy solutions for West Africa than you should be able to connect with the members and content most relevant to you. In this way we are working to tailor VC4A so you only get what you want.

We have also introduced new privacy controls that only allow members to contact you if you have approved them as a contact first. It is a challenge to foster our vision for an open community, where members openly share with the network and help other members regardless of their status, while keeping the interactions meaningful. We feel we are making great progress in these areas and continue to seek the community’s feedback. We have also added new social networking tools, a ventures section for posting projects, matchmaking capabilities and premium content to our offering. There is much more on the way and we invite you to join VC4Africa as we take the next step forward.

A special thanks goes out to Bill, Valery, Fua and all of the crew at ActivSpaces who have worked so hard to make this next step possible. Cameroon continues to lead the way!

Indeed. It is time to move to VC4Africa.biz

Cameroon’s leading techpreneurs [video]

I am pleased to share this video from my recent trip to Cameroon and the time spent with the team at the African Center for Technology, Innovations and Ventures (ActivSpaces). It was great to spend time with so many promising entrepreneurs and meet VC4Africa members in the country. I especially want to thank Valery, Fua, Al, Ebot, Benyella, Fritz and Mohamed for all of their insights and constant inspiration.

I look forward to going back soon and can’t wait for my next plate of Ekwang 🙂