[kictanet] Kenya's Tech Startup scene leaves investors underwhelmed

[John Kieti]

Dear Ali, and other listers,

Once in a while, we read articles in media, especially international media
carrying very misleading headings on the Kenyan startup scene. The piece
you share Ali is one such misleading story

I would easily dismiss such an article, not only for it simply
"re-tweeting" old unfounded stereotypes but for two other reasons as
follows :-

1. The story is built solely on the investment philosophy of one investor -
not that its a wrong investment philosophy but that its not the only
investment philosophy relevant for a young ecosystem like ours. Even in
other advanced ecosystems there's many competing investors with diverse
investment strategies.

2. The story fails to capture sentiments of local founders seeking capital
and the challenges they face - from a startups perspective. Considering
that local startups have perceptions such as existence of "vulture capital"
and  "racial capital preferences", it is fair to expect that closing even
the simplest of deals, or even attracting the requisite pipeline is not for
faint hearted or non-committed investors. The writer could have gone under
the hood to explore these at the very least.

At the very least I would ask myself this when faced with such an article;
Can anyone really fairly compare our five year old ecosystem with mature
(decades old) ecosystems such as Silicon Valley or Tel Aviv? What
yardsticks would be fair across the board?

That said, our startup ecosystem still experiences the usual challenges
expected at these formative stages. For instance (a) There's still too many
parallel entrepreneurs (for justified reasons) running startups
sub-optimally (b) we continue to experience a gap in local angel funding
(or traction proof funding) which cannot be replaced by foreign capital.
(c) Players and commentators in the ecosystem continue to assess startup
growth and performance with the same yardsticks applied to consultancies
and lifestyle businesses (d) The local market has sustained this uncanny
tendency to favor the presence of a non-local when a sales pitch party is
granted - if at all such is granted to a startup. (e) In the legal,
PR/marketing, accounting and other supporting professions, available skills
sets and professional approach are for the most part inflexibly corporate
minded  - neither customized nor conducive for working with startups. These
to me are new issues below the surface that a writer should be exploring
rather than repeating the usual rhetoric damning the fledgling ecosystem -
which I find unfounded.

I may be entirely wrong, but I could be right in my observations.

Best regards

On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 9:44 PM, Sean Moro

On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 10:52 AM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Listers
>
> A lot of discussions in this area over the last few years. Are the
> chickens coming home to roost?
>
> Have we focused too much on competitions, donor funded money and shared
> spaces and a lot less on commercially viable ideas/nurturing what is there
> towards commercial exploitation?
>
> My sense is that we now need to move to 3.0 to enable realize the
> potential of our startups.
>
> Read on:-
>
>
> http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Kenya-s-technology-push-leaves-investors-cold/-/539550/2574220/-/13qkohy/-/index.html
>
>
> http://www.gsmaentrepreneurshipkenya.com/GSMA_KENYA-AR2014-060214-WEB-SINGLE-PGS.pdf
>
>
> *Ali Hussein*
>
> +254 770 906375 / 0713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>
> Blog: www.alyhussein.com
>
> "I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will
> have a generation of idiots".  ~ Albert Einstein
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
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-- 
My Blog - www.gmeltdown.com
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The ordinary just won't do
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