Doing a startup in Africa when you are not a local guy.
My journey in Africa started in early 2019, about two years ago. My background comes from working with Fintech companies and Blockchain, together with a series of coincidences, which led to me being part of a team that set out to build software for the informal economy. I’m a life long student of technology, people, cultures and business, but nothing could prepare me for what I have experienced in the two last years working in Africa.
The first trip I had to Africa was a round trip to visit Tanzania, Ghana and Ivory Coast. We had a plan, and we wanted to meet partners and banks to help us with our goal. The way we wanted to do this was to get them on board early before investing too much into the company and finishing up the actual product.
You know, in the right startup way, sell first, build later.
Release fast
And so on…
There is a saying in Africa: “there are no bad meetings”. This means that everyone is positive, polite in meetings, and for us coming down here, we felt that we hit the jackpot; everyone wanted our product! Or so we thought!
Two years later, we have launched our product; this text is some thoughts back on our journey.
Don’t sell more than you can deliver
As an entrepreneur, one of my biggest mistakes is to include potential customers in workshops. What I mean by this is going into meetings with a product that is not ready for launch and start discussing with them. A much better solution is to make something, a prototype or at least a clear thought in the end game and present that. This might be true everywhere, but I experience this is Tanzania. Tanzania ended up being the first country we launch in, but only after we made a clear go-to-market strategy could we explain precisely what we wanted to do and just did it.
You need local partners and a solid network.
Some of the investors I came across told me that the space I move into is crowded in Africa. I was amazed by this comment because, from my perspective, I meet my competitors, mainly in Europe. I’m not saying that my way is the only way, but for our undertaking working with reliable local partners and spending a lot of time on the ground was a game-changer. Today I travel back and forth between Norway and Tanzania and out from Tanzania to other African countries. We only move into markets where we have strong partners in the local market; this makes us move extremely fast to commercialisation.
It’s tough to launch something without being on the ground.
Remember that culture is different, but don’t just “accept it.”
In Tanzania, it’s not considered late before at least 30 minutes after a scheduled meeting. It’s frustrating to be productive in such an environment. Coming from Norway, where you call and apologise if you see that you will be running a few minutes late to have two meetings, pr day was hard. I dealt with this in my way.
I did not accept it
We made a rule; I call it “the five-minute” rule. Meetings are ended if people are more than five minutes late. Of course, this does not work if you are the person that needs something, for example, from the government, but it works excellent for almost all other types of meeting.
Spend time understanding culture and language
In the beginning, I booked hotels in typical tourist places. It seemed like a safe thing to do. I also ate at the usual tourist place with my colleagues.
When I started spending time with local people, going to local bars, living in an apartment and learning the language, my understanding of the culture began to change. Today I speak a bit of Swahili, and I keep learning. It’s the most excellent ice breaker of them all.
Don’t assume
Sitting in your office outside of Africa and taking decisions is extremely dangerous. Assumptions that you take based on your own experience might be wrong. This is something I experienced when it came to the use of so-called USSD codes. They are entering numbers and symbols on a mobile phone to trigger various operations, like sending money to other people. We thought Tanzanians needed this to be innovated upon, and they did not. So please don’t just assume. Make sure you understand what it is you are going to innovate.
Final thoughts
I have mostly met great people in my travels. People that today I call my friends, colleagues and business partners. And working on the ground, understanding the real problem they face has been an essential piece of the puzzle when going live. I encourage you to trust people, but at the same time, remember that like everywhere else, everyone has their agenda and challenges that might be very different from yours.
I believe I will do many things in this market since my work is needed here. But what they needed was very different from what we ended up delivering in the market.
I’m looking forward to keeping innovating in this market by building products and services. I will learn what my local customers need.
Never again will I assume anything!
