{"id":42,"date":"2016-09-02T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T13:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/2016\/09\/02\/the-biggest-battles-i-face-as-an-african-technology-entrepreneur-are-in-the-mirror\/"},"modified":"2023-11-23T00:23:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T22:23:33","slug":"the-biggest-battles-i-face-as-an-african-technology-entrepreneur-are-in-the-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/the-biggest-battles-i-face-as-an-african-technology-entrepreneur-are-in-the-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Battles I Face As an African Technology Entrepreneur are in The Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 7<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Sometimes I\u2019m the biggest impediment to my own progress.<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences as a tech entrepreneur in Africa<\/a>. I had told my friends that I\u2019d write a second post if I got 15+ recommends.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t really expect it to be \u201cgood enough\u201d to go viral<\/em>, but that article now has over 490 recommends and has been republished on Startup Grind<\/a>. The republished article has picked up 50+ more recommends and is growing by the day. I guess I\u2019m not doing too bad.<\/p>\n

And yet somehow, I still d\u0336i\u0336d\u0336n\u0336\u2019\u0336t\u0336 don\u2019t feel confident about publishing this post. My mind has a funny way of playing tricks on me, often leading me to overestimate my ability in certain areas and underestimate them in others.<\/p>\n

#1: Confidence<\/h3>\n

Writing this brought back a familiar feeling. I felt the same once before in 2015 when I was about to pitch Djuaji<\/a> to an audience of over a hundred people at Pivot East 2015<\/a> (East Africa\u2019s Premier Mobile Startups Pitching Competition). It was a two-minute pitch, but I\u2019d spent the last 2 weeks revising and practicing it with the Pivot East Team and my co-founder.<\/p>\n

Over the last 6 years, I have become a pro at pitching. You\u2019d be surprised how fast you can learn how to do something when you really need the money\u00a0.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s do or die, and dying is not an option, do will always have to happen. It\u2019s that\u00a0simple.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By the time I was walking up to the stage, the content was etched on my mind. I knew it inside out and could recall any information about the company on demand.<\/p>\n

<rant>I was going to write a Redis vs MySQL joke on this line but I can\u2019t find one that won\u2019t be too nerdy.<\/rant><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pitching time came. Mic was on, presentation remote in hand, I glanced at the two monitors in front of me and the timers started counting down.<\/p>\n

For a moment, I was frozen, paralysed<\/strong> by an irrational fear that the pitch wouldn\u2019t be good enough, that I would drop the ball and the whole world would see through the ruse and find out that I\u2019m just an ordinary guy with a computer and some ideas.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t feel<\/strong> like the guys you see in Silicon Valley (not the TV show<\/a>), at the very bleeding-edge of innovation, able to confidently defend any decision they\u2019ve made in their products or companies.<\/p>\n

Was it Imposter Syndrome? Or were we really just lying to ourselves? Here we were with some elegant pitch decks, a gorgeous front-facing site and dirty, hacked-together PHP<\/strong> prototype of the product and between us, about less than a year of real market research experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wondered if even I would believe my own pitch.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t matter. Mercy stood beside me and delivered the intro and we were already 20 seconds into the pitch, I didn\u2019t have anymore time to think\u200a\u2014\u200aI just went into autopilot and pitched my ass off.<\/p>\n

It was beautiful. The audience was engaged, we had captured their attention. We ran through the slides like clockwork and completed the pitch with seconds to spare.<\/p>\n

Applause.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They were actually impressed! I was surprised, but at the same time elated because this was validation<\/strong>. Before I could even begin to relax and pat myself on the back, the questions came. We were standing in front of about 5 expert judges who started firing hard.<\/p>\n

Again for a moment, I wondered whether this was it. And yet again, we handled their questions with ease.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As we walked off the stage, it hit me. Maybe we\u2019re just as good, if not better than those Valley founders we adored so much.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<rant>I just wonder why I didn\u2019t see it then. Was it because there weren\u2019t enough of our own examples to look up to? Where is our Zuckerburg, Africa?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I opened my email a few days ago to read the Index Newsletter. RackSpace just got acquired for an amount equivalent to my country\u2019s GDP<\/a>. One of our old competitors just raised a million dollars which is great, but I\u2019m just not sure whether that\u2019s supposed to inspire me or discourage me.<\/rant><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/figure>\n

A few hours elapsed. It was a pitching competition, so a winner needed<\/strong> to be declared. From the reactions on social media, I honestly thought we\u2019d won our category.<\/p>\n

I tensely walked up to the stage hoping it was true. A victory here would be massive for our exposure, considering that we were looking for strategic partnerships and not money like most other startups pitching. Erik Hersman stood with the results in hand, the winner of Pivot East 2015 Enterprise Category was\u2026 DumaWorks!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I felt shock for a moment, then disappointment. I stood there visibly defeated as Allan Matata walked up to claim the prize that was seconds away from our hands.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo credit: Pivot East Media\u00a0Team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had lost, and losing\u00a0sucks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DumaWorks did deserve the win though. They had an excellent product, a fantastic team and plenty of traction. On top of that Allan gave an incredible pitch, and ours wasn\u2019t too bad, but theirs was better.<\/p>\n

Competition in the tech startup scene is intense\u200a\u2014\u200athere\u2019s no other way to describe it.<\/p>\n

The biggest lesson I learned that day was about confidence. That no matter what you\u2019re pitching, no matter who you\u2019re pitching to, you\u2019re likely to feel some<\/strong> degree of self-doubt. Never let it\u00a0win.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

#2: Hubris<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Should have Googled this\u00a0sooner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One question that keeps me up at night somedays is how the hell I thought we could build a market research startup without a founder who has at least several years of industry experience?<\/p>\n

I think I greatly overestimated my ability in that scenario.<\/p>\n

The funny thing about knowledge is that you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know until you actually know\u00a0it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My philosophy to startup building these days is to always approach a situation with a rookie mindset<\/strong>. There is something new to be learned about everything, everyday.<\/p>\n

This really dawned on me in a meeting with a big market research firm that was considering using our services. They emailed us a really complicated excel sheet with their requirements and I couldn\u2019t make sense of it. I mean how hard can it be to just build a survey and deploy? I was wrong.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much more that goes into market research than just data collection and analysis. If I\u2019d known this months before we started building, we\u2019d have built a totally different product and approached the market in a completely different way.<\/p>\n

#3: Consistency<\/h3>\n

Some days I wake up feeling like the best technology entrepreneur on the continent, other days I just want to sit down, eat bacon and play Fallout 4.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, I have an obligation to my customers and my team to deliver on what they need for the company to be successful. Being a startup founder is really exciting, when you\u2019re travelling all over the continent, pitching, raising money, watching metric graphs grow and just generally winning like a boss<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Some days, you\u2019re just sitting down reading through customer support emails dealing with irate users who don\u2019t understand that the thing is broken and it\u2019s not really your fault.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dude, I know. I\u2019m working on\u00a0it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other days, you\u2019re with a pen and paper and a scientific calculator still trying to figure out how to record certain expenses, so that you can send your investors the financial position update that you promised them yesterday.<\/p>\n

Most days in a startup are pretty underwhelming, but all of these days are just as important. Wrapping my head around this has been a big challenge, but I\u2019m getting the hang of it now.<\/p>\n

Trying to do these more frequently, aiming for a new post every two weeks but it\u2019s always an emotional journey having to revisit these experiences.<\/p>\n

Some days were good days, but most days were hard\u00a0days.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I appreciate all the fantastic feedback on my last post, and I\u2019ve learned so much from all of you.<\/p>\n

Till next time!<\/p>\n

(A note of thanks <\/strong>to my new friend Opeoluwa Oyewole<\/a> who has generously donated some of her time to helping me edit this post. If the grammar on this is on point, you have her to thank.)<\/p>\n

If you liked this post, please click the little green heart icon to recommend it so others can find it too\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions or comments are more than welcome and if you want to have a chat, I\u2019m available on <\/em>email<\/em><\/a> (yes it works), <\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Snapchat<\/em><\/a>. I do my best to respond to everyone.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 7<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Sometimes I\u2019m the biggest impediment to my own progress. Three weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences as a tech entrepreneur in Africa. I had told my friends that I\u2019d write a second post if I got 15+ recommends. I didn\u2019t really expect it to be \u201cgood enough\u201d to go viral, but that article now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3,11,19,24,25],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-africa","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-mobile","tag-startup","tag-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiza.jalaka.si\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}