The Surgeon’s Knives
What’s A Scalpel Got To Do With The African Startup Ecosystem? 🤔
Background
I’ve been under the surgeon’s knife twice this year. First in late March, second in early September. Both involved being knocked out cold (under anaesthesia), and then waking back up to reality after a few hours. I’ll save the details of the specific medical condition for another date, but suffice to say that the personal net economic loss was significant. Also, in the 16-week net post-op recovery period, I had a lot of time to think. What if I had died? What if I didn’t die, but slid into a coma and didn’t regain consciousness for the next few months? What if, after being discharged successfully, I developed complications which required a significant proportion of my productive time to manage? What if #3 … ? What if #4 … ? **sigh**
“Long story short, I’ve become very aware of my own mortality”
The Problem
Having offered some form of coaching, mentoring or advisory to 500+ founders and ideators at various stages of their innovations since 2017 (some of them entrepreneurs building startups and others intrapreneurs in corporates building in-house corporate-innovation solutions), I’ve observed that a large proportion of the founders who are launching startups nowadays (across and beyond Africa, as well as within and outside the frameworks of the formal incubators and accelerators) are missing out on some basic startup-building concepts that, if understood prior, would raise the bar on the general quality of ideas being put forward and eliminate the need to ask certain questions in the first place. My opinion — which I’ve often shared — is that the sorely-needed upgrade in standard of living across the African continent is not going to be led by the public sector (as our parents’ generation believed), but by the private sector (as brave, young, ambitious individuals volunteer to fix observed frictions by launching startups across various sectors, from finance to healthcare, education, transportation, immigration, and so on). In the process, some of these young tycoons will become billionaires, but more importantly, they will address many of the problems facing African societies today. This is the reason why the recent proliferation of entrepreneurship-support organizations (including but not limited to incubators, accelerators, angel investor groups and venture-capital firms such as the Founder Institute, Impact Hub, VC4Africa, Startup Wise Guys, AfriLabs, ISN, ABAN, Get Funded Africa, Pacer VC and others) across the continent is a very welcome development.
“I’ve observed that a large proportion of the founders who are launching startups nowadays are missing out on some basic startup-building concepts that, if understood prior, would raise the bar on the general quality of ideas being put forward and eliminate the need to ask certain questions in the first place”
Hmmm… 🤔
Observing also that I’ve often had to repeat explanations of the same core startup-building concepts to founders in many different, private, 1-on-1 sessions (across Lagos, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Cape Town, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, and other cities), I’m convinced of the acuteness of this need, its relevance across geographies, and the sense of urgency with which it needs to be addressed. Which leads me back to the earlier point about mortality. My singular mission on earth right now is to raise the bar on the cognitive sophistication of the average African founder. Working toward this singular purpose in the coming year, I’d like to see a marked increase when I take another measure of this cognitive sophistication across the continent by 31 December 2022.
“I’m convinced of the acuteness of this need, its relevance across geographies, and the sense of urgency with which it needs to be addressed”
“My singular mission on earth right now is to raise the bar on the cognitive sophistication of the average African founder”
What are these concepts?
- (Good old) Value Proposition Design:
a) Techniques for evaluating candidate ideas against tried-and-tested criteria in order to justify further investment of time, energy and money; - Business Model Design:
a) Techniques for simulating an operational model around a particular idea in order to see — early on — the degree to which it may (or may not) be economically viable; - Problem/Solution Fit:
a) Techniques for evaluating the degree of fit between the details of a stated value proposition and the details of the problem it seeks to address.
b) This last one sounds simple, right? Well, I guess so, at least until you’re the one explaining your solution to a seasoned angel investor. 🤦🏾♂️
Of course, there’s more: Business-Value Prioritization, Co-Founder Fit, Team-Market Fit, Product-Market Fit, Market Sizing, Competitive Mapping, and many more. See the trend? Yes, they’re basic concepts, but by my observation, they’re not universally understood. And if we really intend to build lasting startups continent wide, then founders need to understand them at scale. The status quo where a tiny minority of African founders who successfully get enrolled into reputable accelerators get tuition on majority of these topics is unsustainable. We need to educate these brave, ambitious founders at scale. I shared a similar sentiment here in a previous article.
“If we really intend to build lasting startups continent wide, then founders need to understand these concepts at scale. We need to educate these brave, young, ambitious founders at scale”
Is this really necessary?
Between 01 January and 30 December 2021, ~$5b total startup capital flowed into Africa. This is a really big deal because — even though we’re still very far off by global benchmarks — this $5b is twice the $2.5b combined startup capital we raised as a continent in 2019 and 2020. While there’s been a lot of euphoria around this development, I believe that there are strong positive correlations between our collective cognitive sophistication in this area and: (i) startup endurance (the probability of our startups surviving beyond 5 years), and (ii) the general degree of investor confidence in our startups. Am I saying that no founder on the African continent understands these concepts? No. I’m saying that the majority of founders on the African continent do not understand the majority of these concepts. I’m also saying that as we are poised to see increased investor confidence over the next few years (even surpassing the current 2021 $5b gross figure), we need to do better collectively on the cognitive scale. So this is my hypothesis: if we can raise the cognitive sophistication bar on the continent even higher (i.e. if we can ensure that the critical mass — say 70% — of startup founders understand these concepts), we will see a corresponding marked and sustained increase in both startup endurance (survivability beyond 5 years) and investor confidence.
“If we can raise the cognitive sophistication bar on the continent even higher (i.e. if we can ensure that the critical mass — say 70% — of startup founders understand these concepts), we will see a corresponding marked and sustained increase in both startup endurance and investor confidence”
Why me? Why now?
I opened with the story about the surgical procedures because my answer to those early questions was a chilling “You’d have died and all that knowledge would’ve evaporated with you, despite that hundreds — if not thousands — of young, ambitious founders need these nuggets. And the status quo would’ve remained continent wide, at least until another person similarly-equipped gets inspired. This is your quota, your contribution, your offering into the multi-sided effort from many people across the continent who are working hard to change the African narrative”.
“This is your quota, your contribution, your offering into the multi-sided effort from many people across the continent who are working hard to change the African narrative”
So where does this all lead?
My over-arching goal is to raise the bar on the minimum cognitive sophistication of the average person who desires to launch a startup in Africa. I’d be the happiest man alive if, from 01 January 2023 (a year from now), I start to observe in our private 1-on-1 coaching sessions that the majority of founders no longer ask questions that reveal an insufficient understanding of these basic startup-building concepts. Let’s raise this bar. Let majority of our conversations be about advanced startup-building topics. Let’s talk about Strategy Mapping, Investor Communication, Theory of Change, Business-Model Fit, Growth Hacking, Magic 16, Traction Roadmap, Perception Demand, Value Chains and Smiling Curves, etc.
This is doable, and everything we require to do this is available right now. Hence.
My team and I will soon announce a mix of initiatives which will be the avenues for implementing this. I am also fully aware of the disposable income of the average African founder, so most of these things (if not all) will be free (my team will have my head when they read this part 😄 ).
“I’d be the happiest man alive if, from 01 January 2023 (a year from now), I start to observe in our private 1-on-1 coaching sessions that the majority of founders no longer ask questions that reveal an insufficient understanding of these basic startup-building concepts …”
Finally
If I could summarize all my personal lessons of 2021 into one word, it’d be mortality. I’ve never really paid serious attention to mortality, but I was forced to do so multiple times during the course of this year.
Since immortality is essentially legacy, one interesting way I’ve discovered to maintain the sense of urgency — and purpose — required to achieve immortality/legacy is to keep its inverse (mortality) close to mind.
Dear mentors, coaches, incubators, accelerators, investors (angels, VCs, family offices, etc) and other key players in the burgeoning African startup ecosystem, I need your help and will be calling. Please oblige 🙏🏾.
Thank you.
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Happy New Year.
