I read “Stop looking for the next Zuckerberg in Africa. Mark wouldn’t last a day in here…” by Sadibou SOW which is a must read for every one who knows the word startup and lives outside Africa (because everyone who has lived for a month in Africa already knows what he wrote about). I agree with him 100%. Here is my best part.
Building a business in most African countries is often a matter of life and death. Once you understand that, you realize that most African entrepreneurs don’t build things because it’s fun. They build companies so that they can eat. So that their families can eat.
Building a business in most African countries means not being able to rely on mentors, as they are too busy trying to stay in business.
It means not being able to rely on the laws to protect you from even slightly bigger companies since you can’t afford to sue anyone.
It means not being able to find funding, despite what all the tech blogs are reporting (our very own AfriqueITNews included).
It means not being able to rely on talent since it is either too expensive, safely ensconced outside of the continent or working for some useless NGO.
It means dealing with international companies lurking around to do better than you once your market becomes mature enough.
It means not having access to decision-makers because they spend most of their time in Europe… I could go on all day.
As someone trying to build my own startup in Cameroon I will like to use my case to provide just what I think he has missed in his solid article — an example. I will tie statements he made to my startups case.
“It means not being able to rely on the laws to protect you from even slightly bigger companies since you can’t afford to sue anyone.”
While trying to register our startup, we needed to get a lawyer to create an article of association. We were unable to pay the fees demanded by the lawyer as they were more than half the cost of out rents for half the year (more on rents below) and were advised to get a law student to create it for us. This is not necessarily a law suit but if we could not afford a day of the lawyers time to create this document can we ever afford suing anyone or worse survive someone suing us?. Even if some one stole all of my code and created a startup with the same name as mine the only solution to solving this is a discussion or a fight but not court.
“It means not being able to find funding, despite what all the tech blogs are reporting”
My startup needed a space where all three of us could work so we got the cheapest vacant room we could find in my town — Buea. It cost XAF 160,000 (USD 320) for a whole year. Though the rents are that small am the only one in my tech circle with “an office”. We had to save part of what ever small cash we made for about 3 months to get it. Trust me when I say we could not get an investment of USD 500 just to pay rents that small. You might be thinking “why don’t you guys work from a tech hub?”. Well there is just one tech hub in Cameroon and am fortunate to be in the same city as one of its branches but transport from my home to their space considering I work from Monday to Friday is already three quarters of my startup’s office rents. Add the transport for my other partners and you get the picture.
There are also not even up to a handful “angel investors” and “tech hubs/accelerators” in Cameroon. Noticed the quotes? That’s because they should be actually called event speakers and co-working spaces respectively.
“It means not being able to rely on talent since it is either too expensive, safely ensconced outside of the continent or working for some useless NGO.”
I can’t talk on this without pissing off some friends so I will just ask you to take a leap of faith and believe me that every part of the above statement is true.
“It means dealing with international companies lurking around to do better than you once your market becomes mature enough.”
If my startup fails I may have to work with one of this international companies so I don’t want to ruin future prospects. Take that as another problem.
“It means not having access to decision-makers because they spend most of their time in Europe”
Since I was born, I have never sat close to, walked by or shook the hand of the president, the prime minister, a minister, a governor, a member of parliament, etc. Doing any of this is almost an achievement worthy of being on my CV.
I got more issues I could talk on ranging from the massive corruption, ageism, nepotism and my observation that many Cameroonians and other Africans I have met generally feel inferior in their interactions with whites but I will stick to just adding to the points Sadibou SOW made and talk on those later.
Well there you have it. You got your own case to share? There is a comments section.
