Buspreneur interview with Thomas Shaw

Thomas Shaw, an Australian by origin, has been working on the African continent for a few years now. Shaw has experience in building online marketplaces and technical expertise in operating them. While he has many ideas for how to use technology to solve local problems, Shaw is focused on mobile healthcare solutions.

1. Who are you? Describe yourself in 3 sentences.
   I am originally from Melbourne, Australia with a strong background in HR/Recruitment and IT. I have been working on a number of successful online marketplace projects across Africa for a few years now. From start-up to MVP to multi-million dollar funded businesses, all number 1 in their verticals.
2. What do you expect from your participation on the bus?
   StartupBus is a great opportunity to use the skills and experience I have gained over the years and apply them to real life problems in the South African region. It will be fantastic to work with like-minded individuals all striving to achieve the same goals.
3. Why Africa? Why now?
   Africa is a fantastic, vibrant and rapidly evolving continent. I love it. You only have to look at the statistics on GDP, mobile penetration, increase in disposable income, uptake of mobile money registrations and business growth. Over the past 3 years, I have spent more than 12 months on the ground gaining first hand experience in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa.
4. What is your area of expertise — mobile development, healthcare, or the energy sector? Please talk a little bit about how you gained this expertise.
   I have a strong skill set in building online marketplaces and technical expertise in the full operation of them including programming, product development, infrastructure architecture and security operations.
   I gained my experience in Australia working in HR, IT recruitment and then moved into Recruitment software and online Job Boards. Over the past few years I used that knowledge to build the number 1 online car classifieds and job board businesses in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana.
5. Please share an idea for a technology (mobile, health, energy) that can solve a problem/s local to the South African region.
   My head is full of ideas, but I believe mobile and phone-to-phone business to be a key part of the future. I would like to focus on mobile healthcare solutions that can directly impact users’ lives.
6. Everyone has a special story. What is yours?
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7. Are you sponsoring yourself or do you have sponsors? Please tell us about your sponsors.
   I am fortunate enough to be sponsored by a number of private investors based in Australia.