Its Time to Start Sharing Data
A Tale of Two African Cities
Two weeks ago I hosted a dinner in Nairobi for entrepreneurs to talk about their local tech ecosystem and share feedback on their experiences building companies and interacting with investors. Three days later I followed it up with a round of coffees with entrepreneurs and investors on the other side of the continent in Lagos, Nigeria, often asking the same questions.
One thing that struck me at the Nairobi dinner was a sense of frustration. A number of entrepreneurs expressed feeling isolated — from each other, from investors who were distant, unhelpful or preoccupied with a Western impact investor agenda, or from any data about what else was happening in their market.
A few of the more successful entrepreneurs in the room shared their stories on how they had made it, and how they had suffered, often alone, along the way.
Over the past 3 years, Nairobi and Lagos have emerged as the two most important ecosystems for tech investing in Africa, outside of South Africa.
While the vibe of my coffees in Lagos was decidedly more upbeat (thanks Cafe Neo!), they coincided with a post last week by Nigerian investor and entrepreneur Ngozi Dozi who expressed a similar sense of isolation from, and longing for, data and peer learnings following the revelation of African ecommerce leader Konga’s disappointing numbers last month.
In his post Ngozi describes how when meeting with investors, he often clings to every tidbit of new information they share:
The saddest part for me is that whilst we internally don’t know our numbers, all the foreign investors do. So when I am pitching foreign investors, I am also thrilled when they throw me little scraps of data..”
Even though I sit thousands of miles away from the African continent in San Francisco, as an active investor in African startups, I have access to lots of companies’ data, often more than entrepreneurs who are working in the same building or down the street from each other. As Ngozi points out, while entrepreneurs will share data with me on the hopes of being funded or getting advice and feedback, they often refuse, or don’t bother, to share with each other or with the media. I’m not sure whether this stems from fear of competition, pride, or perhaps embarrassment at the struggles they are going through, but it does seem a bit different from Silicon Valley where the tech press and entrepreneurial support/social groups are a critical part of the community.
What was encouraging to see was Lagosian tech bloggers and entrepreneurs immediately dissecting the Konga data and sharing their own approach to data cleansing and market sizing. This public call hosted by TechCabal and 3 leading Nigerian entrepreneurs was a great example.
While I can’t share most of the data I collect from companies (I don’t sign NDAs but in venture capital my reputation is my calling card), I can share learnings I see from across ecosystems. And I can and do often share what I’ve learned from watching the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem mature over the past ten years into a vibrant tech scene. The book the GoldenTap by Kashyap Deorah does a great job of summarizing that history. It should be required reading for tech entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
So while it is up to local entrepreneurs to decide how much and what to share, I want to kick this blog off by encouraging African entrepreneurs — Nairobi-based or otherwise — to tell their story here on Medium or in their local tech press, and pass along lessons for those who come after them.
Thanks to all those who joined me for that Saturday night dinner at Mama Ashanti: Isis Nyong’o from MumsVillage who helped co-host, Agosta Liko from PesaPal, Leo Mutuku from Intelipro, Conrad Akunga from Innova, Jessica Colaço and Ibanga Umanah from Brave Venture Labs, Wangechi Mwangi from Valuraha, Phares Kariuki from Node Africa, Peris Bosire of FarmDrive and Timbo Drayson from OkHi. I appreciated your open dialogue and honest feedback.
