A Year Of Great African Tech Conversations

And so the African Tech Round-up’s First Birthday Celebration continues…

Over the past year, our sister podcast, African Tech Conversations, has featured relaxed in-depth chats with leading entrepreneurs, innovators and thought-leaders from Africa’s tech scene. In place of this week’s discussion on the African Tech Round-up, we’re sharing memorable moments from the series.

In this episode, you can look forward to hearing candid bits and insights courtesy of Mteto Nyathi, Alan Knott-Craig Jr, Matsi Modise, Ashley Veasey, Justin Spratt and Trevor Wolfe. We obviously couldn’t share snippets from every conversation we had, but you’re welcome to listen to every single one of them in their entirety at conversations.africantechroundup.com

By the way, Happy Birthday to my homeland— Zimbabwe!

First published on AfricanTechRoundup.com

What Are You Going To Do When They Come For You?

Think back to high school. Remember how the new dude always got all the girls whispering, or how the new girl got all the boys trying to walk her home? Now, if the newbie rolled into town with discernible signs of affluence (i.e. dope clothes, or an expensive scent), the singles market would get particularly frenzied. And when the newbie possessed a hint of exoticism (i.e. a foreign accent, or an unusual taste in music), even the kids involved in some of the most stable couplings might start feeling the pressure to reevaluate their options.

In this week’s African Tech Roundup, Tefo Mohapi and I discuss the pressure African tech startups are feeling in the face of local markets being invaded by experienced and well-resourced foreign-based interests. Local incumbents in many sectors of tech now find themselves fielding competition from abroad. In everything from venture capital investment to mobile money solutions, media streaming platforms and e-commerce solutions, the race to dominate is well and truly on.

In the light of all this, I pose a simple question, “What are you going to do when they come for you?”

This week’s episode will feature some insights from Nubi Kayode that may help us all find confident answers to that question. Nubi is a Nigerian Business Analyst at Accenture Ireland, and Managing Partner at DevShackAlpha.co.  He co-founded EasyAppetite.com— Nigeria’s first online takeaway site in 2012, and managed to survive railroading attempts by foreign-backed competition, and set himself up to make a successful exit in 2014 when his company was acquired by CityChops.

Be sure to catch all the week’s most important digital, tech and  innovation news from across the African continent:

• Find out about a Zimbabwean high school dropout who’s built an electric powered vehicle and a hybrid helicopter,
• Discover which two foreign money transfer firms have teamed up and become the latest to launch into Africa,
• Learn more about Kenya’s admirable obsession with building their own laptops,
• Hear what you can do to extend the runway for struggling Cameroonian startup, KwiiziBox, and
• Get the low-low on a South African-based video-on-demand platform that is calling it a day.

Finding Your Voice With SiMODiSA Managing Director Matsi Modise

By her own admission, Matsi Modise, does not look a day over 25. But you would do well not to underestimate this 30-year-old executive who has recently been appointed Managing Director of SiMODiSA — a South African industry-led initiative launched to address the hurdles faced by small and medium-sized enterprises and startups.

Formerly the National Executive Director of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum, Matsi is an avid entrepreneurship activist and a successful entrepreneur in her own right — having co-founded the business development advisory firm, Emerge Ltd.

In this conversation, Matsi spoke to me about about finding her voice, and not being afraid to use it to advocate for causes she cares about. No doubt, it is her affinity for engaging in meaningful dialogue that has led to her being inducted as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and appointed the South African Chapter Head of the Pan-African Foundation, Africa 2.0.

I am willing to bet that this bright, millennial upstart will continue to help keep the African startup eco-system’s fires burning.