Techbiz Webinar – Unlocking Startup Potential: Strategies for Scaling and Driving Expansion
hello good afternoon
everyone um what’s
upen the team do you see me
yes sir we can see you and we can hear
you clearly okay great um I think um
okay maybe it’s from my end I just don’t
see the spotlight in here um good good
afternoon everyone and welcome to techb
um for this episode this is the 109th
episode of techb and it’s a pleasure to
have everyone of you on the call once
again thank you so much for keeping a
date with us um every last thought of
the month uh we try to come together to
discuss the business of of of technology
and um it’s it’s it’s a pleasure to be
bringing this again to you from the
stable of equ Innovation Center an
innovation and acceleration center
located here in aul 50 a road uh with a
mission to help uh provide the necessary
handholding and support uh the startups
need to be able to scale and
commercialize their Ventures and and E
innovation has done this over the years
and one of these platform we use to do
this is techb where we bring subject
matter experts um every Thursday to come
to speak to us um about different um
areas and different the topics that are
relevant to people in the ecosystems and
to Startup Founders and and Tech
Enthusiast and we’ve dealt in the past
eight episodes about different um topics
and we’ spoken about different uh very
crucial um Shar very crucial information
for startups that can help their journey
and their growth uh along the way
and um I mean we’ve spoken things about
how to use a business model canvas to
structure your business we we’ve had
sessions where we talked about how do
you have a term sheets how do you use
the term sheets when you’re talking
about investment Readiness what are the
things you need um when you need to
scale your business what what help do
you need how do you brand your business
and several other things um intellectual
property protection uh for startups
these and and many more are all the uh
topics we’ve talked about in the last
108 different um episodes of be that is
been handled by different subject matter
experts and should you want to see any
of this recording feel free my colleague
has dropped the link in the chat room
all you have to do is go to ww. eoi
Center for/ weinar and you will be able
to have access to 88 episodes of TBS on
on different topics and it promises to
uh be quite um insightful um and again
after that we do have a supporting
Community there’s a community where you
also can be able to join the Ted be
Nation uh which is a a combination of
community of people startups uh people
who want to uh be part of the techb
community learn Beyond just what we see
on every Thursday where we have
Enthusiast in there we have mentors we
have coaches and quite a lot of
information available so if you want to
be a part of this community that takes
this learning experience and this
support Beyond just one um a month uh
one hour engagement feel free I’m sure
my colleague has dropped a link to the
uh that takes you to the tech be Nation
where I and so many other so experts are
in that community and will provide the
right support for startups and and
Founders and of course today happens to
be another exciting day um every time I
have to host and and bring us Tech be
I’m always excited because again we’re
bringing toing from the world of
experience of so many subject expert
subject matter experts globally to come
share with us uh insights that that can
help us to be able to structure our
businesses and grow our businesses
better and today is another exciting one
where we’re looking at unlocking of
potential and and I think this is quite
important whether the strategies for
scaling and expansion uh and there’s no
other time that this is more pertinent
um where we see that most of of of the
time and we look at many of the startups
espcially different parts of Africa
we’re dealing with necessity
entrepreneurs that are struggling with
scaling up as struggling with how to
take their business to the next level
and how to have business expansion um
and this what we will be talking about
today and and we have a subject matter
expert from East Africa that will be
speaking to us and again um arguably you
know I’m sure along the line we have
this conversation about the ecosystem in
this country it’s coming all the way
from Nairobi Kenya and Nigeria again it
would be nice to have that conversation
about which of them is more exciting
which of them um but again they’ve done
tremendous work in the ecosystem huge
things around um you know Financial
inclusion and all that and it’s good to
be learning from from somebody who’s
been at the heat of the action um our
facilitator today great great person is
a global expansion at advisor at work
and play Foundation of romal Ventures
okay he is a problem solver who tries on
Innovation and growth and again this is
what tech is about I’m sure you know
that’s the core of what e Innovation is
about it’s about Innovation about growth
about scaling and he excels is on
covering integrate details to craft
solutions that addresses challenges uh
or capitalize on new ones on New
Opportunities he’s fed by strong passion
for continuous learning um and he’s got
a diverse background in the startup
ecosystem uh and so we we have somebody
who is heart and pastor of the system
who is thrived who is skilled uh and who
will be speaking with us today and it’s
great very Global Experience from from
his work where he’s G experience as both
a Founder sales consultant for various
startups across uh emia and North
American region uh his professional
Journey has been characterized by
constant exploration learning and
exploration of translating insight into
tangible results uh he possesses a deep
understanding of business Dynamics and
adep navigates Global challenges have
having worked across diverse
geographical locations of course like I
said Home Country Nairobi he’s worked in
there he’s worked in Berlin in Germany
he’s worked in London in England in the
UK uh and so he brings a very rich uh
experience of what the startup ecosystem
is across different geographical spread
um he has U an MBA from Nord University
he has his first degree from Jim Kenyata
University of Baran technology in Kenya
and and to a large extent he’s won in my
opinion of the ecosystem leaders that we
have today um he will be taking us
through unlocking startup potential for
scaling and driving expansion ladies and
gentlemen join me in welcoming Melvin
Malanga as it comes to take us through
for share his slid and take us for the
next 35 to 40 minutes um about ways and
strategies and means for which we can be
able to scale our startups Melvin thank
you for being uh on the platform this
evening and it’s great to have you in
here thank you Victor I’m really with
your introduction um I can’t say more
you really detail in terms of
introduction pleasure to be here happy
to be here to share and maybe to get to
understand also more about your
ecosystem thank you very much you have
the floor now thank you I’ll step aside
before I take the floor no problem let
me share my screen please let me know if
you can see my screen before I
continue can you be able to see my
screen
yes we
can okay great yeah so uh like Victor’s
mentioned so my name is Melvin Malanga
and um basically my background is in uh
startups I’ve been in the ecosystem of
startups as both an operator and also as
a Founder for over the last uh seven
years I’ve been in several markets I’ve
been in the European market the North
American market and also the African
market and um I have a v experience as a
person who has buil a startup and also a
person who has worked in startups most
specifically in sales and today uh the
Topic’s really interesting uhling
startup potential uh strategies for
scaling and driving expansion in Africa
and this is something that I really take
it to hard because currently I’m working
in two startups one in which I’m a
founder and one in which I work as an
expansion advisor so the one that I work
as an exp advisor is called work pay and
basically what we do is that we help
compan
to be able to expand into new markets
whereby we help them to be able to set
up entities in New Markets without being
able to register an entity that is
something we’ll talk about later and
also uh for my own uh setup that I
founded called ROM ventes will help
companies to be able to scale their
revenue basically more specifically uh
to do with sales we’ll touch more on it
as we move forward with the with the
with my presentation um so uh regarding
unlocking um setup potential we’re going
to go through several things that we’ll
discuss this I just like to go through
our agenda to let you know and
understand what is going to be about so
basically we’re going to see and
understand how the ecosystem is
currently uh what are the new current um
trending topics or trending events or
trending things that people are doing
differently and then also things to do
with growth and also challenges that
setups are facing currently then we’ll
go into the strategy of how to be able
to scale so we look into market research
we look into um achieving a product
Market feed which is very important uh
we’ll also look into accessing funding
uh Talent acquisition and also uh
strategic uh Partnerships uh which
really make sure that now as a startup
you don’t uh just stand alone but you’re
able to stand up with other startups in
the ecosystem or other key players in
the ecosystem to make sure that you’re
able
to be able to operate well and then the
other thing maybe later on we’ll be able
to discuss um things to do with EOS the
ecosystem itself basically people who
are helping in acceleration so the
government incubators and also the VCS
and then after that we can be able to
have um our question and answer session
whereby I’ll be able to answer several
questions that you may be having so just
feel free if you have any questions you
can put it on the chat I think one of
our moderators will be able to just
ensure that I can be able to get any
questions that you have as we move
forward uh so to jump in I’d like to
start by um talking about uh the current
situation with startups in Africa so
there’s several things that are
happening in the African setup and
basically the global setup in terms of
the new trends I like to start by
talking about um what the startups have
had so in the last um I think two years
late 2021 up to uh a late 2023 we’ve
been having something called the VC
winter
and I’ll talk about it later also when
we talk about Venture Capital but the VC
wi is
whereby there was little access to uh
venture capital or to fund for startups
in um the global setup because of the
trends that were happening there was a
war that was there there was covid and
this led to funding not being able to
easily this led up to um several
startups being closed down because they
couldn’t access funding and uh other
Founders had to look for ways to adapt
because at the end of the day that is
why you’re a startup you need to be able
to adapt to challenges that are coming
in the other thing that has come in that
is trending currently is to do with the
blockchain technology which is really
revolutionizing how things are being
done especially when it comes to um
fintech I will also touch on it later
the other thing that is also interesting
in terms of the current things that are
happening is the green economy or things
to do with sustainability so startups
are also playing that role of where they
want to make sure that we are also
conserving our environment in as much as
in you’re here looking for profit trying
to change things operate it’s very
important also that we are able to
understand that uh this is the only
environment that we have so it’s very
important we operate in a way that we
able to conserve that environment the
other thing that is happening right now
is to do with um collaboration in the
system whereby we have several um we
have several key players that are coming
in and also locally and internationally
who are coming into the ecosystem to
make sure that uh they’re able to
support startups to be able to build
better uh we’ll also touch on that and
get to see uh the types of ecosystem
that you’re having and also who is able
to help us now in terms of the trends
itself there are three sorry four
markets that are very big in Africa
currently right now when it comes to
startups and they are strategically
positioned uh depending on where you are
so in the western African region and
Nigeria is really standing out in terms
of being a key player when it comes to
startups and then when it comes to the
uh North America sorry North Africa
region uh we have Egypt and then the
East African region we have Kenya um
then in the southern African area we
have uh South Africa as the big uh
player there and then regarding the
growth Trends and opportunities that are
happening currently right now we have um
a growing consumer Market
uh this is due to the growth in
population in Africa and also due to uh
increase in uh disposable income so
there’s a lot of jobs a lot of people
who are getting a lot of money our
middle our middle class is growing and
basically that is leading up to uh our
economies being better and basically
there’s a growth opportunity for people
who have great ideas that can be able to
help people to solve their problems so
this is really helping in terms of
making sure that we’re able to grow
better the other thing that is helping
is also increase in digital and mobile
access uh right now uh several countries
have increased strategically I look at
uh I’ll talk about one for a minute
because um in terms of access to mobile
and also access to digital um uh
accessibility uh it has been one of the
countries that has really stood up
because uh in the last three years
they’ve been able to increase the
accessibility to mobiles by around 60%
which is really a game changer imagine
if you a startup in um Randa that is an
open market whereby you can take
advantage of that so that is also
something that we really need to
understand and get to know that uh that
is a good opportunity for us to take
advantage of the other thing is that uh
I’ve already mentioned this but right
now the key thing that is happening is
that we have a lot of um Tech hubs
incubators basically people coming in to
support the ecosystem not necessarily as
VCS V Capital but just as ecosystem
enablers and also this is really helping
in terms of making sure that we have the
right people coming up because they help
in three ways one help you in terms of
building your skills two help you get
operators basically this is talent that
comes in into the into the startup
ecosystem whereby they can be able to be
employed into the um startup that are
existing right now able to see how they
can work better and then also the third
thing is that they’re able to help you
with networking to know who is also
working out there that you can be able
to collaborate with so these are the key
things that are very important right now
in terms of the and opportunities now
challenges that are facing the region or
challeng that are facing startups right
now ad menion already access to Capital
so um with access to Capital I mentioned
the VC winter whereby it is almost like
60% of the uh the VC funding that was
coming into Africa in 2021 was cut down
in 2022 so people had to really look out
for other ways to survive in terms of
how startups be able to because you see
our funding has become had become a
Lifeline of startups so people had to
look inside inwardly whereby they can be
able to now generate their own Revenue
through selling to be able to survive
because a lot of startups were closed
because of um lack of funding at that
time other challenge we have currently
is also to do with infrastructure um uh
there’s infrastructure deficit in
different countries uh we have things to
do with electricity uh we have
challenges to do with just basic uh uh
Road road map to help with Logistics and
also we have challenges to do with um
just the gadgets themselves to work with
so those are things that really are
challenging startups right now but the
good thing about being a founder and
being in the startup ecosystem the most
important thing is that we are supposed
to adapt and be able to come up with key
ways of a being able to survive and
being able to create new options people
which is a good thing the other thing
that is a challenge right now um is
regulatory barriers especially when you
have got to your product Market feed and
now you’ve captured your local market
where you are founded and you want to
move into other um markets basically
other countries uh so let’s say uh
startup in Nigeria wanting to move to
Kenya wanting to move to Ghana wanting
to move to South Africa there are
several regulatory barriers that are
really challenging with that and I also
mention how um later on how work pay uh
like I’ve said I’m an expansion adviser
at work pay uh how we can be able to
help you in terms of doing the same but
that is a big challenge right now there
also a challenge with Talent acquisition
which is really key because if you don’t
have a right team to work with uh if you
don’t have the right people to support
you to support your idea come in and
give you the right advice give you the
right feedback it becomes a challenge
for you to be able to move forward
because at the end of the day uh they
say it’s uh you are who you are with so
basically your team matters so it’s very
important to have the right people in
terms of the talent that you are
acquiring the people you’re working with
and the people that you’re pushing your
product out here it’s a big because you
really need to make sure that uh when
you’re hiring you’re hiring the right
people and hiring the right people is
not easy it’s a it’s a it’s a test
something you need to test over time
able to perfect something you can just
come out be able to work with there’s a
big challenge in terms of what we are
having uh to face our startups the other
thing is Market fragmentation so there
are very many factors that affect Market
get in terms of the fragmentation so
there’s the instability of the currency
there’s just instability of the market
itself there’s political instability and
so many other factors that affect um the
ecosystem in Africa to be able to make
sure that uh we are facing these
challenges but like we say again
startups in Africa are resilient we are
able to adapt with these challenges the
other thing is to do with access to
networks and uh support service this has
been a challenge for a while but like
I’ve also mentioned right now we have um
a lot of ecosystem builders that are
coming in so Tech hubs and incubators
that are really building and I’d like to
shout out to just Echo um you guys um uh
Echo innovators for being able to have
this because this is one of the ways of
being able to uh build startups
basically because they able to access
knowledge they’re able to access um
networks they’re able to access new ways
of doing things and you never know you
might even get an idea here of how to
build your own startup so those are
things that be able uh to do but those
are the challenges that startups face um
let me go to my next slide um so I’ll
talk about um factors that maybe affect
how you able to scale and um I like to
jump into one uh regarding market
research and validation so every startup
that has an idea anybody who wants to be
a Founder that wants to go out there and
has an idea in his head the most
important thing or the key thing to do
is to one do a research on your idea and
also try to validate it so you go about
this in several ways market research is
key because at the end of the day you
need to make sure that you’re putting
your effort putting your resources
you’re putting your money in an idea
that will work because remember there’s
time energy and resources are being put
into this so if you’re putting your
resources and into something that maybe
won’t last it will be very bad for you
in terms of just um you know being able
to succeed it’s key that you make sure
you have done your research well and
this research will be able to help you
in decision making in also trying to
know how to approach the market and also
trying to understand if this is
something for you so how is market
research done market research done is
done in two ways the secondary market
research and primary market research
primary market research is where you
deal directly with the consumer or some
potential consumer of your product so
you can do this through interviews you
can do this through questionnaires you
can do this through um
interaction with potential clients to
get to see what is there what challenges
they’re facing and is what you have
really a solution it’s quite important
that you get to understand this and uh
collecting data and analyzing that data
is what encompasses basically what
market so you collect this information
you able to analyze it and be able to
see uh if you can make a decision basing
on the same information now this will
help you in one deciding on where to put
your resources two in deciding on
whether the market is the right market
for you and three deciding whether you
should invest or not invest that is very
important the second part of the same is
now Market validation Market validation
is now whereby your idea is validated
it’s a potential idea so once you’ve
done your market research you’ve come up
with that you start experimenting with
different ideas come up and provide a a
product so from idea stage product stage
where you get a product Market Feit we
have a whole process that go you have to
go
whereby you have to bounce up ideas you
have to try and um solve problems and
see if this is something that really the
market needs basically does this solve
people’s problems do they really need
this or this is just a hobby for you so
that is where validation comes in
basically somebody’s willing to pay for
what you’re providing as a solution to
their problem and also they willing to
come back or they’re willing even to
tell other people about it and basically
the other thing is that you’re able to
get money from your idea so basically
the market is validating you this will
lead you to a next stage called now you
being able to get a most viable product
most viable product is basically a stage
of where you have a product that people
are paying for but it’s still itating
now that will lead you to the next stage
which is now called a product Market fit
product Market fit is whereby now you
have a product it can also be a service
but we use the term product Market fit
uh so basically you have something in
place whereby the market has accepted
they’re willing to pay for it and you
can repeated you can repeat it again so
you have one in place sales process
whereby you know how to approach the
market how to reach what you have and
people are willing to pay for it and you
can continuously add people who are able
to pay for it so that’s when you get to
the product Market fit product Market
fit is key because this is what now will
lead to the next stage of whereby you
able to scale so it’s very important you
have um um a community in place uh I
usually advise in community in place
whereby people are able to use your
product and be able to give you feedback
be able to iterate the same so that you
get a product Market fit now when you
mention product Market Feit sometimes
people usually assume now that you’ve
got in your product Market Feit nothing
else is going to change but product
Market Feit is a process whereby the the
the idea you have or the service you
have or the product you’re selling can
iterate depending on how the market
wants it basically it’s something that
you keep on pivoting As you move forward
because one you’ll get something that
they want right now but they’ll want
additional things to be Tweed into their
service or twed into your product so
it’s key it’s very important that you
are able to add these ideas to add these
requests that your clients have because
at the end of the day customer is um
King and it’s key to be able to get
their feedback from them now once you
have product Feit uh product Market Feit
sorry it’s very easy for you now to be
able to scale now once you uh it’s
advisable first of all to deal with your
local local Market in this this um
scenario I’m talking about the market of
where you are founding your company so
basically uh maybe Nigeria me here in
Kenya so make sure I conquer my country
I conquer my market first before I scale
to other places now coming up with a
scalable business model is something
really important because at the end of
the day scaling will determine whether
the company will grow the company will
die scaling is a very tricky process
whereby you’re bringing in new teams
you’re bringing in new people
into the company and you have to have a
model in place that really helps you in
terms of how you’re going to now at Dr
Ventures we help in terms of helping you
to come up with something that can be
able
to uh scale you basically a model so
depending on the service you have or
depending on the product you have and
depending on the market you want to go
to it’s very important for you to
understand what you need to put in place
what what what team members are
important so is it sales that is more
important is it the development team
that is more important what is the
customer success thing that is more
important because at the end of the day
it depends with the service or the
product that you’re selling out there
and also depends with how many people
are required to be able to make sure
that the system is running or the
product is produced in time so that you
can be able to make sure your CS are
happy it’s very important for you to put
a structure in place that can be
scalable basically you have an idea you
have a structure in place you have a
system in place that You’ implemented in
one place and you can move that to
another country and be able also to be
implemented in that country and being
able to scale also is very tricky now
let me just um step back and also talk
about what I mentioned earlier whereby
at work we are able to help you when it
comes to you being able to scale so
basically what we do is that uh we have
a service that is called uh employer of
Record Service this basically is a
service that helps you when you’re
looking to move into a new country and
you don’t want to register your entity
in that country the most important way
of moving into a new country is for you
to be able to jump into a new country
first test the waters to see if this um
this Market is really um a good market
for you and there’s nothing bad as
putting all your resources into doing
that that is quite tricky uh and it
might be challenging for you to do so it
might end up being frustrating so what
you do is that you test the waters and
the best way to test the waters is to
use the minimum resources you can and
what the provide the service provide is
that you can be able to register you can
be able to set up your team using the
entity work in that new market for a
certain period of time as you experiment
with the market and making sure that
this Market is for you now you can reg
your entity and set up everything that
is just something else that the other
thing that is important now is access to
funding and investment this is key uh
remember you’ve gotten your Market uh
your product Market fit you’re now
scaling and in scaling you’re building
new teams that means paying a lot of
people there’s a lot of need for you to
have funding right now because you’re
putting structures in place that mean
means money building a whole team that
means money so funding is very important
and right now we have two types of
funding that we have um currently
happening in the African ecosystem we
have local um VC companies that are
providing funding we have international
companies that are coming into the
African Market to provide funding and
then we have startups that are self
funding themselves basically they they
CH in um the revenue that I’ve gotten
to use it so organically they’re able to
grow so depending on how you are moving
it’s quite easy for you to decide uh
which one you’re going to go with the
part you’re going to go with but most
people are looking for external funding
and basically this means now you have to
start networking there are several uh
networking events there are several
ecosystems that provide uh vs who are
able you are able to go you have to go
to them to P your ideas and this means
one thing sorry two things one you need
to have a pitch deck in place and you
need to understand how to pitch uh it’s
very important uh to be able to know how
to express yourself it’s different to
sell your idea to your client to your
customer and to sell the same idea to a
VC it is not the same thing uh because
the VC looks at very different things
compared to when you’re selling this to
your client uh or a potential customer
so it’s very important to understand
what they’re looking for uh this uh
these investors or these venture capital
um capitalist sorry um it’s very
important to understand what are the
nuances that they look at and also how
should your deck look like because
sometimes you find that you’ll have a
deck that is to Wed you’ll have a deck
that is talking about the wrong things
you have a deck that is colorful but is
not really giving out the point very
important to understand what really
matters because you’ll find that uh you
might be able to reach to somebody in
one minute and they buy your idea you
might have one hour with somebody you’re
pitching but at the end of the day
you’re not successful so it’s very
important for
somebody going out there and wanting to
scale understand how to do that because
at the end of the day if you’re going to
go out and scale it’s very important for
you to know how you solicit or how you
get funding so it’s very important for
you to craft a good pitch deck and also
to be able to draft a good pit yourself
to be able to know how to express
yourself uh it’s very important for that
so you can do some training your own you
can do some uh research on the same on
how what is supposed to be done you can
look into your own ecosystem te look
into your own networks can be able to
help you with that that is key the other
thing that we also mentioned previously
that was a challenge is also Talent
acquisition and talent development uh
this is key especially when you’re
scaling because of several things uh one
um people are what make a company a
company cannot run on its own it needs
people so you need to have the right
people people who understand the vision
people who understand the dream who have
bought into the dream and who are
willing to sell that dream out there
people who understand the they represent
the company and out there when they
talking to anybody about the company
about service or the product you’re
offering it’s very important for them to
be the ones that are championing these
so getting that type of talent it’s
quite uh peculiar it’s not easy to run
across or to come across but it’s very
important for you to have such talent uh
because it is what will prop you to the
next stage now you need to have a system
in place of where you just don’t go out
there and look for talent because
sometime it’s hard to look for talent
but intally you able to build your own
hence the talent development whereby
people can come into your company people
can come into your startup and over time
they get to grow basically you make sure
you have some training in place and also
you’re open making sure that you can
Empower your own people it’s very
important that startups are open to
helping people because there lot of
mistakes that people need to to make and
they need to learn so you cannot have an
environment of where you don’t want
people to make mistakes and you want
them to go it’s quite challenging so
it’s very important
you able to control the mistakes but
also you’re giving them a chance for
them to grow because at the end of the
day is through that making of mistakes
where people learn easily and quickly
and uh there’s a statement that I
usually like from a book I read called H
falling forward whereby yes you’re
making mistakes but you’re moving
forward as you make those mistakes that
really helps in terms of the talent
development uh in the startup EO system
and it’s key that you’re able to do this
develop your own Talent as much as you
can be able to acquire Talent because at
the end of the day you need to also work
on both ways to have a balance whereby
uh if I’m coming into your company I
look into that company and look at okay
so so and so came into this company he’s
been here for two three years what has
changed his life is he still at the same
position does he have the same skills he
had when he came here has also the the
salary itself also matters has the
salary increase or something like that
those are things that will make you
attract new Talent at the end of the day
so it’s quite important for you to focus
on that because this will help you in
terms of your scaling the other thing
now that is important is Partnerships
and collaborations about Partnerships um
right now I think it’s the game changer
that we having out here uh when it comes
to being able to scale because the other
the other way of scaling is you going
into a market but if you have
Partnerships it’s the easiest way for
you to be able to jump into a new market
because one you deal with a partner that
is already in that market knows what
works in that market and already has
clients in that market and also has a
big n in that market market so you can
take advantage of that and leverage on
that so basically how this happens is
that there are several ways of coming up
with Partnerships I’ll just mention a
few you have Partnerships of where you
want somebody to be a reseller um of
your own product or your own service in
a new market so you come up with the
structure how that works you can have a
partnership of where your service is
complement to the service that your
partner is having in the same market so
you can be able to come and unite and
maybe now provide a comprehensive
package for the same there also
partnership just collaborate on events
also collaborate on um activities so
maybe webinars maybe collaborate on uh
creating an event or collaborating on
things with Community maybe having an
event that everybody else in the
community can be able to come in and uh
collaborate with you in terms of maybe
let’s say like just empowering uh maybe
uh the disabled in the the community
that is something you can work on so
Partnerships are key because they give
you access like I’ve mentioned to new
markets that are already Market this is
now this is not just you speculating on
a market this is a market that already
exist so it’s key for you to be able to
work with Partnerships and right now
it’s the lowest hanging fruit you can
have in terms of scaling once you have a
product Market fit and you’re looking
into a new market so you can partner
with one a company that exist you can
partner with individuals that are
looking also a product or looking to be
able work with you also in collaboration
I think it works the same way whereby
you able to collaborate in different
things um with other companies uh with
other individuals who are likeminded as
you now the other thing maybe now I jump
into is the how to drive expansion or
driving expansion Market expansion
strategies uh I can talk about a few uh
that I’ve just mentioned already this is
to do with one being able to have
Partnerships in place to help you in
terms of
um if you able to collaborate with other
people so this means that when you going
to a new market uh you quickly look for
people who are willing to be able to
come in and complement your service or
work with your service in the same
market so this means that now you are
leveraging something that is easy for
you to uh move forward with so that Mak
sure that basically one are you not
learning from zero you’re learning from
somewhere but you can take advantage of
the knowledge that already exist people
who are in that market and can be able
to move you forward the second thing is
now internationalization
internationalization uh is where now you
are no longer just dealing with a local
market you’re no longer in Nigeria no
longer in Kenya no longer in Ghana you
are now multinational basically You’
moved to several countries and you’re
working there like I’ve said uh there
are several ways several approaches to
do this you can decide to go the old
school way whereby you move into a new
uh country set up your entity and then
do everything yourself you can decide to
move in as a partner with a partner
sorry whereby you able to collaborate in
New Markets providing a service they
don’t they don’t provide basically
complimenting their service you can
decide to go the other way that I’ve
mentioned of employ of record whereby
you just set up your team in that new
market without you having an entity
there so basically using taking
advantage of another company that is
providing that service to be able to
complement it now the other thing is we
can be able to leverage on technology
and Innovation and this is key because
right now that is something that is
working for Africa
uh it is the biggest thing Africa has
right now in terms of if you’re trying
to move forward um as a company and if
you’re trying to maybe scale quickly uh
because at the end of the day if you’re
Innovative that means you’re solving a
lot of problems and that means it’s
quite easy for you to be able to invol
people I’ll give you a case example is
uh there’s a ftech company in Kenya
called Essa and basically Essa um what
it does is that it helps people to
transfer money from your mobile phone to
another person’s mobile phone and when
it started initially people never took
it seriously but right now it is giving
Banks run for their money because the
amount of money that they are
transacting in a month is more than what
banks are transacting in a month all
banks combined in Kenya so that is
really a big thing and this is because
they are solving a problem basically
innovating to solve a certain problem
because they targeted the people who are
not banked in Kenya initially um when uh
like 10 years ago uh 15 years ago in
Kenya you had to had a certain amount of
money for you to be
bankable uh so that means a large chunk
of people in Kenya were not bankable but
they had money so that money you had to
look for another way of how to handle
your money so Essa came in and solve
that problem of dealing with these
people and that has come has changed
really things until the banks themselves
now have reached a place of where they
can Bank anybody they don’t have
standards of where you must be earning a
certain amount of money to you to be
bankable so that is do with Innovation
now Regulatory and legal considerations
are also important especially when you
are trying to scale because at the end
of the day you might move into a new um
into a new uh market and you don’t know
what the regulations are in that market
that means that would be bad for
business for you because one you’ll BR
you reach somewhere whereby the
government will come in and give you and
charge you penalties for maybe not
operating in the right way not maybe
understanding the labor laws of that
country and that may be hectic for you
again I just mention work pay because
they also help you with that because
they have a system in place of where
they’re able to advise you when you’re
moving to a new market how to be able to
work um to work your way around this so
they’ll advise you how to hire people
what types of structures are there what
types of taxes you’re supposed to pay
and in case there’s anything in terms of
uh regulations they tell you this is the
right way to go about things or this is
not possible to be done so it’s very
important when you’re moving to a new
market look at the Regulatory and the
legal considerations in that market so
that you don’t end up spending a lot of
resources into a new market and then you
are constrained in terms of being able
to operate now it means you have to pull
back and you’ve lost all your resources
all your time that youve put there that
is very important the other thing I
wanted to mention is to do with um the
cultural and social dynamics uh we’re in
Africa uh we’re in different countries
different countries have different C C
uh there are several religions in Africa
it’s very important to be able to
observe cultural norms of different um
countries um different environments
different religions just respect
everything so that it doesn’t become a
problem when you’re doing business
because the end of the day yes we doing
business we have for profit but it’s
very important to be able to also
respect the operations of each country
and how everybody is particular country
because at the end of the day if you
don’t abide by their culture by their
norms
you’ll have problem operating there your
business will have challenges that is
very important let me jump to my next
slide um so I have several case studies
um mentioned uh there is JIA uh that is
a case study of a company that really
scaled well uh this is a company again
founded in Nigeria and uh it was
considered still is considered the
Amazon of Africa and how they were able
to scale into different countries and be
able to just come into a new country and
be able to provide the services of where
you able to purchase stuff online was
really uh something amazing uh something
that was never seen before so their
strategies were very important in terms
of how they were able to understand each
market how they able to understand the
latories in each market and then came in
and set up and be able to operate
because the Dynamics of Nigeria coming
to set up in Kenya going to set up in
sorry in Uganda are quite different the
regulatory regulatory requirements of
each country are quite different so for
them to be able to just study that I’m
moveing I’m be able to set up I’m be
able to operate and then become a big
player in all those countries that they
went into is quite something big and I
think there are a company to be studed I
know they right now they might be having
some challenges but uh what they did at
that time was very important and I think
it’s one of the companies that if you’re
looking to scale you should go down and
maybe research on them and look at how
they did it the other company I like to
talk about is flat wave so flat wave is
currently the company that is out there
that you’re saying is the unicorn of
Africa and they really are the best sets
for how to operate a startup in Africa
because of how they’ve been able to
scale what they’re currently doing and
how big they have become and their
impact in the society because they’re
not just no longer doing business
they’re doing more than that they’re
training people they’re empowering
people so uh flat are really doing big
things and I really respect what they’ve
done so far so good and with them I
think uh they’re beyond the sky now they
usually say the sky is a limit but they
have passed that they just going because
gravity is no longer there they really
big in terms of what they’re doing so if
you’re looking to scale it’s another
company that I recommend for you to go
and look at they have challenges uh I’ll
mention One Challenge they had in Kenya
they had a challenge with our Central
Bank of Kenya uh but right now I think
that issue has been addressed uh because
of how they came in and how they set up
that’s why I was mentioning earlier it’s
very important for you to understand the
regulatory um of the market you’re going
into it’s key for you to understand that
because uh in the Kenyan Market uh there
was over 20 million that was
held uh because of how they came in and
it is their money so imagine a small
startup and people hold your money like
20 million you know at the end of the
day I was looking at it if it is a small
startup your operations grounded you can
no longer operate but thank God for them
they bigger company they able to operate
but I think that was a Learning lesson
for them the other one that maybe you
can look into is andela they’re also a
Marketplace and they’re able to connect
African software developers basically
it’s like um um a talent a talent Market
whereby you can be able to Source
developers to be able to work for you
and that really help in two ways one
increase the number of talented people
who are developers in Africa so BBE to
empower them and then two to be able to
provide jobs for these people so one
developers are going out there learning
more about developers how to be able to
and all that and secondly they know
there’s Market there once they plug into
a so that is something that is game
changing that they have done and other
setup I’ll mention is tger foods which
is an African a Kenyan setup it’s in
adch and basically they help connect
Farmers the with the market uh basically
uh we all know about the challenges of
what Mark farmers SP uh this is to do
with a middl men who are coming in to
overprice what is being there you find
that you are the farmer but the
middleman is getting more money than you
and this is something that tger food has
really helped they have a platform
whereby uh you can put in your produce
and basically people can come in and
plug in and see what you’re producing
and come to you to take your products
because most Farmers maybe don’t have a
setup of where they they do the
production they get the the the products
from the farm and transport it to the
market in between they usually a lot of
um middlemen so what they have done is
that they have cut of all those
middlemen to make sure that now
everything can flow well for the farmer
where the farmer can be able to access
the and the consumer at the end of the
the whole Pipeline and provide for them
a good service so basically meaning
their pricing is good and also there are
not a lot of people to deal with so
they’ve also really revolutionized how
things are so these are case studies
that you can look at there are several
others um that you can be able to look
at but it’s very important to be able to
understand people who have done it and
how theyve done it well for you to also
come in and try to implement because at
the end of the day there’s no need of
you starting from scratch if there are
people who have done something and you
can borrow one or two things from them
so it’s quite important for you to be
able to now I’ll just like to open the
floor for um questions so I don’t know
if um there’s any questions so far so
good I know I’ve talked a lot um
no I mean I mean that was quite quite
quite insightful thank you very much U
Melvin for for sharing that very concise
and U and deep insight about what it
takes um for you to unlock potential the
pitfalls the case studies were quite
insightful and yes quite quite five very
successful companies I I must say and
again different sectors it speaks about
the potential that exist in Africa from
um you know Talent Tech to e-commerce to
Agri Tech to fintech with flutter W it
shows that you you can’t leverage uncale
across Africa uh and I think you’ve done
tremendous Justice to to this um and we
will look at the questions so what I see
is question one question says what are
the potential risk and people that St
should be aware of pursuing rapid
expansion in African markets I know you
have mentioned a bit on this but maybe
somebody just wants you to shed some
light so they’re looking at African
Market which I think again in the next 5
to 10 years will be one of the most
important markets globally um and what
this person is saying is if I want to
expand in in what are what are the risk
for for rapidly expanding uh and
pursuing a rapid expansion what are the
risk and pitfalls maybe you want to
speak to that yeah so the the first risk
is the rapidness of expansion because if
you’re doing things fast at the end of
the day it’s a risk in its own way but
the other important thing that you need
to understand is that um as long as you
want to expand rapidly it’s very
important to understand the market
you’re going into so just make sure
you’ve done enough Research into the
market you’re going into so like I’ve
mentioned the basic things you’re
supposed to do you can do it online you
can do a research online but it’s very
important also you do primary research
of the market you’re going into the
second thing that you’re supposed to do
is to make sure you understand the legal
part of things so the labor laws how to
hire in that country regulatory
standards in operation in that country
you might have ways that you want to do
something in that country that maybe is
legal um so how do you transfer money to
a country because different countries
have different ways of how you’re
supposed to transfer money so you need
to understand how that is supposed to be
done so there are several things you
need to look into when you’re doing that
thirdly you need to look into okay when
you’re expanding uh the talent how is
the structure of the talent are you
taking the team that you have currently
right now going to the New Market to
build there or are you going to build
from scratch in that new market so it’s
very important to understand the
processes you’re doing so basically I’ll
say market research is key um
regulations government operations it’s
very important then thirdly the talent
you’re going to use so are you using
your people that you have currently
right now to expand to that new market
are you going to build a new the new
market with new people so those are the
three key important things I think you
need to look
into great great thank you very much for
that insightful one I mean thank you so
much um I I I have also another question
here I mean from another platform um it
says please what are you what our roles
of mediate Tech in all of this
conversation around expansion I think
this person wanted to speak our um
around visibility you have into mediate
Tech what are the roles and what are the
possibilities or what prospects do you
see for mediate Tech in expansion in
Africa I think uh that’s amazing that’s
a very great question and I think it’s
something I’d skipped so media plays a
big role uh in the setup environment in
the setup ecosystem because one how will
people know about you it’s through media
so mediate Tech is playing a big role
and it kids just that nobody has really
reviled whereby we can say uh this is
the goto when it’s to do with media in
the African ecosystem so that’s a I’ll
challenge him that is one thing that if
you’re looking into the mediate Tech M
there’s nobody who standard who we can
say this is the one that we go to in the
African ecosystem so but the media plays
a big role because media is all about
informing and also uh just questioning
uh so it’s very important for you to be
able to uh get the right information and
where do you get your information so
Media Tech plays that role educating the
environment educating the clients
educating the companies educating the
talent educating even you yourself as
you go out there what to do so it pays a
very major role because at the end of
the day it’s to do with information and
this information is key for you to make
decisions wow thank you thank you um
that’s I think that’s quite insightful
and and thanks for doing Justice to that
um again uh another one how do startups
in Africa navigate Talent acquisition
and retention challenges when scaling
because again like you mentioned you
it’s one of the things you need to think
about Talent is the is the Bedrock it’s
it’s the very is at the very core of of
startups but much more than startups is
also an expansion conversation so how do
you think uh people should be able to
navigate that acquisition retention
challenge especially in a time like this
where we’re having from Global people
with the remote work and the um gig
economy what do you think what
strategies do you have exactly now
there’s also something else I’ll mention
there’s also the big players who come in
and steal your talent so you develop
your talent down here uh and then other
big companies let’s say like Google like
Microsoft they come in and take the
talent that you develop so I I’ll give
it to way there’s the internal factors
and there’s external factors so
internally you can be able to manage
your talent by making sure you develop
Talent well whereby if people come to
you you’re able to educate them and
there’s a growth for
them in your own ecosystem whereby when
they come in they can be able to learn
new things they can be able to develop
new ways of doing things and grow and
there are bigger roles they can come
into and grow as they come in your your
company this is key because at the end
of the day this will be people who will
be loyal to you because they started
with you they have grown with you they
see the vision they see where we are
going so that is a type of that easily
managed now externally this talent that
you’re going to acquire so basically
you’re hiring new people and uh maybe in
the new market and all that so that will
depend on several things one the company
culture how is your culture do this feel
that this culture really relates with
them two how is your package so uh the
package means here what are you offering
them so it’s not just the money itself
the other incentives you can have like
have mention maybe they can be able to
learn so maybe like a company itself you
have a system of where you have a PL of
where can go and learn new things and be
able to that is one so uh two uh what
else can you offer them so is there a
life work balance system that you have
for them to have and then three they
feel like a family are you community
because some companies you are just
alone and in some companies you feel
like you are a community you are a
family you really relate well with
people so it depends also the company
culture it’s very important when it
comes to Talent acquisition the last
thing I’ll say is that the package has
to be good when you’re doing
position basically your imination to
these people how does it look
like great great thank you very much
Marin I mean that’s quite insightful
quite quite insightful thank you for
that um again we’ve got five minutes to
go I’ll see if I can take one more
question
um how can start off effectively
localize uh their products or services
to cater to Unique needs
and
preferences um of African consumers how
can startup effectively localize their
products or services to cater to the
uniqu need and preferences of African
consumer I mean we can take that as the
last question I think that’s a very
beautiful question because the end of
the day uh uh you find that foreigners
come to Africa and they come up with one
big assumption they think Africa is one
um one country and they really
especially company have worked with a
company before that came into Africa and
they were assuming they just do the same
thing for each country and it will work
but they were really they got a bit
lesson of where they realize that each
country is very different very peculiar
in terms of how they operate when you
move from one country to another one
regarding regulations two regarding um
their culture so these are very key
important things that you need to look
into when you’re looking into scaling so
when you’re doing that yourself as a
company it’s very important for you to
now put these indes in place so what
works in Nigeria doesn’t necessarily
mean look into it and look at okay my
product is packaged for the Nigerian
Market because of one two three things
now when it come to the Kenyan Market
what really matters to the Kenyan Market
what really uh will trigger Kenyan
consumers because they are different
they have a different culture probably
even the language itself is different
what they prefer is different so you
need to look into those intricacies of
what really does work in Kenya look at
the companies that have worked in Kenya
look at the successful companies that
have worked in Kenya what has made them
work in Kenya and then you can use that
so basically when you’re going into a
new market the most important thing is
to study the um the companies that have
worked in that uh in that uh market and
have been successful look at what they
did right and then also look at the
companies that came in and failed look
at what they did wrong what made them
fail because the end of the day it’s
also very important for you to avoid
such mistakes when you’re going into a
new market once you’ve done that now
it’s very important for you to
understand when you’re going into a new
market by the time you’re coming in
let’s say like we’re in April right now
by December you might find that you’ve
repackaged the whole way you’re serving
your your Market because of what you’re
learning so it’s very important when
you’re going to a new market look at
feedback what feedback are you getting
from the clients what feedback are you
getting from the CL what feedback are
you getting from the consumers and also
from all also your your people what are
they telling you what should you work on
so that you able to iterate the pivot
the the service or the product according
to the market because the end of the day
you don’t dictate to the market the
market dicts to you and if you don’t
listen to the market at the end of the
day you go out of business so it’s very
very important you do that the other
thing that I keep on insisting and I
keep on telling people is do your market
research it’s
key yeah thank you thank you do your
master J what a wonderful way to end it
do your market research do the work do
the work you don’t work on God feeling
is not on assumptions do the work
there’s no way to scale without doing
the work there’s no way there’s no
shortcut about about this journey and
and to this um as to draw the Cs I need
to say big thank you to Melvin Malanga
and I’m sure he’s demonstrated
tremendous knowledge and expertise about
what it takes startups to scale looking
at an a Pan
African um Outlook and and and very
great one thank you so much for your
time we’re indeed very grateful uh for
you investing this time to share with
your knowledge and expertise with our
ecosystem and and this not taken for
granted and ladies and gentlemen it’s an
opportunity to say thank you again for
for being a part of tech bees Tech bees
comes from the stable of e Innovation
Center uh located at F road is an e
Innovation Center that focus on both
incubation and acceleration services for
startups and organizations that need to
scale uh their businesses and what we
provide basically are handholding
support structures that allow people to
scale we’ve got um for this recording
and every other recording this is 199
episode of tech be you’ll find it on our
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forward to hosting you again uh final
today last Thursday of the month of May
before then a few things you need to
look at um EO Innovation Center promotes
what we call equ soft technology that’s
um Tech arm that speaks to technical
expertise for people in the tech
ecosystem is our way of contributing
towards filling the pipeline with
talents for companies to be able to
scale so should you uh want to pick up
any skill any expertise from you know
coding you know product management data
science um you know Hardware stuff
fixing p. please go to uh and I’ll show
my colleagues to drop the link go to um
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and make sure you do register for any of
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life transforming um also we have um
quickly coming an activity uh promoted
strongly by equ Center in collaboration
with other partners is the marketing and
Technology conversation series which is
mar 3.0 is marketing and Technology
conversation series with an evening of
hackaton and people preventing um
Innovative Concepts and ideas they have
in the world of marketing media and
technology that intersection is where we
are having and that event comes up on
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should you want to be a participant you
want to register to attend the
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intersection we’re talking about uh make
it a day to register go to the site my
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make sure you register to learn more uh
for for maak and it promises to be an
exciting and insightful one thank you
again for keeping a date with us and
it’s a pleasure I mean I always wish we
could stay long but one hour has a way
of always running especially when we’re
looking for us the weekend and and this
always precedes the weekend so I need
say thank you to the team at Innovation
Center that keeps Faith with us bringing
this to uh to us u in our doorsteps day
and every time and time again bu and the
team who does this every Thursday thank
you so much for keeping this together
for the last 109 episodes I remain your
host for everyone to who has been a part
of this thank you I your host of T my
name is Victor the founder of Vision
Center I look forward to seeing you the
last Thursday of may keep a day with us
as we bring another subject matter
expert to come and share from their
wealth of experience insights nuggets
that will help you on your journey of
growing your startup and scaling your
business thank you and have a great
weekend ahead
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