Six wrong things African startups focus on

In the African technology ecosystem, the path from idea on a deck to a startup headed to a profitable exit is laden with endless rounds of tasks; understanding the problem your startup is out to solve, building out your technology, providing your own electricity – and internet, figuring your business model, and a horde of other borderline dizzying things. In between all these, it’s best if founders don’t spend time on tasks that don’t reinforce the product’s survival, at least at the right time. Because sometimes it’s difficult to identify these pointless adventures for what they are, here are a few of them:

1: Vanity metrics

Also known as baloney stats. They are what trick entrepreneurs into believing they are making progress when they are really only a hamster in a comfort wheel, or that they are taking on a $36 billion global chalk market when the last time anyone saw a blackboard was in 1985. Don’t be that guy. If you choose to drink that kool aid all the same, may Elon be with you.

2: Press

So you want to get featured on TechCabal? Here is a simple guide. But do you really need it? Oh me? I think you do not. You need a better product that people use, love, obsess over and tell their friends about. Ask Slack. Ask Dropbox. Half the time, too early an exposure is bad for you. It’s not only a way to have a lot of unfeeling internet intelligentsia poo poo all over your fragile idea, it’s also a way to get distracted when they lather you with praises. This is a time to focus on product and understand the business you are in.

3: Funding

Money answereth <del>all</del> most things. It typically won’t fix a bad product and can even be the death of a good one. Ask Color. And Fab. For the most part, resources needed to get startups from idea, to MVP, even to critical mass are available for a fraction of the money early stage startups request from angel investors. Should you not take on investors then, like ever? No. Listen to the wise (paraphrased) words of Mark Essien (echoing the greats before him): When you are raising, know exactly where the money is going.

4: Function, over usability

It works. But is it useable? Function is great, but without a thoughtfully designed user experience that is glitch free, users won’t stick around long enough to discover all the genius you’ve packed into your product. Don’t dress your prince in a frog’s costume and insist that it’s royalty.

5: Hackathons

Hackathons are wonderful. They have noble roots. The point of hackathons was for skilled and experienced developers to come together and do a marathon hacking session to try and solve for a problem. Then corporates and “impact investors” discovered hackathons, and hackathons were never the same again. They got turned into a way to crowdsource cheap fixes for IT departments that had run out of ideas or cheap PR for innovation cheerleading NGOs. Make no mistake, lots of hackathons still hark to the original philosophy, but you have to admit that as a whole, hackathons aren’t quite what they used to be. But the corruption of hackathon philosophy is not even the point here. The real problem is that hackathons are now routinely dangled in front of entrepreneurs as a means to secure fame and fortune. To the point that lots of entrepreneurs have become professional hackathon jockeys. Winning prizes might net a startup some money, but it’s certainly not a scalable business model, if you can even call it that.

6: Things that work in Silicon Valley

The Silicon Valley hype cycle overshadows everything, and a lot of startups in emerging ecosystems tend to draw the wrong conclusions because Valley media typically holds up high the startups, people and technologies that are crushing it. The truth: 1) not everyone is crushing it, and 2) things that work in Silicon Valley won’t necessarily work here. They are almost guaranteed not to, not without some adaptation to the local context. That’s why Uber receives cash and mPesa in Kenya and uses rickshaws in India. All of these things are mirages. Ignore them. Focus on hard indicators like revenue and customer acquisition. Press is good, but seek ye first to make good products that people will love and share, and great publicity will be added onto you. Good businesses typically attract funding. Hackathons were made for entrepreneurs, but entrepreneurs were never made by hackathons. And finally, don’t read TechCrunch…without African commonsense. Peace. Bankole Oluwafemi contributed to this post. Photo Credit: matthileo via Compfight cc