My time at CSquared concluded last month, marked by a wealth of valuable experiences and meaningful relationships fostered. I extend my sincere gratitude to the Warriors and the broader CSquared community for the enriching journey and enduring memories cultivated over the past 20 months.

I’m currently thinking through a series of questions; from a long term perspective, what I should work on next - what problems and opportunities I should explore, and who I should work with - which is probably the most important!. Having worked for quite some time mostly in the tech world, and across different roles and organizations, this is surprisingly hard for me to do – especially as I’m one with a diverse set of skills and interests. My hope is that embracing curiosity and learning will help me, and others via this post at a similar juncture in their professional life.

Curiosity and Learning - What do I need to learn (or unlearn)?

(also - what domains should I focus on? Where do I need to play catch up?) I am a firm believer in lifelong learning, and embracing a growth mindset.  One should keep in mind that a domain like tech is constantly in flux. AI is what everyone seems to be talking about, with many organizations looking to leverage it in one form or the other. What does this mean for you, me, or that company in question hiring for a particular role? Sora is mind blowing in its capabilities yet I think we are still in the early days. This is one area of great interest that I’m continuing to explore. There are hours and days of content out there that one can use to explore LLMs and their use cases,  even as my brain tries to keep up. 

One useful approach to learning that I’ve used in the past - apart from signing up for classes and courses or finding a coach or mentor - is by engaging on personal projects. From a use case perspective, I’m exploring how these exciting tools can be applied to solving 'boring' but painful problems, particularly those faced by businesses on the African continent, and in areas such as risk and compliance, business operations, as well as telecom and infrastructure, among other areas.

Problems and Opportunities - What Opportunities Exist?

This could be a painful problem faced by people or organizations in need of a solution or product that one could provide or build. It could lead to a new business. A question that comes to mind is whether this opportunity is worth pursuing. Is it a solution that I can provide with my skill set or via collaborative partnership? Do I need to go through a product development process assessing problem/solution fit, product/market and potential for growth? Do I have the resources to go through this process - and if I don’t, where can I get these resources?

This could also be a role at an organization that fits one's skill set and experience as they consider the next phase of their career. Having a good understanding of one’s areas of strength as well as of growth is important as they evaluate possible roles in the marketplace.

Connect - Whom do I need to talk to?

This ties in nicely into being curious, learning and exploring opportunities. Everyone is in sales - and seeking out opportunities is like a sales process. It’s also a great idea to show value as one connects with others. I believe that everyone has something to offer regardless of experience and exposure.

This is easier said than done, but learn by doing and connecting. Being part of a community or a professional club in an area of interest broadens one's horizon, as one gets to meet new people, exchange new ideas and hopefully learn and grow, and benefit from new opportunities.

On that note, if you have any additional insights, leads, are on a similar journey, or simply want to connect, please reach out!

[This is an experiment to see if I can use ChatGPT to do the grunt while coming up with a blog post. Too bad DALL-E was overloaded at the time. I would have used it to generate an original(?) feature picture]

Being frugal is often associated with being cheap or living a deprived lifestyle. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, being frugal is a valuable skill that can help one save money, make the most of  resources, and live a fulfilling life on a budget. In this brief, chatGPT powered post, we'll explore what it means to be frugal and how one can incorporate this mindset in life or biashara, while also considering whether being frugal can be considered a sign of privilege.

What frugality is:

Frugality refers to a lifestyle or behaviour that is characterised by being careful with once money and resources, and avoiding unnecessary expenditures. A frugal person may prioritise saving money, finding ways to reuse or recycle items, and avoiding luxury or indulgent purchases.  (Easier said than done!). Frugality can also refer to a simple or austere approach to life, where one avoids excess or extravagance in all areas, not just financial ones. Additionally, frugality can describe someone who is resourceful and creative in finding ways to meet their needs without spending a lot of money.

Misconceptions About Frugality:

Being frugal does not necessarily mean being cheap or stingy, living in poverty, or depriving oneself of basic needs. Rather, it involves finding ways to live within one's means while still enjoying a fulfilling life. Being frugal does not mean being a minimalist or living a spartan lifestyle, but rather finding a balance that works for you.

The Benefits of Being Frugal

Being frugal can benefit anyone, regardless of income level or profession. For startup founders and business owners, being frugal can help with cost management, innovation, focus, and financial sustainability. By managing costs and investing in areas that will have the greatest impact on the business, a frugal approach can help one make the most of limited resources and build a financially sustainable business.

In addition to the benefits for entrepreneurs, being frugal can help anyone save money, reduce waste, and find creative solutions to everyday problems. By adopting a frugal mindset, one can prioritise values, enjoy the things that matter most, and make the most of resources.

Is Being Frugal a Sign of Privilege?

An argument could be make that being frugal is a sign of privilege, as it is often easier for those with higher incomes to adopt a frugal lifestyle (e.g. by buying household suppliers in bulk, or having residual funds to take advantage of good deals that come their way). However, it's important to note that being frugal can also be a necessity for those with lower incomes or who face financial challenges. In these cases, being frugal can be a way to make ends meet, avoid debt, and build financial stability. While being frugal may be easier for those with more resources, it is a valuable skill that can benefit anyone, regardless of income level.

Conclusion

In conclusion, being frugal is a valuable mindset and skill that can help anyone live a fulfilling life on a budget. By prioritising efficiency, innovation, focus, and financial sustainability, you can achieve your goals and make the most of limited resources. Whether one is a startup founder, business owner, or simply looking to manage  finances more effectively, being frugal can help one save money, reduce waste, and find creative solutions to everyday problems. While being frugal may be easier for those with more resources, it is a skill that can benefit anyone, regardless of income level, and can be adopted as a necessity or choice to build financial stability.

Everything about startups  and business is about risk, i.e. one can look at everything in startups and business in general through a risk lens. This arguably applies to life in general. I’m not a risk professional but this is a concept that I’ve mulled over for quite some time, but have taken far too long to put down. I’m sure this isn’t an original idea either, and of course it’s risk vs reward.

A startup is a temporary organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model - Kauffman Founders School

Startup founders take on inordinate amounts of risk when building out their companies from scratch. The risk of physical and mental burnout, market rejection and overall failure are all very real. Figuring out product-market fit, business model, governance, compliance with regulation is fraught with twists and turns and loads of mistakes will be made. The idea would be to figure out a way to assess and manage impact and reward vs risk when taking decisions. This is easy to put down on a post, but rather difficult in real life.

Of course one shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about what could go wrong (it can be easier said than done), but navigating that middle ground is not necessarily straightforward:

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” ~ Stockdale’s Paradox

Founders in a startup bear varying degrees of risk too. Each individual has a unique background and circumstances (e.g. saved funds, kids in school, large inheritance etc) in their life. Each contributes to the success of the startup in varying degrees too. (A logical outcome of this is that ownership should not necessarily spilt out equally. I think that should be an exception rather than the norm. Slicing Pie is a useful resource for this. )

Founders have family and dependents, and they share considerable risk - house mortgaged to pay off major debts, income deferred or lost, loss of time with spouse and kids. This is more pronounced in societies such as in the African context and extends to the wider family. Family - more so immediate family - stand to benefit and not necessarily materially: kids learning the value of good leadership, integrity, hard work and perseverance as they watch a parent put in the hours, sweat, tears to build up an ethically run business scaling across different countries.

Early employees in a startup take on a considerable amount of risk. There is the attraction of a mission worth embarking on, but this doesn’t take away the tremendous risk and responsibility that early employees in a startup (or a new business in general) take on. They typically earn less than their peers in more established companies and work far longer hours. They however learn lots of things and grow in leaps and bounds as a result of taking on roles outside their area of specialty and comfort, getting to take on huge responsibilities. One sinks or hopefully swims.

It goes without saying that, if a startup takes on early investors, it means that they believe in the mission and stake their funds and reputation. Early stage investing is a risky affair. It’s however needed for the establishment and growth of a vibrant startup ecosystem. Angel investors who have previously started and scaled companies oftentimes make the best early stage investors. They understand the risk.

Building product and getting early customers is about identifying the riskiest elements and tackling these first (not tackling the fun bits :) ). It’s relatively easy to make assumptions without validating these in real life with real customers - more so validating the riskiest first and at the least cost. When a startup is no longer a startup - it’s still about risk, e.g. of being disrupted by a younger nimbler startup, or a newfangled AI powered platform.

There is no such thing as zero risk, and some of the largest advancements in innovation, in technology have been by risk taking, persistent founders taking on audacious problems and building successful businesses.

Everything is about risk and reward.

I've previously described myself as a ‘recovering entrepreneur’, but I haven’t quite gotten to the details of what that exactly means for me. I wrote about the entrepreneurial journey some years back. This 'update' post has been on my mind for several minds for several months, but I haven't had the time to distill my thoughts particularly well, or perhaps I've had the courage to put it up?

Building a business from scratch is HARD, HARD, HARD. It is not for everyone. The probability of real success is pretty low. A majority of new businesses fail in just the first year. It's a hard fact (pun intended). It doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t attempt it; far from it. In fact I know people who wouldn’t do anything else - but it doesn’t make it any easier. Anyone can be an entrepreneur but not everyone should.

Incredibly Difficult

“You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” ― Marc Andreessen

The pressures of figuring out a business model as you tackle a problem worth solving at a suitable scale, figure out revenue, compliance (very important - ask fintech companies), while at the same time trying to keep the doors open (business  and home), suppliers happy, the team content and engaged, and a myriad of other issues (wars, famine, recession), is draining, and more often than not, only another entrepreneur would be able to empathise with the ups and downs of the journey. It is a highly stressing endeavour - physically and mentally. So next time you see a business founder, give them a hug. They might be smiling but gritting their teeth as they do so.

In my case, I stepped away for reasons personal and practical: I needed a mental break, and more importantly needed to give my family a break 😃 after four years being part of two startup endeavours, and prior to that leading iHub from 2013-2016.

I briefly shared about this journey on episode 25 of 9 to 5 with Wangari (July 2022). Like Oscar Limoke once commented, I struggle really hard to listen to myself so please go listen for me.

Entrepreneur to Employee

Transitioning back to formal employment has been a journey of self discovery. It has not been easy. To start with, I was not sure what I wanted to spend the next few years doing. I was certain that this would likely still be in or adjacent to tech, and include building and growing teams, and solving a big enough ( or complex if you like) problem across Africa.

I have a diversity of interests, skills and experiences so an important decision I had to make was to decide what and where to focus on based on the opportunities available and my 'toolbox'. I suspect that I will make this decision several times  yet. I still keep clarifying my current activities and work by asking myself whether I am creating opportunities and enabling people and companies to thrive usually with tech as an enabler. Personal alignment with a big enough mission along with lifelong learning are the make or break elements of what I do on a daily basis whether it's working for someone or building a startup.

I also learned (and continue to learn) that job prospecting and interviewing is a special skill 😃 that gets better with practice. It is selling (yourself) at the end of the day so one must get in there to be good at it. This is a pretty useful thread[KE focused] on the process of prospecting and applying for a job.

Employee

As part of CSquared's Cloud team, we are enabling enterprises across Africa connect to and consume cloud services flexibly and securely. I lead our team of cloud solutions architects, and value the engaging conversations with businesses  on issues cloud and security. Do ping me if you'd like to chat more about the stuff we are doing.

Beyond my 'official' job, I like that each person at the company inevitably gets to wear at least one more 'unofficial' hat as a way of broadening one's experiences. Range is important! I've enjoyed plugging into some of the business (which includes stuff I've done in the past) and see the value of building and stretching my sales muscles.

Employee to Entrepreneur?

Will I be back someday into to the trenches of startup life?  I really enjoy building, tackling hard and complex  problems. It is like one of those itches that needs more scratching. Never say never: there are many problems worth solving and I guess it's a matter of figuring out mission alignment, timing among other things.

Entrepreneurially speaking, we're building something new and interesting at CSQ, so that itch is somewhat being scratched for the moment. More on this at the right time!

I took part in the 2022 edition of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon. Despite a somewhat truncated training period and some small nagging injuries, I still managed to lower my PR by a few minutes (yay!) from my last race in 2019. This was my second marathon race (I've covered the distance four times, two of these as birthday runs).

I wrote some years back about how I correlate running with vocation, faith and life. The key lessons from this year?

Run your race at your pace

We had elites who finished in just over 2 hours, while others did the distance in over 4 hrs. The starting gun fired a few seconds after 6:45 am. Two hours and ten minutes later, the men's winner had crossed the finishing line, as I was slogging uphill at about 25km.  Everyone has unique abilities (or intelligences according to Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner). Starting too hard as you try keep up with a faster athlete (let alone the elites) could mean limping to a finish after 42km, or not finishing at all. Life is a marathon not a sprint. Some times we run uphill, taking one painful step after another until the very top. Other times, one could be cruising downhill.

Discipline: Always be prepared (Scouts' Motto)

Unless your body is special, one must put in the hard work of training; lots of early morning runs, building up endurance over several weeks, managing injuries. There is also the discipline required during the taper period where you need to let your body recover over 2-4 weeks before the race. In work, life and faith, one must put in the work, and keep focused on the big objective. Most of the work is done away from the limelight and is tiring.

Team wins

It's really hard to push through the training and the race without people around that push you to keep going, providing encouragement and useful tips to help you get better. This is especially useful during that last few km when energy reserves are spent with the finishing line in sight. At work, building a business, in life, in faith, one can't do it alone.

What next?

Looking forward to resting limbs and grabbing a few extra minutes of sleep before planning for the next marathon. A marathon race (or two?) each year couple with time in the gym, or kettlebells (more on these another time) is the general plan for as long as I'm able to. For now, I shall resist the call of Comrades (:/).

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." ~ Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV

I am currently reading through Dan Pink's To Sell is Human as I grow my 'sales muscle'.

I however do not have in mind the sleazy, overzealous, slick, less than honest 'salesperson' who is out to relieve you of a sizeable portion of your money for something you don’t really need. I mean this version (from “The Art of Sales” ):

“What is selling anyway? Selling is helping people solve their problems. It's creating a strong, long-term relationship with people, based on great work together. Think of it this way, all relationships start like this, face to face. Almost confrontational or transactional. What selling is, is this. As I ask you questions, as I listen, and as I build trust, I move around your side of the desk, and I get on your side and guess what? Now we are looking at this problem together. And we can solve it together. This is selling, and this is why it's the best profession in the world.”

The ABCs

One thing I have heard all the time about sales is the ABC of selling - Always Be Closing. But is this the 'old' way of thinking when there was an information asymmetry between buyer and seller?

The old ABC - Always Be Closing.

The new ABCs of moving others: Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity.

Attunement

According to Dan Pink, attunement is "the ability to bring one’s action and outlook into harmony with other people and with the context you’re in". How?

1. Increase your power by reducing it -

"The ability to move people now depends on power’s inverse: understanding the other person’s perspective, getting inside his head, and seeing the world through his eyes. Those with lower status are keener perspective takers. Start your encounters with the assumption that you’re in a position of lower power. However, the capacity to move others doesn’t call for being a pushover or exhibiting saintly levels of selflessness."

2. Use your head as much as your heart -

Perspective taking over empathy over being pushy. Use social cartography which is "the capacity to size up a situation and in one’s mind, draw a map of how people are related." Quoting Dan Shimmerman:

It’s important to not just have a good understanding of the key players involved in making a decision, but to understand what each of their biases and preferences are. The mental picture gives a complete picture, and allows you to properly allocate time, energy and effort to the right relationships.

3. Employ 'Strategic Mimicry' -

Waitresses who repeated diners’ orders word for word earned 70% more tips than those who paraphrased orders - and customers with servers who mimicked were more satisfied with their dining experience.

Be strategic and human - by being human. (Mimicry is part of being human). Be a chameleon (reminds me of The Pretender)

The Ambivert Advantage

Extroverted people make the best sales people right?

Social, assertive, lively, and sensation seeking: it’s the ideal profile for moving others.

Or is it?

The notion that extroverts are the finest salespeople is so obvious that we’ve overlooked one teensy flaw. There’s almost no evidence that it’s actually true. Several researchers have found that extraversion has ‘no statistically significant relationship… with sales performance’ and that ‘extraversion is not related to sales volume’ . Across 35 studies, the correlation between extraversion and sales performance was a miniscule 0.07

Ambiverts - neither overly extraverted nor wildly introverted.

Being too extroverted (or introverted) can hamper sales performance.

Extroverts often stumble over themselves. They can talk too much and listen to little, which dulls their understanding of other’s perspective (attunement). They can fail to strike the proper balance between asserting and holding back, which can be read as being pushy and drive people away. Introverts have their own, often reverse challenges. They can be too shy to initiate and too timid to close.

Introverts are ‘geared to inspect’ while extraverts are ‘geared to respond’. Selling of any sort - whether traditional sales or non-sales selling - requires a delicate balance of inspecting and responding. Ambiverts can find that balance - knowing when to speak up and when to shut up.

Most of us are ambiverts! (Think normal distribution)

Means that most of us can get good at sales! There is hope:

Resources:

Find out where you are on the introvert-extrovert scale - Assessment

Read through this research report[PDF] by Adam Grant that Dan Pink references: (Rethinking the Extraverted Sales Ideal: The Ambivert Advantage)

I finally got round to finishing Range. One of my best books.

Here are some ideas from my favorite chapter, "Deliberate Amateur" which strongly resonated as I consider myself a life long learner, along with some final learnings.

Amateur?

It’s often that we see the word amateur being used in a denigrating fashion, or told that one needs to stick in a particular ‘lane’.

“The word amateur did not originate as an insult, but comes from the Latin word for a person who adores a particular endeavour. A paradox of innovation and mastery is that breakthroughs often occur when you start down a road, but wander off for a ways and pretend as if you have just began”

While one must respect deep domain expertise, the ‘stick in your lane’ mindset doesn’t quite work for collaboration and innovation:

“Human Creativity is basically an import/export business of ideas. New collaborations allow creators to take ideas that are conventions in one area and bring them into a new area where they are suddenly seen as invention” - Brian Uzzi

On having a growth mindset and personal development:

Don’t feel behind. Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren’t you. Everyone progresses at a different rate, so don’t let anyone make you feel left behind.

One of my favorite:

"Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves - their strengths, their values, and how they best performs" - Peter Drucker

On specialist (vs generalist.. and range), lest I come across as anti-specialist :/, there is nothing inherently wrong with specialization - as we all specialize to one point. Don’t do it too early, when many don’t know what they should be specializing in.

Moving from one area of work (or domain) to another is never a waste (though to some it may feel like you wasted a few years).

This saying is however truncated early:

A jack of all trades is a master of none….. but often times better than a master of one.

On grit, a work ethic and the idea of people who don't seem to 'focus' on a particular pursuit:

Specialization has benefits, but before specialization comes sampling, the exploration of possibilities that, really, you cannot know anything about until you try them.

Don’t confuse the healthy development of a work ethic with the premature commitment to a singular ‘Passion’ - Angela Duckworth (who popularized grit)

“When you get fit, it will look like grit. That is, if you help someone find a good fit, they are more likely to display the characteristics of grit - like sticking with something - even if they didn’t before”

On General education vs ‘Career Focused' education:

Sometimes the actions that provide a head-start harm long term development:

“People who go narrow, career-focused education were also more likely to be employed right out of school and earn more right away, but over time, both advantages evaporated; decades later, they had spent less overall time in the labour market and had lower lifetime earnings.

Those with general education are more adaptable to changed economic demands.

(I wonder how well this translates in KE and similar countries)

Finally: Range and parenting:

“a variety of pathways to fit a variety of circumstances”

Expose children to an array of activities and see what happens to light their fire.

(Again, I wonder how well this translates in KE and similar countries)

Generally - try new things (i.e. experiment), find what stimulates you, and interests you.

This excerpt resonates with me as I find myself tuning out if I have to repeat a task often. Wicked problems may contain repetitive aspects but it is likely that these would be a subset of the entire problem.

My way of dealing with the mundane and repetitive aspects is to look for optimization hacks. This could be via an existing app, some new way of doing things, or figuring out a new piece of software.

Complex problems are not that straight forward. They require conceptual reasoning skills that can connect new ideas and work across contexts.

This is an interesting introduction to complexity (7 min video):

Defining Complexity as a Concept - What is complexity? | Coursera

Video created by Macquarie University for the course “Analysing Complexity”. Welcome to the first course of our specialisation on solving complex problems! In this module, we will be looking at complexity in the broadest sense and how it relates ...

CourseraKK

I am finally reading Range by David Epstein

A large portion of this excerpt resonated strongly:

“They brimmed with enthusiasm, but rippled with an undercurrent of fear. Their LinkedIn profiles didn’t show the linear progression toward a particular career they had been told employers wanted. They were anxious starting grad school alongside younger (sometimes much younger) students, or changing lanes later than their peers... ”

This question jumped out:

"Do specialists get better with experience?"

Does experience invariably lead to expertise?

It depends.

“Kind” vs “Wicked” Domains

“Whether or not experience inevitably leads to expertise, depends entirely on the domain in question.”

“Kind” Domains

A domain is “kind” when one improves simply by engaging in the activity and trying to do better. These include chess and golf (the examples that Epstein starts out with). More practice (experience) leads to greater expertise. The same could be said about a field like software engineering or coding. The more you learn, make mistakes and learn from the mistakes, the better you become.

The 10,000 hr rule comes into play, with lots of patterns and chunks (groups of familiar patterns) learnt and committed to memory over time. For instance after seeing numerous problems over the years, a seasoned software engineer will likely know what approach or algorithm to take or not.

“Wicked” Domains

Specific domain experience is however not always useful:

“In wicked domains, the rules of the game are often unclear or incomplete, there may or may not be repetitive patterns and they may not be obvious, and feedback is often delayed, inaccurate or both”

and can be useless if not counterproductive:

“In the most devilishly wicked learning environments, experience will reinforce exactly the wrong lessons."

How many times have we heard about people applying the wrong solution to the ‘correct’ problem?

The status quo in wicked domains or learning environments is always shifting. Rules change or are unknown. One has to adapt rapidly. Here are some of what I think count as “wicked” domains: a hospital emergency room, politics, entrepreneurship, running a business, real life.

Some take aways

• Not getting a really high score in primary or secondary school isn’t the end of the world, nor does achieving one guarantee success (congratulations to those that have done so in .ke). One can develop range and over time become really useful.
• Comparing humans to AI: “Our greatest strength is the exact opposite of narrow specialisation. It is the ability to integrate broadly.”
• Develop Range: “.. those who later made successful transitions had broader training and kept multiple “career streams” open even as they pursued a primary speciality. They ‘travelled on an eight lane highway’, rather than down a single-lane one-way street’

Last Thursday, while sharing some thoughts on Ecosystems, I posted a summary of key elements of a thriving ecosystem (by Kauffman Foundation). These are:

– Entrepreneurs who aspire to start and grow new businesses, and the people who support entrepreneurs.

– Talent that can help companies grow.

– People and institutions with knowledge and resources to help entrepreneurs.

– Individuals and institutions that serve as champion and conveners of entrepreneurs and the ecosystem.

– Onramps (or access points) to the ecosystem so that anyone and everyone can participate.

– Intersections that facilitate the interaction of people, ideas, and resources.

– Stories that people tell about themselves and their ecosystem.

– Culture that is rich in social capital – collaboration, cooperation, trust, reciprocity, and a focus on the common good – makes the ecosystem come alive by connecting all the elements together

Fundamentally these elements are about people and culture. Communities are about people. When one hears about companies poaching from each other, skills gaps, we are talking about people.

People (Talent) that can help companies grow.

Lots of digital ink has been spilled in private and public channels talking, arguing, discussing about developers, poaching, and skills. As entrepreneurs start and grow businesses, they are dependent on talented and skilful people and teams. When a startup ecosystem gets to a certain point, with increasingly more companies and people participating, there is a tipping point where the rest of the world sits up and takes notice. This is what is happening on the African continent with more investment money and big tech setting up shop properly. I say "properly" because in the past, big international tech companies typically maintained sales offices in key markets on the continent.

Here are some interesting insights from the  Africa Developer Ecosystem (2021) Report by Google and Accenture [PDF].

• South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya (in that order) have the largest number of developers and collectively account for 50% of the entire developer population. This is no surprise as over 80% of venture capital went to these countries.
• Startups hire over half of Africa’s developer population.
• Junior developers (0-3 years professional experience) account for close to 50% of the total developer population.
• Startups are often the first businesses willing to hire junior developers, providing critical on-the-job training. Quoting a Coding Bootcamp Executive from South Africa: “Startups are often the only companies willing to hire junior developers. The top employers in Africa really go after mid to senior-level talent.”

There is greatest demand for senior engineers for these reasons:

• The entry of international companies: “International companies with deeper pockets are our biggest competitor when it comes to recruiting top engineering talent” (quoting a founder from South Africa). “... They need assurances of strong, quality talent that can do the job, which translates to more senior talent” - quoting a startup founder from Ghana
• Many developers on the continent aspire for international opportunities
• Senior engineers account for 22% of professional developers
• there seems to be an over supply of junior developers. There is a pervasive perception that junior developers are often ill-prepared for professional software development.

To be clear, I know we have some of the best engineers, and have what it takes to be the next engineering capital of the world.

Centres of Excellence?

The research paper has a summary of various initiatives that the big tech companies and major players are undertaking towards skills and developer growth.

The question that has been on my mind is whether any more can be done to:

• support greater developer transition from junior to senior levels
• incentivise and / or startups for the key role they play in taking on junior developers
• 10x (100x ?) the number of senior engineers in say 3-5 years.

I’ve been mulling for some time over the practicality of a form of Centre (or Centres) of Excellence geared towards:

• providing structure for ‘proof of concept’ projects that potential junior developers or engineers can take on beyond training
• providing a form of practical proof or work

I don’t like replication though, and my bias is towards collaborating, so I’m keen to learn about anyone doing something similar. What initiatives are out there?

Beyond engineering talent

Startups on the continent will need experienced hands for this startup boom to be sustained.

This in Nairobi:

Nyasha has setup a speed networking event for startups and advisors this Friday (18th Mar 2022). More details here.

I used to do a lot of personal blogging a long time ago. Then social media (read Twitter) happened. Over time, I have however realised that I gain a lot more understanding on a topic when I write, and so I made a promise to myself to write a lot more in 2022, and to do so each Thursday (lots of my posts have been a form of #TBT). Initially, I thought to chronicle my journey of learning and discovery as I figure out my next career step and was focused on diving deep into cloud and data. I still am, but on speaking to a few people over the last few weeks, and after my experiment with ‘Ask Me Almost Anything’, I have realised that I have been limiting myself, given my diverse interests and past experience. I guess this is part of what a friend has called a journey of self (re)discovery.

Last Thursday I posted about collaboration. Later on that week on Friday evening, after been nudged (hard) by Soud, I participated in a Twitter Space hosted by Mwango Capital on the state of the start-up ecosystem locally or in east africa. (Here is where I confess that it was my first time listening in live or speaking at a TS :/ ). It was a great discussion with a diverse set of opinions. I learnt quite a bit. I didn’t get to contribute as much as I could thanks to a finicky connection and/or device.

Ecosystem: Community or Communities?

For various reasons, I find nowadays that I am in touch with probably less than 10% of what’s going on in the ecosystem. I think this is ok - actually great! The number of people building new products and businesses, the funding rounds and amounts being raised - particularly this year, and opportunity being created is leaps and bounds over the ~20 years I have been part of this ecosystem. With the vantage point of a ‘recovering' ecosystem builder and convener from the early .ke tech community, it is easy to see the massive growth over the last two decades. This is not to say it couldn’t be better.

Then: A Single Community?

Skunkworks started in 2007 as 25 people at a restaurant called Steers on Wabera Street in Nairobi. A lot of people who attended that first meet were sys admins and telco people. It grew to be one heterogenous group with developers, system admins, and tech enthusiasts in general. Prior to that we also had a vibrant open source community, which was somewhat subsumed into Skunkworks. Here are some early snippets from 2007:

• Meeting No. 1
• Barcamp No. 1

A lot of people knew each other or knew about each other. One could describe this phase as one of discovery with lots of collaboration. The focus wasn’t quite building startups though there were several that started at about this time.

Now: Multiple Communities

Today we have a variety of tech groups gathering or connecting around specific and general interests (e.g. a particular front end technology). It really doesn’t make sense nor is it practical to attempt to cluster everyone under one umbrella due to the diverse nature of interests and problems being solved, along with the sheer number of people creating and building.

Building Thriving Ecosystems

This Twitter Space also got me thinking these elements of a thriving ecosystems (according to Kauffman Foundation):

– Entrepreneurs who aspire to start and grow new businesses, and the people who support entrepreneurs.

– Talent that can help companies grow.

– People and institutions with knowledge and resources to help entrepreneurs.

– Individuals and institutions that serve as champion and conveners of entrepreneurs and the ecosystem.

– Onramps (or access points) to the ecosystem so that anyone and everyone can participate.

– Intersections that facilitate the interaction of people, ideas, and resources.

– Stories that people tell about themselves and their ecosystem.

– Culture that is rich in social capital – collaboration, cooperation, trust, reciprocity, and a focus on the common good – makes the ecosystem come alive by connecting all the elements together

Different people and organizations have played different roles at different times over the years in bring .ke to where we it is tech wise. Fundamentally these elements are about people and culture. Communities are about people. Also when one hears about poaching, and skills gaps, we are talking about people. I’ll not dwell much on the talent piece, leaving that for another time, but wanted to mention that a key reason for writing this particular post is with the intention of contributing to the ‘stories’ people tell and will tell about this ecosystem. I could certainly be better at doing those and this (small) habit of writing on Thursday hopefully will allow me to get better. Also this:

Podcast Loading

No, I’m not stuck in the past. There is a reason for me sharing some of this. Watch out in the coming weeks for new podcast series featuring people without whom the tech industry in Kenya and Africa to a degree would be quite different. More soon!

Cloud only? Connecting too!

I  initially thought that this (rebooted) learning and writing journey as I figure out what to do next would be more technical in nature but I’m increasingly convinced that this journey will inevitable go beyond the more technical. I’m finding myself reflecting on and doing what I’ve pretty much done since when I first plugged into the KE tech scene: (re) connecting people with the hope that further down the road, they would build new businesses, get new clients, or some interesting outcome.

Coffee?

Last week I did a little experiment: I posted an 'ask me almost anything for 30 minutes' with 5 people. The intention was to learn and share. I was implicitly pushing back against the notion that spending a few minutes of your time having your brain picked for free over coffee is a no no.  I understand why some would offer that perspective, but still think that it’s not a waste of time and offers an opportunity to learn. I’ll probably do this again soon once I figure out an optimal cadence, and urge anyone - especially those who have specific expertise or experiences. I have learnt quite a bit so far!

Collaboration and Ecosystem building

A few days ago there was an interesting discussion on Twitter comparing East and West African entrepreneurs (read Kenyan and Nigerian entrepreneurs). A key take away for me from some of the comments was that in .ke there is not enough collaboration, and alliance building amongst entrepreneurs. True? Not True? More nuance needed? That’s a discussion to be had and some action. The work of ecosystem building (and the lack of such individual builders) also came out.

Building Trust

Connecting, ‘getting your brain picked’, collaborating and ecosystem building have a common thread: they require building trust. This is necessarily hard and takes time. Hard because it’s all about people. Hard also because ‘getting your brain picked’ doesn’t necessarily pay your bills today. I think they are all worth the effort. What about 'ROI', someone might ask? Every interaction between people need not be reduced to a financial transaction. The fruits are often seen when one zooms out over time (multiple years, decades even) and outside of one’s business / echo chamber / network / cocoon / etc.

I posted this excerpt by Tom Peters a few years back when attempting to experiment with a collaborative product / venture building approach: https://mugambi.co.ke/collaboration-hard-vs-soft/

“Soft” (people, relationships, organizational culture) is “hard.” You get things done, for example, on the basis of your patiently developed network of relationships. You imbed a captivating and effective culture by living and reinforcing “the way we do things around here” day after day after day, in fact hour after hour after hour— forever. And the focus on people? Here’s the thing, an organization is nothing more and nothing less than “people (our folks) serving people (our customers and communities).” And for the leader, who is fulltime in the people business, it’s all about people (leaders) serving people (our folks) serving people (customers and communities).

It is written for a company’s leadership but could apply across an ecosystem.

Here is to to more people and companies building trust and collaborating. It is an arduous task, but that is the way to build a vibrant, growing and lasting (tech) ecosystem.

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p.s. I’m still doing my learning and experimenting, as well as thinking product, while connecting people as always.

This is a bit of a #ThrowBack now that it’s Thursday + a side project.

Once upon a time, I was quite the vociferous open source evangelist and got into lots of heated debates with some then Microsoft evangelists. I contributed a little to the debate in 2007-2008 on the OOXML standard that took place on the Skunkworks mailing list.

Kenya ended up abstaining - https://lnkd.in/grnSHHax, though the standard was approved despite our efforts - https://edri.org/our-work/edrigramnumber6-7ooxml-adopted-iso/ and I shall link to a few more of my other posts below /o\.)

14+ years on:

• Microsoft is a leading open source contributor, and held #Azure Open Source Day earlier this week
• Lots of open source projects form the kernel of highly profitable cloud, SaaS platforms.
• Open source databases overtook closed source databases in popularity in early 2021  (https://db-engines.com/en/ranking_osvsc)

This from earlier this year (via Christer Gundersen on LinkedIn)  is a deeper look into open source challengers in other categories:

https://rajko-rad.medium.com/the-rise-of-open-source-challengers-4a3d93932425

This is useful list of open source alternatives:

GitHub - RunaCapital/awesome-oss-alternatives: Awesome list of open-source startup alternatives to well-known SaaS products 🚀

Awesome list of open-source startup alternatives to well-known SaaS products 🚀 - GitHub - RunaCapital/awesome-oss-alternatives: Awesome list of open-source startup alternatives to well-known SaaS p...

GitHubRunaCapital

The decision to go open source, I believe,  is now one that is largely driven from a business point of view, and is less ideological. However, it is doubtful that some projects and numerous products we currently use and probably take for granted would exist if it wasn’t for open source. This brings me to my side project; one that I have had on my mind for several years now, but only got round to starting on late last year.

Keeping tabs on your personal finances is a good thing to do. However, most people I know don’t daily track their personal finances. I believe it is primarily because it is a tedious and boring task. So I’ve been thinking about how take away the mundane and tedious aspects using tech, reducing it to a minimum, while further enhancing up my AI/ML and data skills as I create something useful for myself (and maybe for others). Such a digital personal finance assistant is probably less useful if transactions are not done or data available digitally (e.g. via bank, mobile money (such as Safaricom MPESA), or even crypto)

I’ve began working on bits of it sporadically over the last few weeks. It’s still early days and I first trying to automatically classify mobile money transaction extracts in this case my Safaricom’s MPESA statements (while refreshing my engineering brain).

In the spirit of open source, this is a Jupyter notebook what I have done so far: https://github.com/josiahmugambi/experiments-with-data/tree/main/mpesa_pdf_statements and my notes: https://learn.mugambi.co.ke/notes/data_txts.html

I would love any feedback. I’m also keen to hear from anyone those who would find a digital personal finance assistant or bot useful, or have used something similar.

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Once upon in .ke Open Source:

https://josiahmugambi.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/free-and-open-source-software-foss-in-kenya/

https://josiahmugambi.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/why-should-open-source-software-be-used-in-schools/

https://josiahmugambi.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/update-ooxml-iso-vote/

"As a general rule, you have to accept that no matter where you work, you are not an employee - you are in a business with one employer: yourself."

".. if you want to work and to continue to work, you must continually dedicate yourself to retaining your individual competitive advantage."

"..nobody owes you a career. You own it as a sole proprietor."

Andy with some questions to reflect on:

• "Are you adding value or merely passing information along?"
• "Are you plugging into what's happening around you?"
• "Are you trying new ideas, new techniques, and new technologies, and I mean personally trying them, not just reading about them?"

Andy Grove

(Initially posted on LinkedIn)

"When learning, explore widely.

When mastering, focus narrowly."

-James Clear

About 2 weeks ago, I shared (https://bit.ly/32862sq) a little about the journey I'm on. I'm especially interested in data, cloud / infrastructure, cybersec and web3 and leveraging these building products, platforms, and solving often complex and sometimes boring problems. However, each of these are broad and deep areas in and of themselves.

Knowing what to learn, what to focus on, especially in the deluge of data in today's world is not a trivial matter. This applies not just to an individual, but also to large and small companies and organizations across the world. Leveraging the right data to create business value can turn every company into a data informed/led company. Side note: merely migrating your data warehouse doesn't automatically turn one into a a 'data' company though ( https://www.gooddata.com/blog/not-every-company-data-company-yet/).

I'm curious to see how deep I can delve into the world of data in tackling problems, as I see that that a deep understanding of data from a technical and business perspective, along with cloud appears to be a necessary path on this journey. There are lots of things to learn, implement, and remember. As it turns out, I realize I've done some data related bits and pieces over the years without necessarily framing them as such. Writing hopefully will be clarifying for me and  helpful for at least a few (see #4 below). Additionally, a key thing for me on this journey is ensuring the creation of value - which could be revenue, customer satisfaction, saved time, new insights, knowledge - in anything I do.

Talking of problems:

Complex Problems are easy to define, difficult to solve. more here- https://www.august.com.au/blog/what-is-a-complex-problem-anyway/ - At a global level, food Security probably falls here, along with climate change,

Boring Problems to me are tedious, mundane but often necessary - such as keeping track of personal finances or automating back office reconciliations, or regulatory compliance.

Thanks to all those that have pinged me! Looking forward to connecting more!

Lastly, some useful reads and resources:

If you want to become a data engineer, this is pretty comprehensive: https://awesomedataengineering.com/

Building software is hard. (I think engineering anything useful is hard in general) Conrad Akunga: https://www.conradakunga.com/blog/coding-is-easy-any-monkey-can-do-it-software-is-very-hard/

WQU's 16 week Applied Data Science Lab is now accepting rolling applications. 100% free: https://www.wqu.edu/programs/applied-ds-lab/

This Twitter thread on writing (I like 2): https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1483432685448032259