From ITNews, ‘France’s largest entertainment group Vivendi, has reportedly taken over Zain Africa with a $12 billion bid, ending speculation regarding the future of the ailing telecoms giant. The Monitor in Uganda reported that the move signals an ironic return for the French firm which was forced to sell its stake in its Kenyan operation after the second tech bubble burst in 2003. The newspaper said that Vivendi which is also Europe’s largest entertainment group returns as a more healthy operation keen to capture a share of the growing African telecoms market which it was forced to abandon a few years ago.’ Read more.
Buy a company for 3.4 billion and then sell it a few years later for 12. This is really big news and I can imagine there is more to come!
Categories: Business · Development · Economics · Entrepreneurship · ICT · ICT 4 Uganda · ICT Africa · ICT4Uganda · Investment Africa · Mobile · Mobile Reporting · Start up · Telecom · VC 4 Africa · uganda · venture capital
Tagged: Africa, Mobile, Kenya, Internet, Telecom, invest, uganda, Telecommunications, zain, mtn, Competition, web, orange, vivendi, telco
As some of you might know, the VC4Africa.com initiative is now one-year old.
In celebration of this milestone, VC4Africa has been registered as a contestant of the Idea Blob contest. This is a chance for the VC4Africa community to win USD 10.000. Don’t worry, the money doesn’t go into private pockets 
Instead, the money will be used to pay the salaries of young developers in Kampala, Uganda. These funds mean the community can add new tools (Afridex.net) and improve the functionality of the VC4Africa.com community. Bottom line, the community can achieve more.
The competition lasts one week. If you like the idea, please take the time to vote and help us spread the word!
You can find our entry at: http://ideablob.com/ideas/5808-VC4Africa-com-Connecting-inve
Feel free to forward this e-mail to friends and colleagues.
The team looks forward to starting our second year with a bang!
Categories: Business · Development · Economics · End User · Entrepreneurship · ICT · ICT 4 Uganda · ICT Africa · Information Resources · Investment Africa · Open Source · Software · Start up · VC 4 Africa · venture capital
Tagged: 1%, anniversary, Business, capital, Competition, Entrepreneurship, ideablob, Investment, one, social, vc4africa, venture, vote, year
As many of you know, VC4Africa.com will now build itself on the Afridex.net engine developed by Jon and his team at Appfrica.org. Interested in knowing more about the system and how it works? Please read this latest posting put up by Jon.
Africa’s Crunchbase Back Online
from Appfrica by Jon
It’s been nearly a year since the proof-of-concept version of Afridex.net went online. Here’s what I had to say about it then…
‘I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I wasn’t 100% inspired by Mark McGranaghan’s work on TechCrunch’s Crunchbase.com. Although the backend of Afridex isn’t nearly as robust as Crunchbase (which was built in Ruby On Rails), I’ve got a lot of plans to improve it over the next few weeks. Crunchbase is a business database of startups and companies in the U.S., mostly all related to technology and Silicon Valley. With Afridex I’m taking the same general thought and applying it in a way that I feel benefits business professionals, start-ups, NGOs, non-profits and government institutions operating in Africa.’
That version was admittedly, shoddy, buggy and wasn’t built to scale at all. It was little more than a rough sketch of an idea. So what have we been doing since then? Quite a bit, actually. The biggest thing was actually setting up Appfrica Labs and getting our first few projects done and out the door. Now that we’ve launched a few apps, we’ve been able to go back where we started and work on the Afridex build. We’ve gone back to the drawing board to introduce features inspired by sites like LinkedIn, GetSatisfaction and (of-course) Crunchbase. So what’s new with the ‘Dex?
Well first, say hello our mascot and the guardian of the Afridex, Dexter. Don’t mess with us or he’ll gorge you.
From PHP to Django
We’ve completely rebuilt the entire application for starters! Originally Afridex was built by combining a bunch of custom code with a hacked version of WordPress as the back-end. Of course, that was because I was clumsily trying to show my vision for what was possible. Soon thereafter, Appfrica Labs developer Moses Mugisha came up with a plan to rebuild the entire project using the Python framework Django. So for the past few months, while juggling other work and his position at the Google Summer of Code, Moses managed to build out Afridex into something that looks very much the same, but under the hood it’s 100% different. By switching to Django, Afridex is now more stable, more extensible and far-easier to scale.
Wiki-Like Community
After Afridex was first announced last year, my inbox was flooded with hundreds of companies who wanted to be listed. I apologize to anyone who’s been waiting for so long but rest assured, you will be added. More importantly, you can now add yourselves by simply clicking the “Add Company” button. By crowd-sourcing data from across the continent, we can work together to build one of the most robust databases of African talent, start-ups and businesses ever attempted. Anyone can submit, but all entries must be approved by an administrator who will verify details before they go live. This ensures that we aren’t overwhelmed by spam.
The Rhino Will Find You
In addition to being able to submit your own company, Afridex will soon begin actively crawling the web for data about African businesses. If you don’t find us, we will find you. How are we doing this? Partly through some of the search features we developed in house and partly through manual aggregation and data-entry. We’ve also got partnerships in place with organizations that only monitor the African market for such data. It’s not doing anyone any good to sit-on such valuable info, our goal is to ‘open it all up’.
Also, Dexter likes carrots. If we promise him a big snack at the end of the day, he works overtime to ensure your data gets added. (Have you ever seen a rhinoceros type? It’s pretty amazing.)
Leveraging the Social-Graph of the African Business Community
One of the newest features of Afridex is the ability to create a personal profile. This allows the companies to list their staff, and staff members to claim their employers. The idea of Afridex was to make an online index of information about the African continent, this makes it easier for investors to find companies that are attractive or for the unemployed to potentially find new employers. But all in all, it’s about sharing information. We’ve taken this out for the public beta, but it’ll be back in the next week or so.
Micro-Formatted for Your Convenience
Micro-formats are a way of marking up data to be easily parsed by machines. Much like the old version of Afridex, the new version allows for one-click addition of a company profile to your address books.
Portable Data
The portable data generator allows one to cite any company listed in the database. For instance a reporter might want to reference a company like Zoopy, with a brief description of the company and link to a page with information that’s easy to consume. Rather than link to the companies actual website, they might want to link to a reference that’s more easy to consume. We respect this and give users the choice of going directly to the company website, or the company’s profile on Afridex.
Persistent Search and Brand Monitoring
Companies who like to know what’s being said about them on the web will be pleased to find that the persistent search feature is now improved. We think we’ve refined the algorithm to only return data about the company being featured. For instance, before a company with a more common name might return results of companies with the same name. The search is now more accurate, returning only results related to the company listed. We’ll continue to improve upon our search algorithms as we move forward.
Customer Commenting
Customers looking to rant, praise or just drop an informative note to a company in the hopes that it will reach the staff can now do so using the commenting function. For companies who are interested in engaging a two-way conversation with their customers, that too will be possible.
Pro-Features (Coming Soon)
For companies who want more control of their profiles, there will soon be options to ‘claim’ your Afridex profile. This would allow a company to, for instance, turn off the commenting features or add custom data, like links to their presence on other social networks.
Mobile Apps (Coming Soon)
Afridex will also feature a robust set of mobile functionality which we plan to unveil soon.
API (Coming Soon)
It wouldn’t be ‘open’ if we didn’t offer an API. In the coming weeks we plan to make our data even more portable so that other companies can take advantage of our legwork in collecting this info.
More, More, More!
So we’ve gone from private beta to public beta, but believe it or not we’re still only in our infancy. The feature-set we plan to unveil in the next few weeks is massively robust in addition to everything we’ve mentioned here. All of this will amount to a massive repository of data about Africa that will help everyone working in the sector. Thanks for your patience and please help us by adding your company’s profile now. We’ve put Afridex back online just so you guys can help us with the aggregation. Over the next few weeks we’ll be rolling out many of the features listed above and making some other big announcements related to Afridex.
Moses Mugisha is the Lead Developer on Afridex and is a participant of the Google Summer of Code.
Categories: Business · Development · Economics · ICT · ICT 4 Uganda · ICT Africa · ICT4Uganda · Information Resources · Investment Africa · Media in Africa · Open Source · Research · Software · Start up · Telecom · VC 4 Africa · kampala · uganda · venture capital
Tagged: Africa, afridex.net, angel, appfrica.net, appfrica.org, Business, capital, crunchbase, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, equity, getsatisfaction, index, Investment, investor, linkedin, networking, persistent search, private, profile, social, startup, Tech, techcrunch, vc4africa.com, venture
I had the pleasure to meet Michael Mugoyo at the recent VC4Africa Meetup in Kampala, Uganda I was inspired by his work and his efforts to raise capital for entrepreneurs in his area. If you are an entrepreneur looking to fund your business then maybe there is something you can learn from Michael and his experiences in rural Uganda.
Please describe your business?
My business is called BW-Publishing. BW is an acronym of By the Word.
The mission of BW-Publishing is to connect rural based businesses/organizations to the international community through the internet/web publishing so that they can have access to potential investors/donors.
Where did you get the idea?
From my childhood I had a dream for communication. Raised from a peasantry family by a single grandmother in a remote village of Buikwe, I had to strive to make it at school where I was always the information prefect.
When my grandmother passed away, I could not afford school fees so I went to the streets of Kampala with a hope of getting sponsors for my education. After one year living as a street kid, I was picked up by a Christian charity that sponsored my education through high school. But they could not sponsor me at university.
However, since I had qualified to study on government sponsorship, I joined Makerere University Kampala in 2003 to study a Bachelors of Arts with Education in Literature and English (much against my dream). However my first priority courses of interest had been either Mass Communication or Information Technology which I could study if I had managed to pay for my own tuition. So I had to settle for less!
For 3 years at the expense of the course that I had been given (Education), I decided to teach myself computer studies and the internet with communication students when at University because that was my passion. I painfully reaped the consequences! I failed to graduate since I spent most of my study time learning computers and the internet instead of studying to become a schoolteacher!
What inspired you to actually execute?
Soon after leaving university (without academic papers), I was recruited on merit by an NGO called the Network for Integrated Community Based Research and Development (NICRAD) in Kampala, where I got hands on experience in designing and implementing sustainable community based development projects.
After 2 years, I left NICRAD and went back to my poor home village to start on BW-Publishing as an entrepreneur. I went with one laptop computer. BW-Publishing entered into a long term partnership with Buikwe Full Gospel Church, a local village church in Buikwe and mobilized community entrepreneurs, helped them develop their own business plans, started projects following the Rich Dad’s philosophy of the B-I Triangle, and mobilized resources to pay for internet connection.
How are you going about doing this?
We are following the Rich Dad’s philosophy of the B-I Triangle (i.e. Mission, Team, Cash Flow, Communication, System, Legal and Product/Service). Since October 2008:
• We have helped over 90 rural community businesses/projects develop their business plans;
• Developed a Ning social networking website for the projects/businesses (http://fullgospelministries.ning.com) to market them to the international community
• Through the website we got two investors (Chronos Group and HAFTrust) who have committed to invest in all agribusinesses in Buikwe that are on our website
• We are currently training community members how to use a computer and the internet
How does your project aim to promote business on the continent?
We will continue to promote the project throughout Africa and the world using popular online business and social networking sites like Ning, SocialGo, Ecademy, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo, Tagged, etc for greater publicity.
What are your biggest challenges moving forward?
Our biggest challenge is lack of enough computers. We are currently using only one laptop computer serving over 90 projects, and training poor people from six parishes of Buikwe and beyond how to use a computer and the internet.
Where will this project be in five years?
Investors/donors could start to regularly support a few programs in return for a stake in them. The profit would go to the local widows and orphans and hospital charities in Buikwe. Later on if the enterprise is a success we can decide what to do. It will be years before they boom. e.g. lets say an Investor/donor asks for 25% of an enterprise in a poultry project in return for regular funding and publicity with all profits going to local causes like they supposed to – in maybe 5 years with encouragement some of these businesses will be in good condition and we can then either sell them and raise more money or have other options.
The reason this is better is that there will be a regular contribution then and the joint ventures should attract more interest and other international partners. Anyway I am still working on the idea but we could have an Agribusiness Unit with say 4 or 5 seed projects, 3 or 4 poultry, milling, a couple of piggery projects and a dairy. The individuals could keep their individual projects – I more or less am connected with them all and would have a minority stake in each in return for regular support.
What is the most surprising thing you have discovered/learned along the way?
The internet can transform an impoverished community within just six months!
How can we as a community help you / contact details?
We need:
• Over 50 Desktop and laptop computers to establish a networking center for businesses/projects in Buikwe, Uganda.
• Matchmaking organizations to connect us to potential investors/donors
• Capacity building in terms of project planning, management and accounting
CONTACT:
Mugoya Michael
PO Box 172, Lugazi (Uganda)
Tel. 256 718 054 580
E-mail: testifytoday@gmail.com
Website: http://fullgospelministries.ning.com
Did I miss something you would like to share with the VC4Africa community?
Our offline VC4Africa Meetup in Kampala was the first of its kind in my life talking face to face with potential investors! Ben, Thank you for such a great vision!
BEST REGARDS
Categories: Business · Development · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Events · ICT · ICT 4 Uganda · ICT Africa · ICT4Uganda · Interview · Investment Africa · Start up · VC 4 Africa · kampala · uganda · venture capital
Tagged: Africa, Business, BW, By the Word, Development, entrepreneur, equity, facebook, fundraising, Internet, Investment, linkedin, meetup, Michael, Mugoyo, Ning, Private Equity, project, Publishing, social networking, Start up, vc4africa.com, venture capital
This past Saturday Jon and I had the pleasure to host the first VC4Africa meetup in Kampala, Uganda. The event was great and I enjoyed getting to meet some of our members in the area. There was a lot of interaction and I think most people walked away with a useful contact or two!
As you know, we are using the BarCamp model – an international network of user generated conferences – open, participatory workshop/events, whose content is provided by participants. What does this mean? It means that any member of VC4Africa.com can organize a meeting in their area whenever they feel there is a need. Simply let us know and we will help promote the gathering via the network. All we ask is that you share some of the experience with the rest of us
I am pleased to let you know that we have already received interest from members in Johannesburg, Lagos, Silicon Valley, New York and London. I will be working with the different members in the effort to get these events online and will keep you posted on developments!
Interested in bringing together members in your area? Lets see if we can get VC4Africa Meetups across the continent and around the world. Contact me at ben@vc4africa.com
Meet soon!
Ben
Categories: Business · Conference · Development · Economics · Events · ICT Africa · Information Resources · Investment Africa · Start up · VC 4 Africa · kampala · uganda · venture capital
Tagged: Africa, barcamp, Business, capital, entrepreneur, equity, Investment, investor, kampala, meeting, meetup, members, network, networking, social, startup, uganda, vc4africa, venture
VC4Africa.com and Appfrica.org are announcing a formal partnership to mobilize and support the venture capital community of Africa. The new partnership aims to leverage their combined vision, resources, and networks in an effort to connect aspiring entrepreneurs in Africa with the skills, knowledge and connections needed to develop, grow and scale their business. More importantly, the partnership aims to promote social entrepreneurship by making it easier for the entrepreneurs to find the investors who may be looking for them.
Both parties believe that entrepreneurship should be the main driver in Africa’s economic growth, in particular the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that provide much of Africa’s employment, income and hope for a better future. SMEs contribute around two thirds of national income and provide the foundation for a stable middle class in many African countries. They help form strong communities and are a powerful force for poverty reduction. SMEs play a significant role in building economic stability and sustainability for the future.
As Africa enters the new millennium it faces a challenge to provide better economic opportunities for citizens through sustained growth and alleviating the poverty that has long plagued the continent. The NEPAD (New Economic Platform for African Development) and the United Nations Millennium Goals for 2015, to which the EU-countries have all subscribed, have set out ambitious aims in this respect. The World Economic Forum in Davos and the G8 have also made the commitment to stimulate private and public investments in Africa. However, it’s our belief that the most meaningful impact will still come from grassroots entrepreneurship and local efforts.
It is important to support this bottom-up approach of citizens working to tackle local challenges and build on the idea that any person anywhere in the world might have the skills, knowledge and resources needed to make a difference. Ben White, founder of VC4Africa.com says, “There is a serious lack of information and tools in this area. South Africa as a market dominates the space. How can we serve entrepreneurs in the rest of the continent fighting to make a difference? I believe we can achieve a lot by bringing the right people and tools together.” Jonathan Gosier of Appfrica.org adds, “At Appfrica Labs we practice these ideas on a niche-level everyday, it gives me great pleasure to be able to support the entire sector on a macro-level through this partnership.“
Advancement in new media technologies introduces new opportunities for this process. We believe that now is the time to effect great social impact by maximizing the resources available. The VC4Africa.com project will build on Afridex.net (an online directory inspired by popular websites like Crunchbase.com, LinkedIn.com and GetSatisfaction.com and developed by the team at Appfrica Labs in Uganda). This engine provides a unique tool on which to build the VC4Africa community and kick starts a new process that seeks to empower investors and entrepreneurs with the tools and resources needed to make business decisions.
The partnership will leverage Afridex.net, a business information aggregator developed by Appfrica Labs Lead Developer, Moses Mugisha. Afridex was built in the Python framework Django and allows businesses to create profiles, monitor their brands and offers ‘portable widgets’ that allow people to write and blog about them. As part of the partnership, Afridex will build out a web community of various verticals (sme’s, agriculture, tech ect.) that allows for an easy to navigate index of companies that exist across the continent. The most innovative aspect of the community, however, will allow groups of would-be-investors with similar interests to raise venture capital funds. These crowdsourced funds can then be invested in the business of the group’s choice. By taking the general concept behind venture capital and leveraging this community of nearly 5000 expatriated Africans, as well as foreign and local investors, our aim is to offer a web application that allows for the constructive application of capital to the market.
Background
VC4Africa.com was started in the interest to connect investors and entrepreneurs. The community has developed into a powerful network of individuals dedicated to the promotion of African business. In an effort to scale impact, VC4Africa.com seeks out ways to mobilize members and effect change. In May 2009 a technical partnership was sought with Appfrica.net.
Appfrica Labs is a tech incubator based in Kampala, Uganda. It’s a unique organization that works to incubate entrepreneurs and university recent graduates to combat brain-drain and support the local economy. Appfrica provides developers with the physical space, hardware, internet connection and mentorship needed to produce successful software entrepreneurs in East Africa.
Questions?
Ideas, questions, partnership? Please contact the VC4Africa.com team Ben White at ben@vc4africa.com or Jonathan Gosier at jon@vc4africa.com.
Categories: Business · Development · Economics · End User · Entrepreneurship · Events · ICT · ICT Africa · Information Resources · Investment Africa · Open Source · Research · Software · Start up · VC 4 Africa · kampala · uganda · venture capital
Tagged: Africa, angel, appfrica, Business, capital, Community, connection, developer, Development, east africa, Economics, Entrepreneurship, equity, impact, Internet, Investment, investor, jonathan gosier, Kenya, marketing, mkb, money, networking, north africa, partnership, sme, social, Software, SOuth Africa, Start up, stock, uganda, vc4africa, venture, west africa
Register for the first VC4Africa Meetup
Join the first VC4Africa Meetup in Kampala, Uganda!
I propose we borrow the BarCamp model – an international network of user generated conferences – open, participatory workshop/events, whose content is provided by participants.
I like this open format because it means that anyone can participate. Any member of VC4Africa.com can organize a meeting in their area whenever they feel there is a need.
So to kick start this process, I would like to invite all members in the Kampala area to join me at Katch the Sun on June 13th at 5:00 PM. This will be the first VC4Africa Meetup and is a chance for members to meet in person and get to know each other.
No fee, no agenda and no speeches. Just an informal get together where everyone pays for their own drinks:)
Interested?
Sing up and register for the event!
Let me know if you have any questions…. Feel free to contact me at vc4africa@gmail.com.
See you there!
Ben
P.S. Interested in bringing together members in your area? Lets see if we can get VC4Africa Meetups across the continent! Contact me at vc4africa@gmail.com.
Categories: Business · Conference · Development · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Events · ICT · ICT 4 Uganda · ICT Africa · ICT4Uganda · Information Resources · Investment Africa · Start up · Telecom · VC 4 Africa · kampala · uganda · venture capital
Tagged: angel, Business, Conference, Development, entrepreneur, Event, investor, meetup, networking, Private Equity, project, social networking, startup, vc4africa, venture capital
As many of you know, I am interested in understanding how the web will develop from an African perspective. Please see a previous article YouTube ‘burden’ creates opportunity in Africa and my interview with Alemayehu. He is the coFounder of Ethiotube.net, Ethiopia’s version of YouTube.
Where did you get the idea?
The idea came from the booming social networking industry, video sharing in particular. YouTube’s success was indeed an inspiration for EthioTube’s establishment.
When did you decide to actually execute?
I’d say a very fascinating CNN International panel discussion on social network-based entrepreneurship gave the final kick we needed to launch EthioTube February 2008.
How are you going about doing this?
We’re building a strong user-base right now. We’re trying to get more users involved in video sharing, rather than just enjoy what’s being shared. We are also trying to establish partnerships with various entities which will enable us to expand our network even further.
What is your experience with Ethiopia, start ups and the web?
Ethiopia’s web presence is really a disappointing one. CIA’s World Book on Ethiopia (2007) show’s that there are just over 290,000 internet users. A data from Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), the only Internet provider in the nation, shows, as of September 2008, there are just close to 39,000 internet subscribers in Ethiopia. The poor connection speed and increadibly high costs – even for afican standards – tribute to this very low Internet presence. So, mostly, Ethiopians living overseas are our main users. We’d love to use our network to connect Ethiopians living in Ethiopia to the rest of the World. But this will continue to be very difficlute to implement, unless the telecommunication sector in Ethiopia opens up.
What are your biggest challenges in getting this project off the ground?
Finding a reliable host for our bandwidth demanding business was one of the biggest challenge we had. One other challenge we’re facing is: the online Ethiopian community hasn’t really picked up on the idea of direct communication, as we’d have wanted. Trying to get users talk to each other has been a difficulte task so far.
how are you different than other online video services like YouTube?
Our video sharing site is different from many out there, because we specifically cater to the large Ethiopian community with only ‘Ethiopia Related’ content. In other words, a user who is specifically looking for videos related to Ethiopia do not need to conduct a search on vast networks like YouTube.
Is Ethiopia ready for these kinds of services?
As many African and developing countries, Ethiopia has a long way to go on developing its Internet infrastructure. We understand Ethiopia is slowly but surly working on such projects. We believe once these projects are completed, greater number of Ethiopians will be online seeking an alternate media. EthioTube will be there to satisfy this demand.
Where will this project be in five years?
In five years EthioTube will be the hub for Ethiopians to find all kind of multimedia. We hope and work hard to become the 1# Ethiopian website in this timeframe.
What is the most surprising thing you have discovered/learned along the way?
It does not matter how small or unknown you are, if you listen to the heart beat of your targeted audience and deliver to it, you can be successful. It was also fasinating to learn how extremly careful we had to be about our own success; we could have easly become its victim.
Categories: Business · Development · End User · Entrepreneurship · ICT · ICT Africa · Interview · Investment Africa · Media in Africa · Software · Start up · VC 4 Africa · ethnography · venture capital
Tagged: Africa, angel investor, Business, content, Development, entrepreneur, Ethiopia, ethiotube, founder, Internet, Investment, investor, local, Media, Mobile, online, Platform, Start up, Tech, user generated, vc4africa.com, venture capital, Video, web, youtube
Tony Wamala - CoFounder Altoje Computer World
A 30 minute Boda Boda ride to the outskirts of Kampala, towards the east on the main road to Jinja, you end up at Banda Station. There at the intersection of a marketplace and two dirt roads I call Tony. Before I can turn around I see the young man come up to greet me. He is wearing brown leather shoes, slacks and a striped button up shirt. He has a big smile and looks forward to showing me his shop several buildings down the street. I can see that it has several stories, each containing a hallway lined by small business shops on either side. On the ground floor, at the end of the hallway on the right, you find Kampala’s newest software company
Altoje Computer World.
The AL stands for Alex, TO stands for Tony and the JE stands for Joseph. I ask why there is an E at the end as opposed to an O. They tell me its because they wanted to include Jesus in the name of the company. So JE stands for Joseph and Jesus. The company was started by five friends who got to know each other during their time at the Makerere University. They finished their studies in July 2008 and graduated from the Makerere University in January 2009. Never able to find a job they decided to try and start their own business. Alex explains, ‘We were searching for jobs but jobs for Uganda is difficult. Why can’t we create our own. We knew it would take years and years to find a job so lets start a company, provide some services and earn a living.’ The jobs that are available aren’t attractive for someone passionate about software. He goes on to say, ‘You could do data entry for 100,000 to 200,000 shilling a month. But this is not the point. We want to build our own business and have a vision now.’
Although Joseph, one of the original partners, has become less involved recently. They explain he lives farther away and the travel costs can be prohibitive. There are two other individuals but they only come in on an assignment basis. This really leaves Tony and Alex running the show. They make sure the shop is always open from 7 am to 7 pm six days a week. On Sunday they assure me they don’t work ‘very hard.’ The two entrepreneurs make clear that when you have a job you can do whatever you want. You go home at five and you have freedom on the weekends. Alex, while helping a customer reorganize his pricing list, says, ‘they actually want you to rest on holidays. But for us we always have this rent over our heads. We have to work every day and try to get in as much business as we can.’ It is clear these guys are eager to build their company and don’t have time to waste. They are far more focused and serious about what they are doing and seem to be working harder than most of the programmers I have met until now.
Contact Tony and Alex
Website: www.altojecomputerworld.com
E-mail: altojecomputerworld@gmail.com
E-mail: wamalatony@yahoo.com
Categories: Business · Development · Economics · End User · Entrepreneurship · ICT · ICT 4 Uganda · ICT Africa · ICT4Uganda · Interview · Investment Africa · Open Source · Research · Software · Start up · VC 4 Africa · ethnography · kampala · uganda · venture capital
Tagged: Africa, alex, altoje, company, Computer, computing, data, developer, Development, east africa, entrepreneurs, Faculty, graduates, ICT, joseph, kampala, Makerere, Mobile, programmer, Software, Start up, Students, talent, Technology, uganda, World
Late one evening we went to a local shop to buy some beer. The lady actually didn’t want to sell it to us because we didn’t have any empty bottles to exchange. See glass is valuable here and actually worth 500 to 1000 shillings. The part that gets me is that we didn’t even bother to return the bottles as promised. I think the main reason is because for us the money doesn’t really matter and we actually value the 20 minutes of tv time more. My friend Henri tells me she will either have one of the local boys steal bottles from one of the local restaurants needed to fill her crate. Otherwise she might tip the driver with a free beer and he can tell the brewer some were dropped or broke in transport. I think its just amazing to learn how what I consider such a small infraction can have such enormous consequences in behavior. And I consider myself a compassionate person who is usually quite aware of my surroundings. But yet knowing this I am still unwilling to change or adapt to local circumstances. I am unable to value a beer bottle in the same way as the lady who runs her evening shop. Culture runs deep. And until I can learn to appreciate these ‘small’ things I really haven’t made progress.
Categories: Uncategorized
