Ghana Tech-preneurs: Better Than Silicon Valley?
Owler’s CEO, Tim Harsch, spent three days in Ghana in mid-June at the MEST Africa tech-preneurs presentations.
Once a quarter, MEST Africa invites entrepreneurs and founders from around the globe to come and visit their campus and deliver a lecture to their EITs (Entrepreneurs-in-Training) for the MEST Africa’s Guest Lecture Weekend and NewCo Midpoint Pitches.
In the past, they have had the CPO of Facebook Chris Cox, TechCrunch Editor-at-Large Mike Butcher, Uber's launcher in Africa Alastair Curtis, Bono (from U2!) and many more amazing individuals from around the globe join us at MEST for a special weekend.
This time they invited me. Two things truly blew me away: how welcoming and friendly all of the Ghanian people are - it felt like coming home! Secondly, the quality of the presentations at the event, which were of international quality.
The 14 competing teams had decks you would see in Silicon Valley. In fact, better than decks that I've seen for companies in Silicon Valley! The confidence and the stage presence of the individuals were also incredible.
One of the strongest presentations was for an application that allows users to book a seat on commuter minibusses. The Ghanian public transport system is unlike in the US, where you can hail an Uber, for example. They use the much cheaper commuter minibus taxis to travel between locations. It is a disorganized system and can be very hit and miss for commuters. Lines are often long, and you might not catch a ride if you are not there first. One of the ideas that everyone was excited about was an application that allows users to book their spot on the minibus ride ahead of time.
Using the application to book a spot on the minibus would perhaps cost a little more than waiting in line, but would still be much cheaper than a taxi or ride-sharing service, and it would be a lot more convenient than waiting in these long lines and maybe getting on, maybe not.
Another interesting presentation was a company that had created software to optimize the shipping of bulk business items. For example, if someone needs to move tons of tomatoes somewhere they could book a transporter on this app, which seemed like an excellent idea. The team was five members, and each had a deep background in logistics. However, their business model was aggressively picked apart. The primary reason is that in Ghana, specific businesses run the bulk goods transportation sector, and while the app is a great idea, it would not be able to break into the market. It made me realize how much their market differs from here in the USA.
If these business ideas are accepted by MEST Africa, they receive some funding in return for a percentage of the business. However, all of the businesses were predicated on exceedingly low start-up costs, and not really spending that funding. For example, in the minibus app, as an entrepreneur, I would have gone and bought minibusses for the business, but the team was planning on renting the buses for a lower initial cost.
Many of the teams undervalued the growth possibilities of their ideas. I think if the teams put a 10x on all of their numbers then - boom, it is a Silicon Valley presentation!
As someone who has been part of this entrepreneurial tech journey, telling the story of any lessons we learned along the way was a highlight. My top piece of advice - keep trying and don't give up. The mark of a successful entrepreneur is moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
It's a hard journey, building something from scratch, and you have to be comfortable with the downs as well as the ups.
What is MEST Africa?
MEST is an Africa-wide technology entrepreneur training program, internal seed fund, and network of hubs offering incubation for technology startups in Africa.
For young aspiring and established African entrepreneurs, MEST Africa provides the skills, mindset, and experiences to build a globally successful tech company. Beyond tech and entrepreneurial skills training, MEST Africa provides a real-world advantage to entrepreneurs through funding, business incubation, and access to a global tech network.
