Category: Startups
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The Education Revolution of the 21st Century
For years I have been a moderately loud opponent of the higher education system as is in Africa and the world in general. This is because, as an engineer and 5 years of engineering school later, I do not believe that education even remotely served me well to prepare me for work I now do…
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Note to Non-Techies 001: Where Does Your Data Go?
I have started a new mini-series known as “Note to Non-Techies”. This came up as a result of the need to share some very interesting conversations I have had with people around me about tech, apps, and other innovations and how they affect their everyday lives (knowingly/unknowingly). I will be co-authoring this with different ‘someones’.…
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T.A.M. And Why We Need To Look Beyond…
Just population numbers no revenues included*** The Total Addressable Market (T.A.M.) for Kenyan startups has been a strong ongoing debate in the local startup ecosystem. As compared to some of the most vibrant tech ecosystems in the world, one pattern is clearly evident, TAM. Most of them have huge populations which in turn means more…
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Once an Entrepreneur Always an Entrepreneur
About a week ago, we had a discussion about what our ideal job in a perfect world would be. My answer was definitely building impactful organizations/companies. I believe that I am a builder and this is ideally pretty much what my career has been so far. I was born into an entrepreneur family. To my…
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The Startup Revolution is Coming…
For years the startup world has been saying this. Change has not been immediate but then again, change never is. I have observed an amazing trend over the past two years, one unlike the situation five years ago. This has been so rampant that I decided to make it my first blog of the year.…
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Startups as a Science
Building and growing a startup is a science. This is probably something you have heard before. Entities like Y-Combinator have proven this time and time again. However, this still leaves the question, is this true for African startups and better yet, what does this even mean? So how did this come up now? I was…
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It’s About Time
Roughly two months ago, I came back to Nairobi ready to embark on work in the operations team of a visionary local startup. This generally meant spending every waking moment researching the local tech startup ecosystem. My knowledge of the Kenyan startup scope is tied to my five years of university in one of the…
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The Kenyan Construction Industry and Tech
One of the premier project proposals that I worked on in my university years was a brick laying robot. This robot had the ability to lay brick five times faster than the average human. We based our research on SAM 100 (Semi-Automated Mason), the brainchild of Construction Robotics. Sam can lay up to 400 bricks…
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African Startups Vs Startups in Africa
Original Article published on VentureBurn. This is a slightly altered ‘Kenyan’ version. I get utterly distraught every time I open a new TechCrunch article of a start-up with a Swahili name disrupting a certain sphere of Africa only to find a foreigner founder and director. In a good case scenario, there will be one or…
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‘Saving’ the Matatu Industry
In the next few months, the government through the new parastatal Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, NAMATA, will be implementing a BRT system on the Kenyan roads. This exercise will directly impact four counties namely: Nairobi City, Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Murang’a. For years, the matatu industry has descended into chaos, making it the ultimate…
Mumbi Annstella 