Work went well this week as I continued to really figure out what it is that I’m doing here.
The primary startup that I’m working with is a company called M-Pepea (Mm – pey – pey – ah). The founder is Daniel Munga. His idea is to allow people to take out emergency loans using their mobile phones. We’ve been spending the last two weeks working on the sales pitch to clients, presentation materials, financial models, business processes, website, budget and the overall business model. It’s a lot to work on, but it really isn’t feeling like work.
We had a really good moment yesterday where we went through our business plan together and really spent some time fine tuning what we need to focus on. I saw a spark in Daniel, that I hadn’t seen so far, where he got excited about improving his product. I’m looking forward to next week as we’re hoping to actually test his product using 88mph employees as the guinea pigs.
So how does this all fit in with the future? Not really sure actually. The promise of coming here is that the mentors are supposed to naturally pair with startups they find interesting and ultimately become a partner in the businesses. I’m considering myself more of a consultant at this time and know that after December I’ll be heading home.
Other work I’ve been doing around the office has been setting up a WordPress site for Manyatta Rent. Always good learning some new skills and definitely fun.
I’m hoping to work a little closer with Closet49 (online fashion store) soon to learn a little about ecommerce sites. Also planning on helping Gamsole, which is a group of Nigerian guys who make games for smartphones. I’ll keep you posted on that progress.