Category: Work

For such a small country it sure seems that an awful lot of them are coming to Kenya to do business.

Last week a group of 17 Danish consultants came down to do an intense 4 day workshop with our 88mph startups. The goals of the workshop were to provide background info, focus on 3 key areas that could quickly be improved and then focus on the company pitch. I’d say it was a fairly good success.

It was a welcome addition to the team to have so many people with a professional background like mine. Very structured in the approach and clearly defining the expectations. But I then began to see a side that I had never seen before. Consultants coming in and quickly taking over the daily routines. Now I know how people must feel when I have come in in the past.

As with any consulting gig, the most important thing is proving your worth and establishing a trust that you can and will help with the clients best interest in mind. I think the team that was chosen did a great job at this and the startups were very excited to get involved and listen.

One aspect I saw was that this group was reiterating all of the things we have been telling our startups in the past two months. It was as if the cool uncle came in and validate all of the things that evil parents had been saying all along.

I made a lot of friends last week and I hope I get the chance to work with them again.

Working with Abiola (Gamsole) to explain the concept behind tower defense games. We’re hoping he will begin to makes games with mosquitoes as the main character.

Raphael (middle), our in-house graphic designer, working with Duncan and Steve (front) from Manyatta Rent.

Gamsole focuses on making African themed games. Here’s all of us crowding around to see their newest game, Kazoo, in action.

We got booted this week from our office space as 88mph agreed to let Google come in to host an event.  Originally, it was only supposed to be half of the office, but now we’re fully out due to a failed attempt to setup space on the roof.  I believe they used the same tents as those at Oktoberfest and surprise, they leaked.

Now we’re spread out this week working at home, the mall and pretty much anywhere that can get internet signal.  So far, I’ve been very unsuccessful in finding a decent one.

Better luck tomorrow I guess.

The startups are making great progress and we have now launched the new M-pepea website.  The site is built on wordpress and I decided upon doing a custom design.

Let me know your thoughts.

Mpepea website

Today marks the day where we have 42 days until Demo Day.  On December 13th, we will be hosting a group investors, technologists and journalists to see the progress of our group of 88mph startup companies.

 

We have team meetings 3 times a week to prepare for the event.  Today we focused on pitching to investors allowing each founder to pitch their idea, their progress and where they want to be.  It’s a great opportunity for us to aid them in presentation techniques and styles.  The progress they have made in feeling comfortable with pitching over the past 3 – 4 weeks has been very good and I’m sure they’ll be more than ready for Demo Day.

Gamsole is another one of the startups that I’m currently working with.  It is a group of guys from Nigeria that focus on making African-themed games for all smartphones.

This weekend I setup a new WordPress-based site for them.  I’m definitely getting into using WordPress and creating custom themes.  It’s fairly easy to do and hugely beneficial for clients as it allows them to update their website on their own instead of relying on someone that knows backend info.

Check out their website here: Gamsole

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.

Things are busy around the office.  I went on my first sales call today for one of the startups, Mpepea (Mmm – pey – pey – ah).  I am the mentor assigned primarily to Mpepea.  The business is designed to make it easy for people to get emergency micro loans via their mobile phones.  The technology uses Mpesa which allows people to pay for things using their phones.  No need to carry cash around.

The primary things we’re working on this week are financial models to prove viability to customers and investors and sales pitch materials to ensure consistency and quality in the sales.  And it’s my 3rd day.

I’m working with the founder, Daniel, every day to help drive business activities to get this in a place by December to show to investors.

That’s not all though, I’ve also started lending a hand to a couple of the other groups to help with brand development and website work.  Here’s the new logo for Manyatta Rent.

They are allowing people to pay for rent via their mobile phones thus saving them tons of time waiting in lines at the banks and having to then take a receipt to their landlords.  Hearing about the problem makes me happy that the U.S. has such a great postal service, checks can be trusted and we have online payments now.

Computers and internet are just too expensive here to make that really viable which is why these mobile solutions are so big.

A friend of mine in Opuwo invited me for drinks after work today and this ended up going until we then had dinner. I started receiving messages about a party for me at the office. I passed this off as a joke and kept eating. I then received a few phone calls telling me I had to be at the office for my party. Um…what party? I keep eating. They call again a bit later after I have eaten and ask if they can start without me. Start what exactly? I quickly made my way to the hospital and one person was outside waiting for me. I walk to the back patio and sitting there are probably 50 people…oops. Thanks for the heads up people. The time was around 8pm and this was supposed to start at 6:30. I make my apologies and sit at a table designated for myself and another woman who had recently resigned after being there for 11 years. Speeches follow. I get to speak and make up something on the spot…this went ok. I ended by presenting a donation to the new Epupa clinic. I don’t disclose the amount and don’t really want to. Next up is the director…she disclosed the amount…thank you. Dinner was served for everyone with drinks, even beer and such. All in all thought it was a good evening and was good to see everyone outside of work and just having a good time. Would have liked more informal interaction with my colleagues like this, but I was warned this would be hard to do when I got here so it’s ok. Two more days of work and then it’s outta here.

That’s right folks. Christmas came early in Opuwo today. A nice big box came today full of networking goodies both wired and wireless. People are extremely happy to hear that they are one step closer to getting Internet. Now it all depends whether or not they’re willing to pay for the Internet…time will tell, but signs point to yes.

Due to the flooding of my inbox of people just dying to know if computer equipment came today I thought I’d post about it. The long and short of it is kind of. While at work I physically received nothing that resembled computer hardware. I did receive a comment that led me to believe that everyone thinks I have done nothing while I’ve been here…I might have to fight them later. I heard…again a rumor…that there might have been some computer equipment in the back of a car that arrived this evening transporting a new volunteer from Windhoek. Big day Monday. I’ll let you know how things go so I can actually ‘do something for once’ to appease the masses.

A switch has been flipped and rumor has it that some computer and networking parts might be finding their way to Opuwo…wait for it…tomorrow! Rumors are known to run rampant in these parts so I’m not putting all my hopes in one handwoven basket. However, it’s nice to see that I might actually have a snowballs chance in Opuwo of doing what they really wanted me to come here for. Local area network to allow widespread Internet. Cross those fingers for me, would ya?

Work updates are always fun so here is some fun. Work is interesting. Things are moving, but moving slowly. The possibility of acquiring some funds to buy some computer equipment has gotten to the stage that I’m getting some quotations from ‘local’ businesses in Windhoek. You see, every purchase requires a quotation and then an order can be placed against the quotation. Then we play the wait game and I’m then back in the U.S. when boxes arrive and no one knows how to use the stuff in the boxes. Crossing the fingers on this one.

Individual training with staff has started this week and I’m hoping that I’ll start getting some recruits in the weeks to come. So far it’s Excel basics, but hey, gotta start somewhere. I’m actually really surprised that the head of regional HR doesn’t know Excel, but that’s where I step in. After a few weeks he’ll be spreadsheeting with the best of them. So far so good.

Meetings continue. They’re actually where I get the majority of my work done so there is something to be said about it….not sure what to say, but say something.

This is the question that everyone around the office has been asking me lately.  I tell them that they should not be playing games at work.  For many, it’s the first time they have spoken to me.  I asked a group of people to tell me why they think games should be on the computers.  Many were speechless and merely attacked more.  Some said they like to come in on the weekends and play….uh…right.  The best response was that they want to play them during lunch time.  I admit that this was a good reason; however, I know it’s a lie.  I pulled out a jerk card and asked if they paid for the computers.  Silence.  I said if they buy their own computer they can put whatever they want on it.  As long as these computers belong to the Ministry and I am here to help improve their IT then no games.

I’m in a bit of a pickle here with the employees as I fear a revolt.  My ace in the hole is a national IT policy which will legitimize my claims.

I should start lying and telling them it’s a virus that’s erasing their beloved Freecell.

Anyone have any other ideas?  I’m thinking about installing programs that will act like the computer is erasing itself…think a scare tactic is a good idea?