The inevitable fate of innovative startups in Africa

LOL - "Without a support system we're all just wanking". I think you've hit the nail on the head. That's it. That system of how to take innovations from idea to market is in the structure that is "Silicon Valley". Perhaps it bears similarity to what "Hollywood" does for movie ideas. Africa doesn't have that support system. Hell if Zuckerberg had been at UCT, Facebook would have been just another "cool idea" that went nowhere. Think about all the potential that is lost because these support systems aren't there. It's a damn shame.

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 1:56 PM, BT N wrote:
I remember everything my friend and even NJ, very well. You've posed a very good question and one that I appreciate. It is indeed not the lack of ideas BUT the lack of a support system that kills Africa and Africans. One: your friends and family will discourage you Two: the system will not understand what you're doing and thus will try and stop you Three: no understanding of the fact that success is about perseverance in spite of Reason One and Two.

Silicon Valley is an incubator. It knows that the baby needs to be nurtured. The whole system is structured to make it easy for ideas to flourish, and be taken to market. Without such a support system we're all just wanking. In SA to start a company and register it is even expensive for someone like me who is supposed to be a top earner on this country. Imagine then for an African at UCT. So before you can even nurture your idea you've already lost with the system. Environmental Determinism is very important and a lot of people like to play it down. It's no accident that the US/Sillicon Valley shows such innovation.

What makes it worse is that the people on government, in Africa, have no clue about what it takes to make small businesses and startups work. No idea at all. Their brains are MOOSH.

--
Cheers
BT N
MOGVL.COM :: A Private Social Network

Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Feb 2011, at 3:33 PM, Mk D wrote:

> my bachelor's thesis was creating a WAP application for the UCT library, so users could search and browse library books on their mobiles. My professor thought it was a bit lame but I remember remarking that WAP was going to be huge and one would feel stupid if they missed out on its potential. Well WAP died basically, but as we well know, the underlying concept of the mobile "app" did not. The mobile app market is indeed "huge".
> Another friend of ours, NJ, not sure if you remember NJ but he was working on some VoIP "Skype" type project. We all know what other people did with VoIP. So now I'm thinking, what really separates us from the big-shots of the western world, if it's not ideas. Is it money? Or is it the core knowledge of what makes up the structure of success?