MY DREAM FOR THE SILICON SAVANNA

This morning I came across a post by Pheneas Munene on LinkedIn and that inspired me to talk to you about what keeps me coming back to continue building Founders Hub Africa even after giving up several times.

As a young boy in the village, a thought continuously ran through my mind. I wanted to make so much money so that I could go back to the village and ask all the youth and my peers to come up with business ideas and then I would fund them. The situation seems a little better today but back then everyone was clinging on hope. People were struggling to make ends meet and that planted something in me: to give my village people economic empowerment. One thing about prayers (or is it manifestation?) is that they work. Okay, I didn't explicitly fast and pray but I had desires: the marks I wanted to score in school, the university I wanted to attend, the course I wanted to take and so on. These desires were always in my mind and I used to talk to myself about them very frequently. And they happened just like I had wished for them to. Or prayed.

In my second year at the university, I came across a book 'The Strait Path to Real Estate Wealth' by Kris Krohn, which made me miss all classes until I was done reading it because I was curious to apply its teachings and make wealth. I have a whole notebook of notes I took while reading that book. About a year later I came across 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill and the same thing happened. Immediately I finished reading Kris Krohn's book, I jumped into action. I didn't have any money but I was determined to do what in real estate they call Fix and Flip. The idea is to buy and repair abandoned or unmaintained houses then selling at a profit. One morning in May or June 2018 I went to Cooperative Bank to negotiate a mortgage loan and the guy in charge told me that "the first qualification for this loan is that you must not be a student." The hell? If you're keen, you have already noticed that I'm looking for money to go back and give my village people economic empowerment.

In 2022, a former University classmate, Caroline Gituma (Caro) shared with me a poster to attend an event in Westlands (Raphta road). It was Adanian Labs. At the event were investors from Dubai who were launching a program in partnership with Adanian Labs to support fintech (I was building HimaPay then) founders in Kenya. My application was accepted and was called for a photoshoot alongside other shortlisted applicants. Photos which would be used to market the program. Then the games started. In short, that program did not take off, and if it did, with me not being part of it. I can read mischief very fast and that helped me understand the startup landscape in Kenya. Behind the pomp and colour, nothing much really happens. So I decided to start my own innovation hub. And since I couldn't do it alone, I decided to seek financial assistance from people I thought were capable. I logged on to my Instagram and started sending messages to Jalas, King Kaka (then an ambassador at Blaze by Safaricom), and Mike Sonko and many others. I got no response from any of them.

At Adanian Labs I had met Matt Magera of Jobzy and Arnold Otieno (then building Kapu. The name Kapu was later disputed in court when Sam Chappatte from Jumia launched his own startup with the same name). Matt invited me to join him, Nelly Alili of Zidallie, Pheneas of Phindor, Ngugi Karega of Skizaa, Oscar Karah and others to start Young Founders Space (YFS). Chance or luck? You be the judge but I jumped into YFS head first. I finally was part of a team where I had a voice to bring change to the startup ecosystem in Kenya. But like we read in History about the fall of KADU, MauMau and other Kenyan political outfits, YFS also suffered ideological differences and members parted ways in March 2023. I wasn't going to let something we had build just fall apart like that. And not only that, I had a reason for wanting to do this.

In January 2024, Fred Akwando and I (Fred had been tipped by Nelly to run YFS with me) changed the name to Founders Hub Africa (FHA)with a view to capture the whole of Africa by creating chapters in each country. I brought in Kusiluka Aginiwe (Founders Tanzania) and Donald Maasa (Founders Lounge Uganda). Fred later decided to focus on Space ya Tech and Mentorlst so I decided to assemble a new team to help me run FHA. This team did not perform to my expectations and one month later I dissolved it. I am impatient when it comes to performance, especially if you promise to do something and fail to. I was only left with Ian Okonu and Kelvin Ndumia (Dissolve Software) who were working on the new portal (the Figma designs which were drawn by Kusiluka of Tanzania). The logo design was sponsored by Philip Mrutu from Tanzania as well (Tanzanians believe in Ujamaa). But later Ian Okonu dropped to fix personal stuff which were urgent to him, leaving me with Kelvin with whom we've been walking the journey of building the portal for about a year now. He occasionally puts everything about FHA aside to focus on paying gigs because he's got bills to pay and the work at FHA is purely voluntary. These frustrations made me quit everything and left all groups in September 2024. I was so done with Founders Hub. Those who know me will tell you that I am a perfectionist and seeing things dragging really frustrated me. Also, I didn't have any income and my startup, HimaPay, was nolonger working because of regulatory requirements which I didn't have: all bank accounts at Coop and Equity banks were closed in a span of two months, I had no way of depositing float to continue operating, and the inactivity led to the suspension of our Mpesa shortcodes and eventually part of the float which was locked there forfeited to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) because the only way to withdraw them was to the company bank account. I couldn't open another bank account because I didn't have the license of letter of no objection from the Central Bank of Kenya. And my Angel Investors were also in financial distress because the deals they were chasing fell apart. It was chaos. Those close to me know just how many times I borrowed 100, 20, 50, 30 shillings to buy airtime and bundles. Packing up my clothes and going back to the village was all that I had in mind. I was going to start afresh in the village. The plan was ready about how I was going to use one of the registered self-help groups that my brother runs as a proof of concept to empower the village and create employment for youths in every homestead. Why should I be struggling to help strangers when I can start from the village and directly assist the people whom I had allegiance to? The Nairobi venture was taking longer and I couldn't wait any more. Charity begins at home, no? I thought to myself.

But one thing brought me back to Founders Hub Africa (FHA). When I left the groups and announced that I was done with it, founders came to my inbox saying that they were looking up to me and that me leaving would leave them exposed, again. I felt guilty that I was abandoning my duty of care. But at the same time, it was hurting me to leave something that I had held so dearly for almost two years. Something I was attached to, and where I found my purpose. I came back. This time we go harder, and we're building a much bigger and stronger community with university alumni associations, trade associations, manufacturers associations, etc.

When I look keenly, Founders Hub must either rent a huge building or build its own that will accommodate founders and startups: affordable offices, sleeping pods, events, summits and conference hall, R&D lab, podcast and video shoot studio, kitchen, tech and innovation lab, working areas, restaurant, all of it. A startup campus that's fully equipped to catapult Kenya's innovations. The Silicon Savanna Headquarters. 95% of our members work from home because either they don't have the money to pay for offices and co-working spaces, or the money they have isn't enough to rent an office space, and yet co-working spaces cannot accommodate their full team (most co-working spaces only accommodate a maximum of two.

We hope to achieve this in the next one year. Scary to imagine how it will be done but thrilling enough to know that WE can and could actually do it.

This is what wakes me up every morning, Pheneas!