The African Pre-seed Podcast Founders Factory Africa

🌍 Creating impact in the African tech ecosystem takes many stakeholders, and while venture dollars might grab the biggest headlines, foundation and impact partners also play a crucial role. You might even argue—correctly—that these impact partners have influenced traditional VC players and shaped how they think about investing on the continent. 
🚀 This month’s podcast is a conversation with Dr. Nina Smidt, the Spokesperson for the Board and the CEO of the International Siemens Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation that has been promoting and investing in sustainable social development for the last fifteen years. 
The Foundation focuses on three key topics: access to essential services, connected societies, and climate and sustainability. 
At the heart of this conversation is the importance of sustainable social enterprise. Another key theme is the importance of working with local stakeholders in specific regions because they know best what will create the most significant impact on their work and impact in their communities. 
It’s a particularly valid point when foreign VC players in Africa have received criticism for their poor understanding of the landscape and lack of knowledge of sustainable business models. In 2021 and 2022, a time when foreign VCs poured money into Africa, there was a sense that partnering with local players familiar with the lay of the land would have led to better investments. 
But it’s not all about divergence. VCs and impact foundations also have notable points of convergence. Impact foundations can, for instance, invest in late-stage social enterprises that may not receive follow-up VC funding but serve very important purposes. 
💡 Here’s a quote from Dr. Smidt that drives the point home: 
“The biggest obstacle is still a lack of funding in general. Funding is there for ideation and later stages, but the so-called middle experiences a funding gap. We support social enterprises that are not in the early stages anymore, that are already generating revenue but are not sustainable in themselves from a funding perspective. So here’s where we come in.” Enough spoilers for one episode. Please listen and share what you found the most impactful in this episode! - Olumuyiwa (Contributor and Writer, African Pre-seed Podcast).
💡 Top 5 insights unpacked in the episode: 
The International Siemens Foundation's point of view on impact and social entrepreneurship [03:37]The foundation bridges funding gaps for social enterprises in the "missing middle" stage, supporting them until they become self-sustainable [08:34]The importance of local understanding in driving innovation and change [11:30]Monitoring and evaluation methods to assess programs and continuous improvement [17:22]Investing in research and development, empowering local innovators to pilot and scale solutions [24:06]
CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:
Connect with Nina Smidt.Connect with Adam Wakefield.Tell us...
What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast

📍 The end of the year's first quarter is typically a time for companies—and their founders—to take stock of what has been accomplished so far. So for public companies, we huddle over investor calls and try to understand performance. For private companies, we hope and pray a media publication somehow finds their numbers and shares them with us.
🎯 For this month’s podcast, Adam Wakefield speaks to Dr. Kirti Ranchod, a clinical neurologist and the founder of memorability.co. The conversation focuses on brain health, mental wellness, and understanding that, much like everything else in life, you can learn skills to improve your mental wellness. 

What specific brain skills can we consider useful, especially for entrepreneurs looking to improve performance? For Dr. Ranchod, there are 8 brain skills, and 4 of those matter the most to founders: creativity, empathy, focus, and calm. 
For calmness, for instance, many people practice meditation or mindfulness to learn to stay calm even in tough situations. And before you get super cynical, some science shows that the brain can change in response to what we do or our external environment. 
That’s enough spoilers for one episode. Listen and tell us what you found the most impactful in this episode! - Olumuyiwa
💡 Top 5 insights unpacked in the episode: 
Brain and mental health and its impact on founders [07:03]Efficiently maximising the brain's capabilities [09:24]Creating an environment that promotes health and mental wellness [16:05]Leveraging community and communication for better wellbeing as a founder [20:19]Mental health at the intersection of running a business [24:43]CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:
Connect with Kirti Rachod.Connect with Adam Wakefield.Tell us...
What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast

💡 Join our host, Loraine Achar, featuring esteemed panelists Bruce Nsereko-Lule (General Partner, Seedstars Africa Ventures), June Odongo (Founder & CEO, Senga Technologies), Jason Musyoka (Chief Financial Officer, Rology), as they go bar-for-bar on the topic of discussion, “The Good and Bad of Funding - Choosing the Right Capital in 2024.” 💸
📍 Choosing the right capital for your startup is a crucial decision that can significantly impact a company’s trajectory. Beyond financial support, good investors provide expertise, networks, and guidance that are essential for a startup’s success.
Against the backdrop of shifting priorities among investors over the last two years, the recent African Pre-seed Podcast Live in Nairobi, provided invaluable insights into this pursuit. Acknowledging the challenges posed by a decrease in African startup funding in 2023, the panellists unanimously agreed on the importance of founders being prudent in their choice of investors.
Read all about it: ✅ https://kenyanwallstreet.com/a-guide-... ⬅️
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What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast 

🎙️ In this episode, we talk about how founders can focus on solving real problems instead of building ventures that prioritise fundraising first and solving user pain points second. With fundraising harder and founders finding themselves in a pinch, the macro seems to be exerting overt influence on how founders position and build their businesses. 
To be clear, there are other arguments for raising money, one of which is the idea that somtimes founders are working on incredibly difficult problems that require audacious and expensive solutions. 

Whether you’re scaling an existing solution or trying to solve an incredibly difficult problem, you should be ready to be the champion for your startup. You also need to have domain expertise that gives investors confidence in your ability to execute. 

What to look forward to in this episode:
Gerald Black's journey to exit [06:15]Competing in a saturated market [08:14]African founders prioritizing fundraising over addressing real problems [17:02]The systematic process of identifying customer pain points and building ventures effectively address them [21:27]The role of "Operators" in startup ecosystem growth [30:51]Staying warm during the funding winter [34:16]
CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:
Connect with Gerald Black on Linkedin.Connect with Andrew Obuoforibo on LinkedIn.Tell us...
What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast🔌

🇿🇦 This month's podcast was recorded at the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit 2023 (AESIS 2023), held in Cape Town between 30 November and 2 December 2023. Featuring sector heavyweights Aly El Shalakany (Advisory Board Member, AESIS), Eleni Gabre-Madhin (Chief Innovation Officer, UNDP Africa), Tracy Kimathi (Founder, BARIDI), Ben White (Director and Founder, VC4A) and Maxime Bayen (Operating Partner, Catalyst Fund) breaking down several themes they believe will strongly influence investor interactions with the ecosystem in 2024. Among them were:
The importance of perspective within the tech ecosystem given the difficult raising environment in 2023.The increasing prominence of impact capital within the tech ecosystem. Investors playing a greater role in helping their portfolio startups become exit-ready.💡 Top insights unpacked in the episode:
UNDP launching the world's largest initiative to support the African innovation ecosystem [01:25]An African tech ecosystem trend forecast, current developments, and dashboard view of what's coming next [18:18]Fundraising, investor relations, mental health, and startup journey reflections from a founder's perspective [27:53]Africa The Big Deal and impact investing in 2024 [40:14]Tracking progress within the African tech ecosystem and priority themes in 2024, and beyond [57:10]CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:
Connect with Aly El Shalakany on Linkedin.Connect with Eleni Gabre-Madhin on Linkedin.Connect with Tracy Kimathi on Linkedin.Connect with Maxime Bayen on Linkedin.Connect with Ben White on Linkedin.Tell us...
What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?🔌 Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast 

🎙️ In this month’s podcast, the final one for the year 2023, we talk about how iteration leads to success and also touch on the Zambian tech ecosystem. 
Gilbert Lungu, the Country Manager for Cellulant, one of Africa’s “OG” fintech startups that has raised $55 million to date. Lungu has the chops to help us understand the Zambian tech ecosystem, having served as Head of Enterprise Sales for Airtel Zambia and Acting Network Enterprise Manager at MTN Zambia. He has led Cellulant Zambia since 2018. 
💡 With a population of 19 million people, Zambia’s mobile cellular subscriptions have grown rapidly since 2010. Today, there are  99.1 mobile subscribers per 100 people. This growth has ensured that the appetite for mobile-related products and services has skyrocketed, as highlighted by Lungu.
It explains why fintech startups are popular in Zambia, with one report highlighting 57 fintech startups, most of which enable payments. 
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the uptake of fintech startups by customers even more, and there’s a generation of young people for whom smartphone apps are the primary way to get anything done. It suggests that there is a huge room for growth in Zambia’s fintech space.
📚 What lessons can founders take from this conversation?
First, every successful business is driven by a vision and a need to “sort out a problem in a particular way.” For Cellulant, that problem was first value-added services– ringtones and such- and initially, the myth was that the company’s founders scribbled their ideas on a napkin! 
In the early stages of this vision, it’s common for the startup to be unstructured and for structure to only come as more people join the team. You won’t find much luck trying to fundraise without certain things–governance, risk management, etc.- in place. 
What to look forward to in this episode:
Cellulant's origin story [07:46]Iterating for future success [12:24]Getting things done through teamwork [16:03]Cellulant's experimentation philosophy [18:44]Deep dive into the Zambian tech ecosystem [22:49]
CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:Connect with Gilbert Lungu on LinkedInConnect with Adam Wakefield on LinkedIn
Tell us...
What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?Let us know via the hashtag #AfricanPreseedPodcast