Mbwana

2010 - 2019: 🌉 🌍 Left Seattle/Microsoft & broke into VC bridging Silicon Valley to Africa 📈 📊 Started @SavannahFund funding 30+ Africa focused startups 🇹🇿 🏡 Moved home Tanzania, settling in Arusha after 20+ years living in 🇬🇧 🇺🇲 🇰🇪 closer to identity, family & passions

Go time!!!! @ycombinator

My voice is completely gone thanks to the phenomenal #LetsileTebogo. Wow!🇧🇼 #gold

A young girl has bought food. On her way home, she must use an airsoft machine gun to avoid being attacked and the food stolen by the monkeys. The city of Lop Buri in Thailand is home to hundreds of macaques. The locals consider these monkeys to be disciples of the Hindu god Hanuman. The macaque population in Lop Buri is constantly growing, and this leads to an odd coexistence between man and monkey. While some people love them, others fear or even hate them. [📸 Joan de la Malla]

One unique attribute of #Tanzania's 65 million consumer retail market is that retail chain store outlets have thus far been unsuccessful in establishing themselves in the country. In other words, you will not find Tesco, Carrefour or similar chain stores throughout the country.

⚠ Confirmed: Network data show a disruption to internet connectivity in and around multiple East #Africa countries; the incident is attributed to failures affecting the SEACOM and EASSY subsea cable systems 📉

The Kenyan government has just declared free education for all, and an 84 year old man wants to learn. The First Grader, inspired by the true story of Kimani Maruge is coming to Netflix tomorrow! 📚

The issue of reciprocal restrictions of air transport between Tanzania and Kenya and from Tanzania/Kenya to third countries has been amicably resolved this afternoon. I thank H.E @MusaliaMudavadi and ministers of transport in 🇹🇿 & 🇰🇪 for joint effort to resolve this #SisiNiNdugu

I had a great meeting with @JDevermont, @POTUS Biden's Special Assistant & National Security Council Senior Director for Africa, @USAmbTanzania and Jonathan Pratt PDAS @AsstSecStateAF to discuss Tanzania-USA relations, trade, investment, MCA, AGOA and regional peace and security

Yes, I "failed" KCSE but it was not the end of my life. I wrote about this in 2016

Spent tonight creating the @afropolitan GPT. A cutting-edge AI assistant tailored specifically for our vibrant community. chat.openai.com/g/g-VnJj6t6Rg-…

Tanzania’s Amsons Group signed an agreement to acquire 65% stake in Mbeya Cement Company Limited from Holcim Ltd (subject to regulatory clearance). Its interesting and promising to see a local Tanzanian company, grew and built in Tanzania, buying out majority of a global conglomerate stake. These local exit opportunities also give more confidence to global investors looking at Tanzania. Holcim Ltd, is a Swiss multinational company that manufactures building materials (acquired Lafarge). It has a presence in around 70 countries, and employs around 72,000 employees.

@Jasielinvests It's actually possible to work out the African YC startup graduation rate using data from The Big Deal and others (have done this). But definitely not close to 45% - by the time they reach Series A, Africa realities kick in like macro to justify higher valuations

YC claims that 45% of their companies go on to raise series A, which “justifies” the higher valuation cap. Many African founders assume the YC benefit. That’s a mistake. We should be asking: What percentage of African YC companies raise series A at the higher valuation cap?

African founders have a handicap by relying on SAFEs for funding in the past 3 years: Many don't understand the legal process for closing institutional priced rounds. Avoid this by hiring a qualified transaction lawyer. (Most African early stage founders' lawyers are not)

Malawians are waking up to a 44% devaluation of their currency. It’s not easy to hold USD there. I imagine Bitcoin will get interesting to more people there if they have the ability to save (not all do).

I really appreciate that President @PaulKagame said that the biggest successful project of the Government of Rwanda has been changing the dependency mindset of Rwandans (always looking to others) into self-reliance that collaborates with partners with dignity i.e. putting in the work to become high value because no one owes you anything. #NAW2023

in a tough macro environment, it’s instructive to understand who has pricing power and who does not. ability to expand margin in a down market is a strong differentiator. (ex: META, NFLX, AAPL, AMZN, NBA… others?)

In South Africa, Solar is the market that will grow significantly in the next 4-5 years. Nedbank estimates that the investment in solar required by 2027 to meet power generation needs is R242 billion. There will be also a lot of opportunities across the value chain but not only in the obvious areas such as selling and installing solar to end users. Becoming an expert on reviewing solar products could become very valuable. Currently, I don't see any dominant authority on that. There is a gap for a "Solar Power influencer!" Many people are still holding onto the hope that Eskom will resolve its issues but history indicates that once a power system is broken, it takes a very long time to fix. Wind power, is also a big opportunity but those value flows typically go to B2B players.

@JasonNjoku Macro isn't startups responsibility but they have to navigate and be transparent about effects on business, growth and how to mitigate. Too many Nigerian founders I come across only admit after fact they've been using an outdated USD/Naira rate leading to inflated USD revenues

A big structural issue for 🇳🇬 startups is the reporting revenues in $. Unsure how you back out of it. But reporting in non-local currency is essentially hustling backwards. Reading annual reports from India, South Korea, Japan, South Africa, et al. All local currencies. Also, almost all of their largest startups are listed locally. That has been their exit path. Reporting in $ and attempting to list in USA (without a massive US customer base) 🤭