Rob Rickard

The best advice I'm ever going to give you about software development is this: Don't start with the tech or the logic - begin with the people. Software is about people. Build a solution that solves a real problem, and the rest will come together.

African startups are ‘over-mentored, over-trained.’ Rwanda wants to fix that. techcabal.com/2026/03/20/inn…

“AI solutions as advanced agents will run every SME in the business side in the years to come.” - @rickard Hoover, small business owners don’t know how to build useful AI agents; no time to learn agentic workflows. New/Better solutions for operators are needed in the market!

Great products aren’t built from bursts of effort. They come from sustained, focused execution. If you can’t focus on one task for hours at a time, you won’t build anything meaningful. If you can’t stay locked on one problem for days, you won’t build anything great. Get to work

Everyday is a good day to celebrate a Rwandan entrepreneur!

@CommonWorld ...@ThibautMntwari & @willynsabiyumva, you two see and talk to a lot of founders and entrepreneurs in #Kigali - what do you see and hear on seeking to hire top talent that is maybe 'too good' for the current stage of the business?

This is incredibly important; we preach this strategy as consultants/mentors. Hire 'partners' and people for the roles and stages your startup is now at. It's what you can afford, and it's possible they are more loyal and can grow into the rank needed later.

I also find that in Africa, hiring higher-paid talent for leadership roles in a startup is more like hiring a mercenary for the short-term battles you are in. The culture is more of a problem-solver than a long-term growth or leadership culture, which causes a loss of culture and vision.

😅 yes, an 'African experience' 🤣 Even in the more modern city of Kigali, power can go out, and the internet can drop. I feel the chances are always higher if we are demoing anyting 😵🤣 But normally, the power and internet is pretty stable in Kigali. Absolutely, a city where we can house a team to build world-class software. But power and internet are usually pretty stable in Kigali. Absolutely, a city where we can house a team to build world-class software. 🚀

An interesting first day at @inclusIFF The day picked up for us when someone gave a public shout-out on @Guhemba as "an interesting fintech product from Rwanda to check out." After that, the DMs started flowing, and I got to meet some interesting international fintech players. It was great reconnecting with our past champions for Guhemba, and meeting new movers and shakers in the fintech space. To my new friend, Akash Gumpta and his team, building the next generation of trading systems, I hope your first experience in Africa and its fine Pinotage wines was a good one! It was for me 😃 Day 2, i will still be at the conference talking about @Guhemba as the OS for Africa’s 100M+ informal merchants; a modular platform with embedded payments, invoicing, inventory, rewards, no-code and API tools for e-commerce, and unified wallets powering both personal and business finance, all built on our invisible financial rails driving merchant services. DM me and let's connect! And to whoever gave us that shout-out, my thanks - I owe you a drink! #IFF2026

@estherkunda ☝🏻 yes!!

"To look at AI adoption on a per capita basis, we built a simple index combining web visits per capita and mobile MAU per capita across the products on our lists, scored from 0 to 100. The results reframe the geographic picture. Singapore ranks first,..."

C@Guhemba is the OS for Africa’s 100M+ informal merchants; a modular platform with embedded payments, invoicing, inventory, rewards, no-code and API tools for e-commerce, and unified wallets powering both personal and business finance, all built on our invisible financial rails driving merchant services.

Come and find me at Inclusive FinTech Forum Come and find me at the Inclusive FinTech ForumOS for Africa’s 100M+ informal merchants; a modular platform with embedded payments, invoicing, inventory, rewards, no-code and API tools for e-commerce, and unified wallets powering both personal and business finance, all built on our invisible financial rails driving merchant services. We are seeking Investors @inclusIFF #IFF2026

@ThibautMntwari It’s quite possible that this idea I have had for the past decade the (dev-founder) no longer has to have computer science degrees or skills to make a software solution. Honestly, that’s more likely the evolution here.

@Rickard I think that distribution has to be hard for a dev-founder

Can one build and do distribution solo? @Rickard

Without question, the software development industry is going through radical changes. They’re absolutely will be less not more developers from adding AI tools to the software development process. It’s more likely that the idea of what a ‘software developer’ as a person who’s job is to ‘code’ goes away as many who don’t know how to code it all will be able to create software solutions. Or, maybe just the definition changes and becomes a water down term or more of just a process or action.

@Rickard Can we say business dev people are doomed 😅?

It is always a pleasure and honor to host the US Embassy at our offices and to include our international partners. There are many opportunities in Kigali between Rwanda and US investments and organizations. We are proud to have been an active leader in the tech ecosystem, pushing innovation and deals forward.

It was a fun chat with @ThibautMntwari - and many thanks to the Voices Podcast for recording this version of ‘Founders Talk’ at @RwandaBuild Program. Often at RWBuild we have unscripted chats like this. This day we opened up in the fun of making crazy predictions (and record it 😳😱). For those of us who get the privilege to build the future, we need to innovate - and predicting the future is just part of that! Products we talked about: - Grammarly (started using it around 2010 - writing improved) - Conversion.ai (rebranded into Jasper) - 2021/2 used it for marketing projects and events at RWBuild (it was not very useful or good) - copy.ai - also not very useful - chatGPT - used it from first day of launch. it was ok for writing and research, but only became impactful in 2024. Powers our investing research and email/ letter writing. - Perplextiy - currently, best tool for lookup facts and research. - Claud - by far has been and is the best for aiding software development and productivity. None of these tools really write for us at RWBuild, but they do clean our copy writing and fortmat writing well. For me, I can loose as much time as what I save, as AI often writes or correct something to be ‘wrong’. The future is moving fast and every year these products x2. It’s clear that these tools for most will completely do the work in documents, sheets, and design. It’s already replacing coding tasks. Our own products we talked about: Guhemba Ltd. - Guhemba.rw Murugo.Cloud AI EventsBash.RW

In Kigali, at this month's @RwandaBuild Founders Talk, our CEO @Rickard was on stage for a special recording of the 'Voices Podcast.' He was challenged to make bold predictions about what is possible in Rwanda, including his past and future predictions on fintech.

Rwanda's Tech Visionary Makes Bold Predictions for 2026 and Beyond linkedin.com/pulse/rwandas-… @RwandaBuild @Rickard .... via the voices podcast.

@guhemba @RwandaBuild 🫡 I'll make ya proud! #repersent

Our CEO, @Rickard will be on a panel of experts for the Voices Podcast at @RwandaBuild. They will have a conversation on the future of tech in Kigali and Africa. He will be predicting the future of fintech in Africa and other tech trends to come worldwide.

WOW - what a line up! The insights and conversation at Rooftop Ikawa Cafe will be eye-opening. @Rickard alone will drop some shocking future trends in the tech industry.