Technology on mobile platforms has become interesting and explosive
at the same time, according to Global System for Mobile Communications
(GSM), Sub Saharan Africa mobile connections are projected to grow by 20
percent in 2013 because of the creativity around mobile devices.
In fact Africans have more access to mobile devices than clean drinking water.
At the 2013 PivotEast in Kampala, Uganda, entrepreneurs and investors
are betting on the future of solving African problems around the mobile
platform. The first session of the day had start-ups pitching solutions
for the education sector, majority of these were developed to help
students collaborate and share academic content through virtual arenas.
"Skoobox" one of the application presented has connected over 169
Strathmore University and University of Nairobi students in one week of
its launch. The application seeks funds from the investors to increase
its network to accommodate more students and to share academic content.
eShule on the other hand convinced the investors that they intend to
use 25 percent of the funds they seek from potential investors to
develop their mobile platform. eShule offers career and college
counseling and alternative eLearning solutions via online courses and
exams for high school students. 80 percent of the mobile society
category at PivotEast was made of education start-ups. Gillies Fayad,
Director, Business Development at Qualcomm advised startups not to
compete with Google and Facebook, they should concentrate more on
differentiating their solutions, then go through the distribution
channels which are operators, before targeting the global market.
"Don't be afraid to change your applications as you evolves, because target audiences and markets change", says Fayad.
To gain investors traction on mobile applications, entrepreneurs
should present applications that can work across different platforms,
show productivity and engagement, and be persistent in developing
solutions that work around a specific market environment.
"Entrepreneurs should segment their markets to properly address
specific market needs, then build controls that work best around these
applications", says Agatha Gikunda, Intel Software Services Lead East
Africa in an exclusive interview with CIO East Africa.
Entrepreneurs' personal philosophy also matters on how a start up
will fail or succeed, this includes the amount of money that an
entrepreneur wants to make in the long run, which is a major decision
that needs to be made at an early stage of the start up.
"You can't work smart and avoid working hard", says Ken Njoroge, CEO,
Cellulant. "Differentiate your product, investors are always looking
for applications that run best across multiple platforms, let the market
validate your product".
Njoroge says entrepreneurs need to tell stories of customers that
have used their products. "The best pitches are the ones that open with a
story that addresses their pain points".
Sleepout.com, from the enterprise category is an SMS driven
accommodation market place that assist travellers in obtaining
discounted accommodation rates from hotels and vacation rentals.
The site, presented by Mikul Shah, founder of EatOut, is a platform
that connects guests primarily from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and
North America with accommodation hosts in East Africa.
Peter Nalika
Peter generates technical content for CIO East Africa and the
International Data Group News Service, he also contributes to PC World
and Computer World. Peter is classically trained in computing and
information management, and he is currently pursing an MBA program in
Management Information Systems at the University of Nairobi,
@peternalika
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