Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

First up in our speaker spotlight series is an edited transcript of our Q&A with Rocio Perez-Ochoa , co-founder of Bidhaa Sasa , a non-profit working to distribute beneficial goods to rural communities in Kenya. Fix the distribution bottleneck in rural Kenya. “My In some countries, like Kenya, the vast majority are not connected to the grid because there is no grid. There are literally hundreds of thousands of potential family clients in our region in Western Kenya. “We

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Kenya Community Lean Africa 131

Transformify

APRIL 15, 2016

Despite Kenya has been named as the fasted growing payments market in Africa, there is still a lot to be done to develop the local business angel community. He is one of the many young people in Kenya who have decided to start a business of their own.

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Kenya Africa Incubator Angel Investor 54

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

I figured it was Valentine’s Day somewhere in the world yesterday at 6pm Colorado time like, well, in Kenya, where Amy was. Amy arrived home from Africa yesterday evening around 6pm. She had been gone for 12 days and, while she had an awesome trip, we missed each other terribly.

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Kenya Africa Colorado 212

SiliconHills

MARCH 14, 2018

China, Kenya and the United Kingdom. […]. By Laura Lorek Publisher of Silicon Hills News For the first time, Food+City held its annual Challenge Prize competition at South by Southwest. And judges awarded three $10,000 cash prizes to the winner of each of three sessions on Tuesday.

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United Kingdom Kenya China Startup 100

deal architect

JULY 31, 2012

Have you been to Kenya or Tanzania during the annual wildebeest (and zebra and others) migration? It is an amazing sight to see the thundering herds seek out greener pastures. The New Florence blog feels as dynamic. Through July, there. Innovative Business Uses of Technology

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Tanzania Kenya Technology 177

thebarefootvc

MARCH 4, 2015

When I first met with founder Bill Barhydt and he described the vision, I immediately thought of M-Pesa, the mobile money network in Kenya. M-Pesa has built physical kiosks throughout Kenya for fund disbursement of transactions occurring over the mobile phone.

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Kenya Green Networking Founder 96

David Cohen

MAY 16, 2014

In the first segment, Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa are featured: African entrepreneurship has really been moving forward for some time now. A while back I invested in a company called Mobius Motors , which is based in Kenya.

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Africa Rwanda Kenya South Africa 119

thebarefootvc

MARCH 4, 2015

When I first met with founder Bill Barhydt and he described the vision, I immediately thought of M-Pesa, the mobile money network in Kenya. M-Pesa has built physical kiosks throughout Kenya for fund disbursement of transactions occurring over the mobile phone.

Kenya 52

Kenya Green Networking Founder 52

Gust

DECEMBER 19, 2012

Kenya had one of the largest increases, and jumped 13 spots to 22nd for the month of November. For November 2012 we are noticing an interesting trend of product ready companies declining, while concept stage companies are rising. This trend is mostly led by a decrease in product ready internet web service companies in the US, Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom, and with an increase in concept stage companies in Spain, India, Brazil and the United States.

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Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 3, 2017

Amy went to Tanzania and Kenya in 2009 with TNC to increase capacity of TNC non-profit partners. The Nature Conservancy and Techstars just announced a partnership to create the Techstars Sustainability Accelerator. Amy and I were part of the public announcement this week in Denver. Both organizations are important to us so it’s a joy to be involved in having them work together. Amy and I have been supporters of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) since we started our relationship in 1990.

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Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Denver Tanzania 207

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Pawame uses tech-enabled loan management and mobile money payment platforms to offer its customers a means of finance that is not limited by distance or lack of Internet access or a bank account. You are based in Nairobi, Kenya.

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Africa Kenya Jordan CTO 62

Transformify

SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

At the same time, 75% of all university graduates in Kenya and Nigeria are likely to be unemployed for up to 5 years after graduation. Kenya: Youth Fund Targets Young People in Business Start-Up Loans Plan.

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Africa Benin Seychelles Mauritius 81

thebarefootvc

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

One only needs to look at the example of M-Pesa in Kenya to see how digital currency can impact the underserved. When I first learned of Bitcoin, I thought of M-Pesa and how it had empowered so much of Kenya’s population. We’ve come together because we believe in the potential of this technology to have a significant, positive social impact. – Austin Hill , co-founder Blockstream (FPV’s newest portfolio company).

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Kenya Africa United States Analytics 86

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

When I visited an organization that we work with in Kenya called Evidence Action , we visited the site in which these people were getting these chlorine water pumps and we helped fund an education around these clean water pumps.

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ReadWriteStart

JULY 20, 2012

Alliy is managing partner of the Savannah Fund , a $10 million fund that will soon begin investing in technology startups in East Africa, including Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Africa has most of the elements required for technology innovation.

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Africa Tanzania Kenya Uganda 169

YoungUpstarts

MAY 19, 2011

The first project they’re engaged in is installing fuel-efficient cookstoves in Kenya. Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

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Kenya Global Programming Community 219

Lightspeed Venture Partners

MAY 6, 2013

M-PESA, a payments system enabled on mobile phones, now constitutes 31% of Kenya’s GDP. Right now, more than 80% of Bitcoin volume is in the USD market. And many of the pundits commenting on Bitcoin, both positively and negatively, are in the US. So it is natural to assume that Bitcoin adoption will start first in the US. I think that that is a reasonable assumption, but it is one worth questioning.

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Transformify

OCTOBER 6, 2016

Steve has just graduated from Daystar University in Kenya. " Each year thousands of students in Kenya and Nigeria are graduating from the Universities.

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Africa Security Kenya Nigeria 83

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 3, 2012

Joyce Wafukho, Kenya. After five years of being turned down by lenders, she approached the Kenya Women Finance Trust for a $680 loan.

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Colombia Kenya Ethiopia Tanzania 272

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

In Living Color – Kenya Barris brings “black-ish” to life as a modern era family sitcom, able to confront race and class directly. I’m on vacation this week back East with my family. One of my personal anachronisms is a love of print magazines. Since so much of my life is spent in front of a screen, I can’t imagine reading longer articles or books in the same format I do email.

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Wyoming Kenya America Email 53

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

In Living Color – Kenya Barris brings “black-ish” to life as a modern era family sitcom, able to confront race and class directly. I’m on vacation this week back East with my family. One of my personal anachronisms is a love of print magazines. Since so much of my life is spent in front of a screen, I can’t imagine reading longer articles or books in the same format I do email.

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Wyoming Kenya America Email 53

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 25, 2017

For example, Silicon Savannah – the name given to Nairobi’s (Kenya) growing tech scene – and Chilecon Valley, found in Chile’s capital, Santiago, demonstrate the global appetite for tech entrepreneurship. by Germán Montoya is the Chief Strategy and Creative Officer at Rokk3r Labs.

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Chile Kenya Utah Startup 210

Austin Startup

MARCH 12, 2017

Bettirose, a young woman from Kenya, and her group, Report Taka, developed an app to help with illegal trash dumping in Kenya. Latinitas Reports from SXSW 2017 Gina Rodriguez hosted the film premiere for startup documentary, “ Seed,” at the Violet Crown theater on March 11 during SXSW.

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Hosting Kenya Silicon Valley United States 62

The Next Web

OCTOBER 15, 2012

kenya’s winner Sematime makes it easy for people to send bills and invoices to large groups of contacts via SMS. We were surprised at how many female entrepreneurs pitched in the competition, particularly in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania.

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Chile Tanzania Silicon Valley Rwanda 150

Jeff Hilimire

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

My aunt Kemie teaching children in Kenya to read. I recently finished my aunt Kemie’s book, A Book Teacher for Every School , about her experiences bringing thousands and thousands of books to children in Kenya for decades. I love her.

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Kenya Web Design 58

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

“In March, we met with more than 25 sanitation providers in Kenya and Uganda, and discovered that this lack of data was a universal problem,” explains gather Co-Director John Peter Archer.

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Global Community Uganda Kenya 127

Up and Running

DECEMBER 18, 2013

and Kenya. From their website: While microfinance has helped millions, many people have been left out: Think remote rural villages in Kenya or recent refugees with no credit history in the United States. This has been a big year for advances in business funding.

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Kenya Angel Investor United States Due Diligence 156

thebarefootvc

OCTOBER 25, 2015

The most documented example of this is M-Pesa’s mobile money platform in Kenya, which I have written about a few times on this blog, including in my thesis piece When Third is First.

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Africa Disintermediation Nigeria Kenya 113

thebarefootvc

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

One only needs to look at the example of M-Pesa in Kenya to see how digital currency can impact the underserved. When I first learned of Bitcoin, I thought of M-Pesa and how it had empowered so much of Kenya’s population. We’ve come together because we believe in the potential of this technology to have a significant, positive social impact. – Austin Hill , co-founder Blockstream (FPV’s newest portfolio company).

Kenya 40

Kenya United States Analytics Stock 40

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2016

As a white person I cannot accept that the GOP candidate for office was the leading voice in the United States for the “birther movement,” which questioned the citizenship of the president of the United States because his father was from Kenya. Black lives matter.

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America Kenya United States Maryland 311

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2015

Rocio Perez-Ochoa , co-founder of Bidhaa Sasa , which finances and distributes household goods that can improve families’ quality of life in rural Kenya. Successful founders believe anything is possible but they build strong founding teams to achieve their startup dreams.

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Africa Kenya San Francisco Lean 168

ReadWriteStart

JULY 20, 2012

Alliy is managing partner of the Savannah Fund , a $10 million fund that will soon begin investing in technology startups in East Africa, including Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Africa has most of the elements required for technology innovation.

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Africa Tanzania Kenya Uganda 79

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

First one for Swedish Trade Council in Nairobi, Kenya was to learn and start from the very bottom. Zakaria Hersi is one of those fortunate people who has been able to stitch his vocation and avocation together seamlessly in his quest to achieve success – on his terms.

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Up and Running

JANUARY 14, 2015

Penda improves health care in Kenya. Koczela is enthusiastic about the entrepreneurial spirit in Kenya: “You are working from seven a.m. Who doesn’t want this guy for a lunch date? At a cat cafe, you can dine surrounded by felines.

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Syria Kenya New York City New York 115

thebarefootvc

JUNE 15, 2014

Take a look at these innovations which were first implemented in the emerging markets and are now making their way to the “first world”: Mobile Money: Six years ago, mPesa launched in Kenya to transfer money via cellphone.

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Bangladesh Africa Kenya India 109

Hearpreneur

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

We are generating employment for countries such as the United States, Philippines, Canada, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ghana and Nepal. Being in love is great. Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better.

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Entrepreneur Sri Lanka Ghana Nepal 121

thebarefootvc

DECEMBER 31, 2017

I was lucky – I was born to persevere and grew up with parents who told me I could do whatever I wanted to do (well, almost anything, I spent many nights crying as a 10 year old, upset that I was born in Kenya and could not run for President of the United States). As 2017 comes to a close, I think of it as the year of validation and gratitude, personally and for so many people around the world who have been marginalized and silenced in so many different ways.

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Kenya United States Internet Restful 43

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 13, 2016

A good example from the developing world is the Mpesa mobile money transfer that has revolutionized the way people in Kenya do their daily business.

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Kenya Salary Global Mobile 130

Campus Entrepreneurship

APRIL 6, 2012

At the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative University meeting at George Washington University this past weekend, former President Clinton announced over nine hundred new projects that students and universities will undertake to improve the world.

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Kenya Africa Global Washington 34

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 25, 2011

Both Taiwan and Kenya have made agreements to exchange water technology and data revolving with Israel. I was fortunate to attend the party over at WATEC Israel 2011’s Cleanvest Summit. This is a pre-WATEC summit where startups got a chance to present their ideas to investors and hopefully have someone catch their bait. Cleanvest spotlighted companies from all over the clean energy spectrum, while the rest of the 3 day event exhibited water related technology companies.

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Brazil Taiwan Denmark Kenya 84

Occam's Razor

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

According to Pew, while cell phones are nearly ubiquitous around the world (95% China, 91% Chile, 82% Kenya), penetration of smartphones are still getting there (37% China, 39% Chile, 19% Kenya).

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Analytics Metrics Mobile Chile 146

Up and Running

DECEMBER 22, 2014

When I was in high school, my friends and I set up a giving tree outside the school library, as a fundraiser for the Harambee Centre, an organization which provides, among other things, ambulatory services; and which builds schools for children in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

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Uganda Tanzania Kenya Employee 155

thebarefootvc

OCTOBER 25, 2015

The most documented example of this is M-Pesa’s mobile money platform in Kenya, which I have written about a few times on this blog, including in my thesis piece When Third is First.

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Disintermediation Nigeria Kenya United States 67