A panel of experts in East African entrepreneurship has emphasised the need for the main players in startups to cover a range of skills and hold business knowledge.
Speaking during a panel discussion at PIVOT East 2013 in Kampala, Uganda, today, Isis Nyongo, former vice president and managing director (MD) for Africa at InMobi, said: “Strength and balance of teams is a major issue for investability among regional startups.”
The moderator asked Erik Hersman, co-founder of Ushahidi and iHub in Nairobi, if there were enough business people in the startup teams.
Hersman said: “There’s a lot of tech individuals insisting on holding CEO positions in their startups when it’s not ideal. We see more startups addressing consumer mass markets yet the bigger opportunity is in the B2B space.”
Irene Kaggwa, from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), discussed how the UCC can work with developers and offer them a good platform to conduct their innovations.
She said: “Its only through innovation that we are going to solve many problems that we face.”
The panel also discussed how developers can create apps that companies will actually want to advertise.
Nyongo added a lot of local startups are over-estimating how much they can get from advertising revenues.
Ed Simnett, chief executive officer (CEO) of Delivr, said he had noticed a trend with aspiring or new developers in that they ask for money they do not need from investors.
“Its dangerous to tell people to ask for more investment money when they do not necessarily need it. Investors also make many bets, it is not exactly a logical process,” said Simnett.
