Most developers are only motivated by the need to create and want to keep their creations to themselves, according to Gideon Kyalo, business development manager at Kenyan startup iDaktari.
Speaking to HumanIPO, Kyalo said developers often neglect to see the business sidewhich could give them benefits from their creations.
He said instead they should work with like-minded people to get their creations from their laptops onto shelves or in the virtual marketplace.
“Stop looking at it as a software and start looking at it as a business. Do your homework, work to validate your product before presenting it out there,” said Kyalo.
The team behind iDaktari began developing their software in May 2011 and have so far attracted five clients.
The software, which was among the finalists at this year’s PIVOT East, is a management programme that helps to simplify and manage information for private clinics.
iDaktari is the brainchild of three university students – Kyalo, lead developer Kevin Wahome and creative designer Brian Wachanga – whose main motivation was to make some extra pocket money while on campus.
They aimed to come up with an app that requires registration, transactions and can be used from anywhere. From this iDaktari evolved.
The product helps private clinics and by extension doctors to manage patient registration and has notable features such as reminders for appointments, accounting features to help with billing, invoicing and insurance claims and so on.
The software can be used both as a software and a mobile application.
iDaktari had its first client halfway through completion, which inspired them to get it working as fast as possible.
Wachanga said the company is now at the market intrusion stage where they say word-of-mouth advertising, referrals by satisfied clients and following leads by people who know potential clients is what has really opened doors for them.
Among the pitching points for the trio is that while there could be similar products in the market iDaktari is not about selling the software, but about selling the service.
This means there is no cost of acquisition for the client which could run up to KSh287,000 (US$3,285)
The client will only have to pay a setting up cost of KSh27,000 (US$309) that includes a free printer then make monthly, quarterly or annual payments of KSh5,000 (US$57), KSh14,500 (US$166) and KSh58,000 (US$664) respectively.
Other advantages for using iDaktari include reduced costs as far as accounting in the clinic is concerned and having the company for support in case of other IT related problems given their computer science backgrounds.
Additionally, iDaktari will grow with its clients as their businesses grows, creates efficiency in the clinic and over time will generate big data that can be used by institutions to determine the health issues in the country.
iDaktari have also had to grapple with a number of challenges, among them long sales cycles as they try to customize the product to suit the needs of each client.
This has since proven to be an exercise in futility as they realized that they spend too much time on a particular client and now they just stick to one product that can cut across the needs of the different kinds of doctors.
Getting direct sales has also not been that easy for them and they have had to employ some measures to ensure sales such as seeking pre-installation deals that ensure that a business to business installation and not to the end consumer.
Although they did not have much startup capital apart from their laptops and brains, they scraped together for things such as company registration and opening bank accounts.
The trio are now seeking investors.
“Following PIVOT East Africa 2013 there have been approaches by investors and we already have one and are currently looking at two. We are listening to what they have to say,” said Kyalo on investors.
While discussing investors, Wachanga was emphatic that they are looking for strategic partners to help them in decision making, particularly with regards to the health space.
