Products that meet a basic need in this part of the world do well and will attract funding:  BRCK, Mkopa,etc.

./bernard
From: John K.
Sent: ‎1/‎6/‎2015 10:40 AM
To: Bernard Mwagiru
Cc: Skunkworks Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Kenya's technology push leaves investors cold

Indeed. Lots to learn, time for us to see past the "M-" blinders that have made us forget that there is a lot more out there. However I suspect that if Safaricom does indeed launch their mythical api, then there will be renewed interest mobile money related apps/services so the cycle may start again. Sigh.

On 6 January 2015 at 10:27, Bernard Mwagiru <bmwagiru@gmail.com> wrote:
What really is the so-called silicon savanah? Once a need has been met, move on. Once mobile money rattled pages elsewhere, everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Mpesa this , mpesa that. If your idea had nothing to do with mobile money, interest is lost. AfricaRising and Silicon savannah hype.

Lots to learn from the start-up capital of the world : http://nocamels.com/2014/12/top-israeli-companies-innovations-2014/

./bernard
From: John K. via skunkworks
Sent: ‎1/‎6/‎2015 10:08 AM
To: Skunkworks Mailing List
Subject: [Skunkworks] Kenya's technology push leaves investors cold

Found this in the kictanet list, thought it would spur a discussion here.

There are words of truth in it, they will be tough to agree with especially if you're in a start up. But I somewhat agree, there is a lot of hype in tech here. The comments make for an interesting read.