7 ms·

Show HN: Africa's Top Tech Talent On-demand

30 points by gichuru 10y ago

gichuru 10y ago
Hi, I'm Sam, we built Kuhustle after we discovered a large pool of growing Tech Talent in Africa that was untapped. Africa already has a community of freelancers on other online platforms but the local market is largely overlooked. Today we are thrilled to announce version 1.0 that allows our freelance community to get vetted and find work. We would love to hear what you think about Kuhustle 1.0 and happy to answer any questions or comments!
- JBReefer 10y ago
  How significant is the savings to using African talent over, say, Eastern European or Asian? What's the most commonly spoken language by your freelancers? French/English or something less globally competitive? What region do most of your freelancers come from? Godspeed and good luck!
  - gichuru 10y ago
    Thank you @JBReefer ! Some of the advantages include a large english speaking population. Africa has 54 states, of which 23 are english speaking countries and 21 have their official language as French but speak English as well, the second would be countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have a closer time-zone proximity to Europe and finally we have thousands of young graduates looking for work. The pricing difference is negligible at around 5% lower for top tech talent in comparison to Europe. The biggest deterrent has always been the price of internet connectivity and that has recently become very affordable at around $50 for 10 Megabyte due to high internet penetration and not to mention mobile money. Kenya happens to have had the 10 largest community on Elance before the merger with Odesk and that has been our testing market. Thank you and blessings
- sixhobbits 10y ago
  Really nice! I'm from SA and this is definitely a needed product. Some typos in your copy - consider taking the time to proofread everything or have someone do it for you!
  - gichuru 10y ago
    Thank you @sixhobbits, working on that right away, we also hope to launch in SA very soon!
geofree 10y ago
Terrific idea, I'd love to see some basic comparison to other outsourced regions (eastern europe, india, etc). Size, growth, price.
- gichuru 10y ago
  Hi @Geofree, The tech industry in Africa is a $2.7B market growing at estimated 8.5% annually, its extremely segmented and data may vary from one region to another. The pricing is almost similar to india, no language barriers and timezone difference is closer to Europe. We have the advantage of the first mover in the region and hopefully have better data in a year or two.
ochieng 10y ago
Pretty much the kind of site that the Tech Community has been craving for in Kenya. Creating employment for the youth. Good work kuhustle.co.ke!
- gichuru 10y ago
  Thank you!
CreativeAkili 10y ago
If you can curate the top talent and address trust + quality issues then there's something. Perhaps even borrow from Andela's models of continuous training for the talent.
- gichuru 10y ago
  Thank you @CreativeAkili !!
majani 10y ago
What is the incentive for an employer or freelancer to choose this over a global marketplace?
- gichuru 10y ago
  Thank you @majani, Kuhustle is a global marketplace. The incentive is the guaranteed quality of service compared to other traditional freelance platforms. By plugging in a product managers between the employer and freelancer, Kuhustle is able to take away the process headaches of product design and delivery and offer greater convenience to the client.
iamjeff 10y ago
Hi Gichuru. My first introduction to you was when I read a TechCrunch article 3 years ago about one of your hacks [1]. The article portrayed you in a very positive and your pitch was something that I identified with immediately. Glad to see you taking another larger bet with KuHustle and all the best. Anyway, at the risk of sounding completely tangential, I have been eager to get some software development bootcamp training and, while Andela [2] is perhaps the gold standard here, is out of reach for an inexperienced guy like myself. Now, Moringa is an ideal alternative, but $2,500 of tuition fees repaid over a 24 months period [3] seems like the sort of thing debt nightmares are made of. I really want to learn to code and need your advice about cheaper bootcamps that have an opening (usually) around September. Back to the thread: really cool concept in an otherwise unproven market. Congratulations on it and all the best going forward. Wish I could be more helpful than a simple congratulations, but I hope that it counts. [1] Twpple Hack, Built By Kenyan Duo, Connects Small Businesses With Social Media “Big Wigs”- https://techcrunch.com/2013/10/27/twpple-hack-built-by-kenyan-duo-connects-small-businesses-with-social-media-big-wigs/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/10/27/twpple-hack-built-by-kenya... [2] https://boards.greenhouse.io/andela/jobs/221859#.V1E-kpMrKRt https://boards.greenhouse.io/andela/jobs/221859#.V1E-kpMrKRt [3] http://moringaschool.com/finance http://moringaschool.com/finance
- iamjeff 10y ago
  *edit Congratulations on it and all the best going forward. Wish I could be more helpful than just dishing out a simple congratulatory message, but I hope that it counts.
  - gichuru 10y ago
    Thank you @iamjeff Thank you for the kind words. Most people on here will advise you to start coding right away and I agree with them 100%. 2-3 hours everyday, use codeacademy or one of those websites and reference stack overflow when you get stuck. By September you will have a product or two that you can share on Hacker News
    - iamjeff 10y ago

30 points by gichuru 10y ago

Hi, I'm Sam, we built Kuhustle after we discovered a large pool of growing Tech Talent in Africa that was untapped. Africa already has a community of freelancers on other online platforms but the local market is largely overlooked. Today we are thrilled to announce version 1.0 that allows our freelance community to get vetted and find work. We would love to hear what you think about Kuhustle 1.0 and happy to answer any questions or comments!

JBReefer 10y ago
How significant is the savings to using African talent over, say, Eastern European or Asian? What's the most commonly spoken language by your freelancers? French/English or something less globally competitive? What region do most of your freelancers come from? Godspeed and good luck!
- gichuru 10y ago
  Thank you @JBReefer ! Some of the advantages include a large english speaking population. Africa has 54 states, of which 23 are english speaking countries and 21 have their official language as French but speak English as well, the second would be countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have a closer time-zone proximity to Europe and finally we have thousands of young graduates looking for work. The pricing difference is negligible at around 5% lower for top tech talent in comparison to Europe. The biggest deterrent has always been the price of internet connectivity and that has recently become very affordable at around $50 for 10 Megabyte due to high internet penetration and not to mention mobile money. Kenya happens to have had the 10 largest community on Elance before the merger with Odesk and that has been our testing market. Thank you and blessings
sixhobbits 10y ago
Really nice! I'm from SA and this is definitely a needed product. Some typos in your copy - consider taking the time to proofread everything or have someone do it for you!
- gichuru 10y ago
  Thank you @sixhobbits, working on that right away, we also hope to launch in SA very soon!

geofree 10y ago

Terrific idea, I'd love to see some basic comparison to other outsourced regions (eastern europe, india, etc). Size, growth, price.

gichuru 10y ago
Hi @Geofree, The tech industry in Africa is a $2.7B market growing at estimated 8.5% annually, its extremely segmented and data may vary from one region to another. The pricing is almost similar to india, no language barriers and timezone difference is closer to Europe. We have the advantage of the first mover in the region and hopefully have better data in a year or two.

ochieng 10y ago

Pretty much the kind of site that the Tech Community has been craving for in Kenya. Creating employment for the youth. Good work kuhustle.co.ke!

gichuru 10y ago
Thank you!

CreativeAkili 10y ago

If you can curate the top talent and address trust + quality issues then there's something. Perhaps even borrow from Andela's models of continuous training for the talent.

gichuru 10y ago
Thank you @CreativeAkili !!

majani 10y ago

What is the incentive for an employer or freelancer to choose this over a global marketplace?

gichuru 10y ago
Thank you @majani, Kuhustle is a global marketplace. The incentive is the guaranteed quality of service compared to other traditional freelance platforms. By plugging in a product managers between the employer and freelancer, Kuhustle is able to take away the process headaches of product design and delivery and offer greater convenience to the client.

iamjeff 10y ago

Hi Gichuru. My first introduction to you was when I read a TechCrunch article 3 years ago about one of your hacks [1]. The article portrayed you in a very positive and your pitch was something that I identified with immediately. Glad to see you taking another larger bet with KuHustle and all the best. Anyway, at the risk of sounding completely tangential, I have been eager to get some software development bootcamp training and, while Andela [2] is perhaps the gold standard here, is out of reach for an inexperienced guy like myself. Now, Moringa is an ideal alternative, but $2,500 of tuition fees repaid over a 24 months period [3] seems like the sort of thing debt nightmares are made of. I really want to learn to code and need your advice about cheaper bootcamps that have an opening (usually) around September. Back to the thread: really cool concept in an otherwise unproven market. Congratulations on it and all the best going forward. Wish I could be more helpful than a simple congratulations, but I hope that it counts. [1] Twpple Hack, Built By Kenyan Duo, Connects Small Businesses With Social Media “Big Wigs”- https://techcrunch.com/2013/10/27/twpple-hack-built-by-kenyan-duo-connects-small-businesses-with-social-media-big-wigs/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/10/27/twpple-hack-built-by-kenya... [2] https://boards.greenhouse.io/andela/jobs/221859#.V1E-kpMrKRt https://boards.greenhouse.io/andela/jobs/221859#.V1E-kpMrKRt [3] http://moringaschool.com/finance http://moringaschool.com/finance

iamjeff 10y ago
*edit Congratulations on it and all the best going forward. Wish I could be more helpful than just dishing out a simple congratulatory message, but I hope that it counts.
- gichuru 10y ago
  Thank you @iamjeff Thank you for the kind words. Most people on here will advise you to start coding right away and I agree with them 100%. 2-3 hours everyday, use codeacademy or one of those websites and reference stack overflow when you get stuck. By September you will have a product or two that you can share on Hacker News
  - iamjeff 10y ago