4 ms·

Quote 1: " "Instead of building the third, fourth, fifth photo filter file sharing app, you can solve big problems and disrupt industries.” Quote 2: "the accel

Quote 1: " "Instead of building the third, fourth, fifth photo filter file sharing app, you can solve big problems and disrupt industries.” Quote 2: "the accelerator invests an average of about $25,000 in early-stage companies" I don't really care much about whether it's the chicken or the egg but if you give people $25,000 and a 12 weeks to sink or swim you can't really blame them if they create another photo filter app. They sure as heck don't have the runway to solve big complex problems and disrupt industries. Given the distance and size and scope of Africa's problems maybe they should "disrupt the accelerator industry" and pay two founders salaries for 12 full months to go solve big complex problems.

macNchz 13y ago
$25k goes dramatically farther in Nairobi or Cape Town than it does in the Bay Area.
- nashequilibrium 13y ago
  and goes dramatically further in Nairobi than Cape Town, especially with hollywood buying up a lot of land there a few yrs ago. Also, you will not be developing for smartphones, but for blackberry's, old nokia's & samsungs. PS: Africa is not a country, very different situation in each country. So lets stop saying Africa and talk about specific countries because talking about Morocco & Namibia or Egypt & South Africa as the same is just silly.
- EtienneK 13y ago
  $25k in Cape Town? Won't go as far as you think.
- majani 13y ago
  I'm from 88mph's first batch. in Nairobi. They gave me 25k USD to test out my idea to build Kenya's first blog network( http://ghafla.co.ke http://ghafla.co.ke http://tambaa.co.ke http://tambaa.co.ke and http://duwaa.co.ke http://duwaa.co.ke ). Needless to say, my investors were pleasantly surprised when I built the whole company using that money. Now we make 25k USD a month
  - randomhuman24 13y ago
    Please don't take anything I say as criticism, but somewhere else in the thread you've said AMA, so: - Why exactly did you need 25k to build Kenya's first "blog network"? - Where did the money go? Can you provide us with a break down? - What prevented you from doing this without the 25k investment? You could have used Wordpress and a host like WPEngine, and I can't think of a cost more than $25-100/month. - Are you paying writers, or is this all freely written content? Or are you just linking to other blogs in the market? - Also, not a question, but except for the first link, the other two sites are down for maintenance. Thanks.
    - majani 13y ago
      - Why exactly did you need 25k to build Kenya's first "blog network"? Blogging is one of the lowest hanging fruit in any emerging internet industry. I wanted to take a big chunk of that opportunity, so I raised some money. - Where did the money go? Can you provide us with a break down? It was mainly for expanding the team from a one man show to a full newsroom. - What prevented you from doing this without the 25k investment? You could have used Wordpress and a host like WPEngine, and I can't think of a cost more than $25-100/month. I did. I was running my first blog as a mildly profitable one man show, but I always wanted to expand the team, largely cause I thought it would lighten the load, but boy was I wrong about that! - Are you paying writers, or is this all freely written content? Or are you just linking to other blogs in the market? I pay everyone who works for us. The pay is towards the lower end of the market rate. - Also, not a question, but except for the first link, the other two sites are down for maintenance HN should have known better than to talk about 88 when I had my back turned! :)
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]

macNchz 13y ago

$25k goes dramatically farther in Nairobi or Cape Town than it does in the Bay Area.

nashequilibrium 13y ago
and goes dramatically further in Nairobi than Cape Town, especially with hollywood buying up a lot of land there a few yrs ago. Also, you will not be developing for smartphones, but for blackberry's, old nokia's & samsungs. PS: Africa is not a country, very different situation in each country. So lets stop saying Africa and talk about specific countries because talking about Morocco & Namibia or Egypt & South Africa as the same is just silly.
EtienneK 13y ago
$25k in Cape Town? Won't go as far as you think.
majani 13y ago
I'm from 88mph's first batch. in Nairobi. They gave me 25k USD to test out my idea to build Kenya's first blog network( http://ghafla.co.ke http://ghafla.co.ke http://tambaa.co.ke http://tambaa.co.ke and http://duwaa.co.ke http://duwaa.co.ke ). Needless to say, my investors were pleasantly surprised when I built the whole company using that money. Now we make 25k USD a month
- randomhuman24 13y ago
  Please don't take anything I say as criticism, but somewhere else in the thread you've said AMA, so: - Why exactly did you need 25k to build Kenya's first "blog network"? - Where did the money go? Can you provide us with a break down? - What prevented you from doing this without the 25k investment? You could have used Wordpress and a host like WPEngine, and I can't think of a cost more than $25-100/month. - Are you paying writers, or is this all freely written content? Or are you just linking to other blogs in the market? - Also, not a question, but except for the first link, the other two sites are down for maintenance. Thanks.
  - majani 13y ago
    - Why exactly did you need 25k to build Kenya's first "blog network"? Blogging is one of the lowest hanging fruit in any emerging internet industry. I wanted to take a big chunk of that opportunity, so I raised some money. - Where did the money go? Can you provide us with a break down? It was mainly for expanding the team from a one man show to a full newsroom. - What prevented you from doing this without the 25k investment? You could have used Wordpress and a host like WPEngine, and I can't think of a cost more than $25-100/month. I did. I was running my first blog as a mildly profitable one man show, but I always wanted to expand the team, largely cause I thought it would lighten the load, but boy was I wrong about that! - Are you paying writers, or is this all freely written content? Or are you just linking to other blogs in the market? I pay everyone who works for us. The pay is towards the lower end of the market rate. - Also, not a question, but except for the first link, the other two sites are down for maintenance HN should have known better than to talk about 88 when I had my back turned! :)
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]