MOHSEN MALAYERI WANTS TO RE-EDUCATE IRAN'S ENTREPRENEURS
Mohsen is a startup enthusiast. He loves community and entrepreneurship. He founded a startup awhile ago and is now helping the youth in Iran practice entrepreneurship. Mohsen is now the local organizer and global facilitator of StartupWeekend, and the vice president of Iran Entrepreneurship Association. Can you introduce yourself? What projects are you working […]
STARTUP WEEKEND SHIRAZ, IRAN
Unique Demographic of Participants @ Startup Weekend Shiraz, Iran At the end of October, we attended Startup Weekend Shiraz. Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past […]
Kenya startup ecosystem: welcome to the land of mobile money
The Kenya startup ecosystem is often described as a one of the hottes in Africa, alongside South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. Its mobile money system, known as MPesa, is praised, copied, lauded, but it’s not the only feature of its startup scene. How this West Africa country has built its tech hub? Who are the key […]
Kenya's lesson on innovation to Africa – From hack schools to long-term capability building
Njeri Chelimo’s “Nairobi Dev School” – An Exemplary Beacon for Kenya’s innovation ecosystem The story of Njeri Chelimo is a compelling one, and a shining example of the proverb “when there is a will, there is a way”. This 20 y.o Kenyan girl had planned to attend a hack school in New York a few months ago. The 12-week program was free […]
Real-time stock price for African farmers: a case study of connected agriculture with M-Farm in Kenya
M-Farm is a startup which connects and empowers agriculture farmers with financial information. There are three reasons why we are showcasing them. Firstly, we’re not focusing only on web technologies during our world tour of innovation. We’ve tried to showcase stories about universities in the UK and healthcare in Iran to cover a diverse array of exciting innovations. Secondly, we’re in Kenya, a country […]
A exploration of startups and innovation in Kenya with Mbwana Alliy
As you may know, we were in Kenya to attend Afrikoin, a conference on mobile money, and to continue our exploration of innovation ecosystems. How are countries and cities pivoting towards entrepreneurship? What are the fundamentals and best local practices used as they try to build and nurture communities of innovations? After Afrikoin, we had […]
Malaysia as a Startup Hub! What are the next steps?
For a young country, Malaysia has quite an extensive history of building its own innovation ecosystem. It opened its Multimedia Super Corridor back in 1997. The time has now arrived – and it also has for neighboring Singapore – to scale to greater heights. The aim: to have significant and successful startups so that people can associate a global brand with […]
What MPesa has done right and where it is headed
During Afrikoin, the first mobile money and digital currency conference held in Nairobi, I met with Brian Muthiora. Brian joined the local branch of GSMA, the global association for mobile operators, after 5 years at Safaricom handling the regulation issues for MPesa, the mobile money system designed by the Kenyan telco. Over an hour, I had the chance to hear about […]
Cultural awareness and innovation: the challenges facing startups as they go global
To continue our exploration of Kenya as an innovation ecosystem on the fringes of Afrikoin, I met with Samuel Gichuru from the Nailab incubator. A fast-paced and energetic conversation proved helpful in pinpointing a key challenge entrepreneurs face: the management of cultural differences. Kenya is the kingdom of mobile money (the MPesa system), but it is an isolated one. No other country is using mobile money […]
Bitcoins explained at Afrikoin, Nairobi
While the hype around Bitcoin grows stronger everyday, the conference on mobile money at Afrikoin in Nairobi and a discussion with a few startups in the crypto-currency business has helped to debunk what Bitcoin is, and isn’t. In our exploration we’ve listened to and chatted with: Pelle Braendgaard, who has worked in cryptography related businesses for 9 years and is now heading Kipochi, an […]
