The savannah
fund info session by Mbwana Alliy was just great. After a long working day with a lot of
troubles with the Dar es Salaam traffic I arrived at Kinu innovation hub around
7:00p.m. An hour late to the session but still I manage to come out with
something. By the Time I reach at the
Kinu innovation hub Mbwana was talking about what Kind of people are they looking to fund believe me even though I reach there
late but I learn a lot of things from these funding organization and how you
can mentor your startup so that you could be eligible to be funded.
The audience
was interactive and people asked a lot of question to the presenter about the
funding process and Savannah in general. Mbwana explains clearly the kind of
people who will be benefited from the funds are those one who are committed to
their projects, those who can pitch about their projects and form strong teams.
I urged people to follow the quick updates about the fund through twitter
account @Savannahfund from there people would get the
update about the organization in general.
When he
spoke about the team he was very clear that the team should be composed with
group of individuals who are less than five. The group should process the so
called 3Rs, relationship, roles and rewards which will result into high
performing team. More resource about the presentation can be viewed on slideshare document on savannah resource page. He
insisted the team must have a moral bond. He explained out of his experience
most of the team which doesn’t have strong inbuilt relationship tends to get
into serious quarrels when the startup starts to kick out in the financial
industry. He gave out some funny real story about some guys he mentored back
them and did some good work but sadly they broke up 24 hours after the app goes
live on the market.
Forbes.com Tech
News @ForbesTech
Africa's Savannah Fund And
Google's Eric Schmidt Invest In Binu Mobile Via $2 Million Round http://bit.ly/NYqLQL
When he
spoke about his perspectives towards the Tanzania participants and his effort
to encourage the Tanzanians guys the so called “Chips
Mayai Guys” he said the fund
is doing enough to encourage everyone to participate but he agreed there have
been some issues like media promotion about the event and the fund in general
few number of people are aware of the programme but he insisted he can’t force
someone top join the programme. It is an initiative someone has to do for
himself and it has been like that out there to the other countries.
He talks
about the challenge the Tanzania is facing and the way he is motivated by
Nairobi and Lagos. He said Nigeria and Kenya are leading in terms of number of
teams and applicants who have already registered for the funds and mentoring.
He encouraged more Tanzanians to participate and registered quickly to the
short time span on their schedule.
When I asked
him the question that was irritating me if the funding just funds apps only, he
said no. Any idea with a potential to grow can be an app or website or whatever
depending on the conditions can be funded by the organization.
On my side
it was an interesting session, the presenter was cool and interactive a really
Tanzanian, funny. I hope we will have more of these sessions in the future and
he agreed to mentor us in our upcoming project on November 2012. The project is
still disclosed to the few team members yet to go public.