Startup Kenya

15:09 EAT Q: How do you know whether you are in a techie zone? A: Everybody talks in TLAs (three letter acronyms) and they all understand each other! Barcamp Nairobi 07 is definitely a techie zone. CNC, GNU, USRP, MIT etc. I'm realising I need to touch up on my IT diploma notes. The atmosphere is great, I always love being around intelligent people, and there is no shortage of them here. I'm yet to give my presentation but expect to write about it as soon as its over (thanks to WiFi)

Tomorrow (Sat. March 31st) Barcamp holds an interactive gathering at the University of Nairobi , Civil Engineering Lecture Theater AT 1PM. The theme will be technology, media and startups. I'll be talking about this blog as well as LawsofKenya.com and Genius Executive Centre . Everyone is invited and best of all its free. See you there.

Today I was reading an article by HR consultant Annabell Karanja in the MyBusiness entrepreneurship magazine. The author spoke of the challenges facing those going through the transition from employee to entrepreneur. It got me thinking about some of my own experiences. Granted I was never employed for long (about 1 year) but I nevertheless picked some habits which were hard to shake once I decided to go into my own business full time. As an employee one abides to strict reporting times at the pain of dismissal (stick). Since there is such a strong motivation to report to work early in the morning, waking up is not so difficult. I'm also generally an early riser so that made it all the easier. Even those days when I really didn't feel like getting up, imagining the pursed lips of my supervisor speaking a silent disapproval would help me get out of bed. How things changed when I became my own boss. Most people long to be their own boss so as to avoid waking up early in the morni

If you read my post The Last Minute Syndrome then you know that last Monday I was going through acute symptoms of a certain disease. Lets pick it up from where we left off. My nerves were all frayed, my breathing was irregular, my body temperature was above normal, and my eyes kept drifting to my watch which I noticed was showing a time five minutes earlier than the street clock. The disease was now in its final stages, would I survive or was the disease going to get me? When rushing towards a deadline with these symptoms, it seems the world moves in slides instead of a continuous flow of events, and that you are watching yourself as the lead actor in a tragic-comedy. I saw myself: jump out of the taxi, rush towards the lift, get stopped by security, go back to security desk, requested for ID, fumble for my wallet, drop my wallet, look at my watch 8:43, think of those movies where a bomb is being defused up until the clock is just about to get to zero, allow myself a smile, rush ba

Last Monday I spent a good deal of the day in bed. No, I wasn't sick or nursing a hangover - I was just sleepy but when I think of what made me so sleepy perhaps I was sick. You see I think from time to time I get infected with a certain syndrome, what I call the "last-minute syndrome". Now this syndrome is not contagious but from my discussions with others I have discovered it has a high infection rate in Kenya. The Last Minute Syndrome (LMS) is a fully preventable disease, but do not be surprised if you are re- infected severally. Worse still you face a higher risk of re-infection if you come out of the disease unaffected. We can say you build up a psychological immunity. Ok, lets rewind about two months back and I explain how this all started. I was sitting in my office going through the daily when I saw an advertisement inviting tenders. The ToR seemed in line with SoftLaw's business so I went ahead to purchase the tender documents. I had a whole six weeks to sub

The BBC World Service interviewed me yesterday on challenges facing entrepreneurs in Africa. Have a listen of the interview on the Business Daily program at http://www.bbc.co.uk .

UN is looking for a communications specialist and a policy adviser. Both vacancy announcements can be found at http://jobs.undp.org

If you have read my posts on currency trading then you'll know about my latest fascination, forex. This week that passed I decided to send out feelers to Kenyans to see what their thoughts were on forex. I took out a 7-day classified ad in the leading daily with the words How to invest 14K and earn 50% pm. www.geniuskenya.com/scalp My primary objective was to gauge the quantity and quality of response to see what kind of future if any forex trading had in Kenya. The link on the ad led to my website where I had a free teaser e-book for download. At the end of the book one was requested to transfer mobile airtime of K.Shs. 100 (~ $1.50) to my mobile phone in order to register for a free lecture I was to hold on forex trading. The lecture was for March 3rd. Secondary objectives were: to market GEC , market my consultancy services with regard to rural internet connectivity and see the opportunities for training in forex trading. Trust my luck, just after I had put my ad two potentiall

Thank you all for your inquiries on currency trading. Because of the overwhelming response I have received from my post If you have an appetite for risk I'll tell you how to make money , I have decided to prepare a short introductory course on forex trading. I have designed the course for novice traders who would like to see their investments return a profit. The course is free of charge and begins with an e-book which you can contact me for a copy . The e-book is in adobe pdf format, if you don’t have adobe reader you can download it free of charge from their website http://www.adobe.com

Followed up from Cyber Cafe with an EDGE I've heard it said that when you plan to start a business, once you have written the business plan, half the work is done. A solid business plan is important for any start-up but... at the risk of sounding anti-establishment I've always found writing a business plan before starting the business so stifling. My preferred approach is to have a general idea of what the business is to achieve and write the plan as I go along, reacting to customers, suppliers and processes. I nevertheless ensure that I stay true to my business partner Stephen Alala's mantra that any business should be "anxious for profits, but patient for growth." When launching the cyber cafe, I took it as my task to ensure that I was setting up a viable business and not a white elephant. The main fixed recurrent costs for a cyber were going to be rent and wages, while variable recurrent costs would be internet, electricity, and stationery. It was imperative

Last week I attended an expo sponsored by the Ministry of Information and Communication that was about ICT opportunities in rural Kenya. The conjucture of rural and ICT obviously drew my attention (Read my post about internet in the village ). I know the event was over a number of days but truth be told I only went one day and only one entry caught my eye (plus it was too hot and not very well attended). The entry was a supposedly turnkey digital centre for use in rural areas. It was made of a cargo container outfitted with solar powered electricity outlets and structured cabling. It also had 8 PCs with TFT monitors placed on 2'x2' desks. The use of space was incredible, with a desk at the back end probably for the manager. A representative for Davis & Shirtliff (co-sponsors of the entry) was at hand to elaborate on the project. The project is a private sector/public initiative fronted by the Ministry of Information. Davis & Shirtliff provide the solar power technolog

Followed up from Laying the Groundwork for a rural cyber I've finally got around to writing this. Thanks for you all who patiently waited. Although I approached the project as an "internet consultant", I soon realised I would need to implement the whole spectrum of tasks required to get the cyber running. I spent almost a week laying the structured cabling, installing the software, and configuring the network. Most of the work I was doing for the first time (e.g. drilling holes in concrete to fix the trunking screws) and most of it was hard, but all of it was enjoyable. I needed to prove the project was implementable with minimal human resources (if it was going to work elsewhere). With an eye on both troubleshooting by the owner and future projects I prepared detailed How To manuals for most of the tasks. So the day finally arrived, November 17th I connected all the PCs to the internet. The results were incredible, the speeds were nearly as good as my 256K broadband conn

Position Apply To By Human Resources and Organisation Development Coordinator, East and Southern Africa Based in Nairobi Applications should be sent with a CV, cover letter and contact names and details of at least two referees to hrceasa.jhb@actionaid.org All applicants should apply on AAI application forms, found on our website- www.actionaid.org . no later than 5 March 2007 . Human Resources and Organisation Development Coordinator, West and Central Africa Based in Nairobi Applications should be sent with a CV, cover letter and contact names and details of at least two referees to hrceasa.jhb@actionaid.org All applicants should apply on AAI application forms, found on our website- www.actionaid.org . no later than 5 March 2007 . Network Architect kmbui@com21mobile.com Network Engineer kmbui@com21mo

Are you between 18-28 years old, interested in the Nursing field, University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is offering FREE tuition, FREE books, a $250 monthly stipend, and guaranteed job placement as a nurse at Providence Hospital upon graduation (it's a 3 year program) with a starting salary of $40,000. The program is recruiting new students now. Please contact Ms. Beshon Smith (202) 266-5481 or email Bsmith@urbanalliance.org Harry's note: This note was forwarded to me by a trustworthy source, I nevertheless urge you to make all proper inquiries before committing yourself to anything.

Kenyans amaze me. We are probably among the most industrious, entrepreneurial, intelligent people in this part of the hemisphere. I continuously meet people who are innovating on new ways to stay ahead of the pack and make some extra coins. Recently I have been engaged in the newest money-making fad at GEC, currency trading. Currency trading involves the buying and selling of currency pairs (e.g. Euro/US Dollar or Dollar/ Yen) over an interconnected network of banks and dealers. It is the largest and most liquid market in the world (1.5 trillion dollars a day) and operates 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday. Most importantly it is accessible to retail traders (read me and a bunch of other enterprising Kenyans) through a software interface connected through the internet. You can start with as low as $200 (KSh. 14,000) and can conservatively make 10% returns on investments per day! (make $400 (KSh. 28,000) profit in one month from a $200 investment) When I first heard about it I th

I've tried to make it easier this time to apply for the jobs. Below you will find a summary of the jobs. All the best Position APPLY TO DEADLINE Position of diocesan accountant The Administrative Secretary All Saints Cathedral Diocese P.O. Box 10313 – 00100 Nairobi Or through email: allsaintsdiocese@wanachi.com 15 FEB 2007 Recruitment of graduate clerical trainees Hawkins Associates Ltd Human Resources Consultants Muthangari Road , Lavington P O BOX 30684 , 00100 Nairobi Fax 02-3864273 Email hawkins.associates@khigroup.com . Community development facilitators - 4 positions Human Resources & Administration Manager, CCF Kenya via email: hr@ccfkenya.org 23 FEB 2007 Tractor driver please send your detailed CV, cover letter, copies of your certificates, testimonials, current cont

followed up from " Internet in the Village " As an entrepreneur I have found that if you draw up a business plan that requires KSh. x, go and source for KSh. 5x, you're likely to get KSh. 0.5x. It's a truth I've come to accept, financiers will never give you what you ask for. After some time I found this was actually a good thing, as the entrepreneur in you goes overdrive figuring how to still accomplish your task with minimum resources. You'd think then that I would have no problem with the 300k budget my friend gave me, eh? Well this was actually like 0.2x so I had to employ all strategies to get the project off the ground with the limited funds. Before I could commit to the project (and the money) I had to make sure that I could get internet to the cyber quickly and inexpensively. I went shopping for an ISP in Nakuru and what I found was mostly disappointing. 1. Jambo Dial-up. This would involve installing a telephone line and using the Jambo service f

One of my most exciting projects last October/November 2006 was setting up cyber cafes in rural areas. It all started like a joke. A friend of mine wanted to start a business in Njoro (a large shopping centre in the Rift Valley about 25 km from Nakuru town) and he was asking for ideas on the kind of business. Being a self-confessed techie, I spewed out technology dependent business ideas. He politely pointed out that my ideas though good were not viable in Njoro as they needed email/internet facilities to work. We got to discuss how the internet could stir economic activity in Njoro, an area depressed of economic activity after the government ban on forest logging. (Njoro lived of the timber industry pre 2004). My friend then threw down the gauntlet. "Hey Harry, you claim you're an entrepreneur and a techie, why not setup the internet infrastructure in Njoro?" I started to protest but then held off as I thought about it. Could it really be done? What were the challenges

Hi everyone, I can't believe its the new year already. I've been on so many projects that I neglected my blog, but thank you for all your visits and comments. I shall be regularly posting my "adventures" over the last three months so keep checking.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises have always had it hard when it came to securing financing for working capital or expansion. Although personal loans have become more available in Kenya; they are still targeted to employees only leaving out MSMEs. This is to change with the launch of Genius Savings and Credit Cooperative Society. With Genius SACCO it will be easy for MSME businessmen to access low interest loans of upto K.shs. 0.5m (USD $ 7,000) with monthly contributions as low as K.Shs. 1,000 (USD 14).