VOA--WEEKLY
“Beyond the Unicorn”
EPISODE 27
((AIR DATE: 07 20 18))
((FULL TRANSCRIPT))
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((SOTs))
If you come out here and you build something of great value, you can make it. That’s what is so amazing about Silicon Valley.
There is this groundswell of smart people dedicated to using technology to solve very difficult problems.
((NARRATOR))
Meet African technology entrepreneurs who are committing their lives to scoring big in America and hopefully even bigger back home.
Voice of America presents a documentary special “Beyond the Unicorn”: Africans making IT in Silicon Valley.
((OPEN ANIMATION))
BLOCK A
((BANNER))
What’s a Unicorn?
((SLATE))
A ‘unicorn’ in Silicon Valley is a tech company valued at $1 billion.
The question is, where are the African Unicorns?
((MONTAGE OF B-ROLL + SOTs + MUSIC))
((YONAS))
If you come out here and you build something of great value, you can make it. That’s what’s amazing about Silicon Valley. That’s why you see everyone flocking towards Silicon Valley.
((IYIN))
It’s really that place where there is this groundswell of smart people dedicated to using technology to solve very difficult problems.
((BUKOLA))
I was, like, oh my God, people just think of these things and it just happens, and how can I build something? I just want to, like, build something from scratch!
((CHRIS))
We come here ready to make something of ourselves. So, when an African leaves Africa and comes here, we are coming here to do battle.
((SLATE))
BEYOND THE UNICORN
Africans Making IT in Silicon Valley
((SLATE))
The Elevator Pitch
A Fast Sell of Your Idea
((THE PITCHES))
((GFX ANIMATION of elevator doors dinging opening for each pitch))
((IYIN))
Hi, My name is E and I am managing director and co-founder of Flutterwave. And Flutterwave is one API for payments across Africa.
((YONAS))
Hi, my name is Yonas Beshawred, CEO and founder of Stackshare. Stackshare is the best place for engineers and developers to discover and compare software tools.
((BUKOLA))
Hi, my name is Bukola. I consider myself a connector. I build platforms to reach African audiences back home, as well as here in the US, to tap into their common interests.
((CHRIS))
Mall for Africa is an online platform that enables US and UK retailers to easily sell into Africa without any hassles or worries.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((CHRIS))
Mall for Africa started really with an idea.
((SLATE: Info about CHRIS FOLAYAN))
((CHRIS FOLAYAN, FOUNDER, MALL FOR AFRICA))
I was born and raised in Nigeria. So, out of necessity, I guess, my parents and brothers and friends thought they could utilize me as their shipping company. There was one day in particular. I went to the airport and I had 10 suitcases.
And I remember vividly
((INSERT GFX ANIMATION))
the lady across the counter, it was a Delta flight. The lady across the counter looking at me up and down like, ‘you are not serious, this is not going to happen.’ So, I decided to build an app.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((BUKOLA))
Jandus Radio started off with just word of mouth.
((SLATE: Info about BUKOLA AKINFADERIN))
((BUKOLA AKINFADERIN, SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER, ANCESTORY.COM))
I sent it to a couple of friends who wanted to listen to live radio back home. We didn’t have a lot of apps that were catering to African content in radio at that time. So I sent it out to them, and they sent it to their friends, and before you know it, people were talking about, ‘Oh my God, I have an app that has over, like, 300 radio stations.’
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((IYINOLUWA))
Now I am working on a platform product which is payments, right?
((SLATE: Info about IYINOLUWA ABOYEJI))
((IYINOLUWA ABOYEJI, CO-FOUNDER, FLUTTERWARE))
I started digging into that and realized it was an absolute nightmare to be a developer and get paid in Africa. I’ll give you an example, like, up until recently, if you were an Android developer in Africa, you had to put your apps up for free. You couldn't make money on your apps, because there was no way for Google to pay you. We are not just enabling people to increase revenue by providing them with new means of payment. We are also enabling them to access global technology services by doing so, right? That is revolutionary.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((YONAS))
The concept was, let's bring all of these tools that you use to build your company, and your apps and infrastructure, let’s bring them into one place and organize it.
((SLATE: Info about YONAS BESHAWRED))
((YONAS BESHAWRED, FOUNDER, STACKSHARE))
Other industries had done it. You know, Yelp has done it for restaurants, TripAdvisor for travel and international places. So, this wasn't really a new concept, but no one had really done this for software. If you think about it today, you know, where do you go for software decisions? It's still googling around and it's mad. We were actually the first site to really do that. There were other sites that were trying to do sort of similar things. They have done software reviews but we're actually the first site to say, share all the software that you’re using.
((SLATE))
Venture Capital
The Lifeblood of Silicon Valley
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((STEPHEN))
For an average entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, there are stages to what the venture funding cycle looks like.
((SLATE: Info about STEPHEN OZOIGBO))
((STEPHEN OZOIGBO, CEO, AFRICAN TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION))
You have to start off with the seed stage. You have to be able to get people who believe in you early enough to take a risk in your idea. Every time an entrepreneur describes what they do, it usually has to hit the points of I saw a problem, it was very unique. I had a solution, it was very unique. I was able to get or I should be able to get somebody to pay me for my solution. But I should be able to repeat that so many times that it becomes scalable and sustainable.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((ANTHONY))
I know people who have joined a startup thinking it will be the next big thing.
((SLATE: Info about ANTHONY OKORO))
((ANTHONY OKORO, GLOBAL INNOVATION TEAM, ERNST & YOUNG))
And then you just wake up one morning and they didn’t get the funding around and it’s ‘lock up shop’ and that’s it. Happens a lot, more often than is talked about. We hear about the Facebook and Google and Apple and all the other startups that are successful, but one out of a million succeed and the rest fail.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((MBWANA))
Silicon Valley is probably the ‘Disneyland of capitalism’ is a good way to put it.
((SLATE: Info about MBWANA ALLIY))
((MBWANA ALLIY, FOUNDER, SAVANNAH FUND))
It is a place where you can come and make your dreams come true, particularly in the technology space. It's a really, really, really good ecosystem to get things done. And of course, part of it is venture capital. People take risks here. It’s a place that is tolerant of failure.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((SID))
They're not looking necessarily for the steady company. They're looking for companies that will grow quickly.
((SLATE: Info about SID MOFYA))
((SID MOFYA, DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIPS, DRAPER VENTURE NETWORK))
A lot of them will fail. They won't get their money back. Some of them will bring some money back, and a small percentage of them will hopefully bring a big return. The Draper Venture Network’s mission is to be in all the places where interesting technology is being developed, where entrepreneurs are doing great things. And right now, we have partner funds on all the continents, except Africa. So, we’re actively looking for a fund that fits the kind of profile we're looking for. They are investing in early stage technology companies.
((BROLL + SOT))
((ANTHONY OKORO))
What everybody hears is, you raised the 100 million. They say, yay. But that’s not success. Success is lasting long enough till you can exit, and that you’re in a position, or an IPO, and the money that investors getting becomes liquid and fungible. So, a lot of businesses I’ve seen don’t make it out of the exit, and that means everybody gets washed out. You just spent 7, 8 years of your life working on this, and then it didn’t pan out.
((BROLL + SOT))
((STEPHEN OZOIGBO))
We belong to the school of thought that believes very firmly that Africa's future will be built on the back of entrepreneurs. We are firmly rooted in bridging those knowledge gaps and making sure that the interconnectedness between Africa and the rest of the world comes in forms of capital, in forms of education and resources, and mostly it's people.
((BROLL + SOT))
((MBWANA ALLIY))
A zebracorn is going to be a company that is built in Africa, for Africa, and scaled in Africa. It could become unicorn by going beyond Africa. But made in Africa, scaled in Africa, serves multiple African markets, and that’s really what distinguishes a zebracorn.
TEASE (VO/NAT)
Coming up….
((BANNER))
Building a Future for Africa
((SOT))
I kind of settled on this vision of the world that was about building the future of Africa. Three things: its people, its platforms, and its policy.
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN (ANIM)
BLOCK B
((BANNER))
Building a Future for Africa
((SLATE))
There Is No Path
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((BUKOLA))
So, the first piece of code I wrote was my freshman year in college. I was like 16. I took Java, and it was a program to animate some radio, and I was able to code it, and I'm like, oh wait, it works! I just wrote code! I typed stuff, and I ran it, and it worked! I got thrown into mobile app development towards, like, 2010, where I created an app that went viral in Nigeria. Initially it just started off as just radio, and nothing else. So, I said, what about news, what about gossip news, entertainment, sports, health news? Then I was like, okay, we can make this a little more social. What about having people interact on the app?
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((YONAS))
I’d always been into tech. Growing up I was like the tech person within our family, you know. People had always looked at me, so I've been interested in it, but I never considered it as a real career path because I didn't have someone that I could point to that was in that industry. Everyone I knew was sort of outside of tech.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((IYIN))
I started to look at the internet as this space where it didn’t matter who you were but you were able to reach the most amount of people.
((NATS))
Mark Zuckerberg was my earliest influence. I’ve continued to be influenced by his approach to tech because it’s a perfect mix of social mission, right? And economic impact. It’s not about building a big company. And neither is it about being an NGO and giving everything away. It’s about building a system.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((NATS))
((CHRIS))
So let's say you are in a rural town in Nigeria. Download the app on your preferred device. Find the product you want. Once you've added it to the cart, you click on our pay button and, as they say, ‘that's when the magic happens’. We take the contents from the cart. We put it in our environment, and now we allow you to select where you want to have the item shipped, how you want to pay for the product. Once you've made the payment for the product,
((INSERT GFX ANIMATION))
the product is then shipped from the site you purchased it from. It is shipped to our warehouse. Then we tag it and then we ship it out to you, taking care of all customs duties, fees and making sure everything goes perfectly right.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((ANDELA))
When I turned 25, kind of just reviewing the 5 years, I settled on this vision of the world that was about building the future of Africa. And for me, it settles on three things. It’s a remarkably clear vision of what I wanted and it’s very simple: It’s people, it’s platforms, and it’s policy.
((BROLL + SOTs + MUSIC))
((NATS))
Andela is a platform for tech-powered growth. It’s future will be written in Lagos, Nairobi, and cities across Africa.
((IYIN))
And that was what we did with Andela, right?
Found really smart young people, very motivated, with high learning agility, taught them, paid them while we taught them how to build software, and then got Facebook, Google, IBM, all these companies to hire them to build products for them.
((NATS))
((IYIN))
So, what Flutterwave is, it is an API that enables anyone from anywhere in the world to process any kind of payment across Africa. We are finally making financial inclusion real.
((YONAS))
Every time I went to one of these hackathons, I’d see a new API and I’d think, man, I should know about that. There should be this one online space that has all the best stuff and feedback from developers and engineers and people actually building software, you know? I was like, man, this should exist and I should just go build it! And so, I just treated it as a side project at first. At the time it was called LeanStack. Eventually I got introduced to this guy named Nick Grandy, and he was the first employee at Airbnb. So, we started working together for about 6 months. We built out the first version of LeanStack at the time, and then he actually stayed on as an advisor. He was the first investor, so that was big!
((BUKOLA))
We had a hosting company that had malfunction in their servers, and they deleted the whole database by accident, and had no backup. Sadly, we had to shut down temporarily, but we’re working on rebuilding.
((YONAS))
We believe the best way to solve this problem is to show you what the best companies in the world are using and why.
The transition was realizing that the best thing we can do is try to mimic an in-person conversation between two people, the two engineers, like
((GFX ANIMATION))
okay what’s the problem you’re trying to solve? Well, we don’t have good visibility into how our app is performing in production. Okay, well, here's what we use, like here’s how we solve that problem. And you tell them what you’re using and then within 30 minutes it’s like, okay, I know that I need to use that now because I trust this person, I trust their decision-making process, sounds like a good one to go with, so let me go with that.’
((BUKOLA))
I have a passion for creating products that I am interested in, that I’m passionate about. It’s tough because at the same time, you have to make a living, and being a startup founder, you don’t always have the means to provide for yourself. I didn’t have any of that, any serious investors. So, after a while, just to keep myself from not starving, I actually had to break down and actually get a nine-to-five just so I can provide for myself.
((YONAS))
I basically just kept at it because I saw the value of it, and I saw that it was picking up steam, I could see it getting easier.
((BUKOLA))
Definitely, it's a lot of work because the nine-to-five does take a lot of your time but, always in your free time, even if it's an hour or two hours a day that you can find, I'm always doing that. I'm working on something right now that I'm hoping is going to be very massively successful, once I’m ready.
TEASE (VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((BANNER))
Cultural Preparation
((SOTs))
So I think part of the challenge with being black in tech is that there just aren’t enough black people in tech.
Where I work right now, I am the only female mobile engineer. I am also the only black mobile engineer. It’s not something that I expected.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN (ANIM)
BLOCK C
((BANNER))
Cultural Preparation
((SLATE))
Networking in a White World
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((CHRIS))
You go to a venture capital (meeting) in Palo Alto on Sand Hill Road and you say, hey, I'm trying to raise funds for my African company. And they look at you and they say, ‘Are people buying Ralph Lauren? Are they buying Louis Vuitton? Do they know who Prada is?’
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((YONAS))
So, I think part of the challenge with being black in tech is that there just aren't enough black people in tech.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((SID))
What role the networks play here in Silicon Valley? I think it's a huge, huge role. It might be the distinction of Silicon Valley how over time these networks have grown. Cold call somebody or send a cold email to somebody and say, hey, I saw this thing that you did. And surprise, surprise, they respond.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((STEPHEN))
There's a lot of work that has to be done in the cultural preparation for what to expect in the Valley, and sometimes it's the most ridiculous, mundane simple things: punctuality at meetings, the way you approach people, email etiquette, business etiquette. It's the simplest things that have profound consequences within a cross-cultural scenario.
((BROLL + SOT + MUSIC))
((ANTHONY))
Growing up in Nigeria, as an African in Nigeria, I have natural networks. I have cousins, I have brothers, I have classmates. I like to say I can get to the president in Nigeria, whereas in the US I can't even get to my mayor. If you are not from here, it’s very difficult for you to have a social network. You have to create that social network yourself.
((BROLL + COURTESY CHYRON: FACEBOOK))
((STEPHEN))
If you come into Silicon Valley and you are a well-trained research and development professional, and you went to Stanford or UCSF, and you are specialist in what you do, you will get a great job and you'll get well paid. If you came into Silicon Valley and you were of African descent and you knew nobody in the Valley, it will take you a longer time.
((BROLL + SOT))
((ANTHONY))
In Africa I’m an Igbo man. I don’t even know that I’m black because everybody’s black. It’s like asking a fish, what is water? So, Silicon Valley also has the aspect or the fact that it’s about 3% black which a lot of people don’t realize until they get here.
((GFX / SLATE + MUSIC))
Percent of Black Employees in Tech Specific Roles (U.S.)
at Uber (1%), Dropbox (1%), Google (2%), Facebook (1%), Apple (8%), Microsoft (2.4%).
((BROLL + SOT))
((BUKOLA))
Where I work right now, I'm the only female mobile engineer. I’m also the only black mobile engineer. It's not something that I expected. The “culture fit” is still a big topic here. You wouldn't think that people can refuse to hire you because you don't fit into a culture.
((BROLL + SOT))
((YONAS))
It’s happened in small ways where, you know, you go to a meeting with an investor and you can tell that they just don't want to hear what you have to say. Maybe it’s your venture. Maybe it’s like what you're working on,. But sometimes you ca, kind of, feel that it's just because of you and your color, and they're not even open to it. They just don’t have to deal with people of color on a regular basis. From my perspective, I just brush it off. I’m just like, okay, not for me, let’s move on.
((BROLL + SOT))
((BUKOLA))
If a company just invested the time and said, ‘Look we’re going to sponsor you. We're going to provide your work visa to come to Silicon Valley and work for us. You'll have this opportunity.’ But they're not going that route. You have to ask yourself why? There's talent. These people are brilliant.
((NATS w/ BROLL + SOT))
((IYIN))
What you want to do as an African in the Valley is to plug into as many networks as you can, because that’s is ultimately how you find the people who are ultimately going to root for your success.
((SLATE))
Visions
((BROLL + SOT))
((YONAS))
I definitely see myself doing this for the next at least 5 to 10 years, and I think anytime you're building a company, you have to be thinking long term.
((BROLL + SOT))
((BUKOLA))
I think the biggest impact that an African entrepreneur can have on Africa is to be seen.
((NATS + COURTESY CHYRON: APPLE))
((BUKOLA))
Apple actually has a woman of African descent. She's actually Ghanaian. That’s one of their top people in marketing. Her name is Bozoma Saint John, and that's what I'm trying to achieve. I don't want to fit in.
((BROLL + SOT))
((IYIN))
We are sitting on a huge powder keg of potential in Africa. Over the next 20 to 30 years, more than half of the world’s working population is going to live in Africa. It’s the second largest continent in the world by size and by people. I don't think there's any narrative of the world that is complete without Africa being a major part or player in it. For us, winning means being able to come back in 10-15 years and say, technology changed Africa, and you were a part of the one of the greatest wealth creation, value creation opportunities in modern history. That's what winning is.
((SLATE))
Produced by: Voice of America, Africa Division
www.beyondtheunicorn.com
((CREDIT ROLL WITH FACETIME UPDATES FROM THE ENTREPRENEURS))
Written & produced by:
Teffera G. Teffera
Erin Reynolds
Camera:
Bagassi Koura
Original Music Composed by:
Mikias
Additional video:
500 Startups
Anayo Amuzie
Andela
Steve Baragona
Jandus
Omary Kaseko
Anne Look
Chika Oduah
Mall for Africa
Paul Ndiho
The Africa Channel
Amos Wangwa
Graphics & Chyron:
Laurence Gomez
Heather Smith-Chaperon
Editor:
Jack Harris
Executive Producer:
Steven Ferri
((SLATE))
In memory of Greg Bertrand
CLOSING (ANIM)
(Join) Facebook, (Follow) Twitter, (Watch) YouTube
SHOW ENDS
