Thus Spaketh Idd Salim

So cool, Chimps will download it.

It is unfortunate that there are 3 kinds of people in this world, as far as conversations are concerned. There are those who will give you all the encouragement you need, those that will give you all the discouragement you don’t need, and those that will not understand what the hell you are talking about, and will appeal the 5th ammendment. I like the 3rd, and adore the first.

The second are the losers in the equation. And in life, generally.

I had a simple brainwave from a personal experience and also from a conversation I had with a friend who was a victim of ‘death-before-a-will’ situation. Because of that, I shared the concept of an inexistent [half-don on my laptop and not online] NikiDedi platform on October 27th. I spent some time discussing the possible algorithms and fail-points for such a system with fellow coders and thinkers. Come 30th October, I get a twit from an e-Troll claiming that I had STOLEN the idea.

My Gawd!!! Unbeknonst to me, someone had spend 3 days of their sad lives trying to invalidate the authenticity of the NikiDedi system. How sad, pathetic and Idle can people be. Instead of eeking every hour of every day trying to improve their lives, people spend endless effort and time and resources trying to discredit others.

Anyway, enough about the e-Trolls. On to todays’ topic.

Overlapping models and concepts.

It is sad. I have attended countless developer contests and the story is always the same. I see apps that compete against each other and see duplication of effort. 2 teams of coders/startups doing the SAME app. Both groups do the app to 70% perfection. Ego and pride making both teams try to out-do each other. Teamwork is only internal. The others are enemies. Ohh, What would it take to join hands and do a super-app together and share the loot?

Think of  e.g. An App to show you what is happening today: We have AroundMe, WhatsHappening, Buzz, Phat etc. Think of Medical concepts and we have AskADoc, mPhysician, MedKenya etc. All concepts that are similar.

I am not participating in the Nokia Create4Millions contest that closes tomorrow, despite all the psyche I had. Let us just say that someone gave me a better deal. Instead of shooting in the dark in a developer contest, I decided to work on a real business app. Not a contest app just for the sake of it. More about this in a separate blog post.

This does not mean that I don’t have faith in what Nokia are doing for our tech-scene. This does NOT mean that people should not do contest-apps. This does NOT mean, in any way or manner at all, that Salim does not see the point of developer contests. No. Not at all. It was just a timing issue. Opportunity cost.

Killer Apps

When someone speaks of killer-apps, in Kenya, you think of an app with its own revenue model and a SOLID business case. We don’t have the clout to do revenues off ads yet. People WON’T pay to download the apps, yet. Hata 5 bob.

Developers fail to think beyond the APP, and can’t visualize the business. That is why most of us will be seen coding late in the night for developer contests with the money as the END to the app. Not the MEANS to the app’s conquest of it niche/purpose. If an APPs sustainability and profitability is what makes one a killer-app, then there are NONE in Kenya. Not yet.

Tuvitu from Shimba has over 750k downloads from the OVI store. It has made KSHS 0. Version 1 of AroundMe from Mwai saw over 300k downloads. 0 KSHS in revenue. Sembuse from Symbiotic has 250, 000 users. 0 Kshs.

I see a great time ahead, especially with AroundMe version 2, Ma3Racer from Akina Jimmy, MedAfrica (formerly MedKenya) from Shimba. If they stick to the models they have taken me through, then we might see the first Killer-apps. Apps that make sense to the users and cents for the developers.

I have always talked to Erik about this. We need a success story. We need a case study of an app/solution that :

• Changed the life of at least 100k users [socially, economically, emotionally, intellectually].
• Made the developer some money. At least an ARPU of KSHS 5 per month from 40% of the users.
• Gives people a reason to use the APP at least 3 times a week.
• Stays on a user phone for at least 6 months.

When will this be? For those who believe, it will be soon.

Back to code.

App vs Biz. You decide.

It is a long, tedious and demanding procedure to create a product. An App. A problem solver. Your idea finally converted to bug-less code. It compiles and runs like a hawker from Kanjo. It connects to the server 99.5% of the times of asking and always purrs. People are talking about it. 2, 000 downloads per day. Etc, yadda, yadda.

But then, slowly but surely, comes the sad reality. A Business.

You have an App. But do you have a business? How much has your app made so far? What is the daily/weekly/monthly ARPU? In the last 4 weeks. Ok, Last 4 months. Further? Ok, the last 12 months. 10, 000 USD?.. wait… 5, 000?.. no?…. ZERO? STOP CODING IMMEDIATELY! Get a job.

Unless you have rich parents and alot of pesa-ya-daddy-na-mammi, then you need to CLEARLY define your revenue points before developing an App. It is good to dream. That is what hope is made of. After hope comes faith. Then reality. Sad reality, sometimes. Happy realities, some other times.

But no one will invest in a dream. Unless it is your mother, no one will give you money unless they can see that it will have a RoI.

Before developing an App, decide. Are you doing this for fun? Can you afford to have NO SALES? Can it interest an investor, or better still, do you have Angel Funding?

That is why some no-brainer kindergarten products like DealFish will come and go. They don’t have a Kenyan-Applicable revenue model. Just alot of money to run for 3-5 years with the hope that their foreign idea will forge a niche.

That is why MXit failed in Kenya [As I said last year on my birthday] [My sentiments on some of the players mentioned might have changed since them]. As soon as the money to ‘test the waters’ runs out, the product dies. It is not sustainable. Same is the risk with some products like Mocality.

Don’t forget. The difference between the coder people see and say : “Heh! Manze huyo msee ni mnoma sana code. Hakuna kitu hawezi develop”, but takes a matt home, and the coder people see and say : “Msee fake sana. Hata system yake si kali but kina doo kaa shiiiet”, and jumps into his Kompressor after work, then calls your girlfriend, is the business mind.

And this is my challenge to iHub, NaiLab, mLab and IddLab. We need to incubate monetizable ideas, make them work and turn them into businesses. Then we can create success stories. Hopefully we can stop Ndemo from seeing Google as the Saviour. We need to demonstrate local competencies. We don’t need Google to host and digitize Government data. We need Google to Work with us to do that. The skillsets are there, but let us have some real businesses out there. Running and profitable.

Hapo vipi?

Back to code…

Wazi

Well, on march 11, I had the privilege and the pleasure of meeting the creme-de-la-creme of Kenya’s Mobile Industry. The MoMo Kenyan chapter if official BABY! SHe is alive and kicking in Kenya.

The list is endless, but top of my mind was Paul Kukubo, Mark Kaigwa, Pratik, Forrest, Aly Khan Satchu, Kaburo, Lewela, Ronald Meru, Timo, Leon Asoyo Oywero, Kemibaro, Erik Hersman, Caroline Juma, Norman Gombe, Oscar from Zain… Just to mention whose who smiled at me, shook my hand and spent some seconds to talk to me with either advice or questions.

Slowly, Idd Salim is becoming a celeb. Hehehehehehaters. Relaxini bana. Cant a brother get some recognition?

Hersmann stated that the world is waiting for the Kenya’s version of FacebookMobile, but with focus on Local content and trends. I told him about our Zunguka Mobile site and he was pleasantly surprised. I smiled thinking, “A black Facebook on steroids. If only Symbiotic had 1/6473868 of the development investment/budget of Facebook. But no one believes in Kenya. We have to fend for ourselves!! Innovative Geniuses doing hand-to-mouth programming with emphasis on code-for-food-and-rent.”

Mark as always was happy and enthusiastic about our products like Sembuse and TumaSMS and hoped that GotIssuez could do a collabo with Symbiotic. I asked only one Question? ‘Why not?’. There is alot of content repetition in Kenya. What we need is content aggregation. Nipe nikupe. As in, Symbiotic.

Moses Kemibaro, the man whose mind is not narrow and got words like the mighty sparrow was next. “Salim, congrats bana. Your website was ‘Kenyas Blog of the week’ in the Business Daily”. I had no idea! Thanks BDA. BDA march 11, page 17. Moses then Introduced me to the great Aly. Well, the Kenyan Version.

I was most likely speaking from a whole meter below the Tall Aly. I think he was standing on his Wallet. Nevertheless,  I am sure he got me verbatim when I Explained how he could use the Sembuse platform to monetize his NSE Stocks Data on rich.co.ke and rake millions. Make the data go to the people, not make people come to your website for data. He was all smiles. Watch this space.

Ronald of Adtel and Norman of IMS told me sweet things I like hearing about some things we call USSD, MONEY and CHAPAA.

And then came a God-sent moment. No, not me finally speaking to a Female. I was doing dudes all night jana. I met this guy whose jobbo is to get poor and orphaned kids from slums and teach them photo-shop, web design etc, and then empower them to be self-reliant with web jobs. I told him about Symbiotic being a Company formed by Old Boys from Starehe, understand sponsorship and charity to the letter.

We are pamojaz with him and we got no Issuez with helping. I also suggested he talks to MobilePlanet. What I hear is that Safaricom has given ONLY mobile planet access to USSD and locked out all the other developers and PRSPS and these kids could really benefit from knowledge of USSD coding. maybe at last in Kenya, we can see more innovative solutions on USSD rather than wait for a Semeni every 3 years. [Btw, i have no beef with Semeni and I believe it is a great solution. It is actually named after Semenya, a real champion of the people. But come on, this is Kenya. We have the best coders and thinkers on earth. Am sure we can do better if these APIs are opened.]. Or maybe my Informer meant Safaricon, and I heard Safaricom. I stand corrected.

Speaking of our Beloved Saf, I did not meet anyone from Safaricom at MoMo. Either they were not there, ama maybe tu ni network haikuwa.

Oscar, Bi Juma and the rest of the esteemed Salim-meeters were all positive and I am sure all this will come to a good end. Or is it a start?

Only time will tell.

Err, Code time it is.

<< Part 1 Here

Along came Safaricon

Those guys from henga (Wahenga) once said ‘Mtegemea Nundu Haachi kunona’. That is normally the truth because as we see it all over, then BIG companies are always helping out the small ones, even if via mergers and acquisitions, for the good of everyone. Google just bought AdMob last week for USD 750M [KSHS 54.7 B].

However, In Kenya, the saying was officially changed to ‘mtegemea nundu, haachi kusota’.

The 2003 experience

I vividly remember in 2003. I was co-habiting at UoN with some of my Starehe Old Boys. Like most Kenyan Coders, I was all-brains and bubbling with Ideas, but NO Money. So, Me and my Friend Wasena Angira went to Safaricon with our very brilliant Idea. We called it 2GeS [2^nd Generation Email Service]. This solution would help one aggregate all his emails using a simple web Interface we had created and would get an SMS when new mail checked into any of his/her email accounts. Via USSD, the user would then quickly peruse his emails and decide whether it is necessary to rush back to the office or cyber to read the mails. User could set parameters and priority levels based on sender, subject or message body.

Assuming Safaricon was there to help the innovators be able to finally afford some groceries, we did the demo, shared the documentation and the entire concept. Talk of a cute gal walking with a shirt with the words ‘Take me, I am single and desperate’ in Westlands.

‘Very nice concept, we will get back to you in 2 days’, was the response. And so we walked back to westlands stage smiling at each other everytime we saw a nice car because we knew, ‘we will own 2 of those each, soon’.

OHHH!! How wrong we were!!

We got a regret email stating that Safaricon was not immediately looking at email over SMS and that they will get back to us.

Needless to mention some time after that, Safaricon and Google did a replica of that system. Thanks to God, it flopped. Amazingly, [possibly just coincidence].

I do not have enough facts to intelligently comment on the origins of mPesa, OkoaJahazi or Sambaza concepts, but I know some people that talk about coders who went to Safcon, were told off via email or call, only to see their product on a billboard and all over news. Powered and Owned by Safaricon, ofcourse.

The 2009 experience

So, fast-forward 2009. We are more equipped and stronger. More technically adept and mentally sanguine. We develop and test Sembuse version 3. A mobile Social Network that comes with Real-time Cheap Messaging, Operator Agnostic payment, SIM-Independent Revenue model and a ground-breaking Advertising Engine [ManenoAds].

So we go to Safaricon with after a request for a meeting from JM, we send an NDA and they send an email saying that all but MJ have signed the NDA, but we can proceed with the meeting. We go to Safcon House and meet with a group of 3 marketing department staff and 2 VAS Staff. All names available. We take them through the system and all its workings, discuss revenue models etc.

‘Very good product. So, what do you want from Safcon’, The VAS lady asks. ‘One-off Licensing cost and a revenue share’, Says TM. ‘Hmmn, Revenue Share? How does 90% Safcon and you 10% sound’, She Asks.

Ohh dear! 2003 all coming back to me.

We found a way to get off the meeting amicably and they were to ‘get back to us’. Till today, we have not yet received the NDA. MJ bado hajasign.

Amazingly, [possibly just coincidence] Safaricon started a CLASSIFIED service on Safcon Live, aiming to cannibalize on our ManenoAds ad engine. Needless to say, it was a kindergarten implementation of our concept.

The advice

I have shared this idea with a lot of people and the following was the collective advice I have got on how to deal with Kenyan Corporates:

1. The NDA is just a piece of paper. Go to ALL meetings with a lawyer. No phone calls. Insist on Emails and always CC your lawyer.
2. Don’t deal with middle or low-level staff. They will steal your Idea, package It as theirs and sell it to senior management. They are mostly under-achievers who will do anything to get noticed. They are kawa people like you who HATE to see you walk in with an Idea and walk out with a check right before their very eyes. Above all, they will just waste your time.
3. If you can’t deal with SENIORS or OWNERS, then it is not worth your time. God has given you that Idea and he will open other doors for you.
4. Don’t be intimidated by company size. Remember, Companies like Safaricon are just ‘Jogoos was shamba’. With their 12M subscribers they are non-entities in the global scene [read: Mjini]. Using LinkedIN and simple google searches, you can find bigger fish who can take up your idea in a more professional level and manner.
5. Look for a VC or a non-kenyan investor to put money in your idea and LAUNCH BIG. A small launch is like a small erection. It impresses no one and just exposes your Ideas to the hunters and gatherers.
6. Offshore is better. Why Non-Kenyans? Because there are no real investors in Kenya. We have not met someone who can put USD 100k in faith and equity on an IT startup. Kenyans have no faith. All we have met are people who want to put KSHS 1M for 80% ownership of your solution and your life. Remember it is Software. Not Bread.
7. Never give up. Like Jose Chameleone said, ‘Chako ni Chako’.

More Soon…