

Why Africa may never produce a Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, or Facebook - michjeanty
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/59906

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wheels
There's this one famous guy that flew to space and started something related
to Linux. Oh, that's right: Ubuntu.

Mark Shuttleworth's African startup sold for US$575 million. That's not
exactly Google or Microsoft, but nothing to shake a stick at.

~~~
wumi
Shuttleworth's VC firm "here be dragons"

<http://www.hbd.com/>

~~~
baha_man
'In ancient times, unexplored territories were marked 'Here Be Dragons' on
maps and only the bravest of explorers dared venture there - often when they
did, they discovered lush lands, rich with treasure and promise.' - Well, the
ones who weren't killed by tropical diseases or angry natives may have done.
The name 'Here be dragons' reminds me of 'Dragons' Den' on the BBC, but I
found out the other day that the original version was a Japanese program
called 'Money Tiger', which sounds better to me.

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dangoldin
I don't see how you can use the word "never" when referring to the future.

Everything's possible - 500 years ago no one though the Americas would produce
anything..

~~~
lpgauth
I feel the same way, their statements are a bit bold.

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wumi
in general, the argument he's making could go for any town, in the US, or
otherwise, not just African nations.

There are some things that are very difficult to change, and one is culture.
("face your studies")

For several sub-saharan African nations there's an emphasis put on schooling,
and a few of those companies mentioned (read: MSFT and Facebook) would never
have happened in cultures that don't respect people without college degrees.

Sure in the US, there's not much that respect for a drop-out either, but on
the other hand it's not seen as insane to drop-out or to even start a business
simultaneously while in school.

secondly, the entrepreneurial start-up mindset in America had it's beginnings
somewhere, and in the subset branch of web 2.0/ software-based start-ups, just
one company can literally change the whole game and influence myriads of
others to come.

Intel, Microsoft, Facebook in 2004. The story of Zuck and Fbook has resonated
in the heads of youths across the country, and one can point to him as an
example of what could be.

All that's really needed for any region, or any university (for every Stanford
there are a few hundred univerisites that produce no software start-ups of any
consequence) is for one run-away success, and the rest will follow.

------
aswanson
_In the West, universities are eager to support student entrepreneurs in their
campuses and even go out of their way looking for students with exceptional
business ideas_

But the problem is, they are looking in the _business_ schools.

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thinkcomp
I think Africa has a couple other more serious issues to worry about first...

~~~
wheels
I really think that's the wrong (though common) way of looking at things. Much
of Africa _desperately_ needs a sustainable economy and parts of Africa are
rather developed (parts of South Africa and Botswana, notably). This whole
shakedown with Mugabe in Zimbabwe is that Zim was well on its way to becoming
a developed nation when his government destroyed the economy.

To put things in perspective, India is horribly poor, but by latching on to
high-technology, it's finally creating a mechanism for social mobility.
There's a light at the end of the tunnel for India. If something like that
could happen in parts of Africa, it really could start a disruptive economic
chain of events that might help pull some of the nations up by the bootstraps
within a couple decades.

Feeding the hungry is noble, but it doesn't solve long term problems.

~~~
tx
Wheels, I adore your enthusiasm but I don't share it. Companies (not just
startups, but any businesses in general) need markets, financial system, basic
infrastructure and favorable legal environment just like fish needs water:
they are living organisms and certain conditions must be met for them to
exist. Preaching for more VC capital in Africa is like protecting human rights
on the moon.

~~~
wheels
I think the thing that this article, and a lot of rhetoric in general assumes,
is that Africa is Africa. There are some amazingly developed parts of Africa
with stable economies, legal systems and technology infrastructures. I would
expect any outside investment to start in those countries and radiate to the
surrounding ones. So while I wouldn't bet on a startup scene popping up in
Somalia, it could happen in Botswana.

The factor that I think what you're saying misses is: cheap labor. Combined
with a high-prevalence of spoken English among the educated, I think it's
possible that businesses would be willing to consider operations in Africa.

~~~
tx
You don't get it because you haven't lived there. How can you "consider
operations" in places that don't have a reliable banking system? Just imagine
how it's like (i've seen it first hand: natural exchange + cash in envelopes).
How can you run a business, pay salaries and expect some work to be done, if
electricity randomly gets shut off several times a day, when there are no
banks that people trust and inflation can jump 100% at any moment? How can you
do technology in countries where Internet access is 5 to 10 times more
expensive than in the West (even with their standards of living)? How can you
explain to your investors that 30% of your capital was spent bribing the
officials (you don't have a choice).

Again, I admire your thinking but that's more like dreaming. I worked in ex-
USSR and have friends from Nigeria (one of the most developed nations there)
and believe me, dealing with all that shit makes you so inefficient, that even
cheap labor won't help.

Things will improve of course, and rather quickly -- nearly all soviet block
contries are great places for doing business now (compared to what they were
15 years ago), but that's another matter.

~~~
wheels
I spent about a month in Africa last year, split between four countries. I
believe what you're saying for, say, Nigeria, but you're wrong in believing
that it's on the high end of the spectrum. It's in fact in the bottom third
(HDI, GDPpC). It's a different world in the more developed African nations.

Countries like South Africa and Botswana have stable currencies, functional
democracies, reliable banking and readily available cheap broadband.

Edit: Just checked, broadband prices are a little higher (about 30%) than I
pay in Germany at the first couple sites I hit.

Edit 2: The gap between the rated HDI (Human Development Index) between
Nigeria and South Africa is about double the gap between the US and Mexico.

------
systems
well when the pharoes (africans) built the pyramids, it made everyone else
jealous

and it kinda jynx-ed the continent for the following several thousands years

this is why we africans dont wonna build another thing that will draw much
attention to us, or make anyone jealous

