Out of one, many

This weekend I was privileged to share moments with entrepreneurs under the MRF program. It's always good being around entrepreneurs, there's a lot of "notes to compare." I must also say I'm really inspired by the number of young people who won't just sit back doing nothing but who go out boldly in pursuit of a vision and who eventually witness great things happen. 

But of even greater magnitude is the inspiration behind this foundation is a : two young people who were not only pursuing their lives at the time of their unfortunate demise; but who will forever be remembered as an embodiment of true love and sacrifice. As I sat in the room with all the entrepreneurs benefiting from this program, I couldn't help but think of this scripture:

Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 

John 12:24 (NIV-UK)

Mbugua and Rosemary may have been one seed and though we mourn their lives cut short, it is comforting to see many entrepreneurs being impacted in their memory. And there is no telling how far the ripple effect travels - for these entrepreneurs may each build an ecosystem that in turn reaches out and impacts many more lives.

STARTUP: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (A Movie Review)

Happy New Year!

This year I'll start my writing with a first: a movie review! Yes. Over the holidays, I got an opportunity to watch a series recommended earlier to me: STARTUP! - (starring Kenyan-born Edi Gathegi). 

The show has quite an interesting plot of this startup trying to secure investor funding. It starts as the story of one girl named Izzy; who has this brilliant idea to change the world by launching a digital currency known as GenCoin.  In quite a dramatic turn of events, Izzy is joined in her quest by two very different young men, but who buy into her idea; and the trio set out to build the world's next big thing! 

STARTUP is basically a reflection of our current world - there are those with ideas, and those with the money - and the challenge has been to match the two: on the one hand, those with the money are asking,

"Where do I invest this money for a good return? How am I sure it is a worthwhile venture?..."

On the other hand, there are those with ideas and they are asking,

"Where do I get the money to make this idea a reality? Where do I get the seed money to make this idea grow into a huge tree and even to a forest?"

So this is a very modern series, set in the current 21st century circumstances of matching money with ideas. I should note here the striking coincidence that as I watched this, Strive Masiyiwa had just started on a series of Facebook posts about financing for your business: very good practical stuff.


The Good, 1: Entrepreneurial Character 
Set in our present day, many businessmen will identify with the STARTUP. It is easy to identify with the entrepreneurial character exhibited by the team. The first thing an entrepreneur may encounter when they start out is ridicule from close friends and family, who wonder why the crazy idea to start a business - especially if you are young and just from school. This is not to say that we should not be employed after leaving school: in fact, the work environment may be very important to equip you with the skills and attitudes necessary to run your own business. Nevertheless, that ridicule is expected: whether due to the timing, the perception others have about you or even just how much "out of this world" your idea seems.

STARTUP also shows the many challenges a startup will face. As I have written before, starting a business is not a walk in the park and having started, you will almost certainly lose money.
STARTUP takes us through the important values of resilience, tenacity, creativity, ingenuity, teamwork and I think above all, genuine partnership.

The Good, 2: Business Language
Another very good takeaway from this movie is language. Great minds in the world of business will tell you of the importance of language. You have to learn the language of the world you want to operate in. Robert Kiyosaki for example says that to run a business, you have to learn the language of money. You have to be able to interpret financial statements. In the same way, STARTUP does a very good job in teaching the language of looking for financing: both literally and figuratively.

Startup. Angel Investor. Proof of concept. Hostile takeover.  Valuation. Buyout. Bootstrapping. Problem. Solution. Why You?

All those are words that a startup in the 21st century would want to be familiar with. It is the language of that world.

The Good, 3: Disruption
STARTUP, set as it is in our day, captures very well the times we are living in: times of great disruptions in almost every sector. This is a day of countless innovations. Technological advancements are coming at us at dizzying speeds. Indeed, there is no time for one to ever rest on their laurels. STARTUP exemplifies this very well. Even when their original idea is stolen from them, they go back to the drawing board and come up with another brilliant idea that brings their competitors back to the negotiating table.

STARTUP explores possibilities within new technologies particularly for digital currencies and Darknet markets. 

Speaking of disruption. STARTUP is in itself a product of Crackle. Now, Crackle is a video streaming distributor of movies and TV shows, owned by Sony Entertainment. The Internet brought about significant disruption in the movie industry; from purchases and rentals to online streaming. Sony could not afford to remain in the past, hence Crackle. # DisruptionGalore!


The Bad
Why is it that today's TV is so full of casual sex? I think STARTUP would still have been a very good show without all that "sexing up". I believe it is still possible to do a good show without all the sex. Breaking bad is a good example that comes to mind. Hardly any sex and yet a very compelling show.

The Ugly
Gencoin is stolen! The great idea that the three entrepreneurs sought to place on the world platform is snatched from them.  In scenes characterized of tears, the entrepreneurs' baby is taken from them. In a nutshell, they are conned out of their idea and basically kicked out of the company. In a heart rending discussion with her uncle, Izzy puts it thus:

"The lawyers called it a hostile takeover..."

I think this is a sad affair but it happens the world over. Investors come in and as they bring money, it is in exchange of control. The million dollar question is, how much control to give up, in return for how much funding? Also, what kind of funding - is it debt or equity?

A powerful illustration of this reality is Steve Jobs, kicked out of Apple, the company he had founded. Luckily for him, he was able to come back to Apple and at the helm. Not all edged out entrepreneurs are as lucky as Steve Jobs. This is neither to give investors a bad name, nor to discourage entrepreneurs from seeking investor funding. It is just a word of caution: it is important to find the accurate balance between how much you get in funding (without which the business may not grow); and how much control you cede. This calls for wisdom.

Honesty is the Best Policy

As part of our company policy, we generally insist on a down-payment for any work before we start - with only a few exceptions. A client may therefore send all requested documents to us but we make them understand we will not be starting until they have made a deposit. Similarly, once a client has paid up their deposit, we know it is their expectation that we embark on their work at the earliest possible opportunity.

So there is this time when a long time client (one going back many years and who is familiar with the policy) promised to send us her documents for annual accounting work. She also promised to do a bank transfer but encountered some challenges as she was out of town in an area with poor Internet connectivity. Eventually, she e-mailed the documents and let me know that the wire transfer was effected. True to her word, I received a confirmation message from the bank that the money had hit our account.  Now, had she sent the documents just a week earlier, we would have embarked on her work immediately. However, the delay meant that by the time she sent them, it was already the end of the month/beginning of a new month.

Now, the first week of every month is usually the busiest for us - as we generate the previous month's reports, finalize reconciliations as well as file PAYE, NSSF and NHIF returns for our clients - in other words, routine work. Having paid, there was an unspoken expectation that we would start on her work right away. However, given that this was the first week of the month, this was going to be a really tall order! I must confess that on my side, there was the temptation to tell her that we would be embarking on her assignment right away. After all, we never start on an assignment before payment, and once you pay we start on it right away. There was however another voice urging me to just be truthful - let her know that we were going to delay by a week. The voice of truth prevailed. I e-mailed her noting that given the timing, we could only manage to start her on her assignment the following week. She was okay with it.

Come the following week and as promised, we were keen to get down to her work. We opened the files and, alas! To our amazement, she had sent us the wrong files. Instead of sending 2017 statements, she had erroneously sent 2016 statements. Though marked 2017, they were actually 2016 statements. I wrote to her to let her know of the mix-up.

"My bad," she said, and sent us the correct files.

It did not seem a big deal but I could not help to think: supposing I had succumbed to the temptation, a week earlier, to lie to her that we had already embarked on her work? What would I have said, one week later, on realizing that these were wrong files? I was quite grateful that in spite of the perceived pressure generated by receiving the down-payment, I had chosen to stick by the truth. It had really saved my face when eventually it became apparent that we had the wrong documents. It had served to confirm that indeed, honesty is the best policy.

image credit

The horse is made ready for battle...

It was a a time like this last year when I felt persuaded to write about my business journey. Well, how fast time has flown. Without a doubt, a lot has happened over the last one year. But let's pick up the conversation from where we stopped. Last time we were talking about horses; and I want to share a key thought that has brought me this far - and that as it turns out... has to do with horses.

A driving force in business for me over the years has been this principle drawn from Proverbs (21:31).
The horse is made ready for battle, BUT victory rests with the LORD.

Traditional Warfare, Modern Businesses
Traditionally, horses were the "vehicles" for war. Expansion of a king's territory was through war and to do this, the horses that went to war had to have been well prepared. So how does this relate to a modern entrepreneur? Many of the concepts of traditional warfare are applicable to the modern day business environment. You hear words like "cut-throat competition". Whereas victory for a traditional king may have been in "winning a battle," victory for today's businessman may be in "winning a tender." Laying plans, designing strategy, building teams, expansion to new territories are things that an entrepreneur will be involved in today, but which would not be too alien to an army commander of a thousand years ago. The landscape has of course changed a lot over the years but it seems that the principles applicable to warfare back then have found their place in the business environment. Strategy, courage, accurate timing are just a few examples of principles that applied to traditional warfare and are equally applicable to today's business environment. Probably the best indication of this is the popularity that such writings as The Art of War by Sun Tzu have found in today's business world. You can also think of the "Trojan Horse" - a malicious computer program which misleads users of its true intent. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek story of the deceptive wooden horse that led to the fall of the city of Troy. Indeed, ancient warfare concepts find place in today's business environment.

The horse is made ready for battle...
If indeed ancient warfare concepts find home in today's business environment, what then would be the entrepreneur's horse? I would say it is his business. How well the company/firm is built represents the strength of the entrepreneur in achieving his goals - e.g. of winning additional market share, expanding to new territories and so on. Importantly from this proverb is that the horse is made ready for battle... It is important for the businessman to "make his horse ready for battle." It is important that the businessman is deliberate in building his business. Finding an appropriate business name, setting up initial business systems in place such as opening a bank account, establishing a financial system, designing a social media strategy, doing sales and business development. All of this is making a horse ready for battle and it is important to the success of the business.

BUT victory rests with the LORD
The second part of the proverb states that victory rests with the LORD. It is important to make the horse ready for battle - brand your company, build a great team, have a sales plan, track your expenses, manage your taxes etc - but none of these in and of themselves provide business success. The best laid plans will still not grant business success unless God so ordains. A very obvious example in my journey of entrepreneurship is this: some of the clients we put a lot of effort in following up, did not necessarily come through. On the other hand, some of the best and longest had clients came to us without necessarily a lot of effort on our part. Now I know many in today's world may simply relegate such scenarios to chance, good luck or bad omen. I am however persuaded that it is more than mere chance, good luck or bad omen. Behind every signed deal is the unseen hand of a Mighty God.

Is it possible that some of the business that never came through was because we didn't understand the client need, had not designed proper product features that meet client needs, we were too expensive (or even unbelievably cheap)? All of those are possibilities whose analysis and corrective action is part of "making the horse ready for battle". Being blind to those realities and simply saying God ordained the outcome may not be the most accurate thing to do. It however remains that having done our best to "make the horse ready for battle", God still has the final word.

As the old adage goes, do your best, let God do the rest.