i'm begging you: - find 20 startups that raised a seed round 3 to 9 months ago (ignore any raise that happened <3 months ago) - pick the 5 that sell to the same kind of customer - find their founders on X - read their last 100 posts - pull out every question someone asked them about the product (skip the ones the founder replied to) 1. why do all this? [bookmark this right now, you’ll forget this by tomorrow] because the replies under a founder's posts are people telling you, in their own words, what they want. - people asking for alternatives - anyone annoyed about the price - "does it do X yet?" type questions - people who signed up, got stuck, and gave up put all of it in a sheet. that sheet is now a list of possible customers, the problem each one has, and the exact phrasing they use for it. next problem: 2. how do these people end up noticing you? - take the 10 questions that come up most - make one useful piece of content for each - leave your product out of it - answer the question better than the startup did - tag the startup when you post it. if it helps their users, their team reposts it and you borrow their audience - if an alternative does something better, tag them. - if your answer needs 2 or 3 products chained together, write that down. that combo is your tool in step 4 >important< someone asking whether an AI tool can do a thing? - record a 30-second clip of you doing it. when the complaint is pricing.. - line up 5 alternatives and show what each one costs once you add everything up. if a workflow keeps tripping people up.. - build a free template that handles it. do this for 30 days. 3. then check which posts sent people to your profile. - ignore likes - more bookmarks than likes means people plan to come back. repeat that topic - replies that ask a follow-up question count more - anyone who went and used one of your templates - and note which problems keep bringing in people you haven't seen before drop the topics nobody bit on and keep going on the ones that pulled people in. 4. now build a free tool for the problem that came up most. one small tool is enough for now. the full SaaS can wait. - put the link in your bio - drop it under conversations where it fits - send it directly to the people who asked for exactly this - ask users what they still can't do with it now you've got: a) an audience that cares about one specific problem b) a list of people who have already said they have it c) a free product they have a reason to try d) feedback from real users on what to build next 5. now add a paid feature. dm your 20 heaviest users first with the price and two lines on what it does. > 5 say yes, build it. > fewer than 5, the feature is wrong, the price is fine. Goal: - $10/month - 100 paying users - $1k MRR that's the target. the order is the whole trick: customers first, then what they wanted, then distribution built around their problems, and something to sell only at the end. If you read till here, reply “I’m a reader” helps me understand if I should keep my content this long. a like, repost or a reply also encourages me to keep posting. ✨

One of the hardest things about building a tech company in Kenya is convincing people that software is worth paying for. Let me explain. You can build a product that solves a real problem. Spend months developing it, pay for servers, AI APIs, SMS integrations, domains, and all the other things nobody sees. Then you launch. The first person to try it says, “Wow, this is actually very good!” You're excited. Finally, someone understands the vision. Then you mention that the subscription is KSh 500 per month. “Ati kulipa? 😂” And just like that, the conversation changes. “Can't you make it free?” “Just add me to the premium plan.” “Let me use it for a few months first.” “Once my business grows, I'll pay.” Meanwhile, this same person pays for Netflix, Spotify, cloud storage, and several other foreign services without having a family meeting about it. Now, don't get me wrong. People have different financial priorities, and not every product deserves their money. As founders, we have to build something genuinely valuable. But sometimes I wonder whether we give local products the same chance we give foreign ones. When a foreign company launches, we assume it's sophisticated. When a Kenyan company launches, we look for reasons why it might not work. When a local founder charges for their product, we question the price. When the same product gets international recognition, suddenly we're proud that it's African. And there's another interesting part of this. People often assume that because you used AI to build a product, it must have cost you almost nothing. AI has made software development faster, yes. But it hasn't made cloud hosting free. It hasn't eliminated API costs, maintenance, security, customer support, or the need to pay a team. You can use AI to build a product in weeks and still spend years trying to turn it into a sustainable business. The truth is, we cannot keep asking why Africa doesn't have more globally competitive technology companies while ignoring the importance of the customers who help those companies survive. Founders need to build better products. Investors need to take more risks. Governments need to create better conditions for innovation. But customers also matter. The next great African technology company might already exist. It might be built by someone working from Nairobi, Lagos, Kigali, or Kampala. It might not need another motivational speech or a congratulatory comment. It might need its first 1,000 paying customers. And perhaps supporting African innovation starts with something as simple as being willing to pay for a local product when it genuinely delivers value. Because at the end of the day, you cannot build a world-class technology ecosystem on free trials, compliments, and promises to pay next month. What do you think? Is this a real challenge for African tech founders, or do our products still have a lot to prove?