Is it the startups, the founders or the Investors?

So basically one cannot exist without the other, we create startups to create a difference and hoping someone would invest in it hopefully, and we invest because we see potentiality in a startup perhaps. We need an equilibrium in Technology also.

For the past few months, we have been asking ourselves who really matters in making the other one exist in the ecosystem, well! we too are undefined on that in a way , is it really the idea of the founder? interest from the investor ? the founder’s hard strive? the good money come back after investing? We just have news that so and so has received a round of funding, twice or thrice, but we never get to know the process and how it was done, what was put into consideration for the company to receive the funding.

Let us start here first ” what is funding ?” 

According to the famous wiki-  “Funding is the act of providing financial resources, usually in the form of money, or other values such as effort or time, to finance a need, program, and project, usually by an organisation or government.”

So why the Funding?   okay here there are many different reasons, some love to take a risk by funding, some just love to fund, others are addicted to the funds ( receiving a couple of fund round ), others need the fund: but, some invest because they hope the value of the startup will increase as the startup grows, hence they fund and take a percentage of ownership.

By the few mentions above we are sure even you as company X  received a funding and was told yes we invest because we see potential and blah blah, So we took time to ask around basing on ecosystem culture and the report that came this year about startups, why some regions experience a shortage in the startup ecosystem ? Most answers really came to be a heavy burden to the investors — “ooh the investors are scared, ooh the investors love mature startups “. Ok!  Yes, that may be true, but why juggle the ball on the other side only?

The ecosystem deficiency in some regions is deteriorating to an extent that is so saddening,  but really who matters?  what makes the ecosystem grow?

To be honest the Central and East African Region of Africa have one of the poorest ecosystems despite having great demographic in the number of hubs, of which this means these hubs have higher chances of cultivating quality startups, what happens? where does it go wrong then?

We basically go wrong somewhere as founders, since we are the ones who create the startups which happen to be the greater attraction of Investment, We create products at most, stand-alone products that will do retail only, only solve a particular solution then when its done also the product dies, whereas others create platforms, ( we stand corrected ), Let us get a clear difference between this two A Product and a Platform, before getting to launch this for We think that platform are the mother of many startups, founders coming up with startups that have no or a few chances of exit plan.

So let us not lay the blame on the investors, that they are  only  interested in mature startups, well as much as its true there are many seed funding accelerators for the startups and remember they also check out the long range journey that your startup will survive before endorsing funds, Our ecosystem is dependent on each other, lets quit the blame game and work  towards the goal,  as much as we may pitch our ideas on some fraud accelerators who end up stealing ideas creating a loop hole in the region’s ecosystem rather than offering guidance to the startups, These startups need mentors, not thieves, they need partners, not bosses that’s why they end up settling for stand-alone self-help growth rather than go to the hubs who end up picking their inborn startup rather than also checking for the exterior pitchers.