but..why Nairobi? coz Nairobi is East Africa's biggest Tech Geek!
The C0-Founder of iHub Erik Hersman who is a popular technologist in the African Tech scene talks about iHub and Nairobi being the chosen venue for Pivot 25;
Nmachi Jidenma: Can you tell us a little bit about the iHub?
Nmachi: What do you think is responsible for Kenya’s emergence as a prominent hub for Africa’s more popular tech innovations such as M-Pesa and Ushahidi?
Erik Hersman: The iHub, at its very core, is a community of creatives and technologists bound together by a common theme: innovation. We are located near downtown Nairobi and have a fantastic space for our members to work, network, learn, and create. We opened our doors just over a year ago and recently surpassed 3,600 members. It became apparent a few years ago that East Africa, and specifically Nairobi, was going to be a hot-bed for technological innovation in the coming years. It became a reality in March of 2010, and it’s been fantastic to see what our members have done with the space in the short time that we’ve been in existence. It’s a place for investors, corporates, startups and academia to meet.
Erik: There are two reasons.
First, big name companies are attracted to talent. There’s a reason that Silicon Valley is where every tech startup wants to be. It’s an ecosystem built on talent. Nairobi is exploding with world-calibre techies, and companies such as Google, Cisco, Nokia Seimens, and Airtel, (all of whom have built their African headquarters in Nairobi) have recognized that. As far as the emergence of new innovations, I think this can be attributed to the same raw talent that brought all these companies to headquarter themselves in Nairobi. When you get a group of strong developers or coders together, they can come up with some pretty incredible stuff – things that could turn into the next M-Pesa or Ushahidi in just a few years. When places like the iHub work to facilitate these communities, dynamic things can happen.
Second, the innovative ideas that “catch” in places like Kenya are built for a different use-case than you traditionally see the US and Europe. Ushahidi and M-Pesa weren’t created in the West because the needs are not the same. The interesting thing is that as these platforms come online, they do tend to go global, and I think we’ll see more of this over time – where African startups start making more waves on the global scene. Certain cities tend to be hubs, success breeds success, so when someone “wins” in a place like Nairobi, it quickly attracts more entrepreneurs and spinouts.
Nmachi: How best can other cities across the continent cultivate the sort of tech community and vibrancy that is present in places like Nairobi?
Erik: The key is just that, community. The easiest way to foster tech innovation and vibrancy is to give techies a community to be a part of. That’s where the power is, in the community, not in a single person or company. We’re seeing new hubs/labs growing up in other cities around the continent now too, that’s part of what’s needed for community catalysts to engage with and grow the engagement. However, it also takes having a critical mass in other areas, namely:
- Enough computer programmers and business grads coming out of good school programs.
- A strong tech corporate base for people to work with and cut their teeth on. These corporate giants are also the ones that sponsor and keep events going in the community.
- An entrepreneurial culture.
- A government that supports growth in tech and eases business regulations around that growth.
Nmachi: What are some of the more exciting ideas and initiatives that have come out from the iHub?
Erik: There’s a vast array of ideas and initiatives being formed and built at the iHub every day, but some of the more exciting ones to me are those ideas that I can see visibly changing specific aspects of people’s lives. For example, one of our members Jepchumba launched African Digital Art’s first event, a website which has transformed the digital art space in Africa by giving thousands of artists a platform to showcase their work on, something that was essentially unachievable just a few years ago. Other great examples of companies started, or connections made, include mFarm (a mobile agricultural information tool), Rupu (a Groupon clone for Kenya) and investors found for Eatout.co.ke, among others.
The name that we’ve built has also allowed us to do some pretty exciting things for our members, such as our Fireside Chats, where our members get to hear from top-level CEOs from all over Kenya about their successes, failures, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. Recently, we’ve had the privilege of bringing in names such as John Waibochi, CEO of Virtual City Limited, and Michael Joseph, CEO of Safaricom.
Read the Rest of the interview here
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