It’s been more than a week since Mobile Web West Africa 2013, but I still got memories from the event, one of which I see best to share now. I happened to meet Robert Lamptey – CEO of Saya Mobile, a startup out of MEST Ghana and now looking to play on the global stage having had warms up on platforms like the TechCrunch Disrupt, and many more spaces in Silicon Valley.
Having planned to have 2000 alpha testers, Saya ended up with 86,000 real testers and 9 million invitations from interested users. The Saya app now has 400,000 downloads from 35 countries; 1 of 3 users use a smartphone running Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and improved J2ME, but with the focus being Africa, the feature phone market cannot be ignored.
Now Saya’s set to go global and the Robert was quite generous in sharing how they got went from an incubator in the 233 zone to one of the most coveted platforms in tech. So here goes:
1. Always reach out to the media as its their job is to get the word out there for you. All it takes is an email with what you doing supported with all they’d need – a press kit works.
2. Have a culture that works. At Saya they believe if it’s made of codes, they can hack it up. So they go every week hacking up existing products – apps, systems, etc., not only to see what’s in it, but to validate their knowledge and ability to build global standards of technology
3. Be ready to learn – from the best in the industry and even competition as that makes you really good at what you do. With social media and web resource it’s quite easy to follow industry leaders and even engage with them. Conferences are also best bet for making connection.
4. Ask for Referrals
5. Take your startup or product as your baby – nurture it. Don’t get carried away listening to the hype, but look at your data – how many downloads, how many users, how much profit, sales, etc, and then measure success.
For extra, the success of your startup is very much dependent on the business and its strategy, so you want to get that right, and after that investors/stakeholders.
Also from the 233 zone, fellow MEST incubatee, Dropifi, made it into the 6th batch of the 500 Startups accelerator programme, possibly making them the first African startup to do it.
