On Andela and Konga

Practically, Andela, with today’s move, has fixed all the issues I noted in the piece – The Andela Problem. But note that it was not only Andela that has gone through my path: Konga went through it when I publicly told the company to sell itself immediately. Within 4 weeks, Konga sold!

I served in a committee in the United States National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for four years. By the time I was done, I began to see everything differently. America wants to predict the world by 2100 and to be accurate on that prediction, U.S. has to BUILD that world.

Today, something ironic is happening: founders send me their company links and descriptions and ask me to analyse with no hold-back. Unfortunately, I am very cautious on fledgling startups. I tend not to be critical to “baby startups” since they need all the help to get traction. That is why I do not do public analytical examination of those cohorts in public domains.

But when they mature, they become cases available to play. That is why Interswitch gets heat on strategy from me but the small fintechs will not. There is nothing I will write that will affect Interswitch but a mistake from me can affect a new fintech.

We will continue to balance these perspectives making sure our public works do not negatively affect the ecosystems. We write them purely for knowledge and scholarship, not to take anyone down. I do think they are balanced, unbiased and based on facts. If not, let me know.