This is not the end. It is whole new game across all wealth. Stocks, crypto, startup equity, real estate. Technology has given a voice to the masses. Our forefathers were farmers, others were industrialists, this is the age of the investor. Learn or die.
Traditional gatekeepers of wealth will not be happy. Wall Street, VC, Central Banks, Media organisations, etc. But with technology, more control is taken away from them and given back to the people. There’s nothing 11,000 hedge funds can do to 3M redditor retards.
These communities will grow. Crypto communities will shock central banks. With DeFi now people can bank themselves, hodl their bags forever and cash out to spend.
Whereas everyone sees crypto democratising wealth, access is still very much limited for the poorest 50%. We must do everything possible to bring access and knowledge. UHNWIs and corporates are now the biggest buyers of crypto. Poor people sell at 5X.
The biggest returns will still go to the wealthy. But maybe a few people will have a long term macro picture of these changes that are happening.
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The more you learn, the older you get, the more you discuss your goals - the more aware you become of your limitations and the smaller your dreams become.
And it sucks. I don’t wish it on anyone.
The time I spent fundraising was the worst. Everyone said it is impossible. Of course you don’t believe them but their logic grows on you. And you realise how “right” they are.
When you’re done, that belief in the impossible and the foolishness is gone. It scares me to think small.
I think there are two challenges with ride-hailing in Africa.
1. Drivers are squeezed in pricing to entice riders. 2. Allowing drivers to take cash & pay the company later puts them in debt. Recovery is done on the next cashless trip, they feel cheated when the co collects.
So the motorcycle taxi driver decides to use the app to get the customer but collects money outside the app, in cash. When the trip isn't registered as taking place, the company has no cut.
A trip can cost up to 2X if one isn't using the app. The driver is aware that the app provides massive advantages and more revenue with increased trips from visibility. So drivers use the app, offer the same pricing but ask to cancel the trip on the app, and receive cash.
The most foolish thing I hear often is that Africa’s fintech market is flooded with solutions. People have no way to move money across borders within the continent.
For a population of 1.3 billion people, we have a handful tech solutions for cross border transfers in West and East Africa. A few old school web based apps in Southern Africa
Then we have the story that there’s too many loan apps. Stop looking at Kenya (and sometimes Nigeria) and calling it Africa. Formal credit penetration is a paltry 7%.
A thread for fellow founders about unit economics and KPIs to obsess about.
If you’re building for the African market, I implore you to focus on your numbers. This my have a fintech bias, bear with me.
LTV (lifetime value) - this is the net revenue you make from a customer while they’re with you, be it for 1 day or 10 years. Estimate the average amount you make from a customer over the life of your relationship. This is important in deciding how much money to spend in CAC..
CAC (Customer Acquistion Cost) - this is the amount of money it costs you to acquire a customer. This is easy to measure and should be split into channels used. Free customers shouldn’t be average out with paid.
Why wallets are the future of payments - a thread.
Payments have traditionally gone through banks, the outdated SWIFT system, and payment networks like Visa and Mastercard. The problem with that system is that it is designed to pay way too many people.
And it is therefore terribly expensive for the consumer and merchants that end up paying these fees. This system persists because it is deeply ingrained especially in Western countries.
I’ll give 2 quick examples to show how cross border money transfer and card payments work when purchasing something whether online or physically.