About 4 years ago, someone I don't remember here on Twitter posted a screenshot of how a wealthy friend of theirs managed his wealth with an Excel sheet. That graphic stayed with me, and I built my own document.
The essence of the message was that you can't grow what you do not measure. This is my mantra, and one of the worst demands I make at work is extreme measurement.
Mar 2, 2022 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Stablecoins for business payments. It is easy to understand the real-world entities behind cryptocurrency transactions.
With crypto, you get instant transfer of value without checks but providers can still monitor ongoing customer activity and comply with regulatory guidelines. The best of both worlds.
Dec 22, 2021 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
Why stablecoins are the future of business payments - a thread.
Stablecoins: cryptocurrencies pegged to an asset such as the U.S. dollar, usually backed by equivalent value. Examples of stablecoins are USDC, USDT, BUSD, USDP, etc.
In recent days, we have heard calls from U.S. authorities to regulate stablecoins. This kind of attention only comes up if something is systemically important to the financial system. More than $115b in stablecoins value has been issued to date.
Nov 24, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
I have a theory. Startups doing in-country p2p are going to have a bit of a rough time competing vs banks (Nigeria) and telco mobile money (momo markets). When under attack, those can improve or outprice startups severely.
Capital will help for those able and willing to raise gazillions. The next best thing is to price zero and go financial super app style by introducing crypto, stocks, etc.
Sep 7, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Capital allows founders to dream. Competition against telcos and their mobile money is going to be very hard. Wave is already making waves in Senegal, Ivory Coast and soon Uganda, going up against telcos. Capital allows them to play. Great for the ecosystem. Great play.
If there is a team that can attack the telcos and have a chance of winning, Wave is it. Telcos play very hard ball. The likes of Safcom and MTN don’t play games. My experience with them is why we chose to solve another big problem and work with them but not vs them.
Jan 27, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
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.
Nov 30, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
What really scares me is dreaming small.
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.
Nov 17, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
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.
Jul 19, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
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
Jun 16, 2020 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
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..
May 31, 2020 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
Why I would invest in Eversend.
1. I don’t know any team that can produce more value out of every dollar spent than us.
2. We know what we are doing. We have massive founder market fit.
May 17, 2020 • 29 tweets • 5 min read
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.
Jan 25, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
With all my meetings in Kenya, what I’m hearing most is that lending is capital intensive. No one is raising the saturation issue until I bring it up. It seems appetite is still there but capital is limited. Which is quite interesting given what we’ve been reading.
Whether the loans are predatory is another discussion.
There’s lots of unmet demand. One of the people I met said he could lend $1M today to a waiting list of vetted, good customers if he had the cash. And this is a very small lender.
Sep 5, 2018 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
If people say your dreams are crazy, if they laugh at what you think you can do. Good, stay that way. Because what non-believers don’t understand is that calling a dream crazy isn’t an insult, it’s a compliment. #JustDoIt
Don’t try to be the fastest runner in your school or the fastest in the world, be the fastest ever.
Jul 4, 2018 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
The question I've been getting after yesterday is "how do we tax Internet companies if they are not registered here?"
A thread....
Let me re-iterate that taxing Internet companies is a good idea. In fact, even before this whole #SocialMediaTax discussion, I was wondering why African countries and Uganda, in particular, do not get revenue from them.
Jul 3, 2018 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Mr. @UCC_ED, there's is no social media tax in Europe or North America as you claim. Social media or other Internet companies pay taxes from the money they make through ads or otherwise. The tax is not levied on citizens as a pre-requisite for accessing services.
There's a fundamental difference between Facebook paying taxes on their revenue and asking citizens to pay. It's mind-boggling that someone in your position can convolute something like this in front of cameras. The confidence in your ignorance is shocking Mr. @UCC_ED
