#AfricaTech #Reflections and the importance (plus issues) with how some think about #TAM (Total Addressable Market) in our ecosystem. Here we go 👇🧵: 1/ We(#VCs) care a lot about TAM. If it’s not big enough, it makes our ability to imagine a large enough exit problematic. What is large enough exit? One where our share at exit (say 5-12% post dilution in future rounds) is a fund returner. On $150m fund – you can do the math.

Well... It's been a while. Crazy busy + a world economic crisis , felt like it’s a good time to go back to think. Here are some #AfricaTech #reflections given the many 'we're all gonna day' recent hype from all over. Might be long, so bare with me… 👇🧵 1/ Everyone shared views. From @ycombinator (too generic and unexciting to me), to @sequoia (worth the 52 pgs…). Lot’s of reading later, one point is clear > it’s all super US centric. The center of the world for many, but what does it entail for us? for tech in #Africa?

Well... a bit over hyped for what it is:

https://twitter.com/refsrc/status/1527238287471292417?s=20&t=dOXC2Nhz5evIL5Ip0ymx3Q

Someone at #YC woke up and felt inspired to share the obvious (but in 10 points - so its feels special). Jokes aside, what's NOT there is much more important than what is. Bare with me... 🧵👇 1/ Dear friends who pushed (pre) seed to a cap of $30-$50m with no DD till a month ago, reality is happy to have you joined.
What still strikes weird - is the whole thing is still 99% only about fund raising and valuations and how to manage both...

#AfricaTech #Reflections: So boards and DD aren't 'cool' anymore I hear. Both are wasting #founders time, and entrepreneurship is all about 'move fast and break things'. So - some #oldschool stuff here - or as they say, yes... *BUT*... (thread 🧵👇) 1/ Two different topics - but very related. So starting from DD, and will develop thoughts from there.
We are still in the 'money falling from the sky' era to an extent. Public markets are in the deep red, multiples are so south that IPOs and SPACs are almost irrelevant.

#ESOP > time to demystify, and talk openly about the opportunities and implications for both founders and employees (to be clear – this isn’t tax advice or legal advice > just trying to make some sense of it for the many questions I recently got…)
Long #Thread, here we go…👇 1/ To start with, ESOP (Stock Options), can come in many shapes & forms. It serves 2 main things: (i) for founders, one of the best ways to attract+retain top talent;(ii) for employees - a potnetial for material upside making #AfricaTech, one of the most attractive options around

#Saturday #Africatech #reflections: @Google just invested $1b in Airtel 18months after investing $4.5b in @reliancejio - but why? and whay does it mean for #AfricaTech? 1/ doing my weekend catch-up, came across this by @TheKenWeb: the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/wh…

Which made me think a but more about the role of Telcos, channels and how we might differ from some developped markets conventional wisdom...

#AfricaTech #Reflections: Where we might go from here?
2021 gave us many reasons to celebrate. More startups. More money. More deals. More global and local investors. Feels like the stage is set. But is it? And even if yes, what can we expect?
Few pre-weekend thoughts - long 🧵👇 1/ Reading this great piece from @fcollective – was a good reminder of value creation and the fact it is measured over time and not just on the first fundraising rounds.
link.medium.com/FjwZPlQvYmb

#AfricaTech #reflections - How founders can go about choosing investors and why you should care. #deepdive 👇 1/ With fast growing amounts of money purring into #AfricaTech in 2021, found myself asked by few founders baout 'what value we add'. Yet, the more interesting piece is that most times they don’t bother asking. This is not only weird, it’s just pure wrong in my view. Here’s why:

(1/) #unicorns and where less obvious opportunity in #AfricaTech might hide…
#India produced +35 #unicorns in 2021. While the number is staggering, it's much more interesting to see in which verticals value was created and what one can learn in relation to. Hold on #deepdive: (2/) 38% #eCommerce. Many in #B2B (not just food and retail). Starting to see some unique & alternative models in continent, but a long way to go. Weaker manufacturing infrastructure and fragmentation makes it more challenging. Could be huge wins for those who crack this one up.