Category Archives: Uncategorized

Antonis Polemitis gave a very striking example about how to think about new innovations. A mental model. Here is how to gauge whether a startup or innovation is likely to succeed in future. They are good at one thing and bad at all the others: what Chris Dixon calls- they look like a toy, something funny, somewhatContinue reading “how to think about innovations that are likely to succeed and go mainstream”

Innovate around product distribution and find a model that works or make a new one Most customers are pre-paid and prefer to buy in small denominations. Payments in cash or via mobile money. Ability to use a product to generate additional income- eg buy in large quantity and then resell in smaller quantities. agency/distribution modelContinue reading “African Tech startup kit”

Can you invest in future potential of a person? If current trends are to go by, it is increasingly becoming possible. In the next few decades It will very possible that many will opt for home schooling and might not even undertake normal 4 year university course as they are structured today. If the currentContinue reading “does higher education need radical surgery?”

John Brooks book titled ‘Business Adventures’ provides 12 classic tales from the world of Wall Street.  One of them is the rise and rise of xerox during the early days of paper photocopier business. Xerox stock grew 60X in value between 1959-67, attributed to its product, 914 paper photocopier  that is said to be oneContinue reading “what xerox past teaches us about new technology adoption”

I am a firm believer in new ideas, innovations and trying to find new ways to solve existing problems. In business, startups do that very well. In the technology era, starting a new company has become easier. There is a lot of information online where you can learn. From my keen observation, the recipe forContinue reading “What they don’t tell you about starting a startup”

Two books have really tried to explain the history of the civilizations. ‘Sapiens by Yuval Harari’ and ‘Guns, germs, and steel’ by Jared Diamond. The main question in these text is ‘why did different parts of the world develop differently’ Here I try to summarize the research done by Jared and Yuval into how theContinue reading “Hitchhiker’s guide to civilizations: from mesopotamia to atlantis.”

The Kenyan students airlifts to study in America in the late 1950s and early 1960s could as well been one of the most defining moments of Kenya at the cusp of new independent Kenya. The impact of the airlifts, which boost an incredible alumni pool, has had reverberations for Kenya for decades even after theContinue reading “Education Odyssey: a class of notables: makers of a nation”

In his ongoing war with journalists, policy makers, bankers, Nobel prize for economics winners, the establishment and New York Times, Nassim Nicholas Taleb outlines why majority of  people who have immense control over a lot of people have no real ‘skin in the game’;meaning that they only benefit from upsides and not the downside. The bookContinue reading “Skin in the game”

The phrase ‘we are living in interesting times’ could never be truer. We indeed are. My ability to write these words on this site such that anyone located anywhere in the world with access to internet can read was something that was just starting to be conceived 20 years ago but was inconceivable to vastContinue reading “Africa can also create solutions for the world”

In this post, I share some of recent documentaries I have enjoyed. They are not based on any particular topic but areas of general interest. Shenzhen: silicon valley of Hardware: Shenzhen’s approach to innovation and building companies is quite different from Silicon Valley’s. The major prevailing notion is that Shenzhen and generally China’s innovation is basedContinue reading “Documentaries”