I was very surprised to see this! I live in Cape Town and would definitely be keen to be part of this if this existed.
However, I think you need to be clearer about your priority between two conflicting goals here
A really enjoyable place for EAs to spend time and work together.
Launch/promote EA for Africans. To be really frank, Cape Town is not Africa. Lagos or Nairobi (or even Joburg) would make a better base if this goal is the priority.
(I say this having been part of a team that launched an pan-African startup incubator based in Cape Town, which we later reflected was a nice choice for our lives, but worse for fulfilling our mission. Happy to go into more detail if useful.)
I don’t think the dichotomy being presented here is true. We can plausibly have both of these things. The claim that “Cape Town is not Africa” also doesn’t seem very obvious to me. I can see the possible assumptions here maybe being something like “Africa must necessarily be a harsh environment to live in” or “some degree of material suffering is necessary to understand African perspectives.” I don’t think either of these are true.
I’m really interested in your perspective on this though. I’ll reach out to discuss this further
I definitely wouldn’t say a harsh environment or suffering was necessary! I also wouldn’t say it’s a dichotomy, but I do think the two priorities would lead you to different locations.
“Cape Town is not Africa” is flippant but there’s substance behind it. I really don’t think it’s contentious to say that Cape Town feels much more like a city in Europe than in another African country.
To share context from tech startup world (particularly since you’ve emphasized that as a strength of CT as a tech hub in the post), successful startups that expand from Cape Town tend to target the UK or US rather than other African countries; many were aimed at those markets from the beginning. This could be seen as a good indication of talent based here & compatibility with a largely US/European movement, but it isn’t supportive of CT as a natural base for a pan-African movement.
Examples: GetSmarter (aimed at Europe), Over (aimed at US, now part of GoDaddy), Pineapple (started in SA, launching in the US), Cogrammar (aimed at global companies), LessonSpace (SA tutoring platform pivoted to this remote learning tool servicing customers in Europe & US). It’s not always true (Luno is a notable exception—big in Africa, though also elsewhere) but I have pretty high confidence this is a trend and I’m not just cherry picking.
(Related: Several major SA retailers launched in Nigeria and then backed out (Shoprite, Woolworths, Tiger Brands) Brief explanation (/a bit clickbaity) here
Conversely, if you look at successful startups that have expanded across multiple countries in Africa, they most commonly start from Nigeria: e.g. Andela, Flutterwave, Jumia, OPay, Interswitch. ChipperCash was well established in Nigeria and Kenya (and several other countries) long before they launched in SA. Google just launched their first African product team in Nairobi. There are obviously many other factors involved and I’m definitely not saying EA should just copy VC-funded tech patterns.
All this is shared with the aim of helping you develop this proposal. I think a hub in CT would be a great thing, just worth recognizing CT’s limitations as well as its strengths.
Would also be great to hear what other EA groups and individuals in Africa think on this (e.g. I’ve seen some events recently from EA Lagos) With the incubator we found people were generally really keen to come from other African countries to spend time in CT (if funded), though there were some minor negative incidents with Nigerians encountering xenophobic behaviour here.
Very happy to have a call—I’ve seen your DM and I’ll arrange a time.
“Launch/promote EA for Africans. To be really frank, Cape Town is not Africa. Lagos or Nairobi (or even Joburg) would make a better base if this goal is the priority.”
Important comment—there is certainly a benefit for EA to balance productivity and efficiency with insulating itself from the issues it seeks to impact (e.g. GH&WB). Lived experience of a city like Lagos or Nairobi could be extremely valuable for many over access to surfing and good views of coastline. People willing to tackle the short and medium term problems of Africa should be willing to get knee deep in the reality.
My impressions is that safety in Lagos ha degraded further in the last few years so I wonder how this could be managed.
The problems of Lagos are mostly structural. Say, insufficient infrastructure like road or housing and the general terrible governance across the country. However, Lagos is considered generally safe, arguably the safest in Nigeria right now.
I wouldn’t suggest the idea for a completely different reason which is cost. We have black outs for, sometimes, 20 hours a day. The cost of running your own independent power is high and every other aspect of your productivity may rest on having this single piece of infrastructure.
Despite all the challenges, if you like New York, you’ll like Lagos. It’s open, warm, bustling. Lagosians never-say-die. Perhaps this intense connection between dysfunction and survival is where all the creativity comes from. Hence why the city thrives, not at its optimum potential but certainly a force to reckon with.
I agree with you especially on productivity losses. I lived in Lagos for a few months. My sense was that since I was there kidnappings and general civil unrest has increased (perhaps the former more-so outside of Lagos).
Interesting about your comments on blackouts. I lived in both a villa with its own generator as well as an estate with its own back-up gen. Surely an EA hub could find a location which provides this?
Have you seen Eko Atlantic by any chance? Has this made much progress and I wonder if this could this be a potential location in the medium future if the project actually manifests.
I was very surprised to see this! I live in Cape Town and would definitely be keen to be part of this if this existed.
However, I think you need to be clearer about your priority between two conflicting goals here
A really enjoyable place for EAs to spend time and work together.
Launch/promote EA for Africans. To be really frank, Cape Town is not Africa. Lagos or Nairobi (or even Joburg) would make a better base if this goal is the priority.
(I say this having been part of a team that launched an pan-African startup incubator based in Cape Town, which we later reflected was a nice choice for our lives, but worse for fulfilling our mission. Happy to go into more detail if useful.)
I don’t think the dichotomy being presented here is true. We can plausibly have both of these things.
The claim that “Cape Town is not Africa” also doesn’t seem very obvious to me. I can see the possible assumptions here maybe being something like “Africa must necessarily be a harsh environment to live in” or “some degree of material suffering is necessary to understand African perspectives.” I don’t think either of these are true.
I’m really interested in your perspective on this though. I’ll reach out to discuss this further
I definitely wouldn’t say a harsh environment or suffering was necessary! I also wouldn’t say it’s a dichotomy, but I do think the two priorities would lead you to different locations.
“Cape Town is not Africa” is flippant but there’s substance behind it. I really don’t think it’s contentious to say that Cape Town feels much more like a city in Europe than in another African country.
To share context from tech startup world (particularly since you’ve emphasized that as a strength of CT as a tech hub in the post), successful startups that expand from Cape Town tend to target the UK or US rather than other African countries; many were aimed at those markets from the beginning. This could be seen as a good indication of talent based here & compatibility with a largely US/European movement, but it isn’t supportive of CT as a natural base for a pan-African movement.
Examples: GetSmarter (aimed at Europe), Over (aimed at US, now part of GoDaddy), Pineapple (started in SA, launching in the US), Cogrammar (aimed at global companies), LessonSpace (SA tutoring platform pivoted to this remote learning tool servicing customers in Europe & US). It’s not always true (Luno is a notable exception—big in Africa, though also elsewhere) but I have pretty high confidence this is a trend and I’m not just cherry picking.
(Related: Several major SA retailers launched in Nigeria and then backed out (Shoprite, Woolworths, Tiger Brands) Brief explanation (/a bit clickbaity) here
Conversely, if you look at successful startups that have expanded across multiple countries in Africa, they most commonly start from Nigeria: e.g. Andela, Flutterwave, Jumia, OPay, Interswitch. ChipperCash was well established in Nigeria and Kenya (and several other countries) long before they launched in SA. Google just launched their first African product team in Nairobi. There are obviously many other factors involved and I’m definitely not saying EA should just copy VC-funded tech patterns.
All this is shared with the aim of helping you develop this proposal. I think a hub in CT would be a great thing, just worth recognizing CT’s limitations as well as its strengths.
Would also be great to hear what other EA groups and individuals in Africa think on this (e.g. I’ve seen some events recently from EA Lagos) With the incubator we found people were generally really keen to come from other African countries to spend time in CT (if funded), though there were some minor negative incidents with Nigerians encountering xenophobic behaviour here.
Very happy to have a call—I’ve seen your DM and I’ll arrange a time.
Hi, I’d love to be part of the call to discuss this further.
Thanks for following up. This is very interesting. I’d like to think more about what lessons from the startup world might be applicable in our case.
“Launch/promote EA for Africans. To be really frank, Cape Town is not Africa. Lagos or Nairobi (or even Joburg) would make a better base if this goal is the priority.”
Important comment—there is certainly a benefit for EA to balance productivity and efficiency with insulating itself from the issues it seeks to impact (e.g. GH&WB). Lived experience of a city like Lagos or Nairobi could be extremely valuable for many over access to surfing and good views of coastline. People willing to tackle the short and medium term problems of Africa should be willing to get knee deep in the reality.
My impressions is that safety in Lagos ha degraded further in the last few years so I wonder how this could be managed.
The problems of Lagos are mostly structural. Say, insufficient infrastructure like road or housing and the general terrible governance across the country. However, Lagos is considered generally safe, arguably the safest in Nigeria right now.
I wouldn’t suggest the idea for a completely different reason which is cost. We have black outs for, sometimes, 20 hours a day. The cost of running your own independent power is high and every other aspect of your productivity may rest on having this single piece of infrastructure.
Despite all the challenges, if you like New York, you’ll like Lagos. It’s open, warm, bustling. Lagosians never-say-die. Perhaps this intense connection between dysfunction and survival is where all the creativity comes from. Hence why the city thrives, not at its optimum potential but certainly a force to reckon with.
I agree with you especially on productivity losses. I lived in Lagos for a few months. My sense was that since I was there kidnappings and general civil unrest has increased (perhaps the former more-so outside of Lagos).
Interesting about your comments on blackouts. I lived in both a villa with its own generator as well as an estate with its own back-up gen. Surely an EA hub could find a location which provides this?
Have you seen Eko Atlantic by any chance? Has this made much progress and I wonder if this could this be a potential location in the medium future if the project actually manifests.