Study a local technopreneur, and in less than 3 pages describe his/her business, characteristics

and what you think he/she is doing right and wrong in running the business. Support you
answer [25 Marks]

Takunda Chingonzo is an entrepreneur who loves working with new and emerging technologies, and
believes that information technology should be an extension of the human existence. He is passionate
about entrepreneurship in Africa and the nurturing of such into disruptive organizations that bring
sustainable change. He is the founder of The TechVillage, a collaborative working space for early
stage tech start-ups as well as the founder of Velociti, a startup accelerator based in Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe. A startup company (startup or start-up) is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a
newly emerged, fast-growing business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable
business model around an innovative product, service, process or a platform. Takunda’s Vision is to
see a connected Africa leveraging on technology built by Africans, by helping to build 100 start-ups
in and around Africa by the year 2020. He has spoken at numerous international conferences the likes
of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, the Global Philanthropy Forum and the Clinton Global
Initiative Middle East and Africa Conference. Takunda has had the opportunity to interview President
Obama on issues relating to enterprising African entrepreneurs.

He developed Saisai Wireless, an application (app) that works on the provision of free public Wi-Fi
access by utilising idle bandwidth from Wi-Fi routers and hotspots with a revenue model premised on
targeted advertising. The start-up was based at the National University of Science and Technology
(NUST) where all the founding members were doing their undergraduate studies. The Zimbabwean
company provides a bandwidth redistribution wireless mesh network consisting of free access
wireless hotspots in public areas, including public transportation. Many companies have large periods
of time when their internet capacity is not being used to full capacity. The start-up’s technology then
uses this wasted data to securely feed extra bandwidth to the network giving their users free access to
the internet, at no extra cost for these companies. SaiSai received an all-expense paid trip to Silicon
Valley as part of the SWELL Innovation Tour, which included the exclusive participation in
SWELL’s intensive soft landing programme in California.

His Vision

“My vision is to help build and launch 100 start-ups in and around Africa by the year 2020. It for this
reason that I have dedicated my work to building enduring companies in and around Africa. I believe
that the next unicorn is not going to be a single tech company, but a syndicate of start-ups that
cumulatively create products that will disrupt industries across national borders. So with each start-up,
with each problem we solve we take a leap forward towards what we are to be, which is what we are
slowly becoming.”

What The herald (August 9, 2014) quoted Nathaniel Manheru about him:

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“As for young Takura, he makes me proud to be a Zimbabwean. He cut through many barriers to
reach the skin of Obama. He went further and reached the marrow. Firstly, he overcame vast distance
in order to reach Washington. Washington had to pay for that vast travel. Secondly, Americans
invited him for a different drama.

It took real courage to turn the tables in that public way. Thirdly, even when facing the US president,
Takura would not be unnerved by Obama’s bulldog-like, condescending tactics.”

What he did right:

Takura took advantage of the degree that he was studying and took it further by doing the practical
side of it. He managed to use the skills learned at degree level to actually solve real life problems.

Zimbabwe has got one of the highest data mobile charges in the region, so giving users the
opportunity to use free Wi-Fi. He took technology and innovation and came out with a product that
can be commercialised.

He was given a chance to show case his project at a start-up competition and that took him to Africa
and then the world. He seized the opportunity and marketed himself on to the international stage. He
even got to the point of interviewing the then President of the United States Barak Obama. He
managed to ask president Obama about the sanctions that were hampering the progress of start-up in
Zimbabwe.

He partnered with local established companies like Zimbabwe Online Line and Empretec for financial
support because he had the mission but with no financial support. He further went to get support from
World Bank, Global Philanthropy Fund and Microsoft. This international exposure boosted his profile
as a technoprenuer.

He started his project with a group of friends who had the same passion as him. Most successful
business people got help from other people. He took advantage of opportunities that were available at
his disposal. He is managing to keep focused on his passion following his vision of helping about 100
start-up companies. He has managed to help over 30 companies local to get the exposure he had. He
started a number of start-up competitions like ZOL challenge Start-up and Global Start-up Harare.

Takunda is a risk taker, ready to dive deep into a future of uncertainty. He showed that he is a
successful entrepreneur by willing to risk his time and money on unknowns, but also keeping
resources, plans and bandwidth for dealing with "unknown unknowns" in reserve.

He used his the right connections to travel far. Many people seek comfort in commiseration—friends,
colleagues and neighbours are happy to complain about "the global slowdown,” poor demand, or
unfair competition—but that won't improve the bottom line. Successful entrepreneurs reach out to
mentors with more experience and extensive networks to seek valuable advice.

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If they don't have the necessary technical or marketing skills, they find someone who does and
delegate these tasks so they can focus on growing the business.

Takunda understood that not every attempt will result in success. The failure rate of entrepreneurial
ventures is very high. Sometimes, the best solution is to call it quits and try something new instead of
continuing to dump money into a failing business.

Many famous entrepreneurs weren't successful the first time around, but they knew when to cut their
losses. He went on leave the original Saisai wireless venture and focus on to promote more start-ups
with the cooperation of the international players like World Bank and Microsoft. With the
aggressiveness in marketing of Econet and newly launched Kwese free Wi-Fi zones, this was going to
be tough to compete with these big players for the market share. He is now mainly focussing on
sharing what he has learnt in trying to do start-ups and grow tech companies in an emerging economy.
The things he wished he knew going in and learnt the hard way through the successes and failures his
team has enjoyed. The year on year worth of experience has also given him unique perspective on the
growing trends surrounding technology, and its adoption in a constantly evolving market. He is
engaged with 30 start-ups, 35 international speaker engagements, 9 internship and technology
fellowship.

He is running the following projects in Zimbabwe to benefit other technopreneurs:

HUBVISA -is the universal access passport for technopreneurs. It allows our community members to
work at partner co-working spaces across the globe whilst “roaming” on the TechVillage membership
and in so doing, providing a ‘home away from home.”

CAMPUS SPACE - A work space for TechVillage community members based at the National
University of Science and Technology. It is perfect for crunching a few lines of code during classes or
organising a quick team huddle during the day.

Girls 2.0 -A guild of female founders and entrepreneurs built to promote women in technology and
encourage girls to innovate.

What he did wrong?

I think he should have sold his Saisai wifi project to Econet or big company long time ago when he
started in 2014. Econet is now using the same idea in commuter omnibuses and community centres.

He should have moved his many projects to Harare from Bulawayo. Harare is a bigger market and it
hosts most technological companies.

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References:

10 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs, Available at | Investopedia

Interview with saisai, Available at https://www.techzim.co.zw/2014/09/interview-saisai-zims-demo-

TAKUNDA CHINGONZO, Available at: Entrepreneur, Innovator, International Speaker:

Takura Chingonzo, Available at The Youth who dared ask the gods http://www.herald.co.zw/takura-
chingonzo-the-youth-who-dared-ask-the-gods/ (Accessed 06/02/2018)

TechVillage, Available at https://www.techvillage.org.zw/ (Accessed 06/02/2018)

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