Afrigather 
2021 used to be a legend yr for the African tech ecosystem as startups raised over $4 billion in endeavor capital funding, the wonderful quantity raised but.
Whereas this feat is laudable, it’s impossible to push apart the real fact that many startups don’t manufacture it to the stage where they’re going to attract external funding sooner than folding up. Consistent with a 2019 World Financial Forum document, handiest 8% of African startups manufacture it to the Series B stage of funding.
In 2020, the startup failure rate in Nigeria reportedly stood at 61%, that draw that handiest 39% of startups in Nigeria dwell on. Across Africa, startup failure charges differ from 75% in Ethiopia and 74% in Ghana to 58.3% in Senegal and 58.7% in Kenya.
This pattern has raised the fundamental request of of how startups can abet the lights on with little funding whereas taking a survey to enhance capital.
So, on January 14, 2021, Koromone Koroye, TechCabal’s Managing Editor, spoke with Vivian Nwakah, CEO Medsaf and João Pinheiro, CTO Medsaf to acknowledge to this request of, within the future of the 2nd episode of Building From Floor Up, Season 2 by the The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub,.
Medsaf, a healthtech startup that facilitates and funds the shuffle of medication in emerging countries, is a startup that’s long undergone the fragment of bootstrapping and succeeded in elevating capital.
Bootstrapping within the early stage of a industry
Nwakah’s interest in fixing complications within the healthcare house happened after her buddy died from taking a unfaithful malaria drug. This spurred her to co-stumbled on Medsaf in 2017, with the mission to fight the proliferation of unfaithful and imperfect tablets in Nigeria and across Africa.
This day, the healthtech startup which started in a runt apartment in Victoria Island, Lagos, now has areas of work in 20 Nigerian states, with 45 staff members across 3 continents. It has grown 500% for the rationale that firm used to be launched in 2017—rising 200% within the future of the pandemic. It has raised $2.7 million in funding. Obsessed on that Medsaf started at a time when healthtech startups weren’t current, Nwakah explained how the startup used to be in a position to bootstrap itself to its new pronounce.
Nwakah, who relocated from the US and quit her job in 2016 to center of attention on Medsaf, had to fund the firm by strategy of her savings. Support then, she tapped into her journey from managing a political campaign to derive other folks serious about Medsaf.
“My journey from motivating other folks in Chicago to reach out and knock on doors in below-zero-stage weather, for the sake of elections, ready me for this role,” Nwakah acknowledged.
“I extinct that identical files to rally other folks around Medsaf’s single location off: quality medication is a well-known human authorized. By the quit of 2016, we started receiving our first angel cheques and launched in January 2017.”
Pinheiro, remembers that within the early days of Medsaf he worked a pair of jobs. What made bootstrapping more uncomplicated used to be focusing on preserving it easy by the exhaust of tried and tested technology.
Transitioning from bootstrapping to fundraising
Over time, the African startup funding house has matured and it’s reasonably more uncomplicated for a startup to enhance cash. In 2016 this wasn’t the case; to attract external funding all Nwakah could maybe maybe furthermore enact used to be focus on Medsaf to varied other folks all day long. She focused investors who had done some level of success in an African context and world level.
“I pitched Jason of Iroko TV 10-20 cases sooner than he invested. So many folk suggested me that healthcare wasn’t scalable or wanted, but I had resilience, power, and deep ardour for what I knew Medsaf could maybe maybe furthermore be, so I factual saved pitching other folks.”
How did Medsaf derive its first investor? Nwakah attributes this to her relentless efforts to be accessible assembly varied other folks. “I was attending events and assembly of us that had been in current startups love Jumia. I met our Silicon Valley investor at a tech conference in Lagos. I was accessible and assembly other folks, but I furthermore understood that they’re no doubt busy and I wanted to derive to the point. I furthermore never felt that they owed me anything else,” she acknowledged.
The anguish of attracting the authorized other folks
Attracting abilities is a conventional venture startups face. How has Medsaf navigated this?
“I didn’t mediate abilities can be the most sophisticated fragment of creating Medsaf, once we started,” Nwakah acknowledged. Within the early days it used to be about getting of us that had been alive to about healthcare, but because Medsaf used to be one of many most fundamental healthcare tech firms, the theory that of a healthtech startup used to be so unknown that it used to be excruciatingly sophisticated to derive other folks to affix Medsaf before every thing.
“In as of late, pharmacists and varied healthcare professionals would reasonably work for a pharmaceutical firm, sanatorium, or government. There had been questions about job stability because usually pharmacists quit up setting up their very maintain pharmaceutical retailers.”
What has worked for Medsaf is that it has pondering about investing in its workers. Nwakah acknowledged Medsaf used to be one of many most fundamental firms to specialise within the importance of transparency within the present chain of tablets, and thanks to that, pharmacists within the within the meantime are going abet to college to be taught more about the present chain.
“One of our staff members goes to Canada for an MBA. I’m happy that we’re altering how pharmacists are pondering of their profession paths. We’re charting new territories.”
In phrases of getting technical abilities, Pinheiro has furthermore stumbled on it annoying to attract the most attention-grabbing ones. Right here’s because Medsaf is a smaller firm that will maybe maybe’t offer the the same pay or station that bigger firms can offer developers. Nonetheless, Medsaf is ready to give them independence and the opportunity to develop, which is ample for some of them.
Building programs and processes for a startup
As startups develop, they ought to establish more processes and programs in set to attract a protracted lasting firm. This belief is one which has been embraced at Medsaf. Nwakah acknowledged she’s learnt alongside the manner no longer to be rigid about commerce.
“What worked within the occasion you’re a staff of 5 doesn’t work within the occasion you’re 15 other folks. It is seemingly you’ll maybe maybe well furthermore maintain to constantly innovate across the technique and test with potentialities to fabricate sure you’re gentle serving their wants. The accurate reason Medsaf has any success is that we pondering about processes and programs.”
Pinheiro chipped in that from a technical standpoint, he’s noticed that folk war to properly give an explanation for the plan sooner than breaking it down to processes.
“Step by step other folks reach with complications love, ‘I’d like a web-based page’, and my response to them most cases is ‘What anguish are you making an try to resolve?’ It’s fundamental that folk first understand what plan they’re making an try to establish sooner than making an try to give an explanation for the technique.”
