There’s a lot going on now with large funding rounds, more startups than ever, an increasing number of VCs on the continent, shifting tides with crypto, exits and mergers, and all the normal stuff we used to talk about just amped up. It’s hard to track everything, and this is my attempt at filtering some of that information and making it available through my own lens, experience, and network.
My name is Erik Hersman, I have been writing about tech in Africa since 2005, but took a long hiatus until now. This is also my way of processing what I’m seeing, reading, and talking to tech leaders in Africa about - and distributing what’s happening in the African tech space.
You can expect:
Links to important and interesting news.
Longer-form opinion pieces by me on what’s happening, or digging deeper into a specific trend or industry.
Stories by African tech leaders. As a CEO you can’t always write about a lesson or experience you’ve had (or maybe you don't like writing publicly). I’ll use my network to get the lessons and stories from other tech business leaders across Africa. Some will be anonymous, and you’ll have to trust me that I’ve pre-vetted them as real people with legitimate experience and lessons to share.
My plan is to put out a weekly newsletter and will take it from there on whether the cadence increases or not.
Finally, some trivia for you that some of you might remember what this domain (African Signals) was used for in the past - it has served as my vehicle for:
A Wiki for tracking the codes and inputs needed across African countries with individual mobile operators to get data working on your phone - back in the dark ages when the APN, username, and password weren’t done automatically by the MNO and it seemed only a few new the mysteries of it!
A podcast - I did a few podcasts with people using African Signals as the name (back in 2007, I think), and published on my blog. I might resurrect this idea, depends on time, which I don’t seem to have nearly as much as I did before…
Thanks for signing up, and for sharing with your friends and colleagues. You can send me thoughts, feedback, ideas here or on Twitter @AfricanSignals.