The biggest challenges were access to finance and the right level of
mentorship. On top of that, they had a
hard time finding the right talent. “Initially, we were two different teams in
Cape Town, me with the other Co-founder
and the other three existing as a separate start-up. So what happened is that
someone said he will only invest in us if
we merge. So we sat down to see what
we can do collectively and said yes, we
are a solid team. That is how everything
evolved. Currently, Funda has twelve fulltime employees, and I am now a dormant
shareholder. ‘’
Clearly, Funda was not the solution for
Africa’s education crisis.
‘’Funda’s goal was to help already accredited institutions to take their courses
online. So our model was to work with big
players in education in Africa, such as the
University of Pretoria to roll out their
digital learning strategies and take their
courses online. Our model was pretty
simple. We digitize and provide the technology at no cost, and when most courses
are online, we split the revenue with the
institutions.’’
Crucial Growth Points
‘’It was a risky model, that is why we
banked on the credibility of institutions,
and that is the reason for designing the
model around existing accredited institutions.’’
The Road Diverges
‘’These institutions determined the courses they wanted to take online and the
price with which they wanted these courses to be accessible. Also, innovation moves
at a slower rate within their
environments.”
“The solution was to identify all forward
thinking institutions such as African
Leadership University and others in the
continent like Instill Education, who
believe that part of the solution is training more teachers just as ALU prepares
students. So I told myself that my focus
should be providing the best technology
in the world and make it accessible to all
these institutions so that they can provide
quality education at scale. This is how
Clock was born last year.’’
“Surround yourself with lions. People
who push you every day, smart people.
Secondly, don’t take the paperwork and
due diligence for granted. Lastly, give
ownership to your employees, make them
feel like they own your vision. That is the
only way you can get them to give their
best to the company. Be open to giving
equity and stock options at the beginning,
but of course smartly do it. For instance,
I wanted to recruit someone from the
University of Cape Town, a top student
having many job offers from corporate
Goliaths, but he had a passion for education. For me to bring him into my team,
he didn’t want to be just a developer;
he wanted to feel like an owner. So for
employees to feel like owners, give them
enough room to make decisions and
provide equity options.” >>
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