Tech For Granted

Sitati Kituyi is an experienced leader of software development teams, with senior management and co-founder experience at startups in Agricultural Insurance and Messaging industries. He is experienced in variety of tech industry roles, as a SOA designer, full-stack web & mobile developer, CTO/tech team lead and Co-Founder; and has worked in both startups and consultancy, with experience in insurance, e-commerce, messaging, telecoms and finance industries.

On this episode, he took us through his role as CTO at PULA and his passion project AfricanStockPhoto. So many insights, have a listen and enjoy.

Mahmoud Safideen is well on his way to revolutionising the logistics space and supply chain management in Africa. With industry expertise having previously worked at Darling Kenya, Mahmoud shares his musings as a monologue on this episode. Listen in! 

Roina is a Technical Program Manager at Microsoft where she supports the developer experience work on the Microsoft Graph SDKs. Roina is passionate about product, African developer ecosystem, technical talent. She currently writes about Product, African Feminism, Talent, Scala, Kotlin, Java and Flutter. 

Roina Ochieng previously worked at Sendy, as a Product Manager (Core and Scaling) where she supported a great group of Backend, Frontend and Middleware engineers to build great core infrastructure. At Africa’s Talking, she was a Developer Relations Lead and Program Manager where she was in charge of actively headhunting for technical and non-technical talent and developing programs to build an inclusive, diverse, and positively impacting team across Africa.

She has worked at Google Developer’s Group where she was the Lead Community Organizer, GDG Nairobi and was in charge of organizing community events for over 500 members of the developer ecosystem who span from beginner level developers to industry experts. While at Strathmore University, she was a  Lead Community Organizer, GDG Strathmore and she improved student participation in the group's program by 84% and increased female attendance by 124% upon entry as the lead organizer. Roina designed an effective hand-over shadowing training program for handing over the lead organizer to the co-lead for the group to enable the continuation of the group's program despite leadership changeovers and put together a specific rubric for integrating women tech makers events and general events to improve female participation.

 In this episode, she shares her musings as a monologue on technology in Africa yesterday, today, and beyond. 

Since 2014, Twiga Foods has been bridging gaps in food and market security through an organised platform for an efficient, fair, transparent and formal marketplace. Twiga Foods sources quality fresh and processed food from thousands of farmers and food manufacturers, and deliver from their pack house to thousands of vendors, at prices fair to everyone. Their dedicated team consists of over 1000 professionals in sourcing, sales, logistics, finance, technology, business intelligence, administration and HR.

Adelaide Odhiambo has received unrivaled experience in designing both Conventional and MicroInsurance products in the market. Adelaide Odhiambo's vision is to use this experience to eradicate poverty and at the same time play a key role in improving Insurance uptake and penetration. Get insurance very close to the people who need it most.

The mass-market faces the highest level of risk in Africa but has the least access to insurance. Typical barriers to insurance are Cost, Accessibility to insurance, Trust and Understanding of how Insurance really works. To tackle mass-market insurance the above barriers MUST be overcome. Adelaide Odhiambo is creating innovative solutions to meet this untapped demand, drive customer value, and expand financial inclusion on an unprecedented scale for African customers.

Adelaide Odhiambo seeks to position Insurance not just as a risk mitigation tool but a channel to grow revenue inbusiness. Insurance has struggled with low penetration for years, Adelaide Odhiambo intends to increase penetration by creating a range of innovative solutions that will attract the masses and also create a channel to bring the retail consumer closer to an insurance ‘self-service’ solution.

Adelaide Odhiambo's experience has led me to work with some of the Top brands globally. Listen in!

Nala Money is on a mission to increase economic opportunity for Africans worldwide. $48 billion was sent from overseas to family and friends in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020. As well as covering basic needs, contributions from friends and family overseas provide a launchpad to save, invest and grow. Every African deserves to carve out their own path to excellence, and access to financial support plays an important role in making thisa reality.

And every missed opportunity comes with a human cost. Africa is the most expensive continent to send money to, and Nala Money thinks there’s room for something better. In fact, it’s the reason Nala Money is laser-focused on building new ways to unlock progress and potential every time someone sends money to Africa.

As Africans, we’re often underestimated. Told to wait for others to solve our problems. Nala Money represents a movement tackling global challenges with dedication, brainpower and hard work. Nala Money is creating community powered solutions for the continent and diaspora.  

Pezesha, Swahili for "Capital Enabler", was started by Hilda Moraa in late 2016. Their headquarters is in Kenya. Pezesha has created a holistic digital financial infrastructure that is on a mission to be the leading enabler platform and marketplace that connects small and medium-sized businesses to working capital through a collaborative approach where banks, MFIs, and other financial institutions or networks can connect on Pezesha's platform to be matched with quality SMEs driving meaningful financial inclusion and reducing any inequalities on access to formal financial services.

Brilliance is evenly distributed, but opportunity isn't. Andela exists to unlock human potential at scale. There are talented individuals everywhere, but all too often their potential is limited by arbitrary factors like race, gender, nationality, and more tangibly, through challenges of operating globally. Andela was started to bridge that gap. Beginning in Lagos, Nigeria, and now reaching across multiple continents, Andela has become the talent network trusted by hundreds of the world’s top companies to help them seamlessly tap into global brilliance.

Andela has helped accelerate the careers of thousands of individuals, and brought tens of thousands more into the global talent ecosystem. Now Andela has sharpened its focus on bringing the best talent to all aspects of the digital product suite, roles that add tremendous value to the evolving tech world.

With each successful match Andela delivers, their dream of a world where the most talented people can build a career commensurate with their ability – not their race, gender, or geography – becomes a bit closer to reality.

We are joined by Jimmy and Newton, who are freelancers in public relations and publishing. Their story is an authentic perspective of the freelance landscape in Nairobi , and they share tips on how to stand out in the freelance and creative marketplace. We learnt how to discern potential clients, how to stay malleable  as a freelancer, the importance of conducting research before venturing into an opportunity, how to spot new trends in the market, as well as the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.

Give it a listen and share your thoughts in the comments section!

On this episode we have Paul Kevin Abwonji, a software developer with 8 years experience. He gives us insight on building stuff that matters, working remotely with a diverse team of developers and dealing with clients as one navigates the market as a freelancer.

We are joined by Harriet Kariuki and Tre Hunt, Harvard University graduates and founders of Afrijob.

Their goal is to catalyze global competitiveness among African companies by matching talent, both international and local, to startups looking to scale, develop better strategies and so much more. We also learn about new ways of hiring and finding jobs in Kenya and around Africa.

Give it a listen and share your thoughts in the comments section!

Interview with Github Co-Founder, Scott Chacon.

Absolutely no one likes to be micromanaged. It’s frustrating, demoralizing, and demotivating. Yet, some managers can’t seem to help themselves. Dealing with a controlling boss who doesn’t trust you is tough, but what if you’re the one doing the micromanaging?

If you’re like most micromanagers, you probably don’t even know that you’re doing it. Yet the signs are clear:

• You’re never quite satisfied with deliverables.
• You often feel frustrated because you would’ve gone about the task differently.
• You laser in on the details and take great pride and /or pain in making corrections.
• You constantly want to know where all your team members are and what they’re working on.
• You ask for frequent updates on where things stand.
• You prefer to be cc’d on emails.

Let’s face it. Paying attention to details and making sure the work is getting done are important. So it’s easy to chalk all of the above up to a necessary part of managing. But they aren’t necessary all the time. The problem with micromanagers is that they apply the same level of intensity, scrutiny and in-your-face approach to every task, whether warranted or not. The bottom line is: you need to stop. It’s harming your team’s morale and – ultimately – their productivity.

Listen in and enjoy! 

On this episode, we are joined by Raphael Obino who is a finance graduate and a tax consultant. He joins us to talk about filing tax returns in the Kenyan context, how taxes are to be used by governments to provide services and why we are afraid when we hear the word "tax".

Listen, share and leave a comment on what you think about the conversation and  what your thoughts are about tax. Enjoy!

!DISCLAIMER: There is use of Kiswahili and Sheng, therefore non-Kiswahili speakers will not be able understand parts of the conversation.

On this episode, we discuss the opening of the Africa Development Center by Microsoft in Kenya and Nigeria. We share our thoughts on what this means for the African developer and engineer, opportunities that young people can leverage and tips on how to network successfully at a professional event in Nairobi. 

Listen, share and leave a comment on what you think about opportunities that can be tapped into at tech events. Enjoy!

Paxful is a peer to peer bitcoin marketplace connecting buyers with sellers.  On this episode, we are joined by Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback, who are the co-founders of the company. They share the journey as entrepreneurs, how peer to peer finance is changing in the developing world and how we can demystify blockchain by providing use cases where society has benefited from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.   

Have a listen to the episode, get some edutainment and share with a friend. Enjoy!

On this episode, we are joined by Esther Kinuthia, a digital marketer with a masters in digital marketing from Trinity Business School. We discuss the best ways in which to create a digital marketing strategy, how to leverage data and insight from your market when doing so, and the potential an effective digital marketing strategy has in scaling the operations of your business.

According to Geopoll, Kenya has the highest number of gambling youth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and sports betting has become the most popular form of gambling. In April 2019, GeoPoll ran a quantitative nationwide survey via mobile SMS to a sample of 1300 respondents whose demography had a 50:50 male to female ratio aged 18-45 years old. On this podcast, we are joined by Ivan, a writer and event manager and Natasha, an analyst, to discuss the findings of the study and much more.

Ivan Irakoze is a storytelling poet who performs interactive sessions with his audiences through pieces in both English & French; enabling them to have a say on how the stories told go. Ivan is also the Founder of Ink Overflow - a social enterprise promoting art and self-expression in its many forms - having started it in 2014.

Website: www.ivanirakoze.com

Facebook: Ivan Irakoze

Twitter & Instagram: @ivanirakoze

On this episode, we discuss Jumia's IPO, Uber's plan to release self-driving cars and Instagram's leaked prototype. We are joined by a friend of the show, Ian Odhiambo, a software developer in Nairobi.  Is Jumia a startup in Africa or an African startup? Listen and enjoy!

On the first Episode of Tech For Granted, we discuss the ups and down of podcasting. What are the qualities of a good host who should you host a podcast with?  We also touch on the tips we've gained along the way with regards to marketing a podcast via social media platforms and how to handle potential backlash from your audience.  The Tech For Granted team also discusses the learning curve of podcasting and how to get step outside of your comfort zone. We also leave you with one important piece of advice that we have learnt from our experience... previously producing the Moringa School podcast. Got any questions for us? You are a part of the Tech For Granted team as much as we are, so leave your comments below and we will answer them in the next episode of the podcast.

Hosted by: Eugene Nzioki, Cynthia Muriithi, Melissa Malala, Michel Atieno, Victor Ireri and Kevin Ahere.