5 Year Plan
The 5-Year Plan is based on the framed picture that I got for my birthday from Mutete that you can find at The Answers of a Candle Flame. It was a very thoughtful gift and I am enjoying it so far.
When I turn 30, I want to achieve the following things:
- Build $500M startup
- Write The Mathnuscripts
- Found The Mathenge Estate
- Travel to 10 countries
- Maspeedy Collection
I will explain them in detail
1. Build a $500M startup
This startup is Shukran because I don't see any other project that I can build that can get to this status. Building a software startup was not exactly the dream but it was the thing that I was moving towards. I have always wanted to build things ever since I was a child. I loved machines, computers, science, knowledge, video games and so on. I was always drawn to the abstract concepts of life and less the social.
Now I have an opportunity to build a startup in Africa and change the African Narrative. I have a duty and responsibility to show that Africans can build great things like other societies. This is Africa's century and we can take it through leveraging the power of the digital age.
I am looking to have Shukran acquired by an international payments company from the US such as Square. I don't see another company taking this up apart from us. Therefore, we will have to make it work. They have the closest model to ours and I like what they do. It was also started by Jack Dorsey, which is a plus.
If we can build Shukran to a point where we can sell it for $500 million dollars, that would be awesome. It would show that we have built a great business that is defensible and we are continue to add value to it as we go along. The relationship I envision with Square is a ticket of autonomy on the African continent. We are given the leeway to do and expand as we please. This would be good as we can scale to other African countries, the Middle East and even Europe and the US. Why can't we do it?
If we can just get to product-market fit, then we are set to go. We can launch as fast as we possibly can. We can expand from one hotel to the next, one county to the next, one country, then countries, then region, the continents. We can do it if we expand our minds. I could learn a lot from what happened with Paystack. They can give us a lot of pointers on what to do. Another thing that I believe we should do is get a PCI/DSS license to process our own card transactions. We will need compliance from CBK and eventually partner with a bank or get a banking license. I am of the opinion to start with a partnership then become a bank later.
Compared to M-Tip and Kakitoo, I believe we have the upperhand but we cannot rest on our laurels, we have to get a USSD to undercut them. We have hotels with the Tipjar. We have a savings and investment product and we have a great product strategy that they cannot beat. We can win this.
Anyway, we have work to do, innovation must be done. I am not going anywhere and that's the way it will be.
2. Write the Mathnuscripts
I have written many articles about this and you can check them out here:
In the end, I want this to be a living and breathing repository of the knowledge I have gained as a personal, which will form the basis of my eternal existence for as long as computers will exist. If our civilization continues on its course of progress, then my writing will leave on. It will traverse the interwebs and come into contact with the right people who will gain value from it. Most people will probably ignore it but there are the few who will follow and they will gain both insight and entertainment. This is a worthy cause.
This will also form the basis for my books, which I will write over the course of my life so that I can document my journey and inspire others in my lifetime to pursue great things and to live life in the way that I have. This statement understand that there are other ways to live life and it is okay if you pick whichever. However, for those who wish to engage in the arena of life and build a world that is based on the foundation of progress, then they will have come to right place. This is their reference that shows they can engage in the process of creation, both intellectually, creativity and wholeheartedly.
The Mathnuscripts will not just be a reference like any other book or website, it will be an engaging agent that not only has conversations but also acts upon the world. It will start by doing what any software agent would do, by booking meetings, sending money and so on. However, it will eventually inhabit physical robotic bodies that allow it to explore and interact with the physical world. This will be my robotic companion, who helps me to do things in the world. It makes me friends, money and dinner while I sit down and relax.
3. Found the Mathenge Estate
I want to own my own land and build a city on it. This is the Mathenge Estate. It is fascinating to me how people started towns. There was nothing really special about that place, except a strategic advantage or raw materials to exploit that went into the decision-making of a city. It was not chosen by destiny but simply by chance. For my estate, it will be chosen deliberately so that it is a place of innovation, invention and escape from a society that doesn't uphold their tenets. Nairobi is a great place to leave but it is not ripe for innovation. We need a better place to build our vision of the future.
Sure, the estate will start of as a piece of land that has no use. It will probably not be very useful or maybe it may be very beautiful. All in all, it will be in the foundation of something beautiful and hopeful. Just like Neverland, it will be a place where great technological progress is exalted and closed-mindedness is shunned. Just like how Silicon Valley formed, I will start the equivalent here.
It will have to be built around a company that is successful and doesn't require immediate access to people in-person. This can be an internet company, a rocket company, an energy company and so on. It can be a place that's based on a specific business concept that is independent from the Kenyan economy. Once we have that we can hire people to work and live in that region. We give them land to build their homes and experiment with different home ownership structures and so on. By doing so, we can build a community around being smart, innovate and open to new ideas. Just like Silicon Valley, Israel, Singapore and so on.
I will start off by building my own home on this farm but it will have a main purpose to become the cradle of a technologically advanced society on the African continent. It will be self sustaining as we will grow our own food, produce our own energy, preserve our own water and so on. Once we have a self-sustaining system, we can move to becoming a surplus-generating community and grow from there.
I have been thinking about what the economic activity will be but I am yet to drill down on it. It would have to be tech, which can easily be produced as a product with minimal effort to the closed-minded African market. Once that happens, we are good to go and expand as much as possible.
I remember being fascinated by the building on Konza City because of what it represented. I am still waiting for that technology city but it seems I am going to have to build it then.
You can also read Living in a Ghost Town or Building a Startup Campus