🛠️ How to Build for Doing Good & Being Profitable...

4 strategic approaches to building impactful and profitable businesses in Africa from venture building expert, Tramayne Monaghan of Next 176.

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It’s the ultimate SA (OK maybe African) founder’s dream: To create a business that uplifts society, creates a massive positive impact AND still makes money.

‘Cos let’s face it, it almost feels like it has to be either/or sometimes…

But that’s exactly what we’re doing at Next 176, and here’s how we are approaching it.

Building for Both Benefits

1. Build solutions that impact a billion(s)

You can’t think small if you want to make a change in Africa. No matter how powerful the impact of your product, if you have too little reach/adoption, you have to raise costs to make enough money, and that’s always a problem…

The average African has low spending power, so a truly impactful solution will need to have low margins and super high volume. And that needs hyper-efficiency – something tech is ideally suited for if you start with the intent of impacting a billion lives from the onset.  

2.  Focus on reach & value

You have to build in spaces with intense need, high adoption and growing interest. Things that unlock huge value as early as possible for the user, but also allow and incentivise them to share it with others, quickly and easily.

Whether B2B, B2C or B2B2C, the game is the same – build for a big market and offer amazing value that’s clear from the start and almost intuitive to unlock.  

3. First national, then continent-wide

It’s OK to start in SA and then aim for continent-wide. At Next, we look at potential African solutions and start building and refining them right here in SA.

The key thing is to be clear about your intent from the start: you’re gonna build with the view of taking it far and wide, but you’re focusing locally to refine your solution until you’re ready to take it to the next level.  

4. Back yourself

Thinking at that scale might be a bit scary at first, but remember that you’re surrounded by people and companies who want the same thing – to develop Africa.

That means you can go and pitch your ideas and look for funding/help with corporates or a VC. Just be clear that you are the best for this opportunity – show why you can do it faster, better or more efficiently than anyone else.

And don’t be afraid to reach out to your fellow startup community – most of us founders are building unique solutions, setting up our own channels for distribution etc. And almost half the time you’ll find your market overlaps with someone you know’s market.  

Reach out and solidify partnerships, we’re all in this together.

Got a startup hack to share? Hit reply and let us know (and maybe you get featured here, too).

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