Ghana Startup Ecosystem Report, with Simon Turner (LIVE AMA)

¡Bienvenidos a este especial Ghana Startup Ecosystem Report! My name is Dustin Betz. I'm a Community Manager at the Founder Institute HQ. And I'm joined today by the Program Director of the Founder Institute Ghana Accelerator, Simon Turner. Gonna bring him on camera here. Hi, Simon. Thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Dustin.

Yeah. So before, you know, we're going to talk today all about the Ghanaian startup ecosystem, but to kick off our conversation first here, I'd like to ask you a little bit briefly about yourself. You've been leading the Founder Institute Accelerator since 2012. 2019 in Ghana, I believe, going on 3 years now. You're currently a Venture Partner at Beta Rays with Impact Hub Accra and also a televised startup judge on the Circular Economy Competition series from GH1, as well as on the McDan Entrepreneurship Challenge show. And I know prior moving to Ghana 7 years ago, which you just marked that anniversary, you had successfully launched PropTech startups based in Australia and Singapore. And had a career prior to that in the Royal Australian Air Force. So given that, you know, abbreviated bio by way of introduction and the experiences that you're bringing to the table and working with all the pre-seed stage founders, did I miss sort of anything in your background that you want to highlight? And then the first real question is, what has your personal experience been like at the Founder Institute over these past 3+ years leading the program?

Yeah, thanks, Dustin. First of all, I think you covered my background pretty succinctly. Yeah, I've been here for 7 years. Previous to that, I had 2 property startups and before that, a decade in the military as well. I kind of came to Ghana on a hiatus to work with SMEs and young grads to upskill them and improve the business, but then have kind of segued back into the world of entrepreneurship and having been at MEST Africa at the same time as brought FI to Accra. And then of course we went through the pandemic and FI Accra became FI Ghana, and 3 years later here we are. And I think going from pretty much a standing start, and FI in Africa didn't have that strong a footprint at the time as well, but what the pandemic gave us was the opportunity to really spread our wings and make the most of the global footprint that we have. We're the biggest in the world, so it was a really good opportunity. So now we have 17, 18 across the continent. FI Ghana, one of the OGs. We've been able to help across Africa, but also leverage from it as well and get the benefit. And certainly the brand has a real strong presence now and we get included at the table. And that really matters.

Yeah, we've definitely done a lot of expansion across Africa, as you mentioned, from about the time you came on, you know, over the past 3 or 4 years. What has surprised you most, I guess I would ask, in accelerating these quite early-stage pre-seed companies in Ghana specifically?

Yeah, I mean, I'd say just across the number of things I get to do and the different hats I get to wear, whether it be from the TV shows or other things I get involved in that I've seen how, particularly with FI, we've increasingly, as I've got, we've got our presence known, that the types of startups are different or have evolved, or the types of founders have maybe evolved as well. Even just our average age of founders has increased startup upon startup upon startup. The average revenue they're making by the end of the program has improved every single cohort. So I think As we get more established, as people get more familiar with us as an organization globally, as we get more used to delivering this in a hybrid or virtual way, we get better. So I think it's a bit of everything and who we attract. And so there's a push-pull kind of thing.

Yeah, absolutely. And definitely exciting to hear that, you know, you're getting like more later stage founders or those that are, you know, just have more traction in their business coming into the program. That's definitely, Exciting. Let's talk a little bit, I guess, more about the Ghana startup ecosystem itself. So what are some of the kind of, you know, latest trends that you're seeing from early-stage founders there? Are there, you know, developments or things like that that you're watching or, you know, specifically excited about happening in the ecosystem right now?

Yeah, I mean, I think if we look at the— over the— my 7 years of being here, um, certainly we didn't even get talked about in the, in the conversation 7 years ago, you know, we have the Big Four which still exist from Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. But, you know, we're a good fifth now that we're there. Certainly in the area of fintech, we've had some really good successes from Zipay. One of our really great partners, Osei, was one of the biggest raisers last year in Ghana, which is fantastic. So shout out and thank you to them as well. But fintech certainly, and we've got some good health techs coming along. As well, but we're still, I would say, finding our feet. We don't have the same numbers population-wise as the Big Four, um, by any extent. Uh, and so perhaps that has a little bit of an impact in terms of how attractive we are to investors. But I think also it allows us to find our feet a little bit. Um, whilst numbers may be appearing elsewhere, we're kind of getting used to, uh, establishing what certainly when it comes to VCs, what African startups require that aren't necessarily the same as Western ones as well. And so VCs are getting more used to that, in my opinion.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And it's exciting, you know, that in any developing ecosystem to kind of see that stuff, you know, taking place. But yeah, it's, it's definitely, yeah, very interesting. I mean, so you kind of alluded to sort of some, some of these things, but why, I guess, To follow up, why is now, particularly as we kind of are sort of coming out of the pandemic to some extent, but, or at least just getting used to COVID being with us. So why is now in 2022 or this upcoming cohort an exciting time to be an entrepreneur in your view, especially in Ghana or West Africa?

Well, look, I think if you're an entrepreneur in the right headspace and, have genuinely identified a problem to be solved, any time is a good time. It doesn't really matter because you'll fit into it and you'll fit around the circumstances so long as you go with the times. And so any time is a good time in that sense. But in terms of coming out of the pandemic, certainly by going through the pandemic, we definitely accelerated our use of online payments and mobile money payments. That's been a really, really big change. So I think that's something that we're seeing that we benefited from, both being virtual and doing things like this before we really did have to do everything in person. And before, the mobile money was becoming big, but now it's just pretty much everywhere throughout the country, it's accepted. So there's a whole ecosystem built around that use of mobile money now and being able to take mobile payments. And so that has a big influence, I guess, on how a lot of the startups now are positioning themselves or seeing opportunities, entrepreneurs are seeing opportunities.

Yeah, I love that idea on, you know, just the emergence of the mobile payments in the continent or specifically in Ghana, because I feel like, I think it's a concept that people outside of Africa might be much less familiar with. But as you say, like that adoption, it really empowers digital entrepreneurs to build, you know, on top of that. Or have, you know, ways to go out and collect payments basically from digitally. Yeah, super, super exciting. I want to give some Founder Institute grads a shout out, especially for any prospective Ghanaian founders who might be watching, you know, who might be interested in possibly joining the upcoming program. Who are some of the Founder Institute alumni portfolio companies in Ghana that they might want to go check out and learn a little bit more about?

Yeah, sure. I mean, before I preface this with, if I forget someone, forgive me for those that watch this. But I mean, our biggest success has been grow4me.com. They were in the first cohort that we brought to Accra and that I ran. Nana Prempeh and his team have done an amazing job. They've just closed their pre-seed. They got through into Funding Lab, which follows obviously our core program here. They got through into Series A. They're one of the top emerging startups in the whole FI network. So I can't go past without saying amazing job to them because they trusted in us in the first place when no one else really knew us locally. But Insurity, Richard also came off that program. We've had Carly from Ground Up Ghana who went on to be in the Food Nutrition Accelerator following this, the second one, the previous one, Eto'o Naa was speaker. A fantastic learning platform. It's really kind of— they really found their feet during the pandemic, and they're working through a hybrid model of language learning. So they're starting with French, but then they're going to work through the next sort of biggest African spoken languages, so such thing as Swahili, for example. Fantasy Gold, a fantasy football platform for soccer. So a whole range. Akubooks, the Audible for Africa. So we cover a whole gambit. And, you know, I'm really pleased that with every cohort we've had, we've had someone go on to be in one of the follow-on accelerators. I think that's a real credit to the team here and the quality of the startups that we're producing here. We're not going for mediocre or anything like that. We really are trying to kick it with the best of them globally.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, great, great examples there for folks to go check out to learn more about these Ghana graduates who have come through the program and are continuing to build their businesses. So you said Grow4Me, Insorarity Digital, Aku Books. I know there was one more you squeezed in. Yes, yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So yeah, go check those out. And yeah, I know, I think this was the last FI Ghana cohort. It was also covered in techbuild.africa, which, so I know there's an online article that they can go check check out to see, I think, the newest grads from the previous cohort. But yeah, so we're getting kind of closer to the end now, but we would be remiss to also not give a quick shout out to some of the terrific Founder Institute program partners for this upcoming 2022 cohort. Are there any of your partners who you want to give a shout out to here quick?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first of all, I have to give a shout out to OSE. OSE have been with us since launch in 2019, and the fact that they were a startup early I mentioned earlier on, we kind of met when I first came to Ghana and they were just finding their feet and now they just got last year's biggest raise. That's, that's pretty impressive. I've got to say thanks to Egaliti Law, who are our legal partner. We've got Bantaba, who are a new partner. They're really looking at how they bring the expertise and funding from the diaspora to benefit our graduates. Same with DreamVC, that is another opportunity for those who graduate from our program to get follow-on benefits beyond those that already exist within the FI global network, such as AWS and Google, etc. But yeah, it takes a village and we have a lot of great partners. If you go to fi.co/ghana, you can see the long list of them.

Yeah, that's exactly what you— I was going to just say at the end there. I know there's more that you can't list all of them off the top of your head, but yeah, for folks who want to go check it out, it's there, the URL at the bottom there underneath fi.co/ghana. And yeah, you can all of the program partners who Simon and the team have lined up for the upcoming cohort. So yeah, we're kind of getting to the end here. I wanna ask if you sort of have just any parting thoughts, Simon, or any final advice for founders who might be watching before we kind of wrap it up and just talk about upcoming events and such. So any parting thoughts, I guess, you wanna leave us with here towards the end?

Thanks, Dustin. My parting thoughts will be that wherever you join FYI globally, it's hard. Yeah. And when I say hard, it's intense. If we say that it takes 25 hours a week to do the program, it takes 25 hours a week to do the program. If you get asked a question in an assignment, you cannot go Google the answer because it relates to your business. And that's what we're trying to do. We're not trying to just produce startups that are okay or understand the theory. We're trying to get them to understand the theory as they apply it to their businesses as well. And we make no shame that only a third or a quarter graduate because we only want the best to graduate. But I can promise that, and I say this every cohort, but I believe it. And I think we've now gotten to prove it, that every cohort is the best because we get better. The level of mentors in the program evolves and gets better. We have stronger alumni that can come in support as well. So for anyone coming in, come in with your eyes open and know that it's going to be intense. But running a business is even harder. So we make no bones of that. But for those that put in the effort, we put in the effort too. And I guarantee you that. And I think I'll struggle to find a graduate of ours that doesn't agree with that. But you can get in touch with me through LinkedIn or Twitter or through the FI platform. But yeah, our Fall '22 is coming up soon. Closing is 21st of August for the enrollment deadline and we kick off on the 30th of August. For what will be my fourth cohort, and I can't wait.

Yeah, yeah, so coming up, yeah, only like 6 weeks or so, so away. And yeah, I love how you said that like each cohort that you have is getting better. It's just leveling up as the mentors continue to level up, as your, you know, most successful alumni come in and start mentoring, and you get more established in the ecosystem. So that's so exciting. And yeah, you stole my line, which is I was going to recap and say, yeah, we always say that at Founder Institute, that The program is hard because building a startup is much harder, but you hit that on the head. So, you know, our branding down pat. Yeah, that's all awesome. And I guess, yeah, we want to tell people again the URL to go check out, it's fi.co/ghana. You can apply right through there or go to fi.co/join for, you know, any prospective pre-seed stage founders who might be watching. And yeah, we're really looking forward to helping more Ghanaian founders in launching and building exciting new businesses. You mentioned those program deadlines. We also have some upcoming events that folks can check out, same URL, fi.co/ghana. You can see them. So on July 26th, we're going to have an event featuring Sam Ba— or yeah, Sam Badu of Flaree, and then— oh, Bedu of Flaree, and then another founder who you mentioned at the top, this alumni, Grow4Me, Nana Prempeh, He's going to be on a special event with you on August 9th. And so those are both online events, I believe, that folks can go on and RSVP and join you live. I know we had at least one person joining us live in the comments here. So I just want to say hi to Terence, who's joining and raising proudly the Ghanaian flag. So that's awesome. And yeah, Simon Turner, Director of the FI Ghana Accelerator Program, this has been super interesting just touching base with you and hearing the latest. Thanks so much for joining today.

Thanks, Dustin. Thanks for everyone else for watching. Catch you later.

Yeah, thanks everyone for watching. See ya, take care.