The Technology Hub in the Wild
Sandwiched between Tsavo East and Tsavo West national park is a new technology hub that is raising the technology profile of Voi town. SoteHub , founded in 2010 from the Sote ICT project has been offering business training to students and startups in Taita Taveta county. A few weeks ago, Frank Tamre, Collins Oduor, and I were invited for their inaugural Startup Fire event as guest speakers.
The topic for the presentation on my end was ‘Importance of Data in Your Startup’. Initially, I wasn’t sure on what to present given data science application in startups is as wide as River Nile. Then it occurred to me that we had just introduced a data-driven approach to Software Development at Brave Venture Labs. It was the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) — a framework invented by Intel for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes. So I presented on gathering data around OKRs and how to use the data to measure a startups ‘software development health’.
The event was a great success. Frank Tamre talked about his experience setting up Moringa School and lessons learned on the execution of ideas. He later worked at iBiz Africa as a mentor and a coach where he got to the knack for spotting good and bad ideas in 30 seconds. Collins Oduor gave a humorous and hearty talk on Cyber Security pitfalls that startups fall into at their nascent stage.
In the evening, a 10-minute drive from Voi town brought us to Tsavo East National Park where elephants danced in the mud for our entertainment. We also glimpsed at The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) which slices through the town on its way to Mombasa. There is now a scheduled stop at the town making the Hub in the Wild only 2 hours commute from the capital Nairobi.
On the last day, we visited Kajire Girls, one of the beneficiaries of SoteHub training. In this barren land of Kasigau where man and beast roam alike, it was a scene of excitement to find a well-fitted computer lab with young girls putting themselves to the arduous task of computer programming.
