Homtecha Guinée
On December 7th I gave a keynote talk at DevFest Conakry 2019 about entrepreneurship and the growing tech ecosystem in Africa.
I’m planning to publish a full recap of this amazing event in the coming weeks. First, I wanted to share a little bit about my keynote presentation.
Though the talk itself was in French, the title Homtecha is a mashup of the English words for Home, Technology, and Africa.
Many times in the past when traveling to Guinea, I have been asked the same question: why can’t the next Amazon/Facebook/Google come from Africa?
“Pourquoi le prochain Google ne peut-il pas venir d’Afrique?”
The talk Homtecha Guinée explores this question by looking at the origin story of a few of the biggest tech companies in the world today, all of which started by solving a very narrow, specific, and oftentimes local problem using technology.
Based on this, the question posed to the audience is: what are the unique problems in Guinea and the rest of Africa you can solve using technology?
“Quels sont les problèmes uniquement africains pour lesquels vous pouvez trouver une solution?”
Despite an abundance of natural resources, Guinea is one of the poorest countries on the continent. Africa has its own unique set of challenges, many of which are quite different from challenges faced by people living in the U.S.
While American tech companies can be a good source of inspiration, rather than trying to create a photocopy of what has already been done, what are the unique solutions that can be found to solve problems in daily life in Africa?
As has been said by many, including Jack Dorsey, Africa will define the future.
I believe this wholeheartedly, and I am also grateful for my experience at DevFest Conakry 2019. I plan to continue to do what I can to support technology education in Guinea in 2020 and beyond.
Stay tuned for a full recap of DevFest Conakry 2019 coming soon!
