Habesha in Tech

Over the weekend, Saturday July 10, I had the opportunity to chat with Dawit Abraham, the Founder and CEO of Qene Games. He was the youngest guest on the show.

He is a developer of the game called Kukulu, first of its kind in Ethiopia. His company is also know for a game called Gebeta, which is based on Ethiopian local game played for centuries on hole engraved flat stones/wood.

He came from Electrical Engineering background. Dawit wasn't limited by his classroom activities rather he pushed himself to learn to code and develop apps/games. He was able to start developing his famous game - Kukulu while attending his class. He was fortunate to utilize resources from Icoglabs and Gebeya. His stay at both companies also helped him to transform his career in to becoming a successful Game Developer and founder of Qene Games. Dawit's success story wasn't an easy one, he shared us the challenges Qene Games faced.

Thank you Dawit for sharing us your journey and respond to audience's question.

We have recorded the session, please have a listen on our podcast.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to have a chat with Bekure Tamirat about his Tech Journey on Clubhouse. We spent about 2 hours talking about his career and answering questions from audience.

Bekure has worked in many industries before he start to work in Tech. He also worked in a radio talk show called Tech intunes on Afro FM 105.3. He is experienced educator and IT professional who worked as Developer at first but moved to IT infrastructure career path. He worked as consultant in different companies before he joined Gebeya in 2016 as Operations Director. He is currently working as Product Director.

I learnt about the story of how Gebeya become such a successful company. Amadou አማዱ Daffe is a Pan African Senegalese-American who was inspired by Ethiopia's history co-founded the company and named it Gebeya Inc. which literally means marketplace in Amharic. Gebeya currently is teaching more than 700 students.

Key takeaways:

- Anyone interested in Ethiopia's Ecosystem: have a patience.

- Manage your expectations: Ethiopia's market is DIFFERENT.

- If you want to be successful, don't invest but LEARN first.

- Learn from things that failed: ask WHY?

Podcast is available and have a listen in the podcast of your choice.

Link: https://lnkd.in/e9z9QfE

Join Clubhouse and follow Habesha in Tech using this link: https://lnkd.in/efxfwSw

#tech #startup #career #developer #work #innovation #entrepreneur #teaching #hitech #habeshaintech

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to chat with Addis Alemayehou about Tech Investing. Bekure Tamirat and I were co-moderating the Habesha in Tech room. Addis shared us his starting point where he started investing in working at a hotel in Mississauga and then become a real estate investor in Toronto. His story and journey is very inspiring to many of us. 

He moved to Ethiopia to contribute to the growing economy. Addis have been doing impressive work on expanding his investment portfolios: Fin-tech, telecom, communications, manufacturing, logistics, tech and more. He supports many young start up owners by guiding and sporting in ways he can.

Addis also believes that Ethiopia has a huge potential in almost all of the sectors but Logistics is the biggest that will be hit by the disruptions. He also mentioned that the billing system still needs huge change as the data shows that 60% of people walking in the streets of Addis Ababa pays some kind of bills, this has a huge space for disruptors. 

The new telecom licence awarded to Safaricom PLC by Ethiopian Communications Authority is bringing new opportunities to the tech start ups which is driven by the competition with existing telecom provider ethio telecom, the sole telecom provider in Ethiopia. Addis also discussed on the newly launched telebirr that is providing mobile money solution and he believes telebirr will be a game changer for new and existing businesses.

Ethiopian start-up ecosystem is growing very fast and newcomers are joining in every sectors. Addis has advice to those who are interested in Tech or any other sectors in Ethiopia. Here are key take aways:

Be informed about what’s happening on the ground.

Understand what the current and new policies and identify their impacts. 

Take a month or 2 write problems your community faces before making any moves.

Ethiopia has it's own unique problems and investors/start-up owners should accept them and look for a way to solve the problem instead of complaining and wait for the impediments to be removed.

It was an honour to host Addis Alemayehou on Habesha in Tech club. Thank you Addis for spending your time with us. I also would like to thank Bekure Tamirat for being a great co-moderator.

Bekure is my next guest on July 3rd at 1:30 P.M. EDT, please join us then.

#thankyou #tech #startup #opportunities #community #innovation #investing #logistics #investment #digitaleconomy #startupecosystem Kazana Group Gebeya Inc. 251 Communications & Marketing PLC

Website: https://habeshaintech.com/

Telegram: https://t.me/habeshaintech

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