There is this element of success that is mentioned over and over again in the stories of successful startups in Rwanda. It is the factor of luck. Luck is a form of leverage and it is part of every great success. Fortunately, luck is largely predictable and happens to people and even startups for specific reasons. In many respects, startups in Rwanda actually create their own luck by the things they do, or neglect to do.

This topic of luck has been so clamorous and made me think deep into it and search about it broadly referring to startups in Rwanda. I approached different 15 startups founders and co-founders in Rwanda that have at least made some good deals and eventually happen to make serious money compared to others.

I happened to meet Jean Niyotwagira, the CEO of TORQUE LTD, in recent years that has made a big deal by having BRALIRWA as a customer of the company software products. Is not this a big deal? I think every startup would be tremendously happy to have BRALIRWA as one of the startup customer. “Was there any luck factor for TORQUE LTD to get this big customer?” I curiously asked Jean Niyotwagira! “Okay, I do not simply call it lack but may be opportunities.”He replied me confidently. “What if your startup was not ready for those opportunities because we have been having so many opportunities for startups around this nation but not many were able to grab them readily?” I again asked Jean Niyotwagira.

“Everything is a startup not only in business but also in actual real life. For example when you are a new married person, your new family is a startup. When you deliver a new baby born, that is a startup but of course you must have the vision, clear goals, and inspiration at the beginning of every startup. What do I mean? You must prepare for everything such that in case opportunities are around, you are ready to get them. This is done by may be working hard, acquiring skills needed for those opportunities and so many other things accordingly. We knew what BRALIRWA problems were, and TORQUE LTD was ready to solve them. So there is no such thing as luck” Jean Niyotwagira replied.

Luck is largely a matter of probabilities. There is a probability that virtually anything can happen, and these probabilities can be calculated with considerable accuracy. In almost every case, you can increase or decrease the likelihood of something happening or not happening.

For example, there is a certain probability that you will be killed in a traffic accident. But you can reduce this probability by driving sober, more carefully, and wearing seatbelts. Some people drive all their lives and never have an accident or a speeding ticket.

One thing all startups that I asked agreed on is that luck is a function of activity. The more things a startups try, and the faster they try them, the more likely it is that they will try the right thing at the right time that will bring them the success they desire. The fact is that most things do not work the first time, and often, they do not work the first ten times. Nonetheless, if startups keep trying new things, and learning from every setback, they will inevitable develop the skills and experience they need to succeed in our Rwandan market even the foreign market.

There is a saying that, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”What does this mean to startups in Rwanda? The more time they take to learn, study and prepare themselves in their chosen fields, the more luck they will seem to have. The better prepared they are, the more often they will both recognize and be prepared enough to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

Most importantly, luck seems to happen to startups with clear solutions for customers’ problems and detailed value proposition to customers. When startups know exactly what are people’s needs and problems and are working diligently to achieve people’s solutions for their problems and fulfill their needs every day, all kinds of wonderful things happen to startups to move them more rapidly toward their financial success beyond reasonable understanding.

Written by Hallellua Pacifique

You may not know this, but the kLab is run by an all volunteer board which helps guide the long term vision of the space. To this day, the board has been composed of the founding members of the kLab, each having contributed significantly towards making the space a reality. These members sacrificed a great deal to bring the kLab to where it is today, but the time has come for some of us to step down to make space for new ideas, energy and innovation.

Four board seats are coming up for reelection in the next month and I'd love to see some new blood on the board, which is why I am stepping down. We are looking for candidates who have been active in the kLab community, who are well known to that community, and who are ready to volunteer significant time to bring kLab to the next level.

If you are passionate about making the kLab better there is no better way to volunteer your time. But we want doers, not talkers. You must be committed to putting in the time and work to make real change. Board positions are unpaid and come with no benefits except for the pride in being part of one of the biggest stories in Rwanda.

Interested parties should reach out to Jovani (gm@klab.rw) and submit a written application for why they should be considered by March 1st. The selection process is done by the current board, so you should make sure to present yourself fully in writing, though hopefully we will already know you by reputation!

If you have any questions about what it takes to be on the board and what the commitment entails, feel free to reach out to me personally, I'm always at the kLab.

The call comes in at around, 1 PM on a Wednesday afternoon, I am having lunch. The caller sounds somewhat hurried; he is not hot on introducing himself. “The Young Presidents are in town,” he says. “The young who?” I ask. “Be at the basement of Telecom House at 5 PM,” he goes on ignoring my question. My line of work doesn’t allow me to feel sweet about such calls, so at a few minutes to 5 I am taking the stairs to the Telecom house board room.

And there were members of the young presidents’ organization and a few Rwandan Tech Entrepreneurs. For the uninitiated, Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) is the world’s largest network of Chief Executives that was founded over 60 years ago to connect peers all across the world.

They regularly exchange Ideas and strategies to achieve personal growth and professional success. The young achievers also have a mission of building better leaders through education and Ideas exchange. These are relatively young (30s and Early 40s) business people and professionals in a range of sectors from Tech to mining to finance to logistics. Their resumes are long. They were there thanks to PSF ICT chamber’s invitation.

You would imagine men and women of their class and status would be suited up and in ties, but you’d be wrong, there were all casual. But despite my admiration for them, they somewhat seemed distracted, despite their high financial status, most of them seemed not to have made the intended distance from searching for a fortune; they were constantly on their phones and tablets, doing what I imagined to be tracking their wealth or ensuring all was well in their castles.

The Rwanda ICT entrepreneurs in the room were there to pitch their business Ideas and innovations in hope for strategic partnerships or financing in terms of equity share.

One after the other, they made five minutes presentations. At times your several weeks of preparation can be summarized into a five minutes presentation. It is in those five minutes that you have time to be nervous, get over it, make a killer presentation and walk away with a deal.

They seemed prepared, within the five minutes they had introduced their firms, what they do, what they have achieved in the recent past, and what they were looking to do in the near future and how they were planning to do it.

The audience of YPO had questions; the presenters fielded few of them technical, most of them poking holes at the business plan;

1. What is your business model?
2. How much are you asking for?
3. How did you come up with that figure?
4. What do you need it for?
5. How good and recent was your market analysis?
6. Who are your targeted clients?
7. Have you thought of who is your biggest competitor?
8. How long will it take you to break even?

From the pitching process, I took a few lessons home that can come in handy especially for a tech entrepreneur.
You always need to have you business ideas summarized just in case you have to make an elevator pitch.
You may have a good product but the marketing model and packaging is just as important.
When you ask for funding, know what exactly you need it for, when and how you will pay it back.
Have in mind who your biggest competitors are and how you will beat them. Have an outlined business model, gone are the days when entrepreneurs ran firms blindly or on faith.
Working in isolation, without being in touch with your targeted clients is distractive; you end up having good products or services but no market for them Studying other firms’ business models and trends can come in handy more often than you expect.
Clients and investors are wary about complex products and services, break down your innovation and simplify it to a way that it can easily be understood by as many people as possible.
There is more to successful start-ups than money or funding, drawing lessons from all around you take you further.

Written by: Collins Mwai