All posts by Senam Beheton

About Senam Beheton

Senam is a co-founder of TEKXL. With an education in law, political science, international development and instructional technology, Senam has a unique gift for proposing common sense solutions to transform communities, businesses and individuals. A serial entrepreneur, he has founded or invested in over 15 companies/organizations in the past 20 years. Senam believes in simplicity in design and process. His other interests include playing tennis, philanthropy and photography. View all posts by Senam Beheton →

Femmes et Startups: Nécessité d’un Pipeline en Afrique

Il y a un problème

La faible représentation des femmes dans l’écosystème tech est bien documentée et incontestée. Les femmes représentent moins de 30% de la main-d’œuvre chez Google, Facebook, Twitter et Apple. Une base de données sur les femmes ingénieures en génie logiciel dans 84 entreprises tech créée et maintenue par Tracy Chou de Pinterest est révélatrice. Selon ces données, les femmes représentent seulement 15% de tous les ingénieurs. Ces statistiques révèlent qu’il y a 8% d’ingénieurs femmes à Yelp, 16% à Pinterest, et 0% à StackExchange (0/23). Selon une étude réalisée par MIT, les VC (capitaux risques) préfèrent les présentations de startups faites par des hommes séduisants (ce n’est pas une blague!), et les entreprises dirigées par des femmes reçoivent seulement 7% de tous les financements des VC.
En Afrique, la disponibilité de données est un problème, mais la situation n’est pas meilleure. Il y a des pionnières telles que Ory Okolloh Mwangi, Juliana Rotich, Marieme Jamme et les dames en vedette sur cette liste . Cependant, elles sont l’exception qui confirme la règle. Une étude Gartner a démontré que les femmes occupent seulement 11,2% du leadership tech en Afrique. Une observation de l’environnement suggère qu’il y a moins de 30 femmes ayant les compétences avancées pour développer des applications ou des solutions technologiques de classe mondiale dans la plupart des pays africains. Les startups en Afrique n’ont souvent pas de femmes co-fondatrices, programmeuses, ou conceptrices d’interface ou d’experience utilisateurs (UX/UI). La majeure partie de la représentation des femmes est dans le community management, la vente, le blog et paradoxalement dans le plaidoyer pour l’utilisation du web.

Les femmes sont indispensables

Des études démontrent que les choix des femmes affectent plus de 85% des décisions d’achats et comptent pour $ 4,3 billions du total de $ 5,9 billions des dépenses des consommateurs américains. Cela rend les femmes la plus grande force économique, non seulement aux États-Unis, mais dans le monde entier. Selon des données de l’OCDE , le taux d’activité économique des femmes africaines (qui mesure le pourcentage de personnes qui fournissent l’offre de travail pour la production de biens économiques) occupe le premier rang au monde (y compris les pays de l’OCDE) avec une valeur de 61,9.
Des sociétés telles que Facebook, Google, Apple ou Microsoft sont soit des réseaux sociaux ou soit les utilisent comme éléments fondamentaux de leurs modèles économiques. Il est pratiquement impossible pour une entreprise de prospérer de nos jours sans les médias sociaux. Eh bien, les femmes dominent les médias sociaux. Elles surpassent les hommes dans presque toutes les catégories. 76% de femmes adultes américaines contre 66% d’hommes utilisent Facebook. 30% de femmes contre 26% d’hommes vérifient leurs comptes médias sociaux plusieurs fois par jour. 53% de femmes contre 36% d’hommes sont susceptibles d’accéder aux offres des sociétés à travers les médias sociaux.
En Afrique, les femmes sont parmi les voix les plus dynamiques sur le web. Elles dirigent la conversation et sont à la pointe de l’émergence d’idées révolutionnaires. En plus de Ory Okolloh et Marieme Jamme, il y a d’autres influenceuses notables. Nnenna Nwakanma fait le plaidoyer pour les solutions libres et un Internet à la portée de tous. Rebecca Enonchong, l’une des africaines les plus suivies sur Twitter, a un background solide en tant qu’entrepreneuse tech avec un accent sur l’Afrique.
Les startups sont connues pour avoir un taux d’échec élevé. Le manque d’originalité est souvent cité comme un facteur contribuant à ce résultat. Les startups qui réussissent ne sont pas nécessairement celles qui ont les meilleurs programmeurs, mais plutôt celles avec les idées les plus révolutionnaires. Les femmes peuvent contribuer leur point de vue, leur expérience et leur créativité pour concevoir et fabriquer des produits que les gens voudront vraiment utiliser.
L’inclusion des femmes rend une équipe plus intelligente si l’équipe est prise comme une unité collective. Des études suggèrent que les équipes comprenant des femmes sont plus intelligentes. En fait, plus il y a de femmes dans une équipe, plus cette dernière est performante.
Les startups tech ont souvent du mal à trouver les talents qu’elles cherchent. Selon la Fondation Kauffman, le secteur des TIC est 48% plus susceptible que l’économie dans son ensemble à créer de nouvelles entreprises. Les emplois dans le secteur sont très bien rémunérés. Les développeurs gagnent en moyenne USD $ 89.000 par an et il importe peu où ils se trouvent géographiquement. Les femmes qualifiées peuvent profiter de la convenance et de la flexibilité de travailler à distance ou selon leurs propres horaires.

La construction du pipeline pour les startups en Afrique

Certains affirment que la réparation du pipeline permettrait de résoudre le problème de la faible représentation des femmes dans les TIC. En introduisant les jeunes filles à l’informatique, en leur montrant les possibilités qui existent dans le domaine, en leur apprenant à coder et en leur fournissant des modèles féminins, on réduirait le fossé et atteindrait la parité. Il est certes important de réparer le pipeline, mais c’est plus qu’un problème de pipeline. L’écosystème des startups est plein de sexisme, de harcèlement sexuel, de concurrence malsaine et bien d’autres maux qui dégoutent les femmes. Une étude de Harvard a révélé que plus de la moitié des femmes dans les entreprises tech abandonnent la filière à mi- carrière en raison de la culture de leur environnement de travail. Les événements récents, y compris gamergate et le procès contre Tinder tendent à confirmer que la culture du « brogrammer » est un réel problème.
En Afrique, l’écosystème des startups est encore à ses débuts. Bien que les femmes soient sous-représentées actuellement, il y a un manque général de compétences et de réussite sur le continent par rapport au reste du monde. Au Bénin par exemple, un sondage récent suggère la disponibilité de 15-20 femmes adéquatement formées par rapport à 30-45 programmeurs hommes aussi qualifiés. Il y a donc une possibilité d’agir avant que l’écart ne se creuse davantage.
Ceci commence avec une approche qui se focalise uniquement sur les femmes, en prenant en considération les causes profondes de leur sous-représentation.

Établir un environnement propice à l’apprentissage, au partage et à la collaboration.
Identifier et sélectionner des jeunes femmes très motivées pour un programme de formation intensive.
Aller au-delà de la tendance “apprendre à coder” et se concentrer sur le développement de compétences de pointe pour répondre à la demande de l’industrie et créer un avantage compétitif.
Adopter une approche d’apprentissage pour permettre de faire, de bidouiller et de construire tout en apprenant.
Offrir des possibilités d’interaction et de collaboration avec les intervenants extérieurs tels que les utilisateurs, des fournisseurs de services divers, les investisseurs et permettre des stages dans des entreprises ou des startups.
Fournir des mentors qualifiés et dédiés.

L’approche focalisée uniquement sur les femmes n’est pas nouvelle. Ada Developers Academy basée à Seattle est un programme de formation intensive d’un an pour les femmes qui font une transition vers le développement de logiciels. Le Hackbright Academy à San Francisco offre des bourses aux femmes pour 10 semaines de formation, niveaux débutant à ingénieur de logiciels.
Bien que ce soient de bons programmes, l’approche proposée va au-delà des compétences en programmation. Il faudra construire un pipeline robuste et durable qui fournira non seulement de bonnes programmeuses, mais aussi d’autres compétences pertinentes de haut niveau pour l’écosystème des startups. Les conceptrices d’interface et d’expérience utilisateurs, et les spécialistes Web Marketing / CRM sont aussi importantes pour faire de bons produits. Mettre l’accent sur la culture de l’entreprenariat sera également important pour le succès. Les participantes seront en mesure d’identifier comment leurs valeurs et leurs décisions peuvent faire ou défaire leurs startups.

Grand impact à court terme

Préparer adéquatement un petit nombre de femmes chaque année pour les startups en Afrique peut avoir un effet catalyseur sur l’ensemble de l’écosystème. A la fin de la première année, une cohorte de 25 jeunes femmes fera plus que doubler le nombre de talents actuellement disponibles dans la plupart des pays. En 3 ans, toutes choses considérées, le nombre de femmes peut égaler celui des hommes ayant des compétences similaires. Après cinq ans de formation, les femmes pourraient facilement dépasser les hommes pour ce qui est des programmeurs hautement qualifiés, des spécialistes du design, du marketing et d’autres compétences avancées nécessaires pour bâtir des startups réussies.
Une Afrique où la parité est facilement réalisée dans les équipes de startups, mieux, où les startups exclusivement féminines existent et prospèrent est possible. Je le sais car mon entreprise TEKXL utilise cette approche pour former des équipes mixtes avec des résultats exceptionnels.

Women and startups: Building the pipeline in Africa

There is a problem

The weak representation of women in tech jobs is well documented and uncontested. Women represent less than 30% of the workforce at Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple. A data set on women software engineers at 84 technology companies created by Tracy Chou of Pinterest is eye-opening. Overall, women represent 15% of all software engineers. Some notable stats include 8% at Yelp, 16% at Pinterest, 0% at Stackexchange (0/23). According to a study by MIT, venture capital (VC) investors prefer startups pitched by attractive men (seriously), and women-led ventures have received only 7% of all venture funds.
In Africa, data availability is an issue but the situation isn’t better. There are trailblazers like Ory Okolloh Mwangi, Juliana Rotich, Marieme Jamme and the ladies featured on this list. However, they are the exception that proves the rule. A Gartner study showed that women occupy 11.2% of technology leadership in Africa. Empirical evidence suggests there are less than 30 women with the advanced skills to develop world-class applications or technology solutions in most African countries. Technology startups in Africa often have no women co-founders, coders, UX or UI designers. The bulk of the female representation is in community management, sales, blogging and paradoxically in technology advocacy.

Women matter

Studies show that women choices impact up to 85 percent of purchasing decisions and account for $4.3 trillion of the total U.S. consumer spending of $5.9 trillion. “This makes women the largest single economic force not just in the United States, but in the world”. According to OECD data, African “women’s economic activity rate, which measures the percentage of people who furnish the supply of labor for the production of economic goods, ranks highest compared to other regions of the world (including the OECD countries) with a value of 61.9”.
Companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple, or Microsoft are either social media networks or use them as fundamental components of their business model. It is virtually impossible for any company as a matter of fact to thrive these days without social media. Well, women rule social media. They outplay men in almost every category. 76% of U.S. adult women vs. 66% of men use Facebook. 30% of women vs. 26% of men check their social media accounts multiple times per day. 53% of women vs. 36% of men are likely to access deals for a particular brand or item through social media.
In Africa, women are among the most dynamic voices on the web. They drive the conversation and are at the forefront of the emergence of big ideas. In addition to the aforementioned Ory Okolloh and Marieme Jamme, there are some notable influencers. Nnenna Nwakanma has been an advocate for open source solutions and a more affordable Internet. Rebecca Enonchong, one of the most followed African on Twitter, has a strong record as a tech entrepreneur with a focus on Africa.

Technology startups and women in Africa: a perfect match

Technology startups are known to have a high rate of failure. Tunnel vision is often cited as a contributing factor for that outcome. Successful startups aren’t necessarily the best coded but rather the ones with the most disruptive ideas. Women can provide their perspective, life experience and creativity to design and make products people would really want to use.
Women inclusion makes a team more intelligent as a collective unit. Studies suggest that teams with women members are smarter. Actually, the more women on a team, the better it performs.
Tech startups often struggle to fill technical positions. According to the Kauffman Foundation, the ICT sector is 48% more likely than the economy as a whole to witness new business formation. These are high paying jobs. Developers make on average USD $89K per year and it doesn’t matter where they are located. Skilled women can enjoy the convenience and flexibility of working remotely or making their own schedules.

Building the pipeline for startups in Africa

Many argue that fixing the pipeline would solve the women in tech problem. By telling young women about computer science, showing them opportunities that lay ahead, teaching them how to code and providing them with female role models will increase numbers and lead to parity. Although it is important to fix the pipeline, it is more than a pipeline problem. The startup scene is replete with sexism, sexual harassment, unhealthy competition and other ills that turn women off. A Harvard study found that more than half of the women in the tech leave the field at midcareer due to the culture of their work environment. Recent events including gamergate and the Tinder lawsuit tend to confirm that “brogrammer” culture is a real issue.
In Africa, the startup ecosystem is still in its development stages. Although women are currently underrepresented, there is an overall knowledge and achievement gap on the continent when compared to the rest of the world. In Benin for example, empirical research suggests the availability of 15-20 adequately trained women programmers compared to 30-45 equally qualified men. There is an opportunity to act before the gap widens.
It starts with an all-women approach, taking into consideration the root causes of their underrepresentation.

Establish an environment conducive to learning, sharing and collaboration.
Identify and select highly motivated young women for an intensive training program.
Go beyond the “learn to code” fad and focus on the development of advanced skills to meet industry demand and to create a competitive advantage.
Adopt an apprenticeship approach to allow doing, making and building while learning.
Provide opportunities for interaction and collaboration with outside stakeholders such as users, third party service providers, venture capitalists, and internships with tech companies or startups.
Provide mentorship

The all-women approach is not new. Ada Developers Academy based in Seattle is a yearlong intensive training program for women transitioning into software development. The Hackbright Academy in San Francisco is an engineering fellowship for women offering 10 weeks of training from beginner to software engineer.
While these are great programs, the suggested approach goes beyond programming skills. It intends to build a sturdy and long lasting pipeline that will supply not just great programmers but other relevant high level skills for the startup ecosystem. UX, UI designers and Web Marketing/CRM specialists are equally important to make good products. Focusing on culture will also be important for success. Participants will be able to identify how values and decisions can make or break ventures.

High Impact in the short term

Adequately preparing a small number of women every year for tech startups in Africa can have a game-changing effect on the whole ecosystem. By the end of the first year, a cohort of 25 young women will more than double the estimated pool of currently available talents in most countries. Within 3 years, all things considered, the program can match the number of men with similar skills. On the program five year anniversary, women could easily surpass men when it comes highly qualified programmers, designers, marketers and other advanced skills needed to build successful technology startups.
An Africa where parity is easily achieved on startup teams or better where women-only startups exist and thrive is possible. I know this because my company TEKXL has used this approach to train mixed gender teams with outstanding results. As the saying goes, the rest is history.

4 tips on startup mentors and why they are crucial for success

At a recent talk I gave on the “qualities of a successful startup CEO”, young entrepreneurs seeking help to improve their businesses peppered me with questions and requests. Unfortunately, some of these businesses had critical flaws related to market, leadership, location, culture, or the very nature of the product or service. For many of them, my input was simple but harsh: reformat, reboot, and restart.

These entrepreneurs are hard workers, driven and often adequately funded. One thing they were all missing was an experienced person, a professional in their field to give them valuable advice at every step of the process. They were missing a mentor.

You need a mentor

A startup is a risky proposition. Even when you do EVERYTHING right, you are still more likely to fail than succeed. It is therefore important to have someone with experience help you identify and avoid the mistakes that will doom your product or business. A mentor can help you calibrate your ideas, hire wisely for your team, select adequate tools for product development, introduce you to the right people, give you advice on dos and don’ts. Preferably, you need to get a mentor prior to hiring your first team member. However, the right time is always now, if you don’t already have one.

Select wisely

Beware of self-proclaimed professional mentors! I call them “startup mentors” not because they have startups, but because they are startups. You are trying to start a business; they are trying to start one as well. You have a product; you are their product. Also steer away from entrepreneurs with no records of enterprises. Do your homework. Look for someone with measurable success in building something similar or with proven skills you need. A great mentor could also be someone with a few years of experience but fresh knowledge of the process to share.

Once you’ve identified a potential match, someone able to help you, you must earn his or her respect. This doesn’t mean kissing ass, but it does mean expressing that you value their input and admire their experience and skills. Develop a relationship, impress them and let them see your potential. You don’t have to ask for a formal relationship, it will be most likely develop organically. Great mentors can spot people with real potential. She or he will get a kick out of helping you make it big.

Ask the right questions

Both mentors and mentees must ask the right questions. Don’t expect mentors to guess what you need. Don’t just ask for help. Be specific. Be open. If you don’t trust your mentor enough to provide him or her with details on your idea or product, you should not bother. For example, ask about what qualities they looked for in their first employees, how they dealt with their co-founders, insights on market and culture etc. You should also expect your mentors to ask difficult questions. Recently, a mentee told me during a meeting that his company intended to add 1000 new users by Christmas. He basically had 15 days to reach that milestone. So I asked him how many users the company added last year. “About 100 users” he said. After a few more questions, it became evident to both of us that his goal was simply unrealistic. The exchange became a teachable moment on setting realistic goals to succeed.

Make it worthwhile

What’s in it for the mentor? It depends. Some people simply want to help young entrepreneurs get it right. Others approach this as a business proposition. Make sure things are clear. If the relationship involves equity or the payment of fees, put it in writing. If your mentor is just trying to help, work hard, implement action plans to the best of your ability, provide frequent and detailed updates. Occasional small gifts are appropriate.

Introducing TEKXL

When I started cooperating with Ulrich (Co-Founder and CTO of TEKXL), my goal was to use his great technical skills to build a visualization platform for a client. I soon realized he was more interested in big ideas and solving problems than coding. It was a match made in heaven. Soon, we were looking for the best approach to accelerate the startup scene in Africa. Our early concepts included an investment fund, an incubator, an accelerator and an idea lab. We opted for something that would combine all of the above and TEKXL was born.

TEKXL was founded to make products the world would want to use. To achieve that goal, we are developing an environment to facilitate the emergence of successful startups offering innovative, profitable and disruptive solutions for Africa and the World.

First, we identify ideas with the potential of solving problems and creating value for individuals and businesses. Second, we hire talented people to transform these ideas into products. Finally, we create startups ran by the very teams that worked on the products to take them to market.

Ideas are important in the development of successful products. We are not interested in doing what has been done. Instead, we welcome ideas that are innovative and disruptive. We trust the youthful instinct of our team members and our own experiences as founders to build pathways to solving problems and creating value where there was none.

Training is a key aspect of our model. We have to introduce our recruits to the advanced technologies and practices necessary to develop successful products. By hiring dynamic and talented young people, we are able to move very quickly in covering new concepts in design, coding and marketing. Most of our training is done on the job.

Teamwork is the foundation of our model. Our objective as stated previously is to hire talented young people to develop new products and then let them manage the startups resulting from what they created. This requires building solid teams, including the right combination of core people, skills and temperaments. It is a challenging feat for one startup, let alone the 3 per location that we strive to generate every year. We embrace that challenge because we have a program to identify, train and mentor young people. We pay team members competitive salaries and provide funding to cover operating and marketing expenses until startups go to market. In addition, team members get equity that will vest over a period of four years, provided they stay until maturation.

On average, we invest $30,000 USD for the development of each product/startup. When our startups graduate from the accelerator and go to market, we help them secure additional investments from various sources.

We currently have 3 teams working at ETRILABS in Cotonou (Benin). We are finalizing plans for 3 other locations in 2015. In mid-February 2015, we will open our Abidjan (Cote D’Ivoire) location and by the end of the same year, we will begin operations in Dakar (Senegal) and Lagos (Nigeria).

We welcome your contribution and input. Talents interested in joining us can submit their resumes on our website. We also welcome inquiries from investors and ideas for great products. We invite you to try our current products and help us improve them with your constructive feedback.

Thank you!
Senam Beheton Co Founder and CEO TEKXL