My guest today is Sangu Delle. Sangu is an entrepreneur, an investor, author, and someone who is deeply rooted in Pan-African ideology. His latest book Making the futures: Young entrepreneurs in a dynamic Africa explored similar themes and topics that I've often explore on this podcast. So it's not surprising that we started the conversation in this episode talking about the book. We discussed the challenges and opportunities of building a business in Africa. We also deep-dived into the competitive advantage of raising capital and having a longer runway as a startup, the outsized importance of foreign venture capital in African early-stage businesses and the role of government in facilitating a successful startup ecosystem. This episode is packed as we move from one serious topic to another. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
On this episode, we spoke about
Sangu’s book and why he wrote it
His investment thesis on Africa and her economic growth
Why it's not the best ideas that win and find out what wins
The relationship between reputation, intentionality and luck(grace) and their impact on the probability of success
How philanthropy and unhindered dreams helped him achieve his goals
The outsized importance of government and foreign investor in facilitating the African startup ecosystem.
Recommended book
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies By Jared Diamond
#74, Sangu Delle - Raising capital and building businesses in Africa