FIKIA

Fikia is a one-stop shop bringing Africa’s college talents, employers, & educators closer together for them to find their next opportunity. 

Pain #1:  Given the limited resources in most African universities, students can enroll for only one academic major, making it hard for them to diversify their skillset. 

Pain #2: To get soon-to-graduate talents, employers have to often organize in-person career fairs which are expensive and time consuming. 

Pain #3: More than 60% of African universities do not have formal career centers, leaving students on their own for career readiness guidance. 

Overall: These situations make it very difficult for 9+ million African university students to acquire 21st century skills in the classroom, apply to internships while in school, and land competitive jobs after graduation.

To better understand the scope of the problem we are trying to solve and its consequences, allow us to tell you the story of Fatoumata, one of our interviewees during our customer discovery. Fatoumata is from Mali (West Africa). After earning a scholarship to attend university in Morocco (North Africa), Fatoumata decided to major in Civil Engineering for two reasons: (1) the industry pays very well; (2) Fatoumata would like to use her engineering education to later build a water provision factory in Mali’s sahel region. However, Fatoumata’s university, Université Mohamed Premier de Oujda, like most Universities in Morocco and across Africa, allows her to have only one major. Therefore, Fatoumata feels frustrated because she doesn’t think her engineering education provides her the business and managerial skills to succeed in her future water factory. Furthermore, in order to receive feedback on her résumé and cover letter, Fatoumata always asks her professors because her school doesn’t have a career center nor does Fatoumata have engineers in her network. When some companies come to her university for recruitment, Fatoumata finds their opportunities limited. When she goes on LinkedIn and Google to look for hiring companies in Morocco and Mali, she finds very few, because most of these companies don’t have LinkedIn accounts nor career websites. Recruitment is often done in-person and through street posters. In Morocco, and across the African countries we have lived in (Guinea, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania), companies often hire students for an internship only upon completion of their undergraduate studies and require the students to show past professional experiences when applying. This is paradoxical because “how can a person have professional experience if they didn’t have an internship before graduation in the first place?” Fatoumata asks. 

But Fatoumata is not alone in her struggle to find the right opportunity and hone her skills. In fact, in PwC's 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey 87% of African CEOs reported being “concerned” about the availability of key skills among their employees. Meanwhile, 15–20 million people will join Africa’s workforce every year for the next three decades. The median age in Africa is 19.7 years for a continent set to be the most populous by 2050. Yet only 9+ million youths are enrolled in Africa’s universities which is 3% of all student enrollment in the region and 4% of total higher education students worldwide. 

Our company, FIKIA (“to reach” in Swahili), is a one-stop shop using algorithms and artificial intelligence to bring Africa’s college students, career centers, recruiters, and educators closer together for them to find and share internship, job, and learning opportunities, hone their skills, and reach their respective professional goals.  

We aspire to be the first platform in Africa to directly connect students, universities, employers, and learning content creators all together in a single digital ecosystem. 

We are simultaneously a recruitment, learning, and networking platform specifically designed for undergraduate and graduate students and recent university alumni across Africa. 

FIKIA directly partners with Universities and Companies to simplify and streamline the ways they respectively bring internship and job to their students and hire talents. In doing so, Fikia also offers 21 century skill masterclasses tailored for Africa’s job market to students, so they keep learning beyond the classroom, and to companies so their employees never stop updating their business knowledge. 

FIKIA seeks to bridge the  gap between current job market requirements and students graduating with little to no work experience in their respective industries, by creating a network of partner schools and companies in various industries who are willing and able to offer work experience to students relevant to their respective fields of study. Students in the University of Nairobi, for example, will have access to internship and job opportunities through their college digital career center,  and companies can invest in partnering with such universities as a recruiting pipeline for upcoming talent that they can mentor and empower with practical skills over their college careers.

Colleges will also have a revamped career center portal that can host various career management tools and teach  21 century skills which many african students often have to learn after graduation on their own. 

Our solution, Fikia, is designed to serve four main target populations: (1) undergraduate and graduate students, and recent alumni across all African universities; (2) All small, medium and large companies/organizations’ recruiters on the african continent; (3) All African universities already having/intending to have a career service center for their student population; (4) All learning content creators, that is any individual, be they a student, a professor, a Marketing Director, or a freelancer who has knowledge or experience of a field that is worth sharing with our community. 

Fikia specifically targets undergraduate and graduate students, and recent alumni across all African universities. 

Given the limited resources (financial and human) most African universities have, but also because of their education systems which focus primarily on training students to be civil servants and experts in a specific field, students have few opportunities to diversify their skillset from the classroom, and be competitive for an increasingly demanding job market. According to the World Economic Forum, in addition to the mismatch between the number of educated young people seeking jobs and the availability of formal, high-quality jobs, there is the added constraint of young people being inadequately prepared for such roles. For example, in Guinea and Ivory Coast, two West African French speaking countries we have had the chance to live and study in, students are sent to university to study one specific thing not based on their interests or passions, but based on their grades and how much space there is and which department of the university has such spaces available. When the student gets to university, they have the experience and feeling of being alone because the resources necessary to help them navigate college life as well as be prepared for the job market are almost non-existent. For example, the University often does not have a career center nor career advisors to help the student understand how to build a resume, write a cover letter, or network with professionals in their industry of interest. In fact, in our Customer Discovery interviews, more than 90% of the students said they cannot write a resume on their own and, on average, they had 5 people in their professional networks. 

When asked to describe the people in their professional network, all students mentioned family members already in the workforce and their university professors. In addition to these challenges while at University, we should also mention that students across most African universities are left alone by their schools once they graduate, nor do they have access to significant opportunities through the existing recruitment platforms such as LinkedIn and AfricaWork (the largest African based recruitment platform). Indeed, following graduation from university, there is not a formal system to keep track of university alumni, understand how they are professionally doing, and provide them support in eventually finding a job. For example, one of the students from the Central African Republic we talked to described their post-graduation experience as “awful” because they could not get a job, and felt like their university “had forgotten” them. 

Upon graduation, students often have to figure out the internship and job application process on their own. Unfortunately, when the student goes on LinkedIn, most opportunities they find are either not in their country/region or are limited to few companies/industries because recruitment is often done through in-person career fairs and street posters; and also because most African companies do not have websites (especially career websites). For example, Africa’s largest LinkedIn user, South Africa, had 8 560 000 LinkedIn users in January 2021, which accounted for only 14.1% of its entire population. 

At FIKIA, we believe that while closer dialogue between education providers and industry

is needed to align and optimize Africa’s demand and supply of skills, technology has the potential to speed up this process and make access to skill-driven education and the opportunities that come with them more accessible to every student across Africa. 

This is why our solution aims to make sure that once we partner with a university, all their existing and future students have access to our platform where they can learn additional skills outside the classroom, understand how to craft a resume and cover letter, apply to internship and job while in school, and network with both their peers and professionals using our platform. 

In order for a company to grow, it needs many things; one of them being talents, and skilled employees. Unfortunately, this is something many companies across Africa struggle with due to a poor education system, which fails to prepare students for the job market, and a recruitment process that makes it hard for companies, especially small and medium sized companies, to identify, hire, and retain talents. Indeed, the World Economic Forum highlights that business leaders are facing a critical shortage of skills, with African CEOs particularly concerned. According to PwC's 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey, 87% of African business leaders reported being worried about the availability of key skills, with 45% stating they were "extremely concerned". This shortage is already having a significant impact on their businesses, with many reporting that they are unable to innovate effectively, maintain quality standards, or meet growth targets due to a lack of skilled workers. In response, many business leaders are calling for immediate action and are taking steps such as retraining and upskilling current employees, and building a pipeline of skills directly from educational institutions. This concern of Africa’s businesses is even more alarming when we look at the projections for Africa’s population growth. In the coming years, Africa will undergo significant demographic changes as its young population enters the workforce. According to the World Economic Forum, the continent will experience a surge in its workforce size, with an estimated 15 to 20 million young people joining the workforce annually for the next 20 years. This will result in Africa being home to more than 25% of the world's population under 25, making up 60% of the continent's total population by 2030. Additionally, 15% of the world's working-age population will be in Africa, and the continent's urban population will surpass 700 million (more than 50%). 

While there is an exponential growth of Africa’s population and its workforce, little is being done to invest in building skills crucial for all sectors in order to not only meet current skills needs but also to ensure a sustainable pipeline of talent for the future of Africa. 

This is why Fikia, in addition to providing African universities a platform where their students can expand their area of knowledge while in school and apply seamlessly to their dream job, is also working towards providing a platform for Africa’s companies to directly reach and hire the best talents. In doing so, we also provide to these companies the platform for their already existing employees to continue learning and hone their skills, especially for those employees who did not gain the necessary skills through the traditional university education system. 

As current diaspora students, we emigrated in search of better career and educational opportunities due to a lack of the same in our home countries. We are students from four different African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea) and have had the chance to live in many others. A few things we all share in common is that whenever you walk in the streets of Nairobi, Dodoma, Abidjan, or Conakry, it is very likely that you will see posters saying X company is looking for X candidates with X skills for X role. Similarly, in all our countries, a large number of college graduates are unemployed. For example, more than 60% of graduates don’t find a job in Guinea. 

Sharing these sentiments over multiple conversations, we sought out to find empirical evidence to understand more about the issue beyond our personal experiences. After interviewing 30 students across 12 African countries from schools such as the African Leadership University and University of Dar es Salam, and companies such as MTN Guinea, we found that while nepotism, corruption and poor leadership were cited as factors, the vast majority mentioned lack of 21st century skills, students feeling unprepared for the job market, and unsure where to look for internships or job opportunities open in their countries as pressing issues. We, at Fikia, share a passion that drives us to ask these questions; because as youth in Africa, we are members of a generation that is willing and able to work to develop our nation, but lack access to avenues for skill development. Being key stakeholders in this way gives us a unique understanding of the issue at hand, and drives our passion to work with fellow youths to provide a solution to this problem.  Given the strong evidence of these issues from our research, we coined Fikia, which we believe can play a key role in addressing these challenges. At Fikia, we are conscious of the fact that Africa’s large natural resource endowment goes underutilized without its most crucial resource, the fast growing labor force.We aim to  develop technology that hones local talents and contributes towards unleashing Africa’s full labor force potential. Education is a field we are passionate about not only because of the challenges we faced getting one, but also because we are convinced there is nothing more fulfilling than providing someone the knowledge that can make them self-sufficient. 

Our current Team is composed of students who have a strong understanding of the EdTech and recruitment market in Africa. Here is an overview of each Team member, their strengths, and their stories.

Souleymane Diallo (University of Rochester’24, Goldman Sachs’23): 

A rising junior at the University of Rochester (New York), and an African Leadership Academy alumnus and Patrice Lumumba Spirit of Africa awardee, Souleymane was born in Guinea, lived and studied in Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa before attending college, thanks to a full scholarship. He is respectively a 2022 and 2023 Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) and Goldman Sachs Summer Analyst. Souleymane is the CEO & Co-Founder of Guinean Young Leaders Initiative (GYLI) (website here: https://guineanyoungleadersinitiative.org/)  a non-profit empowering Guinea’s most promising young leaders to drive positive change through ethical and entrepreneurial leadership education. Thanks to a $10,000 grant by Davis Projects for Peace, GYLI has already impacted 300+ youths since its launch in January 2022. You can learn more about Souleymane here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/souleymaned/ 

Brian Jesse Kimani (University of Rochester’23, Amazon’23): 

Having spent the greater part of his life in Kenya, Jesse earned the opportunity to study at the University of Rochester as a Wilson “Change” Scholar, which has been critical in the development of his software engineering and problem solving skills; as well as organizational and leadership skills as senior advisor of the Pan African Students’ Association. Jesse’s interests lie in software development, in particular Human-Computer Interaction, social entrepreneurship and economics. He hopes to forge strong networks and use his skills to contribute towards creating sustainable solutions for prevailing socio economic challenges in his home country Kenya, and Africa at large. Kimani is an incoming Software Development Engineer at Amazon and currently pursuing a Bachelors in Computer Science and Economics at the UofR. You can learn more about Brian Jesse here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjessekimani/ 

Renatus Mshomba (African Leadership University’24, TheRen Experience’22): 

Renatus is a passionate entrepreneur who believes in creating change through entrepreneurship. With experience in entrepreneurship, branding, design, sales, communication, and advertisement. While studying entrepreneurship at the prestigious African Leadership University, Renatus is helping passionate change-makers be heard through his Podcast TheRen Experience (website here: https://www.therenx.com/) and Sikika branding agency that he founded. He is also an active YouTuber creating entrepreneurial content for aspiring entrepreneurs in the continent. Renatus is a committed change-maker who constantly learns new skills that will enable him to create the change he wants to see. You can learn more about Renatus here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renatusmshomba/ 

Massa Coulibaly (Carnegie Mellon University’24): 

Massa is a rising junior at Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar Campus, where he pursues a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems. Massa has a strong background in Data Management, Software Development, and user experience design. He has interned at top Education and EdTech companies such as The Room and Enko Education. You can learn more about Massa here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/massa-coulibaly-a25a53135/ 

In 2021, our Team took part in the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship Innov8 Program at the University of Rochester. Through this program, we took the time to better understand and refine our idea, while also testing the scale of the problem we are attempting to address. To this, we started with online research on the challenges in skill and talent acquisition across Africa, while comparing our findings with our own experiences studying in low-income public schools across Ivory Coast, Kenya, Tanzania, and Guinea. Not only did we relate to what the research findings were telling us, we later confirmed these findings when we conducted our Customer Discovery Interviews. 

Indeed, as part of our Customer Discovery Process, we have talked to 30 students from 12 African countries (e.g. Morocco, Burkina Faso), both undergraduate and graduate students attending schools such as University of Dar es Salam (Tanzania) & African Leadership University (Rwanda). We also talked to school career development representatives, such as African Leadership Academy (South Africa) and African Development University (Niger). Finally, we talked to company representatives such as MTN Guinea. 

Regarding the students we talked to, while nepotism, corruption and poor leadership were cited as factors for why they do not get jobs after graduation, the vast majority mentioned lack of 21st century skills, the feeling of being unprepared for the job market, and uncertainty for where to look for internships or job opportunities open in their countries as pressing issues. 

• About finding internships, here are what some students had to say: 

  • “I am in the 2nd year of my master's degree and so far, I have only received one internship throughout my school career. And even for this internship, I only received it thanks to my uncle who was Director of the Company” – (Interviewee from Mali.)

  • “I am very skeptical about finding a job after graduation despite having a Master in Law. I don’t think the problem is about lack of jobs but who recommends you, who you know within the Company, or how powerful your family is. So, I would say 4 out 10 for confidence” – (Interviewee from Senegal).

• Some student express resentment and frustration: 

  • “I am in a public school not well known, and yet I am working very hard to be among the best in all aspects; and yet my peers from private universities are getting most opportunities. They have resources to prepare them for the job market that public schools don’t have. I think it is unfair to give jobs to people because of the school they attended in the sense that I have the skills, worked hard to gain those skills, but I am not given the chance to prove that I am worthy something” – (Interviewee from Morocco).

In addition to the above sentiments, we found that professional networking is missing among students: On Average, interviewees had 5 professionals in their network. A student said the following: 

• “During my internship, I  would complete work ahead of deadline and would often reach out to my managers who would give me feedback. I always tried to impress them, and that’s how I connected with  people at the Company; those are mainly whom I have in my professional network” – (Interviewee, Rwanda)

Resume and Cover Letters Writing Skills are also Minimal: 

• “I am an engineering student. However, with the education system here (Morocco), engineers are required to have extensive experience before getting internships or jobs. But how am I supposed to get those experiences if I am not given an internship in the first place? I am so tired of this that I stopped researching how to write a CV. I still don’t have the skills to write a resume, so I would give say 2 out 10” ( Interviewee, Morocco). 

For the university and company representatives we talked to, they had different perspectives on the causes of students’ unpreparedness for the job market. For the companies, students seem to be unprepared because the school system fails to prepare them. A company representative from Senegal said, for example, that “while we are living in a digital world, in the 21st century, there still schools in Senegal where students are taught biological sciences by drawing human organs on a board with chalk; schools where students do not have access to the internet across campus.” The representative then asks: “How can you expect students from such schools to be competitive for the job market? Why would I hire such students if I can hire someone else who studied abroad?”

As for the university representatives, they argue that while they recognize they do not have a lot of resources available, they are trying their best to provide a good educational experience to their students. As such, the university representatives largely blame companies for not providing internships to students while they are undergraduates, and the difficulty of partnering with such companies to hire their students. 

In addition to the online research, our own experience studying across Africa, and our customer interviews, we also have some of our members who have direct experience with recruitment, and understand how the recruitment and networking process works. Indeed, one of our Team members, Souleymane Diallo, has been working with the University of Rochester’s Greene Center, the school career center, where he advises students on their internship and job applications, resume and cover letter writing, as well as professional branding. Overall, our Team has also been recruiting and interned with some very selective companies, such as Goldman Sachs, Amazon Web Services, PIMCO, HEC Paris, and more. 

These experiences combined have provided us with valuable insights into the challenges facing students, universities, and recruiters in finding their next opportunity, but also potential solutions working elsewhere that we can learn and benefit a lot from. 

What makes us unique is, before diving into our core offerings, that we directly partner with every university and company we serve so that Fikia’s services are part of the daily life of their students, the recruiters, and employees; so that Fikia is not just another platform that people go because they assume it would be the solution to their needs, but because they know it is the solution to their needs. We are also unique because we are an African solution specifically tailored to Africa, with a clear understanding of the infrastructural realities of the African continent as it stands today. 

In our research, we found that more than 60% of African colleges and universities do not have formal career centers for students. By partnering with Fikia, each university gets a virtual career center built for them from scratch. This way, the University does not have to spend millions in building a physical career center, so the University can invest its limited resources in other critical areas. In this virtually built career center, the University gets, among others, the following: 

• Time and resource saving in the search of opportunities for their students: Thousands of opportunities will be available for their students in just a few clicks.

• Remotely manage everything from career counseling to job interview prep to career fairs

• Access to a large pool of data on the type of skills their students are lacking to better their educational programs and the type partnerships they sign with recruiting companies. 

• Seamless and time saving workflow for career counselors: from booking an appointment with a student, to partnering with a company, everything can be done in their virtual career center. 

• Access to resources and insights about the job market, employment outcomes for their students, career development tools and resources.

• And more

Fikia also provides a unique learning and recruitment experience that has not been done yet, as far as we can tell, on the African continent. Because most universities on the African continent do not have a website of their own, their students often do not have official school email addresses. As such, it is hard for the Universities and faculty to directly interact with their students, but also for students to interact with one another. By partnering with Fikia, we intend to create University specific emails for each University and their students. This would allow the following for both the University and their students: 

• Assignment of unique university email addresses to each student from the moment they join the University.

• A seamless communication between all stakeholders of the University (students, faculty, staff)

• Incorporation of security for all the University services, and possibility to know who uses what and when. 

• Possibility for the Virtual career center counselors to build a unique profile for each of their students, and monitor what type of opportunities and courses their students take on Fikia. 

• Instill a culture of professional digital communication within the University community

In addition to the above, when students join Fikia through their University email account, they get a personalized experience to: 

• Connect, network, and interact with all students at and outside their school, collaborate with each other on both academic, entrepreneurial, and extracurricular activities. They get the experience of social media on a professional platform. 

• Apply to a consistently growing pipeline of internship and job opportunities and acquire additional skills outside their field of study all for free with just two clicks. 

• Directly interact with recruiters with our integrated chat and video features.

• Register and attend online career fairs for any company of interest from the comfort of their home

• Let our resume auto-builder take care of crafting their resume with industry standards the same way they would craft a resume on Microsoft Word.

• Enroll and book our student-to-student tutoring services so they no longer struggle with a school subject.

• Ask questions and share news of their achievements with the community on Fikia.

• And more.

When a recruiting company joins Fikia, they get, among other things, the following: 

• Time and resource savings in the talent search process

• Access to a large and constantly growing pool of diverse talents

• More diversity in their workforce with recruitment from many universities

• Exposure to unknown universities for more partnerships and talent sourcing

• One place to manage everything in the recruitment process from talent identification, early insight programs, recruitment and onboarding. 

• Their employees can learn anything, anywhere, anytime at their own pace

• A more skilled workforce for a better performance

• And more.

In addition to all the above core offerings, we are currently exploring the possibility of having our courses accessible offline so students can continue learning even when they face challenges of accessing the internet, which is very common across the African continent. Moreover, when partnering with us, universities and companies, as well as students have the option of using common payment methods that are widely available on the African continent such as Mobile Money. In most existing recruitment and learning platforms, there often are core features that are not accessible to users, especially youths across Africa, because those platforms require credit cards for payments. 

We believe that Fikia can change the market of online learning and recruitment across Africa, because, in addition to the unique core features tailored for African student, university, and company needs, we are providing a solution to an increasing need for knowledge and opportunities on a continent that has a lot of potential ahead of us, but that been largely neglected, thus far, by existing industry leaders in learning and recruitment. This negligence does not come from a lack of valuable and growing markets across Africa, but due to solutions that do not take into consideration the infrastructure and ecosystem on the continent. 

As much as we believe Amazon is making a large mistake by not exploring the delivery market in Africa, and leaving it to companies like Jumia, as much we believe that LinkedIn, Coursera and other recruitment and/or learning platforms are not tapping as fast as they should into a continent whose population is the youngest and fastest growing, a continent where parents invest more in their children’ education as per their income per capita compared to any other part of the world, and a continent where the purchasing power is exponentially growing, and finally, a continent that has most of the resources the world need for its future technological, infrastructural, and economical development. 

ITEMS

Q1 2023 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)

Q2 2023 (Apr 1 - June 31)

Q3 2023 (July 1 - Sep 31)

Q4 2023 (Oct 1 - Dec 31)

PRODUCT

Guiding goal(s):

Value proposition is found (S1, Q1)

MVP enabling market survey  and getting sense of  project’s acceptance is built (S1, Q2)

Solution moves from MVP (being hypothetical solutions) to a deployable solution with refined core features (S2, Q2)

Process for IP rights associated with solution, if any (Search and file patents), is initiated (S2, Q3)

Basic metrics and analytics to monitor customer behavior are built (S2, Q2)

Value proposition is refined and Products / Services are matured (S3, Q3)

Complete pre-launch landing page/website design & launch

Launch Beta version pre-launch website

Articulate the professional brand identity of Fikia

Define Fikia’s com & marketing strategy

Refine com & marketing strategy

Initiative aggressive marketing and product adoption.

Create and grow pre-launch presence on social medias

Release Beta version with core features of Fikia for exclusive test and feedback with select customers

Final Version 1.0  of Fikia is launched

Finalize wireframes  for market survey

Initiate process for IP rights associated with Fikia.

Start the development of app version of Fikia

Initiate Beta Version development

Expand metrics and customer monitoring on Beta version

Strengthen Fikia metrics, customer monitoring, and customer experiences through algorithms and AI development

Integrate metrics and analytics on pre-launch website, MVP, and social media to monitor customer behavior

Actively promote core features on social media and web marketing

Expand marketing strategy, partnerships, and refine feedback reception and incorporation processes

BUSINESS MODEL

Guiding goal(s): 

Outline of Business plan and model are prepared (S1, Q1)

Finalized comprehensive business plan is ready and legal entity and business name is incorporated (S2, Q2)

Business Model is ready to scale the business to be a market leader and large market opportunity is validated (S3, Q3)

Articulate visual & simplified Executive Summary

Revise Executive Summary

Finalize legalization and incorporation of Fikia

Draft visual rep of BMC on Figma 

Revise visual rep of BMC on Figma

Initiate business model scaling for market leadership

Define how we make money, test with early birds, and write revenue projections 

Refine how we make money and review revenue projections on X # of customers

Continue revising business model and adjust to market trends

State clear value proposition

Refine value proposition and seek advisor(s) feedback

Continue refining business model, add new offerings, and adjust to customer needs

Conduct, complete and visualize competitive analysis

Initiate legalization and incorporation of Fikia

Continue strengthening legal stands and policies of Fikia core products, services, and practices

Write Business Plan Version 1

Write Business Plan Version 2

Write Business Plan Version 3

CUSTOMER

Guiding goal(s):

Prospective customer interviews are conducted (S1, Q1 & Q2)

Startup puts initial feelers out into the community and connects with people and orgs (S1, Q1 & Q2)

First paying customers are brought on board (S2, Q1, Q2, Q3)

An initial customer growth path is added (S2, Q2, Q3)

Sufficient number of paying customers to prove the business model (but not as a market leader) are found (S3, Q3)

A repeatable customer acquisition process is built (S3, Q3)

Create interview questionnaire and tracker, and conduct interview with X# African Universities & Y# Companies

Initiate development of community values and education on Fikia’s core principles

Improve  strategy for paying customers acquisition

Collect sign ups for early access on pre-launch website

Build relationships with customers through spotlights, one-on-one calls, and actively seek feedback. 

Articulate strategy & system for customer data collection, storage, and security

Recruit early bird customers through network and target partnerships with ALA, ALU, ADU,  and employers before launch

Initiate in-person visit to school and employers for partnerships and provide access to Fikia Beta Version to select customers. 

Refine strategy & system for customer data collection, storage, and security

Articulate key points of customer growth path

Refine customer growth path

Refine strategy to expand existing partnerships  and build new ones

Draft Ambassador program strategy for students, universities, and employers

Refine Ambassador Program & perks & Start creating educational blogs & videos for customers on websites & social media

Refine Large-scale Customer Acquisition Strategy based on feedback from customers and product performance

Draft formula for effective feedback collection

Initiate Large-scale Customer Acquisition Strategy 

Expand Ambassador program & perks

Define & implement strategy for paying customers acquisition

Start draft of strategy for international expansion

FINANCE

Guiding goal(s): 

Founding Team joins an accelerator or incubator (S1, S2, Q1, Q2)

No formal funding, small funds through self-funding or from Friends and Family. (S1, S2, Q1, Q2, Q3)

First set of mentors & advisors come on board (S1, S2, S3, Q1, Q2, Q3)

Start  with small funding from friends and family, along with options of crowdfunding and seed funding. (S1, S2, S3, Q1, Q2, Q3)

Continue with deep incubators (S1, S2, S3, Q1, Q2, Q3)

Become Investor backed startup that runs through Series A / Series B – formal mid-large scale funding. (S3, Q1, Q2, Q3)

Complete V1 of Pitch Deck on Figma

Join & commit to BizWorld Accelerator

Complete Application for MIT Solve

Apply to Mark Ain Business Model & Other UR funding opportunity

Apply to ALU Startup Funding Opps

Apply to Carnegie Mellon Startup Funding Opps

Refine Pitch Deck & Make V2 on Figma

Formalize track of expenses on Fikia

We are currently not serving people yet, because we are working on developing the prototype. However, our April goal is to bring on board the students from African Leadership Academy and African Leadership University, about around 1,000 to test our prototype as they are applying for internships. 

Technical: Access to internet in Africa is a problem not to be neglected. 

Talents: We need more UX Designers and Web Developers in our Team

Financial: Our Solution requires money from the development of the beta version to the in-person marketing of it. 

We recently partnered with BizWorld, an incubator for young entrepreneurs, and we will start the Winter cohort on January 30th. 

How we make money: 

• Talent Acquisition Solutions: 

• Marketing Solutions:

• Learning & Development Solutions:

• Premium Subscriptions:

• Technology Solutions: 

• Sales Solutions: