To Build From Scratch? Or To Build On Existing Platforms?
Oh nothing, just another day in the office for an African Tech Innovator 🫡
Hey-yo Innovator 😎
How’s the weather looking today in your part of the sky?
Sunny? 🌞 Cloudy? 😶🌫️🌚
Drop a comment below to let us know 🫶🫶 we care about you like that
Oh and hey….
Todayyyyy, we’re all about telling truths and thinking deep thoughts, hoping they materialise into actions and mind-blowing innovations 🤯
Fair warning….
You’re gonna have to kickback, relax and avoid the stray subs on this one. Buuuut if it lands squarely at your feet, pls pick it up with decorum.
It’s for your own good! 👀👀
The African Innovator Dilemma
The decision to build a product from scratch or leverage an existing platform is usually a critical choice for tech innovators all over the world.
For African tech innovators, this decision usually takes on a whole new shape and colour, as it makes all the difference between a product scaling to become a household name OR fizzling out after a few ‘Hail Mary’ attempts to convert its first free users to paying loyalists.
When you throw in limited resources (especially, the issue of a sparse team), and an unpredictable economy, one can clearly see that it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. EVERYTHING has to be considered.
In the spirit of considering things, the first step is usually to weigh the pros and cons of either decisions…
Building from Scratch 🛠️
Building from scratch is the dream for many innovators cos it usually means having full control over your product, from the design all the way through to execution.
You and your team get to define the architecture, branding, and customer experience, and it is tailored exactly to the problem you want to solve. No middlemen and no restrictions! Isn’t that amazing?? 😯😯😯
One example is mSurvey, a platform that was created to facilitate real-time feedback collection using mobile technology. It empowers businesses to engage with their customers and make data-driven decisions, all while being tailored to the African market.
As an African tech innovator that’s building from scratch, once the initial structure is in place, scaling becomes easier, especially if you’ve optimised your product from the get-go. When you own everything, you have more leeway to experiment and expand.
However, it’s not all sunshine 🌞 and rainbows 🌈. Some of the downsides to this include: higher initial cost (cos building from scratch can get expensive), significant financial constraints, and the hustle of securing seed funding.
According to a 2023 African Tech Startups Funding Report 20231, only about 30% of African startups received any sort of venture capital funding, and building from scratch tends to require more capital upfront.
Also, in a fast-moving market like tech, where trends change rapidly, the longer it takes for you to build and release your product, the more you risk becoming irrelevant, not to mention needing a team with the technical know-how to pull this off.
Unfortunately, Africa’s tech talent gap is real, with a 2021 report by the IFC and Google2 showing that the continent has only 690,000 professional developers across a population of 1.3 billion. With talent this scarce, building from scratch becomes an even more daunting task.
However, despite the challenges, many African tech innovators have gone toe-to-toe against the odds and have come out as victors on the other side. One of such victors is Sudo Africa.
Sudo Africa is a fintech company that’s focused on issuing physical and virtual cards to businesses across the continent. They didn’t build on an existing platform but created their infrastructure from scratch to ensure security and scalability. This move has allowed them to customise their platform based on customer feedback and develop unique features that competitors using existing platforms might not offer.
While the initial stage might have been a little tricky, according to reports, the long-term benefits of complete control over their operations and customer data have helped Sudo Africa gain significant traction in the fintech space.
Soooo, are you convinced yet??? 🤔🤔
Building on Existing Platforms 🔧
On the flip side, many African tech innovators choose to build on existing platforms like Shopify, WordPress, or AWS, and for good reason too 💯💯
In an ecosystem where time, talent, and resources are often in short supply, leveraging pre-existing solutions allows tech innovators to hit the ground running (…sorry for the laugh 😂😭🥲… )
Here’s why some innovators prefer this route:
Lower initial costs: Building on a platform that’s already built (pun intended 👀) saves tons of cash. You don’t need to invest in expensive infrastructure or hire a team of developers to create your platform from scratch. Platforms like AWS come with built-in tools and services that are cost-effective.
Speed to market: Since the ability to launch your product quickly can be the difference between succeeding and losing out, using existing platforms allows African tech solution providers to scale faster by focusing on customising what’s already available rather than starting from square one.
Pre-existing user base and security: Many platforms come with a pre-existing community or user base, making it easier to gain trust. Plus, security features are typically built in, saving you time and resources.
Since every sweet 🍭 must have its sour 🫠, here are some of the limitations too:
Limited Customisation: By building on a pre-existing platform, you’ll always be working within its constraints. If your product needs unique features or a non-traditional user experience, you’ll be limited by what the platform can offer.
Dependency on Platform Updates: It can become a real headache if an update disrupts your product, which is a risk you don’t face when you build from scratch.
Shared Infrastructure: When you share a platform with many other businesses, scalability can become an issue. If the platform goes down, you go down with it. 😩
Are there other African tech innovators that are operating this way, while still winning? There are thousands, infact, buuuuut our sights are set on just SweepSouth today
SweepSouth is a South African home services company that connects domestic workers with customers via their app. The founders, Aisha Pandor and Alen Ribic, chose to leverage Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their backend infrastructure.
By doing this, they reduced their costs significantly and were able to focus on optimising user experience rather than managing servers. Today, SweepSouth is one of the most successful startups in South Africa, proving that using existing platforms CAN lead to scale and success.
Making the Right Choice 🤔
So, how do you decide which path to take?
First, look at your resources. Do you have the technical team to build from scratch? Do you have the funds to cover the higher upfront costs?
Next, think about your timeline. Do you need to get your product to the market fast? Do you have the time to spare to build something truly unique?
Another critical factor is your target audience. Are you building something niche that requires specialised features, or are you offering a service that’s well-suited to existing platforms?
And finally, consider the long-term scalability of your product. Will your product grow quickly, needing more custom features, or will it benefit more from the established reliability of a platform like AWS?
It’s About Trade-Offs 🤷♀️
Building from scratch offers more control and potentially greater long-term rewards, but it requires heavy investment in time, talent, and money. On the other hand, building on existing platforms offers a faster, more cost-effective way to enter the market, but you might face limitations in customisation and scalability later on.
Dear Innovator, at the end of the day, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” answer. The path you choose will depend on your specific needs, your resources, and the vision you have for your product.
Whether you build from scratch or leverage existing platforms, the key is to stay adaptable and open to learning as your product evolves.
But then again, are you truly an innovator if you have to wait for your food to be chewed up for you?? 🤷♀️🤷♀️
***
See you back here on Wednesday, yeah?
