Community XChange in Africa

In this episode, I am thrilled to chat with Seni Sulyman. I have been a long-time admirer of his work from the time Seni and I worked together at Andela where he led Global Operations.

Seni has held multiple operational roles from building and launching a multi-million dollar airline business from the ground up to leading a team of +1,000 people in a high-growth company while scaling the operational arm of the business across multiple countries. He is also a Tutu Fellow-2020

Seni recently left the corporate world to start his own company as the managing partner and owner of Rincon - a business that helps executives build world-class businesses and high-performance teams.

In this conversation, Seni talks about:

i)  finding the courage to open up about your inner doubts and insecurities and leaning into these feelings of not feeling good enough to keep learning and growing.

ii) nurturing and growing operators to build great companies around the world - Seni shares why he founded Black Ops Community, a community for operators with shared beliefs to connect, learn from one another, access resources and tools to build the skills they need to become top in their game.

I really had a blast chatting with my dear friend Kendi, who has turned local brands into powerful regional house-held names in her marketing roles for East African/Kenyan organizations such as Blue Band with Unilever, Tusker a locally brewed beer at East African Breweries, and now Safaricom, the largest telco provider, and MPESA, a mobile money wallet in Kenya with a reach of 50Mn customers.

She was also part of the team that launched Tusker Project Fame, a local reality-singing TV show that’s a local version of America’s Got Talent.

Convert Views To Money: In this episode, Kendi shares how Safaricom has built Baze, a local version of Youtube to deliver a nuanced experience for East African content creators through multi-channel distribution e.g. USSD, and web and view-based revenue models, increasing the number of views and the take-home money, creators get from their craft. 

Innovation and Growth: we also talk about how infusing the peculiar behaviours of customers into the product design spurred product innovation and growth for MPESA, Bonga Points and Baze. 

My guest today is Steven Sunmonu, a partner at an M&A, Private Equity investment company focusing on Media & Entertainment. He has extensive experience in the media and entertainment world and previously worked for Nickelodeon, MTV Networks and Live Nation Entertainment.

Steven walks us through the evolution into Web 3.0, also known as the ownership economy, where people can own pieces of the internet or their own content, powered by blockchain technology. He also highlights some of the dominant online tools that are operationalizing creator businesses. 

Most recently, I have engaged in thought-provoking conversations with investors and platform builders who are keen to invest more and help Africans connect with paid opportunities. 

Today, I’d like to peel back the curtains and invite you into the room where we can glean insights from these enlightening conversations.

In this episode, I’ll dig deeper into this topic of ‘Why is the creator economy growing in Africa? What Pain-Points currently exist and what Platforms are solving the problem for creators to make money in a number of markets across the continent?

In the world of work, how can we fully participate and get paid for the work we do with our minds, regardless of location or other arbitrary factors? In this episode, Samora Kariuki, the founder of Frontier Fintech Newsletter on Substack and the Deputy MD at Finbank in Burundi, shares how emerging technologies like blockchain can help shape what's possible in this space.

In this episode, we feature Johnny Falla, the Chief Growth Lead at Wowzi. 

In this episode, I will walk you through a 5-step process of how to build your community from the ground up with founding members. 

Welcome to the Community Xchange in Africa podcast. I’m your host Agnes Muthoni.

This podcast is for builders of platforms who are looking to democratize opportunities and help people get paid for the work they produce with their minds to build a brighter future for Africa.

For the past 18years, I have worked at the intersection of digital payments and the talent economy. Today, opportunities are constrained by location and other arbitrary factors and I want to change this narrative. If you are like me and want to be a part of the unfolding of a new story in this space then you will enjoy this podcast as I host conversations with founders and thought leaders who share their insights on new platforms, features and global technology trends that will shape what’s possible in this new world of work.

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Welcome to the Community Exchange in Africa podcast.

This podcast is for builders of online communities who are looking to grow their community and build a brighter future for Africa.

I host conversations with masters of communities and thought leaders who share their stories and insights on how to start a community from the ground up and grow while building strong connections and a strong sense of belonging.

In this episode, I will talk about my origin story which I shared in a TED Talk earlier this year. My hope is that by sharing my personal story, I will let you into my world and you will get to know more about who I am, what inspires me, and what motivated me to start this podcast.

In this episode, I have a conversation with David Gaynor, a seasoned software developer, business owner, and business coach who has worked in different contexts and across multiple domains like marketing, technology and design. David speaks earnestly about how anyone can participate in the 2 big tenets of growth in tech which are 1) expressing a product and 2) understanding an existing product with the rollout of new tech tools and platforms that have made it simpler to learn and access digital skills. 

You can connect with David on his Linkedin page https://www.linkedin.com/in/runnedrun/ or listen to his podcast gaynor.substack.com