African startups need to stop focusing on scaling their businesses to international markets prematurely but rather concentrate on satisfying local needs first.

Speaking during a ‘fireside chat’ at Pivot East 2014 in Kenya, Matthew Papakipos, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and engineering director at Facebook, told African startups that scaling should only follow after successfully solving local problems.

“One thing I have observed with startups in this region is a somewhat premature desire to scale operations to the larger African continent, which is totally different from what was the case with Silicon Valley during its infancy stages,” Papakipos said.

“What startups in Silicon Valley learned from a long time ago -- and this continues to this day -- is to really first try to succeed in the local place. My advice to startups here is: don’t scale right away. Focus on doing a great job for example within Nairobi, before you try to scale that up,” added Papakipos.

Papakipos explained that most startups don’t get their product right on the first attempt.

He also said it takes an average period of up to three years of constant product development before having the perfect product for market.

“Show investors the evidence that you have a successful product on the local scale before you talk about scaling to other countries,” Papakipos said.

Pivot East is a mobile startups pitching competition and conference that has been held annually since 2011, with the intention to amplify and consolidate the gains of East Africa’s Mobile developers and entrepreneurship ecosystem.