The tech ecosystem in Africa is emerging but many essential components are still missing or poorly developed. Mentorship is one of them.

Michele Grosso, founder and CEO of Democrance, served as the 'on-the-tour-bus' mentor for African tech founders who participated in the recent AMPION Venture Bus.

Grosso spoke exclusively to ITWeb Africa in Lagos, Nigeria on the peculiar nature of Africa's tech founders, including their strengths, shortcomings and how to grow a successful tech startup company.

Paul Adepoju: What do African tech startups lack?

Michele Grosso: The drive that I saw in Africa, the drive and hardworking spirit that I see in Africa is spread across the countries and I have never seen such in other parts of the world. It is amazing. Concerning what is happening here, I see a lack of business skills that are expected in a person trying to run these types of businesses.

This is probably due, in part, to a lack of proper business education; they don't have access to a wide international business community - except at events like DEMO Africa which don't happen every day.

Paul Adepoju: Can you confidently predict which startups will succeed in a market?

Michele Grosso: I will not say 100% for sure. What I know from my experience with startups is at first they are a bunch of guys having a lot of difficulties even expressing their ideas and the startup concept they have in mind. A week later, the team that I mentored won the AMPION Bus and they are going to present in front of the biggest tech conference in Africa. I will say that's a good start for one week of work!

A potentially successful startup will identify a problem and provide solutions to that problem. But I cannot say one hundred percent that they are going to succeed because there are some external factors that affect startups as well.

Paul Adepoju: What are the key elements of mentorship for African startups?

Michele Grosso: A lot of startups are born out of pure ideas, but an idea itself doesn't sell. An idea can be the best in the world but if it doesn't answer a real and existing problem in the society, it doesn't help.

The primary role of the mentor is to understand the idea and to help the team go through the process of starting with the problem the idea is trying to solve in the target market. Then you build up the idea and then the product. Entrepreneurs would also need access to mentors' experience that would help in preparing them to face the external world.

Paul Adepoju: What do you think should be the best approach for African tech startups - conquering locally or scaling globally?

Michele Grosso: It really depends on the business idea. As a general rule, I agree the market is not easy as there are a lot of road blocks. The sometimes harsh conditions in Africa put entrepreneurs off and force entrepreneurs to ready themselves for more developed markets. I'm not saying the market in a developed country is easy - as a general rule, if you want to scale up your business, make sure it is properly done and you fine tune until you have the perfect product for that market. 

If you want to move to another market, the biggest mistake to make is to assume that the same product and same idea is going to work. The same idea in Nigeria is not going to work in Ghana and you essentially need to start all over again - start with the problem, knowing that the problem in Ghana will be different from the problem in Nigeria, and that's how you will refine your product to make it adaptable in other markets.

Paul Adepoju: How would you convert a social venture into a commercially profitable startup?

Michele Grosso: Let me give you my example. I am the founder of Democrance, an organisation aimed at democratising insurance by making it available for low income population - so we are providing low income population with insurance to manage their risks. That is my mission because I'm convinced that insurance can be available to people that are poor, and if you do it correctly you can make sure that this is a profitable and sustainable business.

This is very important. The biggest limit of social businesses is operating the company on founder's money or grant - when the money is over, the business is over. It's only sustainable if social business can make an impact because they can grow just using their internal resources and that's allowed. You need to always have in mind the company has to be sustainable either in the short term or in the long term.