Scale Fail Scale: A start-up's story of surviving death

By 2015 Nomanini was growing nicely with thousands of merchants spread across Africa. But when our largest client went bankrupt we lost 80% of our transaction volume, almost sinking us with them. This is a story of suddenly not being at scale, of layoffs and pivots, rewrites, and finally growth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBOgXqaINJ0

Transcript

1. Dale Humby, Nomanini @dalehumby Scale Fail Scale A start-up's story of surviving death
2. Dale Humby CTO co-founder Nomanini Cash payments In Africa
3. How we think about scaling
4. SWEAT! How we think about scaling
5. SWEAT! How we think about scaling
6. Reality… messy
11. ½ Billion Africans live on less than R 15 per day
12. Affordable access to payments for everyone, everywhere
14. Smart Phones c2011
25. Distributor Distributor
30. Calc screen
31. Flexible e-paper
41. https://reut.rs/2NKhDSO BUSINESS NEWS APRIL 25, 2016 IMF says Mozambique admits to over $1 billion of hidden debt
43. Leading a team through failure
44. Leading a team through failure Transparency
45. Leading a team through failure Transparency Acknowledge the trauma
46. Leading a team through failure Transparency Acknowledge the trauma Act: Close or Continue
47. Leading yourself through failure
49. Tech $460 B vs South Africa $370 B
52. Are you still a startup?
53. A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. “ Eric Ries Lean Startup What is a startup?
56. Failure is ok
58. Never let a serious crisis go to waste. It's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. “ Rahm Emanuel
59. 2011 2017 $ 200 Nomanini
60. 2011 2017 $ 250+ $ 200 Nomanini Android phones
61. Cost of Android phones radically decreased 2011 2017 $ 250+ < $ 50 $ 200 Nomanini Android phones
62. Cost of Nomanini hardware did not reduce enough 2011 2017 $ 250+ $ 200 $ 150+ < $ 50 Nomanini Android phones
63. Lula 2011-2017
64. Phone + Printer ≃ $ 100
65. How to cross the chasm
66. How to cross the chasm
67. How to cross the chasm
68. How to cross the chasm
70. What tech changed in 8+ yrs?
72. What tech changed in 8+ yrs? Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem
73. What tech changed in 8+ yrs? Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem NoSQL to SQL
74. What tech changed in 8+ yrs? Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem NoSQL to SQL REST to GraphQL
75. What tech changed in 8+ yrs? Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem NoSQL to SQL REST to GraphQL Don’t sweat the tools
76. What tech changed in 8+ yrs? Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem NoSQL to SQL REST to GraphQL Don’t sweat the tools Focus on values
78. Helping people to solve their problems
79. Failure is an event, not a person “ Zig Ziglar
81. Worker Worker Worker Keep it simple (...Dale’s stupid)
82. EskomSePush @EskomSePush
85. Team photo? Retrench 2 hardware developers, lost 3 senior developers, added 2 junior developers
86. “The worst mistake of all is that most startup founders get stuck on their original idea and refuse to pivot. https://bit.ly/2RKOtYd
87. “ The task of the leader is to get people from where they are to where they have not been. Henry Kissinger
88. Visionary Technical Cultural
90. A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. “ Eric Ries Lean Startup
92. A company that has not yet found product market fit What is a startup?
93. What tech changed in 8+ yrs? Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem NoSQL to SQL REST to GraphQL What stays the same Async processing & queues Team values