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
   

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2. Dale Humby
   CTO
   co-founder
   Nomanini
   Cash payments
   In Africa
   

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3. How we think about scaling
   

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4. SWEAT!
   How we think about scaling
   

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5. SWEAT!
   How we think about scaling
   

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6. Reality… messy
   

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11. ½ Billion Africans
    live on less than
    R 15 per day
    

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12. Affordable access to payments
    for everyone, everywhere
    

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14. Smart Phones
    c2011
    

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25. Distributor Distributor
    

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30. Calc screen
    

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31. Flexible e-paper
    

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41. https://reut.rs/2NKhDSO
    BUSINESS NEWS APRIL 25, 2016
    IMF says Mozambique
    admits to over $1 billion
    of hidden debt
    

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43. Leading a team through failure
    

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44. Leading a team through failure
    Transparency
    

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45. Leading a team through failure
    Transparency
    Acknowledge the trauma
    

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46. Leading a team through failure
    Transparency
    Acknowledge the trauma
    Act: Close or Continue
    

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47. Leading yourself
    through failure
    

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49. Tech $460 B
    vs
    South Africa $370 B
    

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52. Are you still a startup?
    

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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?
    

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56. Failure is ok
    

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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
    

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59. 2011 2017
    $ 200 Nomanini
    

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60. 2011 2017
    $ 250+
    $ 200 Nomanini
    Android phones
    

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61. Cost of Android phones radically decreased
    2011 2017
    $ 250+
    < $ 50
    $ 200 Nomanini
    Android phones
    

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62. Cost of Nomanini hardware did not reduce enough
    2011 2017
    $ 250+
    $ 200
    $ 150+
    < $ 50
    Nomanini
    Android phones
    

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63. Lula
    2011-2017
    

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64. Phone + Printer
    ≃ $ 100
    

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65. How to cross the chasm
    

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66. How to cross the chasm
    

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67. How to cross the chasm
    

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68. How to cross the chasm
    

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70. What tech changed in 8+ yrs?
    

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72. What tech changed in 8+ yrs?
    Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem
    

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73. What tech changed in 8+ yrs?
    Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem
    NoSQL to SQL
    

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74. What tech changed in 8+ yrs?
    Google Cloud to Multi-cloud / on-prem
    NoSQL to SQL
    REST to GraphQL
    

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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
    

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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
    

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78. Helping people to
    solve their problems
    

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79. Failure is an event,
    not a person
    “
    Zig Ziglar
    

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81. Worker
    Worker
    Worker
    Keep it simple (...Dale’s stupid)
    

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82. EskomSePush
    @EskomSePush
    

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85. Team photo?
    Retrench 2 hardware developers, lost 3 senior developers, added 2 junior
    developers
    

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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
    

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87. “
    The task of the
    leader is to get
    people from
    where they are
    to where they
    have not been.
    Henry Kissinger
    

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88. Visionary
    Technical
    Cultural
    

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90. A startup is a human institution
    designed to deliver a new product or
    service under conditions of extreme
    uncertainty.
    “
    Eric Ries
    Lean Startup
    

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92. A company that has not yet found
    product market fit
    What is a startup?
    

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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
    

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