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

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

Dale Humby

March 07, 2019
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  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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