Listen to the whole 111th episode of the Art of Startup War here, or wherever you get podcasts.
Episode #112 Guy Kamgaing of Star News
This week on the Art of Startup War, Guy Kamgaing of the Expert DOJO International Accelerator is invited on all the way from Africa to talk about his impressive two sided marketplace tech company.
- Microbilling is common in Africa
- Consumers won’t pay 10 bucks a month but they’ll do 50 cents a day
- Guy has long history in telecomm company and selling infrastructure to help build it
- Talked to higher ups
- Not a tech guy but has hired CTO 2 months ago
- Got developers from around the world
- “It was never really perfect… but it was good enough to go to market”
- Signs content producers
- Partnership with huge music company Universal because he was good at monetizing it
- “Win win win”
- Has cornered the carrier market
- Conversations with big comedians like Kevin Hart
- Can create religious channel
- Helps people with brand recognition
- When you can create a business with little friction into market you attract people
- YouTube exec serves on her board to help out and crack the market
- Why not other markets like SE Asia?
- 80 mil in three countries
- Needs to raise money for the all star team
- 3-5 mil to get to 20 countries and 100 mil users
- No need to pay for marketing
- I’m looking at what you achieved
This week on the Art of Startup War, Brian is back in the fridge interviewing Guy Kamgaing, an African immigrant who has built one of the biggest companies to every come through Expert DOJO.
His tech company is called Star News, though the entire African continent is going to come to know this name in the next few years. Impressive feats that Kamgaing has accomplished include: building a dual sided marketplace without a venture capital infusion, landing a partnership with a huge record label, gaining partnerships with big name comedians like Kevin Hart, hiring a YouTube executive to his board, and raising 80 million users. His work is being recognized by telecom companies everywhere in Africa for his effective revolution of the market that is low friction but badly needed.
Star News is essentially offering a way for creators to have access to a wide consumer base while getting properly imbursed for their work. This model of business is particularly effective because of the function of telephone companies in society. By selling his service to these companies, he has an inherent user base and can grow his company quickly and effectively. Additionally, he doesn’t have to spend anything on marketing, as that burden falls on the phone companies.
On the subject of money, Star News has big plans for the future. They aim to enter the markets of an additional 20 African countries, and in order to do this, they only need three to five million dollars, a number several times lower than the average from other countries. This fantastic company is a part of the Expert DOJO startup community and a member of the Expert DOJO international accelerator. To hear more about how Star News is going to find investment, listen to the podcast here.