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Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

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Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

#11

Post by nicpottier »

hyung wrote: post #7

This question might be too broad, but how would you compare the infrastructure, English level, technical talent, etc. of Rwanda with other African nations?

Africa is a huge, huge place, it is hard to even fathom how big and varied it is. East, West, North, South are all really really different. Within East Africa, Rwanda fares well from an infrastructure point of view, lags a bit in English due to being Francophone until recently and on talent, I'd say most are at similar levels. The talent is everywhere, but really the skills are far behind the west pretty much everywhere as well.

Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

#12

Post by agumonkey »

nicpottier wrote: post #6
wehadfun wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have to worry about Hutu/Tutsi issues still?

No, not at all. Rwanda is probably safer than any place in the states.. you can walk around anywhere in the city in the middle of the night (and I do) and there are no concerns. There is still unrest in DRC but that is very much localized.

Almost unbelievable. After all the past.

Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

#13

Post by nicpottier »

wehadfun wrote: post #8

Why did you choose Rawanda over South Africa/Nigeria/Morocco which I would think would be easier African countries to work in

I can't say that we evaluated every country before choosing Rwanda, to be perfectly honest we didn't look at that many, we just decided that Rwanda was 'good enough' and would probably work so we went for it.

The three countries you list are very very different from Rwanda and from each other, so it is hard to comment on that. In many ways South Africa has more in common with California than it does with Rwanda.

Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

#16

Post by nicpottier »

mwcampbell wrote: post #10

I find it sad that a company based in Rwanda, primarily targeting East Africa, decided to use infrastructure owned by an American company and operating in the US. Did you look for an infrastructure provider that's more local? Maybe one of the European hosting providers, if there isn't a good one in Africa? (Note: I happen to be American. But that doesn't mean I automatically think that the whole world should use our…

I'm ex-Amazon and believe they provide an awesome service, so no, I don't see any problem or sadness in that in the least. The last thing the world needs is propping up inferior systems for the sake of Nationalism, much less in the software sector.

Amazon provides a great product and has never let us down, if an East African competitor pops up and does the same, I'll move in a heartbeat.

Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

#17

Post by mwcampbell »

nicpottier wrote: post #16
mwcampbell wrote: post #10

I find it sad that a company based in Rwanda, primarily targeting East Africa, decided to use infrastructure owned by an American company and operating in the US. Did you look for an infrastructure provider that's more local? Maybe one of the European hosting providers, if there isn't a good one in Africa? (Note: I happen to be American. But that doesn't mean I automatically think that the whole world should use our…

I'm ex-Amazon and believe they provide an awesome service, so no, I don't see any problem or sadness in that in the least. The last thing the world needs is propping up inferior systems for the sake of Nationalism, much less in the software sector. Amazon provides a great product and has never let us down, if an East African competitor pops up and does the same, I'll move in a heartbeat.

For me it's not about nationalism as much as avoiding excessive centralization. I find it appalling that so many services are concentrated in a few buildings in northern Virginia. (Or is it one building?) Did you at least use a region other than us-east-1? I can't tell from reverse DNS lookups or traceroute.

Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

#19

Post by nicpottier »

mwcampbell wrote: post #17
nicpottier wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm ex-Amazon and believe they provide an awesome service, so no, I don't see any problem or sadness in that in the least. The last thing the world needs is propping up inferior systems for the sake of Nationalism, much less in the software sector. Amazon provides a great product and has never let us down, if an East African competitor pops up and does the same, I'll move in a heartbeat.

For me it's not about nationalism as much as avoiding excessive centralization. I find it appalling that so many services are concentrated in a few buildings in northern Virginia. (Or is it one building?) Did you at least use a region other than us-east-1? I can't tell from reverse DNS lookups or traceroute.

I'm ok with centralization. Again if a better provider pops up, I'll move there, but until then I'm fine with commodities going to the best providers.

Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later

#20

Post by redmattred »

mwcampbell wrote: post #10

I find it sad that a company based in Rwanda, primarily targeting East Africa, decided to use infrastructure owned by an American company and operating in the US. Did you look for an infrastructure provider that's more local? Maybe one of the European hosting providers, if there isn't a good one in Africa? (Note: I happen to be American. But that doesn't mean I automatically think that the whole world should use our…

Why is that sad exactly?

They want working, reliable software for their users and Amazon can help them provide that. Some decisions are practical not political.

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