Your app is pretty cool. How long did it take to build? How big of a team?
Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
71–80 of 81 posts
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rwanda has a classification specifically for technology entrepreneurs. It's a 3-year visa and if you are a qualified software practitioner, I don't foresee you having difficulty getting a permit to start a software company here. They also pride themselves on same-day business registration. https://www.migration.gov.rw/services/permits/temporary-perm...
And I assume no trouble renewing at three years, then?
I just renewed mine this week without any trouble, but of course YMMV.
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live abroad and my soon is not even a year old. I look forward to this, and the idea of having a grandson who will speaks multiple languages natively (I am English-speaking, my SO speaks Arabic natively) is very exiciting to my parents. I am waiting until he is older, but I look forward to even getting him into a language school so he will natively speak 3 or more languages. Only if they had Chinese schools where I…
Move to Oakland county outside Detroit where the public schools teach Mandarin from first grade on. Even better they use teachers from China. http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2013/03/04/news/loca... Their long term goal is that with the entire population someday being fluent in Mandarin the area will become the first choice for Chinese manufacturing firms setting up plants in the U.S.
Very cool but I live in the MENA region and that is not going to change anytime soon.
Still, very awesome.
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#74Off track, but I noticed the .in domain that's chosen. Any particular reason to have the India TLD? Or just that it sounds like a phrase "text it in" ...?
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#75What's the electricity situation like? Do you need to have diesel generators?
Power is fine 95% of the time, but yes outages happen though infrequently for long. We work on laptops so it isn't a huge issue, but you do learn to plan around it. (aka, keep said laptop charged)
And the broadband bandwidth and speeds? Is it very pricey to have a 10 Mbps downlink (upto 4Mbps uplink) connection?
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair I spent the first half of my childhood in France, so I beg to differ. :) But like I said, after years of gouda, even cheddar starts seeming like an incredible delicacy. I even like gouda, you just need some variety!
Lived in France half his childhood and likes good cheese != American. Pines for cheddar != French. I can relate (except for the cheddar thing, especially the cheddar that American audiences are thinking of). The digital nomads are from everywhere and from nowhere, and I wonder about our children.
And damn it, that's not a Scotsman, either!
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#77I never thought I'd hear an American complain about lack of good cheese. You guys have never tasted cheese! Great project anyway, very inspiring!
To be fair I spent the first half of my childhood in France, so I beg to differ. :) But like I said, after years of gouda, even cheddar starts seeming like an incredible delicacy. I even like gouda, you just need some variety!
The problem with Gouda is that you get it everywhere, but not the quality Gouda. I love a old Gouda (oude kaas). Unfortunately what you get in supermarkets (outside the Netherlands) is not comparable to the really good stuff.
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#78What a super project this. It's braver than anything I'd ever attempt, I try to sweep my own street as much as possible but this is so far out of my comfort zone (starting with the climate) that I have nothing but sheer admiration for you.
No, no, that is the wrong takeaway! It is not a brave thing at all, that is the point I'm trying to get across. The end result may seem big, but it was from many small steps, no bigger than you are capable of. My advice, just take that first step, get involved in software taking place in the developing world, see what you can do to help. It's just a matter of small steps from there.
I agree that you guys are brave. I have been thinking of making an important step for a while now, basically moving into software development/startups from a finance/accounting job, and I just can't wrap my head around such a change. I lived in many places, so that is not my silver bullet, but gosh leaving my 9-5 life seems so risky.
How do you do it? What scares the hell out of me is the future. What happens if things go sour? How do I know I can actually be a good programmer or entrepreneur? How do I save up for my pension (I am 27, that might seem premature I know) if things go bad?
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#79Off track, but I noticed the .in domain that's chosen. Any particular reason to have the India TLD? Or just that it sounds like a phrase "text it in" ...?
We'd love to have the .com, but it's not in the cards. But ya, we chose the India TLD for exactly the reason you suspect.. text it in.
Re: Building a Software Company in Rwanda, 3 Years Later
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Power is fine 95% of the time, but yes outages happen though infrequently for long. We work on laptops so it isn't a huge issue, but you do learn to plan around it. (aka, keep said laptop charged)
And the broadband bandwidth and speeds? Is it very pricey to have a 10 Mbps downlink (upto 4Mbps uplink) connection?
That's not really an option at all, at least not to your house. At the kLab we have a 15Mbps line allocated for us, but the realities of oversea (well, undersea) bandwidth purchases means we often don't really see that.
Most people not at kLab get mobile data connections that in good areas when it's working well can get downloads between 200KBs up to 1MBps (those are bytes, not bits) depending on the time of day. Up oftentimes is about the same as down. It's not heavily throttled as you see in many other countries. These data plans are also very cheap.
Really, the biggest problem here isn't so much the speed these days, it's that the connection occasionally just stops working altogether.