A lot of startup and business stories are quite similar. Ideally, someone discovers a problem out in the wild, within their own circles or even just through deep market or desk research.

They draw on personally held expertise or knowledge networks to cook up a solution and then they go to market.

Evidently, any mix of models and strategy will be tested out in a bid to deliver successful outcomes and it is even possible to pin-point some similarities across geographies and fields around how solutions/ products are developed and grown. One possible example is a dearth of heavily specialized products in Africa. 

Scale and profitability are two heavily sought out outcomes in the startup ecosystem, and across most African economies they are increasingly difficult to hit in the face of unfavorable macros and a decidedly tough business environment.

It is in the face of this reality that startups working across many African markets do indeed have to build the plane as they are flying.

That is to say that most builders on the continent come to discover that important proponents of productivity and profitability for the majority of sectors are highly underdeveloped and necessarily need to also be built up. 

A lot of builders therefore have to decide whether to ignore the faulty moving parts and continue a single focused approach at the risk of loss or to solve for their business while simultaneously fixing the broken parts of the value chain and, hopefully, increasing prospects of profitability.

In essence, to hit goals, many African startups need to do many things outside of their primary product development and distribution. 

Fragmentation is a defining aspect of the business environment across many African markets making it vital to think about solutions end-to-end.

End-to-end solutions address complex business needs by integrating and solving simultaneously for many parts of the value chain that pertain to a business line. Here, the task is to connect previously scattered and siloed operations to effectively solve consumer needs. 

For us, this has meant evolving a commodities exchange model from a pure fintech play to one that addresses many parts of the agriculture sector on the continent from extension and primary production to storage infrastructure and logistics.

Many innovative businesses on the continent have similarly expanded the scope of their solutions to fix vital levers for success. 

This approach to building for the continent can give businesses some much needed control over several moving parts which keeps operations seamless and less prone to inefficiencies, but in certain cases, can slow growth in key product metrics and requires significantly more capital that can be harder to acquire from an investor class that is more familiar with streamlined operations. 

It is important for builders and investors to understand that for African startups, fragmentation is the mother of all inventions hence achieving scale and profitability in Africa follows no particular template.

The continent is characterized by peculiarities that heavily impair straightforward playbooks. In line with this, capital providers often need to be as patient and resilient as builders, understanding that the ability to adapt and potentially expand the scope of solutions is a particularly valuable skill on the continent and both investors and builders have a role to play.