Three takeaways from the hierarchy of venture opportunities in Africa and other emerging markets
Analyzing and categorizing unmet needs across African markets bestows a powerful framework for entrepreneurs and investors to understand and assess the relative attractiveness of various opportunities
Afridigest provides ideas, insights, & analysis for startup founders, operators, and investors across Africa and beyond.
Today, I revisit a previously published essay that introduced a novel framework for entrepreneurs & investors to use to evaluate opportunities. This post contains a brief introduction and actionable insights for founders, operators, and investors.
If youโre new, welcome ๐ โ youโll receive a weekly digest every Monday and, generally (but not always), an original essay/article on Saturdays. For past essays and digests, visit the archive.
On Thursday, Afridigest received what we believe is our first major media mention in a Quartz article on influential Africa-focused tech media. In it, I was quoted as saying, โThe most influential content goes beyond fundraising or launch announcements to showcase innovative or pioneering thinking that offers new insights to readers.โ
One example of such pioneering thinking that new Afridigest readers might have missed is the now almost two-year-old essay, โThe hierarchy of venture opportunities in emerging markets.โ The piece draws inspiration from Maslowโs hierarchy of needs to develop a framework for entrepreneurs & investors to use in evaluating opportunities across sub-Saharan Africa.
After publishing, the article drew quite a bit of interest from founders, VCs, and angel investors worldwide as gauged by follow-up emails and WhatsApp messages received โ so much so that weeks later I published a subsequent clarifying piece, โDemystifying venture opportunities in African markets.โ Ultimately, to quote from the original essay:
โEntrepreneurs & investors in sub-Saharan African (and similar) markets are most likely to find success if they concentrate on ventures that: build basic or alternative infrastructure; organize and integrate fragmented markets; minimize transaction costs & friction; enable entrepreneurship & economic empowerment; or create entirely new markets.โ
Actionable insights from the article

If you don't have time to read the full piece, hereโs what founders, operators, and investors can learn from the hierarchy of venture opportunities in emerging markets:
โข ๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฒ๐น๐ฑ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ป๐ถ๐พ๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ถ๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ & ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐.
It's not often that investors and entrepreneurs look to the field of pyschology for answers in their professional lives, but sometimes the best ideas come from outside one's industry. And, according to renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow, analyzing and categorizing unmet needs provides the best insight into and understanding of human behavior. One can extend his work to the context of entrepreneurship across African markets โ analyzing and categorizing unmet market needs bestows a powerful framework for entrepreneurs and investors to understand and assess the relative attractiveness of various opportunities.
โข ๐ง๐ถ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ถ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด.
Timing may well be the single most important factor in a startup's success or failure. So then, it behooves founders and funders to evaluate the African startup ecosystem critically and develop a defensible, personal viewpoint on which business models, sectors, and general archetypes are well-timed considering the current stage of development of markets across the African continent.
โข ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ, ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐น๐ ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด, ๐บ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐บ๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ณ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐.
Investment theses and startup ideas should reflect the realities of the markets they target. And today, considering the realities of African markets, the biggest opportunities may lie in the aggregation of supply or demand or both, the connection of disjointed markets, and the development of platforms that act as infrastructure or operating systems for others to leverage, plug into, and build/layer on top of.
AUTHORโS NOTE
As always, Iโm very interested in your thoughts. Contact me via Whatsapp, Twitter DMs, or email or leave a comment here. And take a look at our friends at intellence for your thought leadership needs.
Thanks for reading โ๐ฝ
โ Emeka
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