Kwame Som-Pimpong

  • No. 98: The Next Wave

    Julian Bond died last night. I can’t shake this image of a wave of folks fighting for equal rights in this country. Every year, key fighters pass on. Every year, new fighters emerge. The photo above is of W.E.B DuBois on the left holding 2-year old Julian Bond’s hand. Bree Newsome Clint Smith Phillip Agnew…

  • No. 97: 4 Lessons I Have Learned From 100 Blog Posts

    Four lessons I have picked up from 100 blog posts.

  • No. 96: 5 Thursday AM Reads

    1. Fascinating piece on Sam’s Cafe in Tehran. I look forward to reading more about life in Iran as business opens up with the rest of the world.  2. One of the benefits of the Internet is the transparency it enables. Here’s an interesting post from Zirtual CEO Maren Kate on why Zirtual failed and how…

  • No. 95: Eric Osiakwan Pushing the Growth of Africa’s VC Space

    I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Eric Osiakwan about his experience building internet infrastructure in its early days in African countries, and the transition to investing in African startups. On top of that, he is pushing to get more Africans in the investing game to support the growth of the technology industry across the continent. Here’s the…

  • No. 94: New VC Firm To Fund Women-Led Startups

    I was glad to see the news about the launch of Valor Ventures, a VC firm led by women and focused on finding women founders.  Another firm that excites me is the Impact America Fund. Here’s a good interview it’s founder, Kesha Cash, did with the Andreesen Horowitz team.  Some time ago, I posted First…

  • No. 93: 7 Tuesday PM Reads

    Some reflections on the struggle for justice in light of Ferguson reigniting. A few interesting technology pieces. Warren Buffett has cash for days.

  • No. 92: Thursday Lunch Views and Reads

    1. Clint Smith shares his experience teaching a creative writing course at a prison and coming to terms with his socialized view of people who are incarcerated. (via Clint Smith) 2. I wish I was in Ghana to check out this cool looking art exhibition. (via Bessie Akuba Winn-Afeku) 3. Sometimes, these assurances that we have nothing to…

  • No. 91: Girls Killing the Technology Game

    Andreessen Horowitz just posted a short interview with four high school girls who recently competed in Technovation 2015. (If you’re opening this in your email, click on the title so that you can see the podcast linked below.) The winner of the competition was a team from Nigeria! All of the teams are really impressive.…

  • No. 90: Thursday AM Reads and Listens

    No. A little over a year ago, Jehiel was telling me about this idea he had for smart tractors. A few days ago, he talked about what Hello Tractor is doing while moderating a panel with President Obama. Amazing. It is so frustrating to read story after story on America’s failing infrastructure. Great post by Mark…

  • No. 89: Tuesday AM Reads

    It’s looking like a $3B effort to put broadband in rural America hasn’t gone well.  Good list of African multi-nationals with sights on other parts of the continent. Worth taking another look at a report BCG put out in 2010 on African multinationals pushing to compete in the global economy. Critique of a new documentary…

  • No. 88: Thursday Morning Reads 

    Tidjane Thiam gets off to a nice start at Credit Suisse Silicon Valley’s Political End Game Rocket Internet’s portfolio value has grown $2.5 billion in nine months  Wistia founder shares how not being fake helped them close an account with a big customer  Not sure I buy the analysis that Eurobond issuances among African countries with…

  • No. 87: Build Something From Nothing

    Paul Judge has a mantra – build something from nothing. It’s amazing to watch folks I have met along the way live this out. Jehiel Oliver’s startup Hello Tractor was profiled in Fast Company today. It wasn’t too long ago when we sat down at Chinatown Coffee and he told me about this idea he was working…

  • No. 86: Thoughts on David Brooks’ Letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates

    David Brooks published a review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ latest book, Between the World and Me this morning. A few points stood out to me: The last year has been an education for white people. There has been a depth, power and richness to the African-American conversation about Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston and the other killings that…

  • No. 85: Netflix is Taking it Global

    One more before bed. Netflix released its shareholder letter today and had some interesting results. Jake Bright mentioned in his comments during the book launch for The Next Africa, that Netflix is paying attention to what is happening in African markets in the internet TV streaming space. So, when I saw that Netflix released its…

  • No. 84: I Can’t Wait to Read The Next Africa

    When Aubrey Hruby and finance ministers from several African countries waited for the globe at Google headquarters to rotate to the African continent so that they could see how many hits the continent was getting at the time, they were stunned to see just a couple dots compared to completely outlined countries for the rest…