The debate of which is more important, the idea or the execution is an old one. Whichever of the two you may revere more, there are countless examples out there that prove that taking one without a sufficient helping of the other is a recipe for disaster. The local tech startup scene is full of examples of this where dozens of both innovative and copycat startups are snuffed out of existence every year.

Most of these startups quietly fade out of existence. Golix is a rare example of a failure that went down swinging as the RBZ crushed their company. Again, however, local startups seldom fall at the hands of any regulatory machinery. Instead, they almost always claim that they have at last buckled and submitted to the pressures of the dreaded ‘local economic climate’.

Hackshack

I once wrote about how prototyping and hobbyist electronic components are some of the most potentially lucrative products that you can sell online. A lot of people discovered this years earlier. The founder of the cleverly named Hackshack was one of them. Hackshack was an online shop that strived to be more than that. Among other things the founder also liked to describe it as a ‘prototyping lab’. He pitched his startup in a lot of events one of which was the Simba Savannah show that used to air on ZBC TV. Fast forward a year or two later the company’s website can not be found online and its social media accounts have gone silent.

Fortunately, it appears that several other (less ostentatious) startups have sprung up in its place so local makers and electronic hobbyists do not have to despair or panic about being forced to go back to relying on the likes of eBay and Amazon.

Room 8

This was a platform intended to address the problem of accommodation that many varsity students from out of town face. It aimed to connect landlords near campuses to students seeking accommodation. The revenue model that they intended to use is not immediately apparent. The only alternative to their service was the word of mouth and posters on noticeboards that are still being used to advertise accommodation.

Considering that they were addressing a very real and familiar problem their business was a no brainer, nevertheless, we do not have a Room8 in 2020. Their website is offline and student accommodation is still mostly as seedy and shady a little industry as ever. I suspect that they were unable to solve a challenge that mosts online platforms face during their inception that is colourfully called the ‘chicken and egg’ problem. It describes the dilemma where an online platform (like Room8) which has to lure service providers (in this case landlords) but is usually only able to effectively do so when there is already a sufficient number of people who need those services (students) on the platform and vice versa.

Foodie

One of the winners of the inaugural ICT Innovation Fund, this startup allowed you to order food from any of the various vendors it had partnered with via a mobile app. They would then send a runner with your food. They intended to generate revenue from commissions. Despite basically getting a stamp of approval (and supposedly funding) from what Potraz considered to be tech and business experts, the startup has also disappeared leaving us all to go back to queue for our lunches.

The service was practically just a food delivery app which may have fallen victim to the tech startup culture which would have demanded a much fancier spin on this simple business model. In this case, the problem being solved went from being food delivery to “a shortage of delicious food nearby and being limited in your culinary options”. In short, they may have ignored the vast market of people who have simpler eating choices.

Saisai

Not to be confused with one of Econet’s latest pet projects this startup had the ambitious goal of delivering free wifi to people in public spaces and kombis that would be supported by targeted advertising. Needless to say, most of us are still paying for our own internet. They described their project as a wireless mesh network made up of free wifi hotspots. They intended to work with companies who had what they described as ‘unexploited bandwidth’. They would install devices on those companies’ networks which would connect with the rest of the wireless network.

Despite the fact that very few, if any local companies have any internet bandwidth to spare the startup powered through pitches, was invited to events and gained a sizeable following despite launching nothing beyond social media accounts and a website. This is testament to nothing more than the sheer star power of the founding members, one of who was the Takunda Chingonzo who at one point interviewed the then US president Obama and was later named one of Africa’s future billionaires by Forbes magazine.

Saith technologies

I included this very controversial entry because it was nothing if not exciting. In fact the excitement is yet to die down. Sometime in 2015, a certain Sangulani Chikumbutso revealed his ‘groundbreaking’ inventions to the world in a press conference he had called. Several of his claims caused outrage among academic circles and other experts. Among other things, he claimed to have invented power sources which did not need to be charged or require any fuel. A lot of people found his claims to be dubious while some still consider him to be a persecuted genius.

While a lot of these founders subscribe to the ‘teachings’ of their Silicon Valley counterparts and regularly claim and implore us to celebrate failure and the lessons that accompany it with them; they seldom give their customers and the public the farewell you would expect given such revolutionary beliefs. If any of the founders of these startups read this and wish to give the public proper goodbyes or notify us of any comebacks, my inbox is always open.