Samuel is the founder of Kenya's largest business incubator Nailab. Ma visited Nailab on a special trip to Kenya to talk with young entrepreneurs. However, a week after studying in Alibaba, Samuel decided to halt his own incubator company.
Samuel Guchurou stood by the corridor and other elevators. After the sound of ding dong, Jack Ma, dressed in a suit and blue tie, appeared in front of him: "Hello, Samuel, nice to meet you, but I heard a lot of stories about you."
"God, it is simply the most awkward moment in my life," Samuel remembered until now could not help but laugh, "I know he is coming, but I do not know when he came so punctual. Children forget it completely can not think of what to come back, can you say 'Hi, Jack, I am also longing for your name'? "
Samuel is the founder of Kenya's largest business incubator Nailab. On July 19 this year, Jack Ma visited Kenya as a special consultant for young entrepreneurs and small enterprises of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. His presence brought a great surprise to El Alibabo - except for the incubator's management team, the entrepreneurs who are here are unaware of it. On that day, Jack Ma and Nailab's young people sat together to talk with the surrounding startup staff to hear the news and to silence the entire meeting room in about 10 minutes.
After the exchange, Samuel handed Jack Ma of a small African elephant. He told Ma Yun: Today, small businesses and entrepreneurs in Africa are just like the newly born elephants. They hope that the Internet ideas brought by Ma will help them to grow and one day they will grow into elephants.
Four months later, Samuel realized that the baby elephant's prophecy is coming to an end. That day has also become a foreshadowing of his turning point in life.
E-commerce is the future of Africa
In November, the first training course of "Internet Entrepreneurship Program" jointly launched by Alibaba Group B200 and the UN Conference on Trade and Development was initiated. Twenty-four entrepreneurs from seven African countries stood out from more than 700 applicants, Alibaba Hangzhou headquarters participated in a two-week study tour course. Samuel, who had been a matchmaker, was also invited to come to China with this entrepreneur mission.
Visit to visit the trip is arranged to full, coupled with the heavy rain in Hangzhou in early winter, this group of perennial people in the warm zone inevitably feel not suited. As one of the oldest, 70-year-old Samuel always felt that "although never like the current physical fitness to the limit, but still have endless energy," no matter how tired before going to bed, the next morning Will be able to revive full blood. With intensive senior management and core staff teaching, Alipay and rookie working places, business exchanges and urban and rural field trips, there is always an even more striking impact whenever Samuel thinks he is impressed Fresh content comes one after another.
On November 15, after visiting Alibaba Business School and its collegial incubator, Samuel quickly made a decision: The Nailab incubator did not do it.
The courses offered by Alibaba Business School follow the industry in a forward-looking manner. The vocational skills granted to students are highly practical. At the same time, students have ample opportunities in business schools to apply their skills and start their own businesses as e-commerce, logistics, etc. Field of entrepreneurship. This concept of education also runs through the local vocational education institutions in Zhejiang Province. Relying on the talent cultivation strategies of Alibaba's eco-grown import and export trading companies, third-generation operators and rookie network industrial parks, almost every household will regularly Train staff or students to get the latest, most real-world experiences and methodologies quickly available to their future work.
"Ma's visit to Nairobi is a godsend." Samuel said he had thought it pleasantly surprising to have exchanged ideas with Jack Ma in Nairobi, but "it was really shocked" until he came to China personally. "I saw what his job was like and saw all the college students trained at Alibaba Business School so good - when Nailab talked with him at the time someone said 'we're trading well' More than two million U.S. dollars, "Alibaba Business School students already have 10 million U.S. dollars in revenue. This is not yet the money raised, but actually earned money."
Samuel decided to change to e-commerce training center on the grounds that as an incubator to help start-up companies, incubators are not efficient enough. The e-commerce threshold is low, good to use, easy to cut into small and medium enterprises. African young people start their own businesses and raise funds is a "chronic" issue. There are some venture capital investments in Europe or the United States. However, they are usually cautious and they are not interested in investing in early stage projects. Students doing business with e-commerce in China have revealed that as long as they identify the target market, sell something, and do not even need an angel investment, naturally The first one hundred thousand or one million dollars can be earned, while only the best entrepreneurs in Nairobi have access to the same amount of money. At the same time, many success stories that measure revenues in billions or even billions demonstrate the potential of large-scale e-commerce SMEs. Therefore, he believes that e-commerce is the future of Africa.
The decision came out without any exception. Samuel and the team's transcontinental conference call hit two in the morning. Eventually, he ended the call at the expense of resigning as CEO. Some entrepreneurs think he was crazy, do not know what he really wanted, the only consensus reached was: "The future is not what we see those past."
Let young people who have dreams change their country
In 2010, Samuel, who has been in business for several times in Kenya, plans to go to San Francisco in the United States. Where he did not know a person, mistakenly entered the incubator company Y Combinator, here was the cradle of Dropbox and Airbnb. What is even more clever is that Samuel met in the hall the founder of Y Combinator, the famous Paul Graham, and talked an hour with Graham, he suddenly felt that his trip to the United States was wrong .
Samuel packs up ready to go to the airport, while calling his mother. This is the first time since he was 18 years old that he needs to talk to his mother what he wants to do.
"Mom, I think I'm in poor condition in San Francisco and I have a strong feeling that I need to go home."
Mother seemed to feel pre-empt what he wanted to do something adventurous.
"It will only happen to things you did not do, Sam, not what you did, and you are familiar with it, and if you want to understand, just do it."
Samuel then returned to Nairobi to found Nailab.
After years of hard work, Nailab became one of the most well-known incubators in Kenya, which is why it was originally attracted by Mr. Ma. To abandon the star incubator, which was created by oneself, Samuel either did not feel bad or did not know how reckless the idea was. He admitted that he is now almost 40 years old, behind his wife and three children, trial and error costs are not as low as when young. However, he still insists: "I am not doing it for myself now, but for many people. My vision is to constantly invest in young people and change our country and continent through young people."
He said that even with the most utilitarian claims to explain, this vision is imperative, at least he hopes his children will have a safer environment in the future, not because of a toy bicycle ride by the same age children stoning. "I have always dreamed of Kenya becoming a more open country. The young people have turned a blind eye and are full of hope that the walls between communities will be overthrown and become bridge-connecting people."
Alibaba now gives Samuel inspiration to help more people dream of it. In Kenya, fresh college students find it difficult to find jobs and make money. Many of the students who came to Nailab for help are completely unprepared for job skills and career planning. Samuel believes that traditional business courses are mostly based on the needs of the traditional industries designed and not suitable for the new economy. Alibaba Business School's thinking is very different. According to his understanding, the most needed knowledge of start-up companies should be what you want to sell, how to sell, sell to whom, where to sell, how much cash, inventory how turnaround, shops how to catch traffic, and then use the research and data Analysis to find solutions.
No one has done e-commerce training center, the teacher come from? Samuel optimistically said that today's entrepreneurs can become tomorrow's teachers. Take the example of the members of "Internet Entrepreneurship Program". When they put the knowledge they have learned in China into practice, they can become the best training case to share with the trainees as long as they are effective. Even wrestling lessons Also makes sense.
This is not the first time Samuel has done crazy things. In March 2016, a Kenyan girl named Sephin got angry on Facebook because she added her photos to photos of China's scenic spots online, including the Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall and Huangshan Etc., Imagine yourself traveling to China.
Those pictures have attracted countless ridicule. Samuel accidentally flip the phone saw the news, decided to help the girl a dream. He contacted the embassy asking if he could provide a passport, asking his friends in China to find a way to spend a few days in the girl's bedtime, soft grinding hard foam from several rich friends, and raising funds for Severin to travel to China. The impact of this program has rapidly expanded, the voices of ridiculers have been steadily getting low, and the amount of crowdfunding has been rising. With Samuel's help, Severin finally realized what she longs for in China.
"Do you know why I want to help her? Because she was me 20 years ago."
Twenty years ago, Samuel cleaned the sewage pipes daily and transported the intruder out of the car onto the truck, day after day, with a lingering stench on it. This is the only 19-year-old job he can find, and the only way to work hard enough to earn enough to go to college tuition.
Samuel was born in a hard-working Kenyan family. Childhood do not understand what is meant by poverty, the only clear understanding is hungry, hungry in bed. He still remembered that when he was young, his body was weak and the lungs were constantly infected. The doctor who gave him treatment was exceptionally kind and patient, "as good as everyone else." Therefore, Samuel's childhood dream has always been " A doctor who is good for all ". Later, the dream failed to achieve. Samuel dropped out of school the second year because working only earned enough for the first year of college.
"Many of those who ridicule Severin might never walk out of their villages or even passports, but why mock her? Because she does not look cool enough, she speaks very poorly in English, or laughs at people giving themselves a little Self-comfort? "Samuel said he understands the mentality and tangles of people who are so caught up in despair and helplessness that they often feel as if they were out of the car because they once thought their future was to be a carwashing worker.
After dropping out of school, Samuel made a sales call and founded an electronics company, step by step from the ridiculous day dreaming many outsiders see today. "And the vision of each one of us is what PS wants to be like, is not it? I did it to tell people that you can dream and dreams come true."