Stop Building for Investors, Start Building for Users

“The river that forgets its source will soon run dry.” — African Proverb

In today’s African tech ecosystem, it’s easy to get caught up in the investor hype. You polish your pitch deck. You learn to say “TAM, SAM, SOM” like a boss. You memorize your CAC to LTV ratios. But somewhere along the way, you forget to build for the person who matters most:

🎯 The patient.
🎯 The mother in Kisii who has no data bundle.
🎯 The CHW in Kitui with a cracked feature phone.
🎯 The nurse in Lagos who can’t remember one more password.

🧠 The Investor Trap

A lot of startups in Africa build what I call “PowerPoint Products”—designed to impress at demo days, not solve real problems.

They:

• Build overly complex platforms no one asked for

• Prioritize pitch metrics over user feedback

• Chase buzzwords (AI! Blockchain! NFTs in maternity care?! 😬)

Meanwhile, the woman in Makueni who just needs a malaria diagnosis via USSD… waits.

“The hen doesn’t care how shiny the nest is—she just wants to lay her egg.”

💥 Real Talk: Who Are You Building For?

If your answer isn’t users, then don’t be shocked when:

• Nobody uses your app

• You struggle to retain CHWs

• Your health data is patchy

• Your impact slides… along with your funding runway

Ask yourself:

Would a nurse actually use this tool in a rural clinic with no WiFi and 80 patients queued up?

📉 Case Study: When It Goes Wrong

In 2022, a Nigerian startup raised $1M to digitize clinics using tablets and AI dashboards.

✨ Investor-ready? Yes.
🤕 User-ready? Nope.

Clinics complained:

• Tablets kept dying (no power)

• App required constant updates (no data)

• Interface was in English only (most staff preferred Hausa)

Result? Usage dropped to <10% after launch. The project stalled. The founder blamed "poor adoption." 🙃

But truth be told… they built for investors, not users.

✅ Case Study: When It Goes Right

Enter Doctors Explain.

Instead of chasing trends, they asked, “What does the community need?”

🔹 Local language health education
🔹 Telemedicine on feature phones
🔹 Tools for overworked nurses and CHWs
🔹 Affordable, inclusive, offline-first design

The result?
🩺 High engagement
📱 Real user feedback
🌍 Impact that speaks louder than slides

And guess what? Investors started coming to them.
Because traction = trust = funding.

🛠️ How to Start Building for Users (Not Just VCs)

1. Go to the Field

Talk to your users. Not via Google Forms. In person. In the clinic. At the village meeting.

2. Prototype Early

Don’t wait to be perfect. Sketch on paper. Test in WhatsApp. Iterate fast.

3. Design for Context, Not Just Features

Your app doesn’t need 20 tabs—it needs 1 that works in low network areas, in Kiswahili, with low memory.

4. Measure Real Metrics

Forget vanity downloads. Ask:

• Are users coming back?

• Are patients getting better?

• Are CHWs completing their reports?

5. Let Users Be Your Best Pitch Deck

Nothing impresses a funder more than users who say,

“This saved my life.”
“We use it every day.”
“I tell my neighbors.”

🧭 Funding Will Follow Function

“A well-fed dog doesn’t need to bark to be noticed.”

When your solution actually works, you won’t have to scream to be seen.

You’ll have:

• Testimonials

• Retention rates

• Growth from referrals

• Impact that opens wallets and doors

Investors aren’t blind—they’re just tired of empty hype. Give them proof through people.

🎤 Final Thought

“The person who wears the shoe knows where it pinches.”

So before you demo your startup to VCs in Sandton or San Francisco, ask yourself:

👟 Have I walked in my user’s shoes?

Because in Africa’s healthtech future, the winners won’t be those with the best decks—they’ll be those with the deepest empathy and most useful tools.

Stop building for investors.
Start building for users.
The rest will follow.

Would you like a follow-up post on how to run user research on a budget or sample interview questions for CHWs and patients?

Let’s build for real people. Not PowerPoint. 💡❤️