It's not often one gets to sit down with a person who has built as well as invested in some tech unicorns (a company with a $1 billion-plus valuation). It is also not often that such a person would be humble enough to admit their failures in business and celebrate them as lessons despite the temptation to paint themselves as flawless hero. Kamran Elahian is both these things and much more.
Kamran is also an innovator. One of his innovations, the Momenta tablet computer which was way ahead of its time in the 1980s, is also one of the great business lessons he shares in this podcast regarding what can go wrong in business and what risks tech startup founders need to look out for in their own businesses. Momenta, although it started off superbly, eventually failed as the market at the time was not ready for such an innovation, not to mention Kamran and his team had to build a lot of the technology components themselves at the time given how none of it existed at the time.
Kamran also shares his thoughts in this podcast on what he believes can be a solution to kickstarting innovation and the digital economy across Afrika. He further explores the role that Afrika's technology hubs can play working hand-in-hand with startups, investors, and governments.
He is currently an investor (one of his unicorn holdings is an early investment into SoundHound) as well as an advisor to many organizations, startups and governments around the world.
