Node Africa, the Kenyan start-up that came to be in just six weeks

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The firm was founded in December 2015 and it has so far landed several big clients who seem well satisfied with its services.

The question many would ask the co-founders, Phares Kariuki and Brian Mutia, is how they managed to achieve such a huge milestone within such a short time.

For starters, Node Africa is a cloud infrastructure services firm, basically positioned to handle remote data storage for other firms, according to Kariuki, who doubles as the chief executive.

He said they ventured into the business with a capital base of Ksh1 million, while much of the boost came from a partnership with VMware, an American company that provides cloud and virtualisation software and services.

Kariuki said Microsoft is also supporting them through its cloud computing platform called Azure and the productivity software, Office 365.

“I don't want to take credit for starting Node Africa in six weeks. Its the tech community that achieved this milestone. There was a lot of goodwill and we got everything we needed without hassle,” he said in an interview during the colorful launch in Nairobi.

“The goodwill simplified the entire process,” he added.

The list of clients that Node Africa is doing business with currently includes among others WhatsUPAfrica, PesaPal, Strathmore University, and Tarpo Tents.

Kariuki said Node Africa has six employees and their aim is to turn the firm into a cloud computing powerhouse this year. This will involve creating more awareness about cloud computing and offering the services at affordable rates. He said their charges range between Ksh1000 and Ksh100,000, depending on the needs of the client.

Kariuki believes that start-up success is not about the amount of money or the number of investors who are willing to invest, but rather the appeal and relevance of the product on offer.

“For instance, at Node Africa, we are much more focused on innovation in order to improve our product. We believe this is what will give us the ultimate success,” he said.

And what is Node Africa's focus in 2016?

“Am very clear on a few things now. First, start-ups have to grow the talent internally. So we will recruit more young people, grow them and train them. But one of the things I have set out very clearly for the organisation is that everyone who joins us has to abide by our way of working. There is no one who is irreplaceable, even me,” Kariuki said.

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