I was delighted to find that Sub Saharan Africa has a nascent pocket of chip talent. I sit down in this episode to chat with Ola Fadiran, founder of ChipMango, a startup designing semiconductors in sub Saharan Africa.
Africa is not known for its chip ecosystem,
Yet.
It’s a unique spot to be engaging the industry, but Ola has a vision that stretches 20+ years into the future. He’s modeling his journey off North Africa and India’s path into the world of semiconductors: find a niche, develop talent, nurture an ecosystem by encouraging entrepreneurship in others. No subsidies or national plans, just raw entrepreneurial spirit.
Why Africa?
ChipMango is ambitious: Ola is not just building a startup, but he’s bootstrapping an entire ecosystem, and making a big bet that he can raise up an industry from an untapped talent market. The gamble is that ChipMango can kickstart an ecosystem in Africa, and the payoff is that they’ll unlock an untapped pocket of talent in an industry that runs on talent.
Trust is Currency
Like my previous guest, Darian (Episode 9), who identifies credibility as a secret ingredient, Ola explains why trust is the most important element of semiconductors.
If Ola is right, trust is not a soft asset in this industry. It’s the infrastructure everything else gets built on. Watch or listen to our full conversation now.
