#7 - Africa’s Talent Pool

Summary - 10 seconds

Core takeaway:  The top talent in Africa can compete with the top talent in the U.S. or any other market.

Detailed Overview - 2 minutes

After traveling from west to east to southern Africa, one of my core takeaways is this: The best and brightest in Africa can compete with the best and brightest anywhere in the world.

Yes, it is true that the depth of talent in America is better than in Africa, it’s better in America than anywhere in the world! But what I found is that while the breadth of talent in the U.S. is better than in Africa, the Top 1% of entrepreneurs and investors – the world changers – are as good in Africa as they are anywhere else. I have met entrepreneurs in Africa who can go toe-to-toe with Silicon Valley’s best, and I’ve met investors in Africa who can go toe-to-toe with the best I ever traded with on Wall Street. Africa is benefiting today from a strong class of brilliant entrepreneurs and investors in their 20s and 30s who grew up in Africa, went to Ivy League schools in America, worked on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, and moved back to the continent to start businesses and investment firms.

To add data to this - Africa is statistically one of the most efficient unicorn factories in the world, producing more unicorns per dollar of VC invested per capita than the US and Europe, based on approximate data from 2023 & 2024.  Source:  The Business Case For Investing In Africa | LinkedIn

These are the kinds of people we talk about investing in – the ones who will build Africa into a major economic engine over the next 10-20 years.