Free/Discounted Resources for African SMEs

Nothing here constitutes legal or professional advice. Do your own research. Hire your own attorney.

Mentors:

• SCORE: Find a free mentor in the US if you are looking to export. All retired entrepreneurs of very good quality. Hint: Use "Sales" and "Wholesale" as your search criteria.
• VC4A mentors: Sign up and find free business mentors in Africa. I have found 2 good ones here.

Accounting:

• Quickbooks: 50% off the first year
• Odoo: 20% off the first year and 75% off for companies paying from Africa
• Zoho (Kuzana's preferred accounting software): Freemium. Kuzana Bizi get Ksh300,000 of free credits. Must receive Kuzana investment.
• Doola.com: Use code REFERAFOUNDER10 for 10% discount. Includes software, bookkeeper, registration and annual tax filing for $2700 a year with the discount. For US C-corp and LLCs.

Email

• Google Workspace/Email: - free for 1 year and $300 free ad credits (be sure to do this first if you haven't already)

African Business Success Stories

• How we made it in Africa

Reading/learning

• VC gone wrong. The story of arsDigita
• How to do online marketing (video) w/ Alex Hornozi

Sales

CRM

We recommend using Google Sheets for your CRM, which is free with Google Workspace.

Find email addresses:

• hunter.io: freemium
• Snov.io: freemium

Export

• SAFTA: - provides export quality control management so you get paid
• Colead: - discounted membership to european import organization that provides certification help.

Cloud, SMS and Data Credits:

• Infobip: special offer for startups
• AWS: $300 free credits (credits available once you sign up and request the free credits)

Fundraising

Templates:

• Business Plan
• Pitch Deck
• Financial Model
• Lean Canvas
• Free AI pitch deck feedback. This is actually quite good.
• Grant Feedback. Submit your failed grant applications to find out why. $100.

• esha.ai: Find Equity/Debt/Grant funding opportunities. Free.
• Sunlight.Reviews: Like Yelp or Google Maps for funders. Rated by entrepreneurs.
• Sunlight.Capital: - the most comprehensive list of transaction advisors in Africa. Free.

Company Registration in the US

• Stripe: (if you sign up for Carta first (free) you can get a link to register your business on stripe for $400)
• Carta: Cap table management for companies anywhere in the world, Free for companies that have raised less than $1m.
• Doola.com: Use code REFERAFOUNDER10 for 10% discount

Bank

US

• Mercury: Get $250 referral bonus here.

International transfers

• Wise.com: $600 of free transfers

Payment Processing

• Stripe: (use Carta signup link for free processing for first $100k of transactions)

Online Presence

• Online Audit - you never get a second chance to make a first impression. What do investors see when they view you online?
• SEO Optimization (Neil Patel): - Test if your website has good SEO and load times. Freemium
• Google Sites website builder: Free with Google Workspace above.
• Lovable AI website builder: - build a website without coding.

Talent:

• Moving Worlds: helps you find experts around the world to work for you for free. I hired someone through here who became our interim General Manager for 6 months.
• PUM: - retired experts provide free consulting, paid for Dutch government. Provide online and in person consulting.

Legal:

• YC SAFE template: Free.
• Advisor stock option template: Free.
• Employee Stock Option template: Free.
• Kenya Share Subscription Template.
• Sidley Emerging Enterprises Pro Bono Program: Pro bono legal services for eligible emerging enterprises.
• Steve Jobs explains stock options in 60 seconds

Sales funnel Analysis

• Alex Hormozi video case study

Hiring

• Post a job on Brighter Monday (referral link) or LinkedIn w/ a $9/day boost

Personal Development:

• Landmark Forum
  • A transformative weekend workshop on personal relationships, integrity and self-limiting beliefs. What got you here won't get you there. If you want to go from Millions in revenue to Billions you will need to think 1,000x bigger, have 1,000x more integrity, and discard stories that no longer serve you. https://landmarkkenya.com/schedules/
  • Personally, I fixed several relationship including with my father who I hadn't had a conversation with for 15 years even though he's a great guy. I reduced my complaining by 90%. And I discovered that I was in charge of creating my _own_ meaning in life. I entered a complete state of flow, let go of baggage and started a Thai Restaurant that was profitable in the first month.
  • Dollar for dollar, hour for hour, easily the highest ROI self improvement course of my life.