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I respect @markessien a lot because he is the only one who has figured out how to solve the "people pipeline" problem in African tech with internships. There are lessons to be learned from him about transparency. He is boiling the ocean according to @nke_ise and yielding results.
I have always believed in an open-source and community solution to talent problem and he has started solving it. People need to be trained, mentored, and gain some measure of experience before they are ready. Of all the African community approaches @hnginternship works best.
@hnginternship is a solution to solve @markessien's own pipeline problem which he now opened up to the community. I am amazed that not many startup founders are collaborating with him but corporates like Google are.
The job pipeline problem is a community problem requiring community solutions. There are no saviors or magic bullets. There need to be more internship schemes and open-source NOT FOR PROFIT matching platforms feeding into others that can become our local version of TopTal.
One thing a lot of people don't realize is - TopTal didn't bother to raise any more money (to the annoyance of existing investors) because it figured out it could b become self-sustaining by depending on its community to help drive and run it. It became a labor of love for many.
This is his note of warning to investors. He basically told them to fuck off.
https://www.toptal.com/investors
https://www.toptal.com/investors
This is why I believe in investing in the education part of the pipeline and not the marketplace part. The marketplace can become a self-sustaining community as TopTal has proven.
Even education is a community play as well. We should learn to organize as a community.
Even education is a community play as well. We should learn to organize as a community.
I had a conversation with the young man involved in the current controversy this week. He just needs guidance as he actually started from building a community like @markessien. He has investors committed already. The community should come together to help and not destroy him.
We need more communities and fewer marketplaces. Even Silicon Valley figured that out now with @LambdaSchool and others.
2018 revenue for Toptal was about $200m.
