My 2-day-a-week break from running my company
I've recently decided to take a break from running my company Sprout. Well, sort of...
Only this time I won't be off to an isolated island, with a crate of my favorite beer and nothing but seagulls for company.
For the next 8 weeks, I'll take 2 working days off and contribute to the tech community in Nairobi. Looking at the past year, some of the challenges I've faced as a CEO of a young tech agency have been in managing talent and not getting fast enough to the market. These are two things I'm hoping to fix on this hiatus.
Building and attracting talent
A startup lives and dies by the team, and I've had an excellent team this year. Many a times we've not known exactly what to do or build, but we've been happy to grope in the dark together. I'm not the most fun person to work for or with. I'm extremely inpatient and really thrive amongst driven people who require minimal supervision. This, I admit may not be the most conducive environment for people still learning the craft. So I've decided to throw myself amongst the wolves and teach young people how to program.
The Nairobi Dev School started by @njerichelimo aims to teach young kenyans how to program. I've already taken two sessions with the students, teaching them Ruby on Rails and its been very promising. Their curiosity has been challenging and I can already feel that my patience levels are growing.
Me, with 'principal' Martha at a Treehouse sponsored meetup
I'm hoping they get their website up and get some of the students blogging about their experience. Ultimately, I'm (selfishly) hoping to be able to inspire some of them to take up this journey I've been on the last decade. I wouldn't mind an employee or two.