Star-tup of the month: Smart Communities, a Tech4Good platform

About Smart Communities

Smart Communities promotes a unified vision for all communities where residents are empowered to make their communities safe spaces to live in, functional and beautiful places to reside, and here residents support local businesses so their money can create jobs and be invested in the community to build prosperity for all. Smart Communities empowers communities to fix issues they face themselves by promoting Active Citizenry, Public Participation and Community Collaboration with the help of technology. Through the collective action of all communities and our scalable technology platform, together communities can help uplift their country and economy.

 

The Smart Communities tech platform was born out of co-creation efforts with South African communities with the idea of not only addressing their unique challenges but also enabling growth. Community stakeholders voiced a need for a centralised communication platform, as existing social media channels had become overwhelming, requiring constant monitoring to stay informed and respond effectively. The platform provides a streamlined solution, fostering better engagement and action within communities. The three key platform enablers are Smart Connect app for Residents, Smart Biz.App mobile app for community businesses and Virtual Private Communities portal for community administrators.Najen's vision is not just limited to South Africa but extends beyond serving his local community to scaling his impact globally.  In Mauritius, as part of it getting off the ground, Smart Communities will be helping to connect 100 local solopreneurs and gig workers to a network of startups, Smart Entrepreneurs and La Plage Alumni to mobilise their businesses in Mauritius and beyond.

Funding

Since Smart Communities is not a for-profit company, they are not focused on raising equity funding but are instead prioritising the impact they want to make in the communities they serve. To implement their projects, they are exploring grant funding and raising their own capital, along with bootstrapping through private investment. The funding received from grant funders has already been used to kickstart their vision within the communities.

Challenges

Firstly, Najen emphasises the importance of building a team that fully buys into and shares the company’s vision. It’s not enough to simply articulate the vision, he says; you must demonstrate it. He highlights the need for employees to genuinely connect with the vision, provide valuable feedback, and contribute ideas that could drive the company forward. Najen also acknowledges the multifaceted role of a "career entrepreneur", which demands being a "generalist" and learning a wide range of skills. While challenging initially, he believes this approach is essential for understanding how to attract the right people to join and grow the team.

Secondly, he points out that government policies are often unfavourable to social impact organisations. He observes that grant makers frequently misunderstand scalable social impact models, equating impact solely with visible, direct actions like teaching or feeding people, rather than the need for a platform that supports sustainable, systemic change.

Lastly, Najen acknowledges the challenge of balancing social impact with economic sustainability, particularly when it comes to accessing venture capital funding, which often comes with many conditions. This has led his company to shy away from venture capital, as accepting funding in exchange for equity would mean giving up control to shareholders, potentially distorting the organisation’s vision and shifting its focus away from the intended social impact.

Advice to upcoming entrepreneurs

Najen advises entrepreneurs to first get their ideas on paper, visualise them and critically assess them. He also recommends finding someone they trust to provide feedback, helping to refine the ideas and make them more holistic and effective.

Secondly, Najen emphasises the importance of entrepreneurs having a prototype of their product. He believes this helps potential customers understand and experience the product idea and allows for incorporating valuable feedback to refine the final product. He discourages entrepreneurs, especially those building tech products, from reinventing the wheel by creating new platforms. Instead, he advises testing their prototypes on existing platforms to assess feasibility, practicality, and demand by building communities on social media and Instant Messaging platforms. By engaging deeply with their customers, entrepreneurs can better understand their inherent challenges and build their solutions to address these needs ensuring the adoption of their product.

Thirdly, Najen cautions entrepreneurs not to rely solely on others to bring their vision to life. He advises them to learn how to generate revenue through methods like bootstrapping, raising funds, crowdfunding, or taking on side hustles to sustain their business. Relying too heavily on external money, he says, can lead to unnecessary delays, dependency, and when funding dries up, the business risks collapsing. Fundraising and generating revenue in any way possible, he says, is an essential skill for entrepreneurs.

Lastly, Najen advises entrepreneurs to be patient with their journey. He encourages them to take their time to build out their vision, allowing the process to transform them. By learning from their mistakes, and with a bit of luck, they will eventually find success and make money. “Remember sometimes the market needs to catch up to your innovative idea—there is a right time and place for everything,” he concludes.

Future plans 

In the next 18 months, Smart Communities aims to expand nationwide across South Africa and launch pilot programmes in Mauritius, positioning the solution as the Centre of Excellence. Their goal is to use technology to improve society in Mauritius by enabling communities to co-govern with the government. They plan to build blueprints from these initiatives and replicate them to at least 10 countries across Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and eventually the European Union.

In the next 18 to 36 months, Smart Communities will focus on their global outreach initiatives. With discussions already underway in Indonesia and India, they plan to begin ground operations in these countries as part of their expansion.

It is worth noting that while there is demand for their platform in the global North, Smart Communities' primary focus during their formative years will be on the global South.

Smart Communities exemplifies how technology can be harnessed for the greater good, creating empowered, connected, and resilient communities.