One uncomfortable truth about the African startup ecosystem:
Your startup is more likely to get funded if it looks like a social impact project, NGO-style initiative, or climate-focused solution than if it aims to become a massive wealth-creating business.
what's your view on this
I’m currently bootstrapping an app called Trackly — a phone protection and tracking app designed to help people locate their phones within the first few hours after they’re stolen, when recovery still matters most.
One thing nobody really tells you when building a startup is how expensive development infrastructure can get, especially as a solo founder.
Things like:
start adding up very quickly.
At the moment, I’m trying to validate the idea properly while also looking for potential sponsors, supporters, or early believers who might want to help push the project forward.
That’s one of the reasons I decided to start building a waitlist early — so that when I eventually pitch the product, I can also show that there are already people interested in using it.
I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from other founders here:
And if the idea interests you, here’s the waitlist:
https://forms.gle/zq6JJGr1eqfnypwQ6
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Hey r/buildinpublic,
I recently lost my phone to a snatcher and it got me thinking how once it’s gone, recovery is basically luck in those first few hours.
I started building an app called Trackly to help improve that window of recovery for stolen devices.
But I’ve run into something — the build isn’t cheap because of APIs and infra costs.
So I’m thinking of first building a waitlist (aiming for ~1000 users) before going deeper, just to validate if people actually care and maybe use that to approach funding.
Would love honest feedback on this approach — especially from people who’ve built something before.
Does this make sense or am I overthinking the validation part?