“Building something with nothing, is the real thing”

Today’s protagonist and author of this quote is Mthabisi Bokete. Born and raised in Botswana,  he is currently studying Mechatronics Engineering  at the University of Mauritius, but appart from his brilliance in the academic field, ‘Thabi’ is also the boss of a Digital Strategy & Creative Media Agency, called Digital Natives. 

Digital Natives ( fb.me/DigiNave) is blessed with a strong team of designers and digital marketers, that readily create beautifully designed digital solutions for Mobile Technology, Social Media Presence & Page Automation. ‘The first born’ from digital Natives is an App called ‘Get it done’.

Get it done (fb.me/GID2017) was designed with the purpose of providing Students, Graduates, Budding Entrepreneurs & Small Businesses with a ‘oh so tricky’ source of income while contributing actively (giving back to) to the development of the community. The App enables users to Post, Discover, Follow and Do small jobs/tasks or run errands for others in their community for free or for a fee. It was also envisioned as a go-to platform for companies’ marketing campaigns.

Get it done is also the story of a dedicated young man and his friends, who set foot on the road to entrepreneurship while still studying regardless of the challenge it poses. As my good friend, he spared some time to share his experience with us…

How did you start the project? Come up with the idea?

‘ As a university student, it is quite difficult to get part-time jobs that have flexible work hours or to get one at all. Whether due to lack of vacancies or our crazy schedule (from cleaning to groceries to projects, assignments, reports and tests) having a source of income is a challenge for most students. Concurrently, rapid advances in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence programs have led to a greater number of layoffs in multiple industries and sectors, with over 40M Graduates unemployed in Africa alone & 100M+ worldwide/year. The need to find a solution without resorting to a universal income is a global one.

This observation of my own situation and the external environment allowed me to come up with an idea. I then began toying around with possible micro solutions and realized I build my main company offering X amount for assistance with certain aspects of Get It Done which led to an income and a small fixed employee base. I thought what if it were possible to outsource work like that to help others benefit from there communities. So Posting a task or project you need assistance with alongside a fixed amount, while allowing others to easily find assist and benefit from it in the most secure manner. Led to the conception of Getting It Done.

Where did you turn for help in running this project?

Truth is Google and Udacity courses for dev. Initially, I drew up all the wireframes brainstormed of the simplicities of it, then did some research on how to bring them to life. I found online tools that helped in creating “interactive demos” with no code (Like a touch-sensitive slideshow really).

So here I am with a hand full of knowledge in coding my sketched out wireframes, and no skill in design at all. That’s when I asked a friend of mine who was studying interior design, to help me with the little knowledge she had to turn my sketches into a digital prototype.

A Month later, It was in my favor to find, apply and gratefully win the Huawei Most innovative app idea early June of 2017 which gave me the opportunity to be Pre Incubated at the Turbine Incubator for 2 months during my holidays, which really gave me the much need workspace environment to work with my team, networking possibilities and once a week advisory sessions.

I could honestly say they kept me going through accountability, achieving all my milestones, and the following up’s on my progress. All this definitely led to an acceleration of Get It Done.

What has been your experience over the last six months?

It’s been filled with intense days of hardship, self-denial, borderline madness and insomnia. You know, the usual :). My advice for start up’s: don’t start a company or create an app while you are studying any demanding course, seems obvious I know. It really does take a large mental toll on you but grows your character to the point of relentlessness or insanity. Basically, if you don’t love the pain don’t jump in front of a train.

How is the App doing? What are the main challenges at the moment?

It’s having its fair share or development stress, but we are currently acquiring Beta testers exclusively to Mauritius and Canada if anyone is interested Sign Up and try out the app here m.me/GID2017

Financial constraints for the marketing and scaling as well as a few development deadlines, that I had set.

Any new projects?

There are about 4 upcoming projects, but I’ll only mention one. Namely Corey-O a mobile app that allows users to request travellers visiting their country to buy and bring along with them things like clothes or, gadgets when visiting their country…

Wrapping up the interview, ‘Thabi’ has left us with some inspirational quote encouraging young entrepreneurs to persevere:

“Building something with nothing, is the real thing”