Kofi from Accra. Six years building other people's products, starting my own

Hello all. I am a backend developer in Accra. For six years I have built fintech products for clients, and every one of them launched with my code and somebody else's name.

I am building Stokvel, a tracker for group savings circles (we call them susu here). Members put in a fixed amount each month and one person takes the pot. Today that runs on WhatsApp and one trusted auntie with a notebook.

Real number: zero revenue. Two susu groups testing it, 31 people in total.

Stuck on: the auntie. In both groups the organiser does not want an app, because the notebook is her authority. If she will not use it, nobody will.

I have read a lot of this forum without an account. Thought it was time to stop reading.

Welcome Kofi, and thank you for the best-written introduction this month. The auntie problem is a proper one. Tagging @hana_petrova and @femi_ade, who have both sold software to someone whose power came from the paper version.

Kofi, welcome. I spent nine years in payments in Abuja and I have met this auntie many times.

You do not replace the notebook. You make her the only person with the admin screen. Give her a printed summary every month with her name at the top. The app should increase her authority, not threaten it. The members get read-only.

When she starts showing the printout to the other aunties, you have distribution.

This changes the whole design. I had her as one user among many. Thank you. I am rebuilding the roles this week.

Two things.

One. Femi is right. I sell invoicing to plumbers and the office manager is my real customer, not the plumber.

Two. Charge the group, not the members. One price, the organiser collects it the way she collects everything else.

I would like the forum to know that I told Kofi to join in July of last year and he said "I do not have time for forums".

I did not have time. Now I have no time and a forum.

Welcome Kofi!! The susu idea is SO good. My aunt runs a chit fund in Bangalore, which is the same thing, and she also has The Notebook. If you ever want to test in India I can make an introduction!

Update for anyone who finds this later: rebuilt it so the organiser is the only admin and gets a monthly printout. Showed the first auntie on Saturday. She asked whether it could have her photograph on it. It can now. A third group signed up through her on Sunday.

The photograph. Of course. Well done.

Three weeks from "stuck" to "third group". This is the forum working the way I hoped it would in 2024.