Programming languages for non-programmers needs to be embedded in a vessel.
Excel is probably the quintessential vessel. When people are trying to solve a need they have, they will invest the effort to figure out the tools, including learning enough programming to solve their problems.
> Schemas: Schemaless does not mean no schema; instead, it means an implicit schema in the app (a particularly challenging misnomer for anyone outside our industry)
> That’s what everyone says but how many 100x’s are there really? I’ve been doing this a long time and there just aren’t that many.
> I don’t have the same pressures of a fund in liquidity, timing or the need for 100x returns. If I can consistently get 5x to 10x I’d take that all day long.
How many investors, angels, VCs or otherwise, focus on the 5x-10x return deals?
And are 5x-10x deals safer, meaning that more of a sure thing, than the 100x deals in terms of return? I.e. are VCs being rational by focusing on the 100x deals since 5x-10x deals aren't safer, or are they forgoing safer and better returns of the 5x-10x for the chance to become movers and shakers of the largest players?
> We’ve had a few successes. One of our companies was acquired by an Accel backed company.
> The other is Saya, the first African company to pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt. Weeks before the event the founders didn’t even have passports!
It is very cool that there are already success stories.
Without ever being in Africa, I lack the knowledge and wonder if the current infrastructure is capable of supporting knowledge-based economy on a broad scale, but it's certainly good to see that high tech businesses could thrive there, and incubators are getting created.
Excel is probably the quintessential vessel. When people are trying to solve a need they have, they will invest the effort to figure out the tools, including learning enough programming to solve their problems.