He is known in the local tech community as a master coder. He thinks, eats and drinks code and it would surprise you to know that the first time he ever touched a computer was when he first joined form one, precisely on 17th of February 1997. The day is clearly etched in his mind, perhaps due to the fact that it was a turning point in his life. I had the opportunity to chat with the outspoken Idd Salim about his life and growth as an entrepreneur.

Educational and Professional Background

Idd Salim grew up in hardship in Isiolo, Eastern Province, and was solely raised by his mother. As he was about to sit for his KCPE exams, his mother told him that the only way he could continue with his education was if he applied to Starehe Boys Centre on a full scholarship. However, Starehe’s policy was to admit only two students from his home district, one paying, and one on bursary. Upon sitting his standard eight examinations, he emerged sixth in his district. He considers himself lucky for even making it to Starehe due to the fact that three other boys had applied with him, two of them performing better than Salim in KCPE. However, he edged out one of them due to his exemplary performance in English.

Once in Starehe, Salim started his relationship with computers by playing games. He also contributed to the school newspaper, SCAN. With time, however, he lost interest in computer games and started programming, at which point he decided he would pursue this as a career.
Upon completing his high school education, Salim was called to Maseno University to do a BA in textiles. He declined to join, citing that there was no way he would make a career from making socks. He already had a job at that time working for Kelele.com and would get work from campus students to assist them in their course work for their Masters. During this period, he was living with a few friends in the University of Nairobi campus hostels and many thought he was pursuing a degree in computer science.

Salim left Kelele.com to work for ISP Kenya in 2002, where he learnt to use Visual Basic and Linux but had to leave when their department relocated to South Africa. He would also clash severally with management as he preferred working without supervision, at his own hours and simply due to the fact that he was a rebel in nature.
With time, Salim realized that he made more money hustling outside than in formal employment. It was at this point he knew he wanted to become an entrepreneur. He therefore, with a friend, started a company in 2002. They designed management systems for gyms, apartments, schools and video libraries.

In 2004, one of his former classmates, called him to do some work in Uganda for a week or so, but he ended up staying there for four years. He would do a few projects here and there but it was difficult getting these projects due to IT resistance by companies who feared that IT was threatening their job security. He was employed in Grand Casino for a couple of years to run their systems but with time got fed up and left for Nairobi.

The Business

Salim realized that it was time to change a few aspects of his life, especially when it came to matters of integrity. He would squeeze clients during jobs and sometimes even overcharge them for his services. Once back in Kenya, Salim concentrated more on development of web applications. He worked freelance for Symbiotic Media before acquiring a 50% shareholding and becoming technical partner. He also develops systems and applications for them and manages servers.
Aside from Symbiotic Media, Salim does consultancy and is also working on a project of his known as Xema Labs. Here he is developing zero-day applications, those that have not yet been fully realized.

In terms of funding for startups, Salim says that it is hard to come by as most investors come with a lot of proxies. There is always a catch. As for returns, at Symbiotic, Salim says all running costs are taken care of. There is little or no marketing as their projects are more of blanket partnerships formed; their services advertize themselves.
Salim views the mobile industry as a virgin industry; there is still so much to be done. He claims that there are better connection links in Kenya than in South Africa. Nevertheless, we have the wrong mindset and rarely use these links to our advantage. He further points out that due to better access to internet facilities there is access to a lot of information causing an information overload.
“We are getting overwhelmed with options and there are a lot of different opinions on the range of skills necessary to acquire to be successful in this industry!”

On Entrepreneurship

Idd Salim advices that whilst one needs to be patients with clients, one should demand for a down payment before doing any work to avoid not being paid once the job is done. Further, he insists that it is necessary to attend crucial meetings with clients with a legal representative so as to circumvent points of collision and confusion as the project progresses.

Salim notes that as one establishes themselves as an entrepreneur, they stop pitching for some things they would otherwise do and become more aversive to risk, sometimes missing on good opportunities.
One of the problems Salim faces with some of his consultancy work is that he cannot pitch for some of the work as an individual. Some companies refuse to pay above a certain amount of money for work done by an individual and has therefore missed out on projects he could have pursued without the umbrella of a company.

Salim’s success criterion is based on a fully functional web application or a system that the customer is pleased with. He writes in a blog post that he referred me to, that his idea of the successful is of those that are thriving: whose opinions are sought by top government officials and no longer code but are true business men.

Salim lists the following regrets as he looks back at his journey:
He regrets going to Uganda. For those few years, he believes, that his life stagnated. He also regrets not starting out fully as an entrepreneur earlier. Salim also made mistakes in the course of establishing himself such as accepting pay once he was done with work . Like many other coders he discovered the hard way when clients did not pay once the work was completed

One of the setbacks he faces is the lack of skill sets he requires of people he works with and consequently, there are capacity issues such that at times it is difficult for him to delegate some of his work.
When Salim is not coding, he loves to play pool and socialize. It is a huge passion and he once played for money in the Uganda Pool National League.
For upcoming entrepreneurs, Salim advises them to get a mentor to guide them through as they establish themselves. He also advises that one should not quote a price for their work before enquiring about the budget allocated to that project. This is so as to avoid short selling yourself.

Finally, Salim says, “to be successful, you need to be focused on one or two powerful systems and see them to the end as compared to taking upon yourself numerous projects that you cannot complete."

You can read more about his work here and here and follow him on twitter @iddsalim