Fabian Owuor
Once upon a time (okay, like two years ago), I was just a lone startup warrior, coding furiously from 3 PM to 3 AM, just in time for the cat conference, with high pitched discussions and chasing each other over the roof. Coffee, cookies and blind optimism. The dream was simple: find a way to make building startups easier for both tech and non tech founders, most of Africa's problems are local and cover small markets that do not get focused on, they have an impact for the communities that use the solutions but the world may not look at these innovations as relatable and maybe—just maybe—get enough sleep to remember my own middle name. Fast forward to today, and somehow, I’ve accidentally started helping build a DAO (BAD) consortium spanning seven African countries, with a thriving community of 150 and an active team of over 15 consultants. How did this happen? Let me tell you: pure, unfiltered mwenjoyo.
Like most startup founders, I began my journey believing I could do everything myself. Marketing? Check. Product development? Double-check. Community building? Eh, how hard could it be? (Spoiler: very hard.)
At first, things moved fast. I built, launched, pivoted, and pretended I knew what I was doing. But soon, the cracks began to show. One morning, I found myself responding to community questions on Discord while debugging a smart contract and simultaneously trying to convince my internet provider that, yes, I had paid my bill. It was at that moment I realized: I needed help. Also, I was only clearing, one startup every quarter, the hope was to hit at least 3 every month.
Naturally, in my desperation, I turned to the one solution that seemed both futuristic and completely unmanageable: a DAO.
For the uninitiated, a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) is essentially a community-run entity where decisions are made collectively, powered by smart contracts, governance tokens, and an ungodly amount of Discord Meets. In theory, it’s all about collaboration and decentralization. In practice, it’s like herding cats—if the cats also had strong opinions on tokenomics and governance models.
At first, it was just a few of us. Then word got out. Before I knew it, we had expanded. How? Honestly, I’m still not sure. One day, I was just a guy yelling into the void; the next, people were DMing me with proposals, initiatives, and spreadsheets filled with DAO like things.
It turns out, when you bring passionate people together around a shared mission, magic happens. Suddenly, I wasn’t alone anymore. Instead of trying to be the CEO, marketer, developer, and janitor all at once, I was now part of a movement.
With growth came responsibility. As our community hit 150 members, we needed structure. Enter: consultants. You know, actual experts who understood legal frameworks, financial models, and operational logistics (unlike me, who thought "just vibe it out" was a reasonable strategy).
These consultants have helped transform our ragtag group into a well-oiled machine. We implemented real governance models, structured our decision-making processes, and somehow convinced people we were a legitimate organization instead of an enthusiastic group chat that got out of hand.
it's been a couple of weeks that feel almost a year long, if you had told me I’d be leading a DAO consortium, I would have assumed you meant "DAO" as in "Don't Attempt Overcommitment." And yet, here we are—growing, innovating, and making waves. We have an engaged community, real-world solutions launching in a few weeks, and an active team making things happen daily.
And the best part? I’m no longer doing it alone. Turns out, the real secret to success wasn’t working harder—it was finding the right people, empowering them, and stepping back to let them shine.
Imagine if in 3 years as any career, you could build enough residual income to retire in 3 to 5 years, coastal beaches, beautiful, young......is that a ring on your finger, scratch that though, beaches and food, stay away from the singles both human and whisky.
DAO have the opportunity to change people lives, if implemented well, we are open to try and welcome those who want to try it with us. As Spock said "“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few… or the one.” We can build better societies for the ones after us, DAOs are how we build it and leave an inheritance for them to take over and run.
We are currently clearing 6 startups a month, with a view of hitting 12 by end of the year, there you go thinking those thoughts in your head it's not the number of but the quality, startups refine themselves, we just get them through the traction window.
If you're a solo creator drowning in tasks, consider building a DAO (but, like, be really sure you're ready for the group chat notifications). What started as my personal passion project has evolved into a thriving ecosystem, proving that when you stop hoarding control and start embracing community, amazing things happen.
Also, maybe invest in an industrial-sized coffee maker. You’re going to need it. Build a DAO is upon as may the consensus be with you too.
