Investor shuns Harvard to pursue tech dream

Zagace Company founder Mubarak Muyika during the interview last week. Photo/SALATON NJAU 

By SIMON CIURI

In Summary

• Mubarak Muyika's passion for entrepreneurship saw him turn down a fully paid scholarship to the prestigious Harvard University in the US last year to follow the unbeaten path of setting up a computer business.

Orphaned at 10, Mubarak Muyika has been doing business since his school days at Kamusinga High School in Bungoma County.

His passion for entrepreneurship saw him turn down a fully paid scholarship to the prestigious Harvard University in the US last year to follow the unbeaten path of setting up a computer business.

‘‘I cleared high school in 2011, two years earlier I had developed a passion for computers that saw me set up a website for my adoptive parents who were running a bookshop.

‘‘They needed an online platform to expand their venture,’’ Mr Muyika, 19, told the Business Daily in an interview at Nation Centre, Nairobi, last week.

He registered Hype Century Technologies and Investments Ltd, a company which deals in web-designing and domain registration, in January 2012.

‘‘We started very small, with Sh50,000 which I had saved from a freelance job I had been doing as a student and after High School. My first client was so impressed that he offered me space in his office at Rehema House in Nairobi,’’ he recalled with nostalgia.

Mr Muyika incorporated two of his friends in the enterprise and within three months they were on a roll.

‘‘At that time we were handling six clients through monthly and annual charges,’’ he said. The firm earned a reputation for efficiency.

‘‘Mr Muyika is enterprising and focused, I recommended him to Havard University but noticed that entrepreneurship came first and he had no obligation to pursue the course.

‘‘Nowadays one can learn in many ways, even Bill Gates did not complete his studies. He walked out and aggressively did serious business,’’ said business magnate Chris Kirubi in a phone interview with the Business Daily.

‘‘We had three computers and in a good month I would pocket between Sh60,000 and Sh80,000, which I used to pay my two part-time employees. Our services varied from domain registration to web hosting and designing ’’ he said.

By August last year the company had grown big enough to employ six more people on a full time basis and relocated to a bigger office in Westlands.

‘‘Most of the new staff were university graduates, I was dealing with the best talent in the market,’’ said Mr Muyika.

In the same month, the entrepreneur contested for the Anzisha Prize in South Africa and walked away with Sh1.1 million.

Anzisha Prize targets African entrepreneurs aged between 15 and 21 who have developed innovative businesses which have positively impacted on communities.