This podcast series is sponsored by The 2024 BigFive Summit
Welcome to Episode 6 of the 2024 BigFive Summit Speaker Series on the BIG5D Podcast. This series of podcast episodes features conversations about Africa’s tech scene, empowering SMEs with emerging technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, startup life, and more, featuring the incredible, diverse range of personalities who will speak at the 2024 BigFive Summit, 19-20 March in Cape Town.
In Episode 6, we chat with young South African serial entrepreneur John Kitenge, the founder and CEO of Frakional, a company that is trying to address the technology skills gap by placing IT specialists and developers with businesses for short to medium-term assignments.
John, who is just 22, already has multiple startups under his belt, dating back to high school. He will be attending his third BigFive Summit in March, where will lead a panel discussion on running lean startups at the Summit. Fraktional is also a 2024 Bronze BigFive Summit sponsor.
Our conversation with John touches on several important themes in African tech.
One such theme is the digital skills gap that often leaves startups unable to compete with corporates for the best technical talent.
Another is the trend John sees among developers with sought-after skills who increasingly are choosing project-based work, where they can set their terms, over corporate work, which is steady but can be unfulfilling.
Finally, we discuss how AI is changing the game for the work of developers now that generative AI can be used for everything from painting portraits to writing code.
“The simple comparison is that AI is the Grammarly for coding,” John says during the interview. ”So you can write better with Grammarly, you can write better articles with better punctuation and better vocabulary. Now apply that in coding context.”
Interview Excerpts
The following are a few edited excerpts from our conversation with John Kitenge. Please listen to the podcast to experience the full interview.
On why Fraktional’s business model addresses a real need in Africa
There's a movement that's happening, where a lot of people are opting, especially senior engineers, to become independent contractors. They get to have more product autonomy, and they get a diversity of projects.
On how AI is changing the business or writing code
The code is writing itself, and I think some people don't want to believe that that's possible. But some of these advancements are crazy.
You can also enjoy this podcast episode on Apple and Spotify.
Sponsored Message
This podcast series is presented by The BigFive Summit
African Tech Leaders to Share BigFive Summit Stage
Join our growing lineup of powerhouse speakers at the 2024 BigFive Summit, “Africa’s leading small business technology event” (19-20 March 2024 in Cape Town). Our lineup now includes Lunga Siyo, Lee Naik, Aisha Pandor, Khomotso Molabe, Lindelani Ramukumbu, Ashmita Singh, Denvor Daniels, Fiona Tabraham, Miranda Perumal, Simon Ellis, Zachariah George, Zach Marks, Kimberley Taylor, Meghan McCormick, Tanja De Korte, John Kitenge, and many others.
Purchase your Early Bird tickets today for only R2000. This grants the ticketholder two days of top-level content and networking in Africa’s top destination city with an amazing group of tech builders, investors, and corporate leaders. Apply the promotional code BIGFIVE25 at checkout to save an additional 25%.
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The 2024 BigFive Summit Speaker Series
Check out these Speaker Series episodes featuring some of the thought leaders slated to speak at the BigFive Summit in Cape Town.
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The BigFive Summit Speaker Series Episode 6: John Kitenge, Founder, Fraktional