Roha Group, founded by American-born Brooks Washington, started out in Africa with a beer bottle factory in Ethiopia. It has since launched a pan-African data centre business and an equipment financing company, and is now developing a hospital in Addis Ababa.
In a recent interview with How we made it in Africa, Washington shared four lessons he has learnt as an entrepreneur.
Keep going: Persistence and resilience count for more than any upfront plan, he says. “Apparently my grandfather used to say that the key to success in life is to just survive long enough to receive your blessing. And I really believe that now.”
“Just sticking at it, finding ways to continue, I think is the biggest determinant of success,” he adds.
Start with one thing: Washington advises focusing on one thing and getting it right before expanding. His data centre venture Raxio, for instance, launched with a single facility in Uganda before moving into other markets. “I think being able to really understand something without stretching yourself too thin is important,” he says, though he admits he hasn’t always followed that advice himself.
Plan for setbacks: “Every single country on the continent is a challenging place to do business,” he says. “There are enormous opportunities across the continent but they’re not without their challenges.” Entrepreneurs need to go in with their eyes open, he adds. That means pursuing the opportunities they believe in while preparing for every eventuality and making sure their plans can withstand it.
Think big: When Washington launched his first project, Juniper Glass, the beer bottle venture in Ethiopia, many people questioned its scale and asked why he didn’t start smaller. “I think it’s gonna be almost as hard to do a small thing as it will be to do a big thing. So I’d rather do this big thing and show that I can do it and grow from there,” he told them. He is glad he took that route, and believes it is what the continent needs: “people who are thinking big and trying to do big, hard things.”
Watch/read our full interview with Brooks Washington: From beer bottles in Ethiopia to data centres – The American entrepreneur who goes big in Africa
The tension between 'start with one thing' and 'think big' is the part I find most useful here. Raxio starting with a single facility in Uganda reads like a way to be big in ambition but narrow in execution. I'd be curious how he decided when one site was proven enough to open the next.
The two lessons pull in opposite directions: Raxio started with a single facility in Uganda, yet the Juniper Glass story is about going big from day one. It sounds like the real skill is knowing which part to keep small, maybe the first proof, while the ambition stays large. How does Washington decide when a first site has earned the next one?