Today was a hardcore adventure capitalism day. I woke up pretty early and started walking the city to try and get a pulse of the area. I went to Question coffee and had an iced caramel latte, probably the best coffee I have had in my life. After I walked towards the city center to explore. Walking on the street I saw so many ambitious projects and advertisements. The city is so clean and super safe. There are a bunch of motorcycle taxis where everyone is required to wear a helmet. There are dedicated areas which are "car free zones". At times it did really feel like I was walking in a utopia. The weather was great and the rolling hills throughout the city are beautiful. Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills. After a long walk of exploring I came back to my guesthouse and ordered a pineapple juice with lunch. I spent a solid two hours researching various things. It ranged from a podcast with Javier Milei to mindfulness city project starting in Bhutan. After my research session I went to the gym and hit the sauna. I was pretty tired from walking the hills and the sauna but I had a business meeting I scheduled tonight. I met with a guy named Matt who is a real deal adventure capitalist. Zach met Matt's business partner in SF a year ago and we have been in contact ever since. Matt owns a restaurant/bar in Kigali and I went and chatted and had dinner. The food and margarita were fantastic, real authentic Mexican food. We talked about investment opportunities, his life story, and geopolitics. I learned a lot. He emphasized the importance of building something that excites you and having the right connections. He knows people very high up in the Rwanda government which helps speed projects along. He also is friendly with police chiefs which helps him run his bar too. Similar to the conversation I had with the Kenyan woman yesterday he said how bad the corruption is in Africa. He emphasized how Rwanda and Tanzania have stable governments. It was really cool hearing all the awesome projects he works on. I think it would be pretty easy to raise money for a cool project. The problem I struggle with is foreseeing how one investment property can scale to becoming a full fledge entrepreneur. He told me the only way is to really get investors and build a big project if you do not have the capital yourself. He likes the restaurant industry as well as the manufacturing industry and told me how there is a plethora of opportunities in Africa for the taking. The hard part is just choosing the one that gets you excited. Zach is still being held in Mombasa, awaiting chemical analysis of the bullet shell in his backpack. Hopefully we will meet in Dubai on Sunday and he is able to get out quickly and smoothly.
