By: John S. Morlu II, CPA
📊 Elevator Pitch Olympics: Every hallway is a potential pitch arena. If you can’t summarize your idea in 30 seconds or less, someone else with a crypto wallet and a Canva presentation will steal your thunder.
💼 Meet the ‘Founder of Everything’: There’s always one guy who’s the CEO of five startups. One day he’s raising funds for a health app, the next he’s launching a new blockchain for goats. You never know which hat he’s wearing — or why.
🎨 Design by Vibes: Some co-working spaces look like a Pinterest board exploded. Neon signs saying ‘Hustle Harder,’ bean bags, and a swing in the corner. The space is cool — the AC is not.
🛋️ Couch Capitalism: Don’t underestimate the couch people. They look like they’re lounging, but they’re secretly coding the next big fintech or responding to investors in Estonia.
🔌 Wi-Fi Wars: Internet speed is a sensitive subject. Say anything below 100 Mbps and people start calling emergency meetings. Startup founders don’t cry — unless the internet goes down mid-pitch.
🥗 Avocado Nation: If your lunch doesn’t have avocado, are you even innovating? Nairobi’s startup elite treat it like edible venture capital — green, smooth, and essential to success.
🚀 Motivation Wall Quote of the Day: ‘If you’re not failing, you’re not scaling.’ Deep, until you realize the speaker is 18 and still lives with their parents. But hey, inspiration is everywhere.
🕵️♂️ The Investor Chase: Rumor has it a foreign VC once visited the co-working space. Since then, everyone keeps a clean desk, wears startup hoodies, and practices smiling in the mirror — just in case he returns.
Step into Nairobi’s co-working spaces, and you’ll swear you just walked into a Netflix show set in San Francisco.
Open layouts. Minimalist furniture. Motivational quotes on the wall. And people — lots of them — each armed with a laptop, big dreams, and headphones they never actually use.
💻 Desk = Destiny: In Nairobi, a single desk at a premium co-working space costs $350 per month. That’s right — one chair, one desk, one charging port. But hey, dreams need real estate.
🌱 Startups on Steroids: Every desk comes with its own founder. Every founder has an idea that will “revolutionize Africa.” In reality, it’s often an app that helps you borrow power banks or rent umbrellas. Big dreams, zero users — but amazing pitch decks.
☕ Coffee Diplomacy: The coffee is free, but the opinions are strong. People pitch, network, and disrupt — often simultaneously. And yes, there’s always one guy with a whiteboard marker who thinks he’s Steve Jobs.
🚪 Rotating Realities: Today it’s a fintech. Tomorrow it’s an agritech. Same founder, same product, just new buzzwords. Nairobi’s startup scene is as agile as its slide decks.
🧠 Satirical Truth: You’ll overhear a lot of phrases like “pre-seed round,” “scale strategy,” and “pivoting to B2B SaaS” — usually from someone whose business doesn’t have a website yet.
🏢 Space as Status: Some people don’t even come to work. They just show up, take selfies, post “#grindmode,” and leave. Because in Nairobi, hustle is a lifestyle, not necessarily a result.
👨🏾💻 Diverse Mix: You’ve got developers from Kibera, designers from Runda, influencers from Instagram, and investors from… somewhere. It’s the United Nations of ambition.
🧾 Business Tip: If you’re thinking of opening a co-working space in Nairobi, just make sure you have fast Wi-Fi, good coffee, clean bathrooms, and at least one green plant. The plant seals the deal.
Co-working in Nairobi isn’t just a workspace — it’s a belief system. A place where hope, hustle, and hashtags intersect — and sometimes even result in real businesses.
Next up, Chapter Thirty-Seven:
“Silicon Savannah – How Kenya Became Africa’s Tech Superpower (No, Seriously).”
About the Author
John is an entrepreneur, strategist, and founder of JS Morlu, LLC, a Virginia based CPA firm with multiple software ventures including www.FinovatePro.com, www.Recksoft.com and www.Fixaars.com . With operations spanning multiple countries, John is on a mission to build global infrastructure that empowers small businesses, entrepreneurs, and professionals to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. He believes in hard truths, smart execution, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. When he’s not writing or building, he’s challenging someone to a productivity contest—or inventing software that automates it.