Founder’s Journey: Q&A with Mujavid Bukhari
We sit down with Mujavid Bukhari, co founder of LiveLink
👋🏾 Salaam, we are Somalis in Tech and welcome to our monthly newsletter. Each month we’ll bring you the latest from the community, tech news and a community guest feature.
This newsletter is brought to you by Dahabshiil!
Our mutual interest in harnessing technology to address community challenges has led to our exciting partnership. 🤝
Dahabshiil's online money transfer website and mobile remittance app offer fast and hassle-free international money transfers. Your funds are secure with Dahabshiil, which is regulated by three authorities: the FCA in the UK, SFSA in Sweden, and FINTRAC in Canada. Say hello to seamless money transfers and goodbye to high fees and complications by downloading the Dahabshiil app today! 🚀
🗞 Hot off the press
Somalis in Tech and Makers Partnership
We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Makers Academy, Europe’s first coding bootcamp and the UK’s largest Level 4 Software Development and DevOps apprenticeship provider. 🚀 At Somalis in Tech, we are on a mission to empower and uplift our community by bridging the digital skills gap and creating opportunities for growth in the tech industry. This is is another step in us getting there, you can read more on our announcement post below.
New Bootcamp curriculum from Makers
Our friends at Makers are responding to the changes in the tech industry with a brand new curriculum. The curriculum is made up 8 weeks covering software engineering foundations followed by 8 weeks in your chosen specialism. This can be:
Software engineering
Cloud/DevOps
Data Engineering
Quality Engineering
🗓 What’s happened
It’s been a pretty busy few weeks! Why don’t we run you through what the community have been up to.
🇦🇪 SiT Dubai Meetup
The community organised an informal get together over some food to connect and discuss the tech industry in the Emirates. If you’d like to organise a SiT meet up in your city we’d love to support you so Slack @MaryanD who’ll walk you through the process.
☁️ Cloud/DevOps virtual meet
We held a panel discussion with Mohamed Abukar and Ali Ibrahim. The meetings are happening monthly so make sure to join the cloud and devops channel for the meeting notes.
💻 Frontend Dev virtual meet
It was the first frontend dev meetup. It was a good chance to hear from season developers like Khadar Hassan amongst others. We hope to see these on a regular basis so keep an eye out on the events Slack channel.
Founder’s journey: Q&A with Mujavid Bukhari.
Join us as we sit down with Mujavid Bukhari, co-founder of LiveLink and Writer of The Exit Game.
Hey Mujavid! 👋🏾 Could you introduce yourself & tell us a little bit about your background and LiveLink!
Absolutely, I've always been curious and hungry to learn and try out new things. From as early as the age of 13, I've been working on some sort of side project. My first public facing project was an advert I made for Islam Channel, I learnt the essentials of video editing. I did so many little projects that I would always be picking up skills, including design and coding. Along the way, I was lucky enough to make friends with others who shared the same interests and mindset as I did, including my future co-founders.
I pursued Computer Science at university, which deepened my technical skills and knowledge. Two years in, I realised I wasn’t learning much and could do more elsewhere. I left my degree, and piggybacked off of my uni education to land a job at Google as a software engineer.
I eventually left my job to start Scoodle, an edTech platform that we successfully scaled to help over 1 million students. The Scoodle part of my journey was packed with challenges but also taught me the essentials of running a business.
How did the idea for LiveLink come about?
It came about quite naturally. Since we started Scoodle, I have always been curious about how businesses in different industries function. Whether it’s fashion or sports, I always love to know how things are run in the background - it’s fascinating!
Since I follow creators on youtube, in podcasts and on twitter, I have always wondered how they had built their businesses and what keeps them going. Through this I stumbled upon the idea of the creator economy. I had followed the space and learned what the main challenges creator businesses faced, as well as the opportunities for disruption.
LiveLink was the natural culmination of that.
Leaving a 9 to 5 at an impressive company like Google to launch your own venture is a big risk - but one that clearly paid off! What was the decision making process like? Did you have any hesitations and if so, how did you overcome them?
We had already built the first version of Scoodle before we started working full-time on it. The product was getting off the ground and we had users. At this time we had begun conversations with investors and had garnered interest. We were at a critical junction: do we take the investment and leave our jobs? Or should we forever run this business on the side?
We all wanted option one, the option to run our own company. It felt risky, but was it?
Since I had gotten this role at a big tech company I knew I could do it again, so that wasn’t a risk. I was also early in my career, and had no financial dependents - so no risk there. I wanted to start something, so from a risk perspective this was the best time to do it.
I knew my parents wouldn’t be on-board, but since I had a guaranteed salary from our investment income that could work to assuage their concerns.
It’s important to de-risk your startup as much as possible before going full-time. Too often, early founders feel they have to sacrifice everything and go full-time. In many cases, this is not prudent. If a founder has not raised investment, I advice them to run their startups on the side to know if the idea even works before jumping ship. It makes the decision easier because it gives you assurance.
What is the process of building a startup like? What was your biggest learning?
At the time, it turned out to be more or less what I had expected. There was a lot of hard and focussed work. We were often kicked out of our offices every night when the building had to close. But it didn’t feel like we were sacrificing anything - we loved it.
My biggest learning was something I had never seen online before.
When you join a big company, they have structures in place to limit your mistakes and bring the best out of your work. Those can be very helpful early in your career.
If you start a company early in your career, you aren’t going to have those structures. So you’re going to make many avoidable mistakes, and they are going to be at the expense of your company and your own progress - that’s not a nice feeling.
After noticing this, we became more vigilant when issues bubbled up and took steps to ensure they wouldn’t happen again. Prevention is better than the cure. Some practical examples of this would be: adjusting the interview process to more accurately test what we’re looking for; seeing if employee workloads are manageable; and even double checking a product launch is ambitious enough.
As you built your company - what did success look like to you?
It’s easy to fall into bad practices and mindsets. Many early founders begin to think to themselves: I’m a founder, so what should founders do? They look at the most visible and public founders and assume they have to imitate the publicity that is put out. But at the end of the day thats just publicity, and for most founders its a distraction.
My best days are the ones where I’m focused on my priorities: speaking to users, shipping product and enabling my team. Focus is your most prized commodity.
What’s next for LiveLink? How do you see the company evolving?
Over the last year we’ve had 1-1 interviews with over 500 creators. We’re always on the lookout to see what direction the industry is going in, whether it’s speaking to our users or following developments in the space.
AI advancements have made it possible for smaller companies to tap into automations that were previously not possible. We’re going to launch a feature soon that allows creators to automate work they never thought they could before. This allows them to focus on what they do best - create!
Our vision is to enable creators to monetise more easily.
Final question! Throughout this journey, what has been your biggest high and biggest low?
The greatest high has been interacting with users we've genuinely helped. It's a real joy to hear how our platform has enabled creators to create profitable businesses. Those moments are deeply rewarding and truly motivate us to continue innovating.
In contrast, the most challenging low is when you've done everything right, but things still don't pan out. It's tough when a meticulously planned and executed product doesn't resonate as expected. These moments, however, push us to reassess, learn, and iterate. They're tough but essential for growth.
Questions for Mujavid? You can find him over on Twitter or visit LiveLink.
🐪 Maah-Maah
Beentaada hore runtaada danbay u baas baxdaa.
Your previous lie will damage your present truth.
Mahadsanid 👋🏾
 | A guest post by
|