In August 17th, the global market witnessed the popular social network Facebook, with over 1 billion members, lose half its market value since the company’s May debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Investors are skittish and lack confidence that Facebook has a sustainable revenue model for making money year after year. And Facebook took other companies, like the mega-gaming software company Zynga and the original deal-of-the-day company Groupon, with it in the decline.

As Facebook’s stock price tumbled, so did Zynga’s and Groupon’s, because of their heavy reliance on Facebook members in their respective revenue models. Let’s learn from abroad. Silicon Savannah is on the verge of greatness— it’s what brought me from Silicon Valley via London to Nairobi. The iHub has been instrumental in creating an ecosystem (e.g., investors and mentors) for entrepreneurs—people who maximize what we need in this emerging market for web utilization. Ultimately, every start-up needs to make money and, to do so, they need to start with the basics.

Simply, you must determine how to make money from your idea, or stay out of the boardroom. Look no further than Nairobibased PesaPal. The successful three-yearold operates in three countries, and is about to launch into seven more in Africa in the next six months. Pesapal could emerge as the leader and best practice for Silicon Savannah. From inception, the company concentrated on the basics for growth and ultimate survival. Why will PesaPal have the legs to sustain and ultimately get the attention of both Silicon Valley and Wall Street? Here’s why...and how:

By helping enterprises cut costs and become more efficient, making it easier for their customers to consume their service.

For example, Zuku, a regional cable company, uses PesaPal so consumers can pay their bills online in the office, home, or on the beach. Zuku benefits from easy reconciliation across all types of payments—Visa, MasterCard, mPesa, AirTel, Yu, etc., and the customer wins by paying anytime, anywhere. Focused on its core business, Zuku doesn’t have to worry about delivering safe, reliable and secure payments to their customers.

By focusing on what consumers want today and need tomorrow.

The e-commerce boom is about to hit Nairobi and virtual wallets are a necessity. mPesa accounts aren’t enough. Consumers want multiple payment options—direct debits from their bank, VISA, mobile transfer, etc. Wtih PesaPal, anyone can now shop online, pay school fees, book hotel rooms and purchase event tickets, all by using the PesaPal wallet feature.Online bill payments and virtual wallets allow busy consumers to buy, transact and track payments anytime, anywhere and from any device.

By building a platform versus an application.

Every day we hear about a new millionaire who created an Android application and charged $1—and two million people downloaded it. Fantastic for the guy in his dorm, but is it a viable business? Again, using PesaPal as a model, the payment platform was built to be open so other developers could use the APIs within websites to enable payment processing. Platform businesses allow for innovation, iteration of change and web applications to focus on their business and “outsource” payments to PesaPal.

This adaptable business model and architecture create an ecosystem that allows other businesses to thrive. By being independent and not reliable on other businesses for your profits. No doubt, mPesa put Nairobi and mobile money transfer on the global map, but mPesa is nothing without Vodafone. Having an independent payment aggregator gateway allows any bank to cobrand with PesaPal, or any mobile money application to work with it. Eventually, Kenyans will start leaving mobile operators due to price wars, but a PesaPal wallet will always be there, regardless of the current bank or mobile operator. Independence allows for quick reactions to new market opportunities.

Finally, by focusing on profit, customer loyalty, independence, customer service and product features that meet a need in the market.

By doing so, you will get Wall Street’s attention. Entrepreneurs should adhere to these basics and build their companies on these principles. Investors wishing to reap the billions (USD, not KES) in a technology company’s returns should look for these best practices before investing. Savannah Silicon’s growth will be the best thing that ever happened to Kenya, I promise you. And remember: Wall Street never misses an opportunity to ma make money. So watch this space. Harley Johnson is a corporate executive by day and techy geek angel investor by night.