Partnerships
SENPAI partners with organisations that run programmes, communities and ecosystems. You convene, you train, you mentor, you connect people to funding, and most of you do it better than we would.
Very few organisations like yours keep engineers on staff, and there is no reason you should. It does mean that when a programme needs software to run on, or a member needs something built, there is often nobody to send them to. That part is ours.
One standing offer today, for hubs and ecosystem bodies. For everything else, we start with a conversation.
Hubs, accelerators and ecosystem bodies
A free refresh of your website, and systems built with you at a partner rate. The same offer for everybody, with the terms published.
Read the offer →Everyone else
Training and programme organisations, universities, corporates and foundations, government and funders, and other studios. No standing terms: each starts with a conversation.
See the possibilities →We are the engineers in the room.
Not advisors, and not a marketing agency with a developer. We do systems engineering: working out how a thing should behave, designing the data underneath it, writing the software, and running it in production until it holds up. These are the systems organisations like yours need and usually cannot get built.
- The site that represents youFunders, government and the people deciding whether to join you all form their view of you here first. It should carry your work, your numbers and your people, be current, and be something you can update without calling anybody.
- Event and campaign sitesA conference, a hackathon, a call for applications. Landing page, programme, speakers, sign-up and the follow-up list, standing up in days rather than weeks, because an event announced late is an event half full.
- Applications and selectionAn open call through scoring to a shortlist, with every reviewer's decision in one place. This is the thing most programmes run on twelve spreadsheets and one person's inbox, and it is the thing that breaks first when you grow.
- A member directoryWho is in your community, what they can actually do, and searchable by both. Most organisations cannot answer that question about their own members, which is why they cannot introduce them to anybody.
- Programme measurement and reportingParticipants, assignments, outcomes and the evidence behind them, kept as the work happens and exported in the form your funder asks for, instead of reconstructed from memory the week the report is due.
- A job board, and what comes afterRoles in, applications out, connected to the people you already serve, so the outcome of your programme is visible instead of assumed.
Built in Go and PostgreSQL, on infrastructure we run ourselves, with our own identity provider rather than a service that can change its price. You own the code, the designs and the accounts. Host it with us while it suits you, or take it to your own servers whenever you want. Nothing is locked to us.
The systems we have built and put live →Log into one of them ↗
And the things that come with us
We sponsor in kind
The brand, the site, the registration flow, the photography and the film. It costs us a few weeks of our team's time and costs you nothing, and for a small organisation it is usually worth more than a cheque of the same size.
We run events, and we have before
This is not something we are learning. In 2017 we planned and filled a design conference in four days, and we ran the creative technology meet-up at Social Media Week Lagos. The history is here.
We put our team in the room
Speakers, judges, mentors and facilitators from the Senpai team, for your events, programmes and selection panels. What a partnership gives you is our engineering and our people. It does not give you access to the Collective's members or their data.
We have everyone's back, and here is the limit
Senpai works with like-minded organisations to build the whole ecosystem up, without keeping score in the short term. When a community needs something built and cannot pay what it costs, we find a way. When an event needs a partner, we show up with capability instead of a logo.
That is not charity and it is not a growth tactic. An institution that wants to back the next generation of African builders does not extract from the people already trying to do it.
Three things end a partnership conversation, and we would rather say them first than discover them later.
- It costs a member. Anything that asks our people to work for exposure, or puts an unpaid member on your commercial delivery.
- It borrows our name for something we did not check. A vouch is only worth what the enforcement behind it costs.
- It is one-way. Access flowing in a single direction is a sponsorship, and it should be priced as one.
The Ecosystem Partner Plan
For hubs, incubators, accelerators, NGOs and other ecosystem bodies. This is the one standing offer today. It is the same for everybody, so there is nothing to negotiate and nothing hidden.
A refresh of your website
A modern redesign of the site you already have, brought up to standard so it shows your impact and the value of what you run. Your work, your numbers, your people, presented properly. You own the design and the code.
Systems built with you, at a partner rate
Whatever your community actually needs built, from an application system to a member directory, designed and built together at a reduced rate for the length of the partnership.
The refresh costs you nothing. What we ask for instead: to be named as your technology partner, a speaking or judging slot at one of your events, introductions to a named number of specific people in your own community, and a credit line in the footer of the site we build. That third one is the part we hold you to, because it is the only thing either of us can count.
The footer credit is not vanity. It is how the next organisation finds us, and it is most of what we get out of doing this for free.
We take on two of these a quarter. More than that and we cannot do them properly. Each one has a date written into it when we both look at what it produced, so a partnership that is doing nothing for either side gets ended warmly instead of quietly drifting.
What is on the table, and what never is
On the table
- A discounted price for one community you name
- A free look at what you have, and what we would change
- Sponsorship paid in services rather than cash
- Speaking, teaching, judging and mentoring
- Co-branded programmes and events
- A credit line in your footer, so the next organisation can find us
Never
- Unpaid member work, in any wrapper
- Anything substantial built before an agreement is signed
- Our name on work we did not check
- Exclusivity that closes out other partners
- Introductions we cannot stand behind
- Member data, in any form, to anyone
Other partnerships, case by case
Beyond the standing offer there is much more we can partner on. None of it has fixed terms. Each starts with a conversation about what you run and what is missing, and the same limits above apply. If you see yourself in none of these and still think there is something here, say so.
Training and programme organisations
Organisations running cohorts, fellowships or national training programmes.
We design and build what sits underneath the programme: applications and selection, participant records, assignments, and the measurement that shows what the programme actually produced, in a form a funder can read. We have built this for our own programmes and can build it with yours.
Universities and institutions
Universities, polytechnics, professional bodies and training institutes.
Software for the programmes you run, and a verified record of the work your students do, kept as they do it.
Corporates, platforms and foundations
Cloud vendors, banks, telcos, foundations and anybody running an African ecosystem programme.
Local delivery for a programme you are already funding. You have the budget and the reach; we are the team on the ground that can build and run the thing.
Government, development partners and funders
Ministries, agencies, DFIs and funders with a digital mandate.
Digital ID layers, registries and data exchange, implemented alongside the lead contractor and your own team. This has its own page.
Studios and agencies
Other studios, dev shops and design agencies.
Engineering capacity when you have more work than people, and the technical depth you may not keep in house. Work passes both ways, under a written contract every time.
How it starts
- We give you something small, free, straight away. A read of what you have and what we would change, a recommendation, or an introduction to somebody useful. Enough to be worth your time and to show you how we think.
- Then we sign the partnership agreement, or MOU. The same standard document every time. It names what each side gives, the numbers attached, who owns the relationship on both sides, and the date we review it. Nothing substantial gets built before it is signed, including the website refresh. A redesign given away on a handshake is how this goes wrong for both of us.
- The work happens, and it happens in public. The refresh, the event site, whatever we agreed to build. It launches with both names on it, and the partner rate goes out to your community under yours, because your endorsement is what makes it worth anything.
- We review on the agreed date. What did this actually produce, for each of us. If it worked, that is where we ask for the referral or the feedback. If it did not, we end the partnership officially rather than letting it drift, and stay on good terms.
Partnerships do not carry a revenue target here. They carry a lead target, and we would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.
Partnering with SENPAI, answered.
What is the SENPAI partnership offer?
There is one standing offer today, the Ecosystem Partner Plan, for hubs, accelerators, NGOs and other ecosystem organisations. It is a free refresh of your website, plus systems built with you at a reduced partner rate. For every other kind of organisation we start with a conversation, with no standing terms.
Is the website refresh really free?
It costs you nothing in cash. In return we ask to be named as your technology partner, a speaking or judging slot at one of your events, introductions to a named number of specific people in your community, and a credit line in the footer of the site we build. Systems beyond the refresh are built at a reduced partner rate.
Do partners get access to the Senpai Collective or its members?
No. A partnership gives you our engineering and our team. It does not give you access to the Collective’s members or their data. Member data is never shared with anyone.
We are not a hub or accelerator. Can we still partner with SENPAI?
Yes, case by case. We are open to working with training and programme organisations, universities, corporates and foundations, governments and funders, and other studios. These have no standing terms. Each starts with a conversation, and the same limits apply.
We run a training programme. What could SENPAI build for us?
The system underneath it: applications and selection, participant records, assignments and peer review, and a measurement tool that shows what the programme produced and reports it to funders. We have built this for our own programmes, and we can design and build it with yours.
How does a partnership start?
We give you something small and free straight away, such as a read of what you have and what we would change. Then we sign a standard partnership agreement, or MOU, that names what each side gives and a review date. Nothing substantial is built before it is signed.
Does SENPAI work with government and funders?
Yes. Digital ID layers, registries and data exchange are covered on our digital public infrastructure page, where we work alongside the lead contractor, the funder and your own team.
Let’s talk about what we can do together.
Tell us who you are, the people you serve and where a technical partner could help. What do you already have, and what is missing?
If we are not the right people we will say so and, where we can, point you at who is.