We’re
1888EC
We’re a venture studio that create startups. We turn ideas into market-leading products and companies!
Founded in 2020 by Solomon Kassa (TV Personality, tech consultant, strategist, author, and public speaker), 1888EC is a unique & innovative startup studio that will be the-first-of-its-kind in Ethiopia. 1888EC aspires to create disruptive innovators and change-makers in Ethiopia and beyond that will champion digital transformation, venture building, and job creation.
Our Founding Story
As a place to support the next generation of entrepreneurs and tech startups, our company name, 1888EC, refers to the date of the victorious Battle of Adwa on the Ethiopian Calendar (or EC).
In addition to representing a pivotal part of Ethiopia’s independence history, the letters “EC” also stand for ‘Enterprise Central’. With dual representations of our past victory as well as our fundamental work in building Ethiopia’s future entrepreneurs, our company’s creation originates from the idea of symbolizing the victory we want to re-imagine against poverty by empowering young entrepreneurs to innovate.
Our
Mission
To solve society’s grand challenges by creating venture-based solutions.
Our
Vision
To be the premier African startup studio that champions a prosperous African future.
Our
Value
We commit to creating ventures that are people-centered, impact-driven, and grit-based.
Our Approach
Building a great startup is challenging. Really challenging. It requires expertise, top talent, great execution, great timing, funding, and a little luck. Our studio has an approach on how to rapidly validate, build, and grow new startups.
Ideate
We do our due diligence if ideas is potentially fit to be turned into products that are problem-solving, loved by customers, and able to scale by conducting market scanning, augmenting vision and strategy, and identifying quick wins.

Validate
Every idea sounds good at first. We put an idea through validation to assess demand, technical feasibility, business model, unit economics, market dynamics, investor interest, and more.

Create
Once we determine that an idea is a good one, it is time to create. Our team will turn a validated idea into a proof of concept and ultimately a real product ready for the market. We use rapid prototyping and MVP (Minimally Viable Product) release to assess customer feedback.

Spinout
Successful startups require extraordinary people and fast access to capital. We will use an effective spinout process to get a startup off the ground, staffed up, and funded as fast as humanly possible.

Scale
We will be dedicated on how to scale our startups. Since focus is paramount for an early-stage company, our studio will handle recruiting, legal, and finance, along with our relationships with top service providers, to allow founders to keep their full dedication on building the business.

Repeat
Yes, we will ideate, develop, grow, exit, and repeat!
Why 1888?
Our motto, “Victory Re-imagined!” embodies the essence of our distinctive organization as a tech startup studio committed to creating ventures and symbolizes the victory we want to re-imagine against poverty by empowering young entrepreneurs to improve the lives of many through tech-based solutions to everyday problems. With our studio’s resources and access, we will empower young innovators to build startups that solves the society’s grand challenges.
“There are many brilliant young people in our country. We do not see them because they did not get the chance to have an exposure, a marketing strategy and support, nor do they have the experience to pitch their innovation to others. If we manage to give them a platform, they can change their nation.”
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
March, 2020
During his interview with Solomon Kassa On TechTalk With Solomon
What We Do
We build startups from the ground up!
After we validate ideas in our studio, we put together the best team with the needed expertise to develop the idea, turn it into a startup, and manage it. The studio continues to provide funding, shared resources, and operational support to ensure startups are focused on what matter the most – developing products to solve society grand challenges.
As venture builders, we will have an end-to-end in-house expertise consisting of designers, engineers, business analysts, legal, financial, and brand/marketing specialists and leverage our resources to ideate, plan, develop, test and validate our own ideas and scale them.
From inception to proof-of-concept, validation, initial customer acquisition and scale, we take every step using rapid solution prototyping and design thinking, an effective approach to new product development that keeps a human-centered design process at its core.
Impact

Job
Creation
Provide employment opportunities for the youth in Ethiopian and beyond with the emphasis on women.

Ecosystem
Building
Contribute to a startup ecosystem development through our venture building.

Aspiring
Entrepreneurs
Create young entrepreneurs driven by critical problem-solving thinking and “can do” mindset.

Digital
Economy
Produce a tech/ knowledge-based economy and bring digital transformation.
JCR Fellowship

Ethiopia is Calling…
The Victory of Adwa in 1888 EC (1896 GC) has been an inspiration for black people to fight for freedom. One notable example of such inspiration is the story of the African-American aviation pioneer and the father of Tuskegee Airmen John C. Robinson who in May 1935 answered Ethiopia’s call to defend the nation from Italian colonial invasion in revenge for the defeat at The Battle of Adwa nearly 40 years earlier.
Besides fighting on behalf of Ethiopia with bravery earning him global renown as the “Brown Condor of Ethiopia,” Robinson also played a key role in tech transfer and capacity building. He is credited in modernizing Ethiopia’s air force by training Ethiopian pilots. He was also a key player in the establishment of Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest, most modern and successful airline. Robinson’s heroic and selfless dedication has become the cornerstone of African Americans’ historical affinity to Ethiopia & Ethiopia’s gratitude to African-Americans’ broad support at its darkest moment during World War II.
1888: EC is for Equity Central!

In recognition of the enduring heroic legacy and the contribution Robinson has made to the technological advancement of Ethiopia and to address and overcome systemic biases the global black startup community faces, 1888EC will be proudly launching the John C. Robinson (JCR) Fellowship. It will be a signature fellowship program aimed to recruit and showcase African-American, global African diaspora, and African entrepreneurs, and provide them with transformational platform to collaborate with their Ethiopian counterparts to imagine and build ventures that will solve the continent’s wicked challenges.
African-American, global African diaspora, local African entrepreneurs deeply share a common challenges of institutional biases. Foreign investors have the tendency to invest in African-based startups founded by western entrepreneurs. While the global black enterprise doesn’t get the “first movers” advantage in emerging affinity markets, black-founded startups in Africa also miss out investment opportunities due to lack of exposure and equity. 1888EC strives to foster a global mindset and outlook while intentionally creating an inclusive and equitable ecosystem that can level the playing field for black-led ventures.
The Fellowship
The JCR Fellowship is designed to challenge the status quo by connecting underrepresented talent and resources to startup opportunities in emerging African markets while creating an inclusive and sustainable impact. The Fellowship, when it launches, will entail a 3-month entrepreneurial “tour-of-duty” fellowship in Ethiopia and later in other parts of Africa that helps candidates collaborate and work with local startups and entrepreneurs to deepen the startup ecosystem and connect Ethiopia to the global innovation grid and funding stream. Upon completion of their fellowship, the Fellows will also serve as global 1888EC Ambassadors spreading the importance of collaboration & venture building in Africa.
Our Team

SOLOMON KASSA
Founder, 1888EC | Tech Consultant & Strategist | Author | TV Personality | Public Speaker
In his professional career, Solomon has been working as technology consulting & strategy manager at a Fortune 500 Global Firm leading multi-million-dollar large technology implementations. He worked as a software engineer prior to joining management consulting. He is also a producer & host of the popular “TechTalk With Solomon” on EBS. For the past 9 years, Solomon produced more than 230 episodes, discussing 600+ science & tech topics as well as interviewing 85+ prominent guests including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
In 2018, Solomon published “ግርምተ ሳይቴክ” (The Wonder of SciTech) – the first-of-its-kind science & tech 400 pages book to be ever published in Amharic. Solomon is a social media influencer with more than 715,000 followers.

Teshager Amare
Head of Operations
Teshager is an Economist and has been working as a consultant since 2016. He has worked in analysis, design, implementation and operations support for various digital transformation projects across Africa.
Teshager was a cofounder of a construction services company founded in 2014 and has now transitioned to other ventures after selling the company in 2020 and then worked in providing professional services in a startup consulting firm engaged in providing technical services to setup national/private commodity exchanges in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria) and a number of ERP deployments for private and public sector organizations (Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho).

Kibru Demeke
Tech Lead
Kibru is a full-stack developer in charge of the technical team of 1888EC. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Adama Science and Technology University. In the past, Kibru co-founded a startup and was responsible for developing several web-based and native software. Prior to joining 1888 EC, he worked briefly as an exploit researcher for INSA (Information Network Security Agency).
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