Building Labari Insights, An Online African Data Platform
Building an online data repository powered by Tech Labari
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been hard at work building an online data platform. I’ve spent the last 7 years as a tech writer for Tech Labari, publishing news and stories about the tech ecosystem in Ghana and Africa at large.
But I’ve always felt like something was missing. Apart from providing great insights through writing, I always wanted to add a “Data” component so it was easier to see the progress of the ecosystem with data.
This year, we added a “Data Points” component to the Tech Labari website. The section serves as a place where we could write stories using data visualizations.
It’s been great so far but we wanted to go further with data.
Enter “Labari Insights”.
From Airtable To A Full Online Platform
Since 2020, I’ve been gathering different data points for Ghana and Africa. It started with cataloging Ghana tech startups and adding additional information including founders of the company, the year the company was founded, the amount of money they’ve raised, and other informative data points.
It started with a few startups and soon ballooned to over 200+ companies.
But most of the data so far has just been confined to Airtable.
In 2024, I decided to work on a project to display the information in a better manner.
Enter No-Code.
I’ve been using a platform called “Softr”, a no-code platform that you can use to build online web apps. So instead of building a web app from scratch, you can use a click-and-drag system to build it out.
What makes Softr great is the fact that you can integrate online data sources like Google Sheets and Airtable to display your data.
There’s a small learning curve, but I’ve been immersed in it, building out the UI and integrating my data.
Sourcing Data From Open Sources
So where does all the data come from?
Most come from open sources including news outlets and desk research. Some come from news stories we’ve published on Tech Labari.
Adding in subscription payments
Currently, there are more than 500+ data points on the platform. Labari Insights consists of not only a database of Ghana Tech Startups but also a database of African podcasts, Women in Tech in Africa, and Tech Events and Conferences.
One thing we wanted to add to Labari Insights is a subscription payment component.
Why add in subscription payments?
I’ve been doing a lot for the past 7 years. The Tech Labari platform is free, with no paywall to access news and information. We were open to trying out a paywall but we decided to keep it open.
Building Labari Insights has been a lot of work behind the scenes. By adding in a subscription model, we’re asking users to help pay for gathering information and building out the platform. Plus, the funds will help pay for the future use of the Softr platform.
Pricing
Currently, signing up for an account is free and you get free access to the Ghana Tech ecosystem database, our database of Women in Tech in Africa and Tech Events and conferences.
Every other data point requires a fee of $12 per month or $120 per year.
Testing, Testing, and More Testing
I built this all by myself. To make sure it works, I had to do a lot of testing.
LOTS of testing.
For the first iteration, not everything will be perfect but the basics will work.
It’s been a lot of tinkering and making sure it all works including the automation.
We’re Live
Labari Insights is officially live for all users insights.techlabari.com
You have to sign up for a free account to get access to the data.
Enjoy!
