Frankly Impact Lab / Africa
Africa Has No Shortage of Ideas.
We're Building What Comes Next.
Frankly Impact Lab is a venture-building and leadership platform helping Africa's next generation of founders and innovators turn ideas into viable ventures, capabilities and measurable impact.
We don't just talk about Africa's future. We build it.
From Potential to Proof
Frankly Impact Lab exists to close the access gap.
Across Africa, talented young people have ideas, ambition and the willingness to build. What is often missing is access — to mentors, markets, practical tools, capital, networks and the right rooms.
We help move ideas from potential to proof through a practical pathway.
- 01Discover
- 02Develop
- 03Build
- 04Launch
- 05Scale
The Frankly Promise
Build. Become. Belong.
Build
Turn ideas into ventures through experimentation, innovation and venture building.
Become
Develop the entrepreneurial and leadership capabilities required to build with confidence, discipline and purpose.
Belong
Connect with the people, communities and opportunities that make meaningful growth possible.
The Frankly Impact Lab Pathway
Discover → Develop → Build → Launch → Scale.
Frankly Impact Club
The entry point for Africa's emerging builders.
Frankly Impact Club is the community and engagement platform of Frankly Impact Lab, creating spaces where young people can learn, connect, test ideas and begin building.
- Build ideas
- Learn from leaders
- Meet mentors
- Connect with opportunities
01
Events
Rooms where founders, students and mentors actually meet.
02
Workshops
Practical sessions on building, testing and selling.
03
Founder programmes
Structured support from concept to first customers.
04
Leadership conversations
Honest sessions with people who have done the work.
Frankly Impact Club / Featured experience
The Youth Entrepreneurship & Leadership Summit
Founders pitched. Judges pushed back. Young builders left with a clearer path than they came in with.
- Date
- Sat 21 March 2026
- Time
- 10:30AM – 2:30PM
- Venue
- HQ House, Tatu City, Kenya
Meet the Judges — the people behind the decisions.
Follow @franklyimpactlab →Judge
Dr. London Moore
London Moore & Associates · Nova Pioneer
Founder of London Moore & Associates and Managing Director of Schools for the East Africa region at Nova Pioneer. Her work bridges school and industry so students are prepared to actively shape the future.
Judges
Mike & John Burns
The Burns Brothers · HQ House
Co-founders of The Burns Brothers and authors of The Continuum of Change. Operating from HQ House in Tatu City, they have helped facilitate over 20,000 jobs across Africa by connecting entrepreneurs with global investment, leadership and strategic partnerships.
Judge
Lavender Esther
Founder, FOEG Labs
Builds the infrastructure behind modern innovation — systems that let startups deploy AI agents, integrate blockchain technologies and scale through access to elite engineering talent.
Judge
Winnie Gathu
Founder, Girl Code Movement
A technology leader helping young people build practical skills in AI, gaming and digital innovation — and encouraging them to think boldly about the future.
@girlcodemovement
Judge
Mwenda Thuranira
CEO, MySpace Properties
Author of Taking Up Space. Years spent building companies, creating jobs and helping people build wealth through real estate and entrepreneurship.
Summit host
Kushman
The navigator through the conversations
Fresh out of high school and already commanding a stage. He leads the conversations, directs the pitch sessions and keeps the momentum alive from start to finish.
- Studying at African Leadership Academy (ALA)
- Alumnus — Nova Pioneer Tatu Boys
- Convenor — Frankly Impact Club
- Host — Youth Entrepreneurship & Leadership Summit, HQ House
Founder, Frankly Impact Lab
Eddie Francis
A young African entrepreneur, builder and emerging leader whose work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation and opportunity.
Eddie Francis is currently studying at African Leadership Academy (ALA) and is an alumnus of Nova Pioneer Tatu Boys.
He founded Frankly Impact Lab after recognising a recurring gap among young people with ambitious ideas: the ideas were there, but the structure, access and support required to build them were not.
Rather than waiting for someone else to create that structure, he began building it himself.
Why he builds
Talent is everywhere. Access is not. Young Africans should not have to navigate the journey from potential to entrepreneurship alone.
How he works
In public, in rooms, with evidence. Fewer promises about potential, more proof that something was built and tested.
What he is building
A path a young person with an idea can actually walk: mentors who answer, programmes that produce outcomes, and ventures that outlive the pitch.
Frankly Speaking
The missing layer.
We aren't just talking about success — we are building the layer that makes it possible: the mentors, rooms, tools and opportunities young African innovators are usually expected to find on their own.
Why we exist →
The Lab
Where Ideas Get Interesting.
The Lab is where ideas stop being theoretical. We prototype, experiment, test assumptions, learn from users and iterate — quickly, practically and deliberately.
- 01
Experiment
Ask the question nobody has bothered to ask.
- 02
Build
Make the smallest version that can be judged honestly.
- 03
Test
Put it in front of the people it is meant to serve.
- 04
Learn
Keep the evidence. Drop the ego.
- 05
Repeat
Do it again, faster, with more conviction.
Programmes
Six lines of work. One model.
The work is organised around three interconnected pillars — Build, Become and Belong.
build
Venture Building
Helping promising ideas move toward viable ventures.
Validation, experimentation and execution — the model, the first users, the first hire, the first revenue.
Explore initiative →build
Innovation
Environments where new ideas can be tested and developed.
Constraint is a design brief. We create conditions where new technologies and approaches survive long enough to be tested.
Explore initiative →become
Entrepreneurship
Practical entrepreneurial skills, end to end.
From identifying problems to finding customers and building sustainable ventures — pricing, operations, sales and the discipline of shipping.
Explore initiative →become
Leadership
Emerging leaders with mindset, capability and experience.
Equipping people to lead themselves, their ventures and their communities — judgement, responsibility and conviction.
Explore initiative →belong
Community
Meaningful connections between builders and ecosystem leaders.
A network of founders, students, mentors, entrepreneurs and creatives who trade honesty instead of hype.
Explore initiative →belong
Impact
Initiatives that create measurable opportunity and value.
Economic value, opportunity and positive change. If it cannot be measured, we treat it as an intention rather than an outcome.
Explore initiative →Stories
Stories from the build.
Behind every venture is a person who decided to begin. The story is never just the outcome. It is the build.
Frankly / Case Study 001 — Shark Tank Competition, Alumni Summit Edition
An alumnus pitched. A hundred thousand shillings became a launchpad.
Context
Nova Pioneer and Quest opened their Alumni Summit Shark Tank Competition under the theme "The People are becoming".
The pitch
Eddie Francis pitched Frankly Impact Lab: a structure to carry young African innovators from idea to venture.
Result
First place, 1 March 2026 — a KSH 100,000 prize awarded at the Alumni Summit.
What it funds
Events, workshops, startup programmes and leadership conversations for young builders across Kenya.
The point
An investment in one alumnus becomes opportunity for hundreds who only needed someone to believe first.
Africa
Built in Africa.
Designed for the World.
We believe Africa's biggest opportunities will be built by Africans who understand the problems deeply — and have the tools, networks and confidence to solve them.
Frankly Impact Lab connects founders, students, mentors, investors, creatives, businesses and institutions around one shared ambition:
Build what matters.
Ecosystem
Nobody Builds Alone.
Whether you have an idea, want to mentor emerging founders, are looking for investment opportunities, or want to partner on meaningful programmes, there is a place for you here.
Events
Where People Meet Ideas.
- Sat 21 March 2026The Youth Entrepreneurship & Leadership SummitA Frankly Impact Club summit: pitch sessions, leadership conversations and a judging panel of operators.HQ House, Tatu CityDetails
- Date to be confirmedFounder Session 01A working session for founders in the messy middle of building.Nairobi, KenyaDetails
- Date to be confirmedInnovation ChallengeAn open challenge for unconventional solutions to a defined problem.To be confirmedDetails
Insights
Thinking Out Loud.
Build With Us
Let's build something that matters.
Partners