We find ourselves coming out of a year of uncertainty in many areas, in geopolitics, in economics and in the venture capital world as well. We have seen currency devaluations and uncertainty in key African markets such as Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya over the past year, coupled with higher interest rates and inflationary pressures. What I have learnt over the years, from one economic shock and crisis to another, is that over time things will get better, and those that were active and invested when others were saying that the end of the world had come were the ones that came out on top. This too shall pass, over time things will get better and you need to be positioned to think positively and take advantage of that.

A key piece of advice, paraphrasing from Warren Buffet: When there is fear and uncertainty, look for the opportunities to build that come from these rare occasions.

Some of the best companies in the world were started in the most difficult times. If you can survive and thrive in the hard times, when things inevitably improve you’ll be the best positioned to take advantage of the good times. When building your company, you are still so small in the grand scheme of things that these is still a path to grow even when the wider economy goes through a downturn.

Startups are generally growing at a much faster rate than currency devaluations. If you are growing at a rate of 20% month on month, a devaluation of 20% would hit you in one month in dollar terms with flat growth, and you’d show dollar growth again in the next month. Companies growing at rates slower than the devaluation tend to suffer, particularly those that are at the private equity stage.

One of the main things to attempt to do is diversify revenue streams from your home currency into revenues from other markets. When there is a looming devolution, it may be time to speed up your regional or global expansion story, and try to acquire customers in other currencies like the dollar or euro. We’ve seen many successful startups, especially in the B2B or in the Enterprise Saas space take advantage of a decreasing cost base in USD terms while generating and growing global revenues.

Wherever there are problems, there is always an opportunity and solution that good founders find and take advantage of. Areas such as payments, import substitution, real assets like real estate, stock markets and gold as devaluation hedges pick up during periods like this. There are many many more ideas and places to find opportunities to make life better for people, especially when things are really bad.

During times of uncertainty, you need to have significant oversight and pay close attention to your expenses and finances. Do what you can to keep costs under control, shift away from growth at all costs mindsets towards sustainable, positive unit economics, getting to breakeven and default alive as soon as you can. Keep any foreign currency you’ve raised as long as you can, assume that fundraising during a period like this will be hard, and extend your runway by as much as possible.

In general, the key thing that you need to be aware of is your own mindset. If you give in to the thoughts of gloom and doom and the end of the world, it will be very hard for you to focus on building your company and keeping it going. Things will improve or stabilize to a new normal at some point, and you need to be in a strong position to be one of the winners when that happens. Look to the future, think positively and build for the long term.