By Hii5 Media
The first time Dr. Sserunjogi Emma used a computer, he was an A-level student trying to learn ICT.
He was not a programmer. He was not thinking about starting a technology company.
He was learning how to use Microsoft Word and Publisher, typing with two fingers.
Years later, the Makerere-trained medical doctor is building software businesses from Kampala and selling them to customers around the world.
His office is often a living room. His equipment can be as ordinary as an 8GB laptop. And his approach is far removed from the image of a technology startup that begins with a big investment, a team of engineers and a fancy office.
Sserunjogi’s story is about learning a skill slowly, building things before he felt completely ready and finding customers who were willing to pay.
It is also about a question that more young Ugandans are asking: Can someone sitting in Kampala build a software business for the world?
Sserunjogi believes the answer is yes.
A laptop changed the direction
Sserunjogi studied medicine at Makerere University and served as president of Makerere College of Health Sciences in 2019.
His first personal laptop came in 2015, during his first year of medical school.
At first, it was simply a computer for school.
But he kept learning.
By the time he finished medical school, he had moved beyond basic computer use and was building dynamic websites.
He learned largely by doing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a salon owner in the United States hired him to build a booking website. The client paid him $500.
The project became more than a one-time job.
Sserunjogi still maintains the website years later.
That experience showed him something important. He did not have to be physically present in the United States to provide a service to an American business.
He could sit in Uganda, build the product in Uganda and get paid in dollars.
From websites to financial systems
The work became more complicated.
Sserunjogi began building software for microfinance businesses. Some of the systems he developed have been running in production for more than four years.
That work forced him to learn about financial records, ledgers, double-entry accounting and the importance of making sure transactions are handled correctly.
He was no longer simply building websites that looked good.
The software had to work.
Money had to be recorded properly. Transactions had to be reliable. Customers had to be able to use the systems without the developer standing beside them.
He eventually built an enterprise application on his own in about two months, working from the database design through authentication and integrations.
Soon after it launched, the application was generating about $2,000 a month in recurring revenue.
Then came another SaaS product.
Two people worked on it from their living rooms.
They did not have an office. They did not raise venture capital. They did not spend heavily on advertising.
Within four months, the business was bringing in between $300 and $400 or more a day, according to Sserunjogi.
The business later grew toward $7,000 to $10,000 or more in monthly recurring revenue.
For Sserunjogi, the lesson was not simply that a software product can make money.
It was that the product did not need to be built in Silicon Valley to find customers around the world.
“The whole world is your market”
That belief has become central to how Sserunjogi thinks about technology and Uganda’s economy.
“Tech has powers to transform this economy,” he says. “There is no need for an export licence. You launch today and tomorrow you can have subscribers in any country.”
His advice to someone starting out is straightforward.
If you cannot code, find someone who can.
Find an idea people are already willing to pay for.
Use the tools available today, including AI coding assistants.
Build a simple version.
Launch it.
Then see what customers say.
He does not believe young entrepreneurs should spend years trying to make a product perfect before anyone gets to use it.
Build something useful, put it in the hands of customers and improve it from there.
Do not wait for investors
Sserunjogi is also a strong believer in bootstrapping.
For him, raising money is not the first step.
Getting a customer is.
That means keeping expenses low and using what is already available.
A living room can become an office. A laptop can become the main piece of equipment. The internet can connect a Ugandan founder to customers in countries he may never have visited.
He also believes young entrepreneurs should not become too focused on solving local problems simply because they are Ugandan.
His argument is that earning from global markets can eventually give entrepreneurs the money and experience to solve problems at home.
“If you start getting global dollars, you will solve Uganda’s problems,” he says.
It is a different way of looking at entrepreneurship in a country where many young businesses depend on local customers, grants or outside funding.
Sserunjogi wants more Ugandans to think of software as an export.
A global community of small software companies.
There is a growing international community of founders taking a similar approach.
One example is TrustMRR, a startup revenue database and acquisition marketplace created by indie maker Marc Lou.
The platform tracks verified startup revenue and allows founders to demonstrate the performance of their software businesses. Revenue figures are linked to payment providers rather than relying only on screenshots.
The idea is simple: small software companies can become real businesses even when they are built by one person or a very small team.
Sserunjogi’s story fits that wider movement, but with a distinctly Ugandan starting point.
He did not begin as a computer science student.
He began as a medical student who had taught himself to use a computer.
The value of starting small
There is no dramatic moment in Sserunjogi’s story when everything suddenly changed.
The progress came in small steps.
Two-finger typing.
A first laptop.
A website.
A $500 client.
More websites.
Financial systems.
A software product that generated recurring revenue.
Then another.
Each step gave him a reason to learn something else.
That may be the most useful part of his story for young people watching the technology industry from Uganda.
You do not have to know everything before you begin.
You do not need a large office.
You do not necessarily need investors.
And you do not have to wait until someone tells you that you are ready.
You can start with what you have.
Sserunjogi’s own journey began with a student who could barely type without looking at the keyboard.
Today, he is the founder and CEO of Videmak Inc., a Delaware C corporation, and the person behind products including CitedEvidence, an AI-powered academic research platform.
His medical training is still part of his identity, but so is the code he learned to write outside the classroom.
The bigger lesson is not that every young Ugandan should become a software founder.
It is that the internet has changed the size of the market available to anyone who can build something useful.
A developer in Kampala can have a customer in New York.
A small team working from a living room can build a product used in several countries.
A laptop can become a business.
And the first customer does not have to live next door.
For Sserunjogi, the message is simple.
Find something people will pay for.
Build it.
Put it in front of customers.
Learn.
Improve.
Then build again.
Do not wait for permission.
Launch.
