Take 5: David Mabiria

David Mabiria is one of the co-founders of Magazine Reel. PHOTO| COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Magazine Reel is a student news site.
  • It has news and information related to college and university as well as everything that you can possibly think about that affects college and university students.

David is one of the co-founders of Magazine Reel. He describes himself as a serial techpreneur who enjoys partnering with businesses to build their business technological needs so that they can concentrate on their core business, developing mobile and web applications for these businesses.

1. What is Magazine Reel about?

It is a student news site. It has news and information related to college and university as well as everything that you can possibly think about that affects college and university students.

 

2. What inspired you to start MR?

MR came about because of a certain distortion of information that would reach students, as well as a lack of a central point from which to get this information while I was in university.

We only got information and announcements via notice boards around campus and word of mouth. This caused distortion and misinformation, of course.

Also, sometimes we couldn't even clearly see the posters while those you could see would have some parts torn off.

I also felt that students needed a place to have a voice for self-expression as a student body and their activities.

A platform was necessary to do this more effectively.

 

3.What are you most proud of on the site?

Well, the fact that we've been able to pull over 100,000 students monthly from all major colleges and universities to the platform as either readers or reporters is a huge milestone for me.

 

4.What do you wish you had been told in school that is important now?

I wish I had been told about how to consistently and quickly teach myself to learn and re-learn skills in the different stages of life.

  

5.Why do you think it is important for young Kenyans to try out multiple jobs to survive, especially young Kenyans like you with various jobs?

In the early stages of one's career, we sometimes need to try out different things quickly to figure out our long-term career path.

Plus, the cost of living is high, and so the more jobs you have, the larger your income. Being young means you have more energy to juggle many jobs at the same time, so do it.