Over one quarter of U.S. entrepreneurs are immigrants, and Harvard Business Review says their businesses are more likely to thrive as they create job opportunities and revive areas with new ideas. The resilience and unique skill sets often acquired by those immigrating to a new country are a huge asset to communities and the economy, and their businesses bring in billions of dollars. This series highlights Milwaukee businesses that are founded, owned and operated by immigrants. We’ve had the privilege of hearing their stories and backgrounds, as well as what makes them so valuable to our community.
“You just hear gunshots everywhere. You don’t know where they’re coming from, and you hear people scream, people running. All you can do is pick up whatever you have and you run,” he said.The country experienced ethnic conflict on and off since the 1960s, with a ceasefire signed in 2006. When Novati’s family fled on foot, they made a weeks-long journey through the mountains back to Tanzania. Novati had one younger sister at the time, although now he has eight.
Novati, now a resident of Milwaukee, is the founder and owner of the world’s third most popular African music streaming platform, AfroCharts. The app has over 500,000 users. AfroCharts allows users to stream music from several African countries and in a variety of genres.
Novati came to the United States in 2007, when the U.S. began accepting Burundian refugees. His family was placed in Wisconsin, which they were told was “a lot of cows…and milk and cheese.” He started ninth grade at age 17 not knowing a word of English and graduated as salutatorian at age 21 from Milwaukee’s Washington High School of I.T.As someone who had never seen a computer before, Novati was quickly awed and intrigued by the school’s computer lab. He studied computer science in college at Stetson University in Florida. His natural desire to learn how things work and to create comes from his childhood.
“Music is one of the things that can reach people no matter what race or cultural differences.”
Leonard Novati
Leonard Novati and his family returned to their east-African country of Burundi from a refugee camp in Tanzania in the 1990s, only to flee two years later when another civil war broke out. Novati was no more than six years old.
“Kids in Africa create their own fun. We were creating our own toys,” Novati said.
Novati is obviously passionate about music.
“I just have that music fire in me,” he said. “Music is one of the things that can reach people no matter what race or cultural differences.”
In college, Novati became a DJ, and after graduation was DJing big events like Marquette University’s senior ball at Potawatomi. Something was missing, though.
“I wanted to do something for African music and African culture,” he said.
He missed the harmony of drums from Burundi and the way its beauty made him feel.
“I wanted to keep sharing my love of music,” he said.
In 2016, Novati started AfroCharts.
“I’m going to start a music streaming platform dedicated to just African music and African artists,” he said.
As an immigrant to the United States, he saw the great opportunities and resources at his fingertips, which many Americans take for granted. Months of long days and sleepless nights culminated in a streaming app for iPhones and Androids.
The app has about half a
million listeners each month.
The app now has about half a million listeners each month, many of whom live in Africa. Incredibly, most of this traffic is organic, since Novati said he does not have the resources to pour into marketing. The most popular country is Zambia, followed by Malawi and South Africa. Novati now works with five people on his team. Over the years, he has employed people in various countries throughout Africa to educate his audience, many of whom haven’t heard of streaming. Novati is still in the process of expanding AfroCharts, and his day job is with Northwestern Mutual as a Software Engineer, where he has been for two years.
When Novati looks back on becoming an entrepreneur, one of his biggest challenges was burnout. He worked alone, which meant long hours and late nights focused on creating his app and platform. With that in mind, he said entrepreneurs should, “try to figure out how you can do just your part and let somebody else do their part.”
The tireless work never dimmed Novati’s passion for seeing people use his platform to listen to African music.
Some of the most rewarding parts of his company are, “seeing the audience appreciate what we created and using it. From the listener, finding music they used to listen to as a young kid,” he said.
Novati considers himself a quick learner, a skill that has served him well as he became fluent in English and built a life using technology after never having touched a computer before immigrating to the U.S.
“When I’m determined, there’s no going back. I keep looking forward,” Novati said.
He became a member of the MMAC, stressing the importance of networking and making connections, even if it doesn’t feel natural.
Novati will bring his passion for music to Summerfest this year at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 29, at the Aurora Pavilion, which will be the festival’s first ever Afrobeats music experience. This AfroFuxion event has been in the works for over a year, after AfroCharts won two awards at the Summerfest Tech Conference. Novati hopes to see people appreciating African culture and dancing to the music he loves.
In the future, Novati aspires to give African music more of an audience in Milwaukee instead of focusing solely on the online platform. Last October, he began hosting monthly AfroFuxion parties at ELMNT Lounge downtown. He hopes to expand to more events, mixing African food and music.
“My end goal for Milwaukee is to have a place, like a lounge…where people can come and enjoy African food, drinks and music,” he said.
