Why I registered a company while I was still a student

In October 2022, in my first year at IPRC Tumba, I registered HDEV TECH Ltd.

We were two people: UWAYEZU Jean Felix and me.

Why register at all

By then I had built RASMS, delivered many university projects and was building Uruziga. All of it had been done without a registered company behind it.

That works for small jobs. It doesn't work for the clients I wanted to reach. Organisations needed invoices before they could pay, and they needed a company they could sign a contract with. Without one, I couldn't even start the conversation.

So the plan was simple: HDEV TECH would be the company that sold and supported the systems we were building, with invoices, contracts and a name clients could rely on.

Starting small

Two people is a very small company. We were both students. There were no offices and no investors.

What we had was work that already existed, people who had used it, and a direction. That was enough to start.

What it means today

HDEV TECH is the company behind the products and services I deliver, and every system we build carries the line "Powered by HDEV TECH Ltd".

What I took from it

Structure creates access. Registering a company didn't change my skills, but it opened the door to clients who could only work with a company.

Start before you feel ready. If we had waited until we had money, offices or a full team, the company would not exist.

Name the work. Putting a company name on what you build makes you accountable for it, and that accountability is part of what clients pay for.