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Religion / Re: COZA Pastor Biodun Gets Luxurious Porsche, Unveils It To Church Members (Photos) by 1k001(m): 9:37am On Dec 11, 2015 |
NigLasPresident: Cuz it's the law. |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 6:26pm On Dec 10, 2015 |
Where we're at now The roller-coaster journey continues as the year drags to a close. I lost a new and promising staff to a bank, replaced with a great guy i found here on nairaland. Happy to say on the whole that the whole experience has been a great one. The learning has been immense and the experience unrivaled. We will be able to close the year with an ARR in the region of thousands of $$. We're finally seeing some great response in our pipeline and 2016 looks promising. We'll be looking to raise a seed round to fan the flames of our growth and grow out our team to deliver a better product and service. If anyone is thinking of being an entrepreneur in 2016 consider this quote from Elon Musk (one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time) - “Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death". I testify to the reality of this quote. 3 Likes |
Sports / Re: Papa Eaglets And Our Cheating Culture by 1k001(m): 1:34pm On Nov 18, 2015 |
dabossman: Like i said your logic is fair but i'm not Brazilian or Mexican and so have no stake there. I'm a Nigerian and i worry about the Nigerian cheating culture and so should we all regardless of whatever else any other country is doing. Like i said earlier i'd be happier going out in the first round with true 15 year olds than otherwise. At the very least our children learn something. What our children understand these days is that cheating is the way to go. Integrity is not relative |
Sports / Re: Papa Eaglets And Our Cheating Culture by 1k001(m): 9:39pm On Nov 17, 2015 |
dabossman: You make a fair argument however i personally don't subscribe to innocent until proven guilty in Nigeria because our loopholes are too glaring. I can walk into a lot of places now and buy a birth cert saying i'm 2 years old. If being corrupt is so easy and so cheap as it is here then perhaps the burden of proof lies somewhat on the individual rather than an assumption of innocence. Many countries have not illogically gone down this route when dealing with us in certain area. And yes we are all guilty, myself included, hence the mistrust. |
Sports / Re: Papa Eaglets And Our Cheating Culture by 1k001(m): 5:09pm On Nov 17, 2015 |
A lot of arguments here seem to revolve around justifying cheating because others are doing it. Let it be known that integrity is not relative. I'll be more proud of a failing truthful country than a lying successful one. It's based on that reason i didn't follow the u-17 team. I couldn't bring myself to believe the purported ages. |
Business / Re: N2 Million Naira Investment by 1k001(m): 4:17am On Nov 13, 2015 |
zonga: Check out my journey in my signature and let me know if tech is something you're interested in |
Jobs/Vacancies / Business Development Position In An Abuja Tech Startup. Needed ASAP by 1k001(m): 6:25pm On Nov 02, 2015 |
Roled filled via nairaland. Thanks for all the interest. |
Jokes Etc / Re: Checkout The Most Hilarious Adverts Ever Put Out....lol! by 1k001(m): 5:54pm On Nov 02, 2015 |
lol @ living and non living nanny 2 Likes |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 5:51pm On Nov 02, 2015 |
bigx: I've read a bit about this and the consensus seems to be that there should be a base salary that is reasonable then a commission on top of that related to how many sales they bring in. This method seems to satisfy and motivate most people. Display results publicly around the office, means you start a healthy competition that ultimately benefits the business. Emphasis on healthy competition. Furthermore, most people say to consider applying a performance based remuneration model across the board, such that even your cleaner gets something extra if he/she achieves a certain target that translates to a better outcome for the business as a whole. Food for thought. 2 Likes |
Family / Re: Our Parents Failed Us – By Lurd Bouch by 1k001(m): 5:44pm On Nov 02, 2015 |
Stillfire: Bravo! 10,000 likes to you! 2 Likes 1 Share |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 5:44pm On Oct 31, 2015 |
Update An update is in order i guess. Things been going well with the startup. Hired 2 young ladies to work in sales. Gotten quite a lot of interest as a result, that's now translating to revenue. The problem that's now surfacing is collecting on payments after trial periods have ended. This has influenced a change in our pricing and sales strategy. We've done away with a free trial and now take 6 months or annual payments. Will see how it will go. Also in this time with new staff, i've learnt a good bit about human resources management i'll be sharing in the near future. Shout out to those who've read it all and are still following my story. I'll be revealing more and more specifics soon as we may be looking to do things a bit differently. Stay tuned! 4 Likes |
Family / Re: Our Parents Failed Us – By Lurd Bouch by 1k001(m): 5:32pm On Oct 31, 2015 |
edwife: While they may have done a wonderful job in their homes, they did a terrible job as a collective generation. Bequeathing us nothing but unemployment and failed dreams. We can't do the same to our kids, our jobs as parents extend beyond just our home to making sure society as a whole is fair to all. Remember that evil triumphs when good men do nothing. Many of our good parents did nothing or didn't do enough. 4 Likes 1 Share |
Travel / Re: Anyone Tired Or Bored Of Living In A Western Country, by 1k001(m): 5:02pm On Oct 31, 2015 |
Miami11: I once felt just like you did. After a decade away i considered the exact same things you're now considering. So guess what i did? I moved back, 6 months ago. It's been great! Not without its challenges of course but when the mind is made up, the mind is made up. Start planning now and join us here in mother Africa. East or west, home is best! 1 Like |
Family / Re: My Father Said He Will Never Forgive Me Because I Didn't Go For Service!!! by 1k001(m): 4:59pm On Oct 31, 2015 |
'The only people who never fail are those who never try' - Ilka Chase Your father is upset, he will get over it with time. Just calm down, learn from the situation and be better next time. What determines success is not succeeding at everything but persisting wisely at the most important things despite any failure. 3 Likes |
Travel / Re: Which Country Do You Wanna Immigrate To, And Why? by 1k001(m): 4:53pm On Oct 31, 2015 |
SeverusSnape: NZ is a great place if you can stand the distance. It is also quite expensive so you must have a good job to be comfortable. |
Politics / Re: Alamieyeseigha's Wife Ill, Son Killed In Dubai by 1k001(m): 6:43pm On Oct 11, 2015 |
I find it curious that soon after an extradition is sought, he dies suddenly. RIP to him if indeed dead, but won't be suprised if he does a Tupac |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 7:49am On Oct 01, 2015 |
Didn't realize that 'harvest' implied unethical collection. Methinks Email marketing is a 'long game', i'm interested in the 'short game' for now. So i collect phone numbers rather than emails and call the person. No way to hide this way 1 Like |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 7:08pm On Sep 29, 2015 |
tooltip: Sure man, whatsapp me |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 6:59pm On Sep 29, 2015 |
My attention has been called back to the thread thanks to some critical mentions. I welcome the criticism, it's all good. I don't pretend to know it all. About being coy; i like the freedom the relative anonymity Nairaland gives. I'm usually a very 'PC' guy for several reasons so having the option of not having to be too 'PC' when i want to is nice. Update So latest update is that our pivot has been fully activated. We are solely B2B SaaS focused entirely on one type of customer I'm building and optimizing a sales funnel to support it. I've attached it below. Lead generation is done online using social media and search engine marketing. Also doing some content marketing and starting to harvest emails again for email marketing. Doing some good old cold calling, cold emailing and direct selling. Terrifying stuff! I rely on the free Hubspot CRM and Sidekick for tracking emails. Good resources i've found for this kind of stuff is the 'close.io' blog and the 'pipetop' blog. Also the book 'predictable revenue' by the guy who built 'Salesforce's' sales force. Also 'saastr' has good resources We qualify them and then progress them along the funnel as indicated. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of follow up but it's starting to pay off as we've increased our trials by over 1000% in the last month. Easy to do initially of course but impossible to maintain. We will likely even out at around 10% growth rate. I'll share more metrics and conversion ratios over time.
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Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 6:18pm On Sep 29, 2015 |
adrianstylez: The hustle is offline bro! Ask any successful Nigerian tech entrepreneur, they'll tell you. I said this earlier and i'll say it again. The garage to riches story is for silicon valley not Nigeria where we don't trust each other. Want to operate in most verticals in Nigeria? Get a space first to put your head. Case in point, today i had a chat with a prospect and first thing she asked, 'I hope you're not a faceless online thing' To go for web awareness alone is not particularly efficient because only a small minority of Nigerians have bought software online. Nigeria is simply not a 'web' country yet. Thank God for e-commerce that's forcing people to purchase online otherwise, no hope. Even then look at all their expense on offline promotion. Having said that, i have however been able to get a good number of users from online sources that are more appropriate. My customers simply do not make decisions based on Nairaland threads. You know how i know? I went out and spoke to them physically. Also I wasn't looking for investment and i wouldn't trust an investor that prospected for startups on Nairaland anyway, but that's just me. This is just a story of my journey and what i'm learning, it may appeal to some, it may not appeal to some, i'm ok with that. 5 Likes |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 6:05pm On Sep 29, 2015 |
adrianstylez: I have doubts about email marketing in Nigeria and that's because we haven't made the move to e-mail as a general means of communication for the majority. I track all my emails (using Sidekick) and campaigns (using mailchimp). Consistently have poor open rates not to mention clickthroughs (Even for current customers). In any case, i'm starting to harvest emails again to restart email marketing so maybe my opinion will change. |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 11:46pm On Sep 28, 2015 |
BetaQuick: Thanks for your opinion, my position however does make sense to me. Perhaps i haven't done a good job in articulating it well. My idea is actually immaterial in the journey because as a matter of fact, it has evolved so much that it now bears virtually no resemblance to the initial thought. Execution is what the journey is really about not the idea that continues to change. 2 Likes |
Business / Re: Problem With My Startup by 1k001(m): 12:29am On Sep 01, 2015 |
@ felixchip not sure whether you're still debating what to do. The answer in my opinion is to split test it. Do one for some time and then another for same amount time. Run both concurrently if possible. Get a lot of feedback at during this period. Come back after some time and decide based on the objective data you collect. Nobody knows what will work better, only testing it will tell. |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 12:56am On Aug 31, 2015 |
Selecting your customer I want to comment on selecting what customers to target for a startup in Nigeria. Hopefully some of my experience is useful for others. When i started out i new that ultimately we will end up targeting all types of customers. I refer to the following broad options: - B2C - Selling to consumer - B2G - Selling to government - B2B - selling to other businesses As a startup, resources are limited so you must focus on one particular market. We opted to go with B2C with the hope that that would give us the necessary clout to progress to the others. I however severely underestimated how hard this would be. It turns out that in order to achieve a good level of revenue from consumers, you need quite deep pockets to reach them in the first place. Traditional B2C marketing is expensive and difficult to maintain attention, hence the big figures top brands spend on advertising campaigns. Startups that are able to match them are often well funded (think Konga, Jumia, OLX). As a small startup this is impossible to compete with. Ways to circumvent this are: using social media or search engine marketing, on the assumption that your product is amenable to these channels. Next option is to sell to the government. Very attractive option. You come up with an idea, approach the government agency it concerns. They love it, fund you to build it and voila, you're in the money. If only it was that easy! The convoluted nature of doing anything with the Nigerian government makes this option almost akin to suicide. It's still possible though and people have been known to make things happen. For me however, I find the incentive structure for government so strange that i can't relate to it and thus have decided not to pursue it. This leaves B2B, my new love. For a Nigerian startup, i think this is where the most viable opportunity is. Why? You need revenue as soon as possible, a business will give you loads of cash in an instant if you can find and solve a key problem that makes money for them. All you need to do is find that problem, build a simple but reliable solution, find and trial it with your customers, prove it makes money for them, ask them for a cut of the extra money you made for them. It's just that simple! (on paper). No need for a big advertising budget, all you must invest in is great branding, a great website and well honed value propositions. For B2B, the key is to go to where your customers are, whether in conferences or trade shows. Also try 'linked in' which gives great tools to find and advertise to your ideal customers. I would know, 10 USD just gave me a customer with chains of business locations. We are now fine tuning our marketing for solely B2B. The beauty here is you can ask them for even a million naira and they will pay if your solution gives them more than what you're asking them to pay. So in summary (in my experience) selling to businesses is better than consumers and governments in Nigeria as businesses will get you to really good revenue in less time and money compared to the former 2 options. Other opinions welcome. 2 Likes |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 12:21am On Aug 31, 2015 |
databoy247: Ideas are everywhere so not scared of it being stolen. Like you said, i've pitched in different forums, exhibited and been on TV and Radio so not an issue. Here though I like the fact that i can express general thoughts without fielding specific questions on my own particular start-up. Also like being able to say things openly without prejudice to my startup's interests. On the customer part, my ideal customers are most unlikely to be reading this thread or even be on Nairaland at all. I'm seeking for reliable and scalable ways to find them. So this forum or even media mentions aren't a customer acquisition focus for me. 1 Like |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 7:45am On Aug 29, 2015 |
Pivot Following the training at GES and due to the lukewarm market response we'd had, we decided to pivot and focus in on proving a smaller concept and providing more immediate value in terms customers can understand simply. To do this i spent close to 2 weeks sitting with a customer and observing what they did and tried to understand the problems they have and what their goals are. I went on to hack a solution together with excel and other simple tools. They liked it and we went on to code an MDP (minimum desirable product). This customer is currently trialing it and will likely start to pay soon. I also went out to look for more customers via direct selling to qualified leads and online ads. This has yielded 3 more customers and a chain of businesses who will trial it. The hope is we are able to convert them to full customers after the trial period. So we are now exclusively B2B rather than the crazy hybrid we were unequipped to attack I'm now currently creating marketing material and hiring sales staff to go out and generate as many leads as possible. Key being to target innovators/ early adopters (search 'diffusion of innovation' to understand this). We're hiring graduate interns for sales and marketing roles. If you know any young person who is smart, outgoing and enterprising, Ask them to send a cv and cover letter to abujadatacollection@gmail.com Key learning - Focus on 1 key problem - Solve that problem excellently - Relate it to revenue - Find innovators/ early adopters ( difficult to do, but think of it as a numbers game as they're only 2.5% of the population. Must talk to 100 to get 2.5) - Get it in their hands early If your customer can't understand how your solution helps them make more money in less than a minute of explaining, you're on a long thing. 4 Likes |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 7:19am On Aug 29, 2015 |
Guess an update is due: Got the opportunity to be at the GES, was inspiring and overwhelming in many respects. So many great young people doing awesome things, here in Africa and around the world. Shared the same room with pres Obama and Kenyatta. I was part of a particular sub-group within GES where we got some days of focused startup training and mentorship. A lot of focus is on entrepreneurship in Africa, with different funds being launched for us. Particular interest is in female and young entrepreneurs. So this time is one of the greatest times ever in the world to be an African entrepreneur. So many are counting on our success and are willing to support. The yardstick however is excellence, No one will support a half-assed effort. On my return from the GES i got to meet Pres Buhari as an exhibitor at an international youth day event. I told him how we are creating new jobs and opportunities in the tech sector. Not sure all of it got across but the hope is that the government does more to support new businesses who create jobs and pay taxes. Cash is tricky and real estate in particular is expensive. In my case, I recently left the small serviced office space I was and moved into a bigger office space at great cost. It's necessary however to accommodate our staff. No sooner had the paint dried on the walls before a tax collector came knocking. I so wanted to box his head in! but that's the Nigeria we're in. You struggle hard to get your business up and running, the government that had no hand whatsoever in it, in fact delayed and made things difficult for you, comes looking for tax. This needs to change. 2 Likes |
Business / Re: 5 Star Global - My Company Start-up Diary by 1k001(m): 6:52am On Aug 29, 2015 |
databoy247: Great update. You should certainly look into waveapps. I use it myself to and it make finances easy. Since you have an admin staff it should be easy to do. Just get an accountant to look into it once in a while. You probably know that nothing can make up for getting the finances wrong. You spoke about focus and how doing other things can be distracting. That's absolutely true! It's tough in our environment but like you i've come to learn that saying 'no' is not such a bad thing. Good luck with the govt contracts, i generally stay away from them. Too much hassle with no real assurances. Remember to always use metrics to regularly assess your biz. Have <5 and 1 in particular you're focusing on. I should go update my own thread sef. Well done and hope to hear more 1 Like |
Travel / Re: Which Country Do You Wanna Immigrate To, And Why? by 1k001(m): 12:28am On Aug 15, 2015 |
dotcomnamename: This is a verbatim quote from the guardian article link you provided: 'Ireland’s debt-to-GDP ratio remains one of the highest in the EU at 115%, unemployment is in double digits and prime minister Enda Kenny has described the recovery as fragile in recent speeches' Also the growth rate is predicted at 3.5%, Nigeria's is virtually double that! Please do a bit more work before you accuse anyone of lies with links that actually back said lies |
Travel / Re: Which Country Do You Wanna Immigrate To, And Why? by 1k001(m): 12:25am On Aug 15, 2015 |
dotcomnamename: You haven't debunked any of my reasons, if anything, the links you provided support them. Why did Ireland need a bailout in the first instance? They did because the economy totally tanked and is likely to do so again. It's of course easy to be the fastest growing economy in Europe when mainland Europe is still going through tough economic conditions. That one is first in a race of snails doesn't make it that awesome. I hope with all this economic recovery the government will finally pay me the wages they owe me, yes that's right, the Irish govt didn't pay my wages for hours i put in legitimately. To make matters worse they levied a crazy universal social charge that ultimately went to pay unsecured bond holders who were burned with the economy going down. In essence robbing the poor to pay the rich. Don't get me started on Ireland please. Like i said, it can be a great place but it clearly has plenty of flaws. - Yes the weather is still depressing - Yes there is institutional racism - Yes it can be hard to cultivate deep meaningful relationships as a teetotaler - Yes it is expensive - and yes the city has plenty of junkie riff raffs who live off the taxpayer in free housing PS - I lived in Ireland for close to a decade, traveled to virtually every county within it and related with thousands of natives and expats, so I kinda have a great deal of insight. 1 Like |
Business / Re: My Tech Start-up Journey by 1k001(m): 8:17am On Jul 20, 2015 |
Ongoing Learning So it's been a good number of weeks now deep in the trenches of the startup life. I've tried to focus on selling to and learning about my customers. It's not been easy but been quite an experience. Over this time i've gained more insights into what the customer will most likely pay for and use. This insight has translated into a slight pivot in our product and customer focus. Having done all this learning, i'm now in the process of putting a team together to execute. As most startup advisors will tell you, the only roles one should hire for at an early stage tech startup are - Sales and technical/ coding. These are the only roles we are thus hiring for. As we can barely afford salaries. I've decided upon intern like positions targeted at post NYSC grads. I'll train and manage them closely on short term contracts. Whoever shows promise and delivers will be progressed on to more executive roles. As for technical talent, this will be a challenge as we can't realistically afford the type of people we will like. We are hoping to strike lucky with someone who would have a passion for what we are trying to do. Time will tell. This week i get to attend the global entrepreneurship summit in Nairobi, I'm hoping something good comes of it. So if anyone is going there, you can check me out at the innovation marketplace on the youth and women day. 4 Likes |
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