I've recently founded a tech start-up and it's been quite a whirlwind.

I've had to try figure out so many things on my own so thought it would be useful to relate some of the things i experience to help me reflect and perhaps help others who may be looking at something similar.

Feel free to jump in and comment or ask questions

The beginning

I never thought i'd become an entrepreneur. I'd lived outside Nigeria for a decade, was having a great comfy life with a good income from my job. I had a young family and most things were going great.

Due to some events, a personal frustration arose with poor services in a particular Nigerian sector. As i pondered over my frustration i thought to myself, I can come up with a solution as I happen to have expertise in the sector. So i started researching far and wide for a workable solution. I spent hours and hours after work reading like crazy, much to the chagrin of my spouse.

I've since learnt that this is the best kind of way to get an idea for a start-up. Find something that frustrates you everyday that you have some sort of knowledge of or at least passion for. It's going to be a long, hard, broke road so you have to love it and be solving the problem for yourself to keep you motivated.

The idea

The idea i came up with was quite simple at first but as i dug deeper i realized that for it to endure it must be sustainable. It must provide sufficient value that people want to pay for it. That payment should at a level that it is able to sustain those that work on creating the value.

I thus iterated my idea to a point where it would create some value people will be willing to pay for. It dawned on me at this point that i had to set up a business to have any hope of capturing this value. Setting up a business meant writing a business plan.

Furthermore, my idea iteration also created a solution that needed a lot of technical input from a programmer.

I'd at this point reached the edge of my knowledge in a lot of ways so i went out and gained more knowledge. I visited my local library and took out 2 books:

'The lean startup' by Eric Ries

'Starting a tech business' by Alex Cowan

Both turned out to be excellent reads! I recommend them highly.

The lesson i learnt here was to read, read and read some more. You can never hope to make it as an entrepreneur if you don't read constantly.

It also around this time I bought a domain name. This was significant for me because while it was only a small amount, i'd spent some cash so i was committed and had to see this idea through.

I would say from this try and commit yourself to an idea and run with it. I'd had several ideas before but never really pursued them. Settle on one idea as soon as you can and make some type of financial commitment towards it. This will start to focus your mind and get you acting!

Co-founder

As i read and worked on my business plan. I considered learning to programme myself but quickly learnt it was a waste of time. I could never hope to do everything myself; programme, found a business, work full time, have a family.

It was time to get married find a technical co-founder. I was somewhat lucky here as i had 2 good friends i'd known for a while who were programmers. I approached them with my proposal and an initial draft business plan. They both thought it was great and jumped on board.

Finding a co-founder is hard, it's a bit like finding a spouse. i was very lucky in many respects. I've no advice to give in this regard except be nice, friendly and helpful to everyone you come across. You never know when you might need their help co-founding a venture.

I've come across websites (google 'founder dating') and events (google 'founder to be lagos') that match founders. Can't say anything about this but the general trend i find from my reading is the recommendation that founders be friends(ly) prior to founding the venture. Helps for those rough times, i can attest to that

Structure

My founding team of 3 was sorted. We were (and still are) a distributed team so needed a body on the ground in Nigeria to do some legwork. I got a recommended someone to work with. A guy i'd known over the years that was used to getting stuff done. So i got him on board and we started working on getting a structure in place. This relationship would take an interesting turn in the following months so stay tuned.

What i will say now particularly for those outside Nigeria that want to start a business in Nigeria is, be prepared to lose money due to shady behaviour, unfortunately it's how things go. To stomach it better think of it as the tax/ price you have to pay for not being on the ground in Naija. You can't eat your cake and have it. If you want the better life of obodo oyibo, then be prepared for some inefficiency in the use of your capital back home.

I digress, we registered the business with CAC. It took over 3 months as it was during the time CAC had problems and couldn't process anything. Again unfortunately get used to this. If anything involves the government, expect it to take at least 3 times longer than necessary. Always have a plan B, C, D and E. Also it's Nigeria so be inventive with finding ways to circumvent bureaucracy and i don't mean by bribing. I advocate doing stuff first then asking for permission later, claim ignorance then show them how your way produced results. They'll soon be hailing you as the chief.

We allocated equity to each partner, proportional to the amount of effort they were expected to put in. We were all friends so we were fair to each other and everyone was happy. We have a basic shareholder agreement between us but are in the process of drafting a formal agreement that includes vesting schedules, cliffs etc. Read the legal basics for startups series on www.techcabal.com for more info.

Learning

The most important part of creating a business is learning. Forget what anybody says, it's not intuitive, at least not for me. To date we have spent close to 1000 USD on learning resources, technical conferences etc. Now you don't have to spend that much. There are multiple free resources online that will get you to where you need to be. Youtube and google should become your friend. I also used apps such as 'pocket' to store articles to read later.

To start you off i suggest going to youtube, search for 'how to start a startup sam altman'. It is a 20 series lecture given at stanford (the most entrepreneurial university in the world) by some of the greatest entrepreneurs of our generation. Get it in podcast format and listen to it at night before you sleep, that's what i did.

Other Books i've read that are helpful are:

'4 steps to epiphany' by Steve Blank - The father of the lean movement, he gets you to focus on customer development rather than product development. This approach increases chances of success. Youtube his videos and follow his blog. He's a great guy

'The unfair fight' - Sam Hazledine - Good summary of things and tips to know and do in a small business

'The personal MBA' - Josh Kauffman - This is kinda like a reference text. Explains virtually everything business related. No need for that expensive MBA

'The innovators dilemma - Clayton Christiensen - I kept hearing about disruption in the tech circles, a term coined in this book. So i read it. The bottom line for us in Nigeria is there's nothing to disrupt really. There are a myriad of problems looking for just simple solutions. Provide those and you're good, Forget all this disruption rubbish.

I follow a number of blogs and people, google them, follow them via their blogs, medium or on social media

- paul graham

- Mark andreessen

- Peter Thiel ( read his book 'Zero to one' )

- Mark Essien (hotels.ng)

- Jason Njoku (Irokotv)

- Marek chindeu (Jovago)

- Sam Altman

- Techcrunch

- Techcabal, techpoint.ng,


Take some of the things they say however with a pinch of salt because your situation is unique and you've got to figure stuff out yourself, mostly through trial and error.

How did i manage all this with a family, while working full time. Well mostly a very understanding spouse i'm most grateful to. Forget sleep, TV, games, having a life. Do you want to build a great business or do you want to be a well rested movie buff? I know what i want and i'm chasing it earnestly. Forget the lies they tell you about balance in life, successful people aren't balanced, they focused on one thing and worked hard at it until they became great. Think Messi, Nadal, Jordan, the trend is the same, there's no substitute for hard work.

Remember to keep notes! Use Evernote or Google keep on your smartphone. You'll be thinking a lot as you digest learning material and ideas would come at odd times. Can't count the number of eureka moments i've had in the shower. Write them down immediately!

Nice one bro. you are definitely building an empire.... I have a great idea too, i have liased with an application development coy in usa. They are doing the sdlc.

Ideasconsortium:
Nice one bro. you are definitely building an empire.... I have a great idea too, i have liased with an application development coy in usa. They are doing the sdlc.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Why are you using a company? You should never outsource a core competency!

You need to find a way to do it in house that is unless the application is not core to your business but an accessory

very nice . I'm impressed by yo dedication and discipline.

I also have something very similar in mind but I neither match u in discipline nor have $1000 capital for startup. and also I'm also juggling a number of other things at the same time

Wats the name of your tech startup or what the business about

1k001:


Thanks for the encouragement.

Why are you using a company? You should never outsource a core competency!

You need to find a way to do it in house that is unless the application is not core to your business but an accessory

Sometimes it's difficult not to outsource, I wish I can find a way not to outsource my core. The first stage involves Web development.

Nmeri17:
very nice . I'm impressed by yo dedication and discipline.

I also have something very similar in mind but I neither match u in discipline nor have $1000 capital for startup. and also I'm also juggling a number of other things at the same time

Thanks for the compliments. Forget about the money, i only mentioned it to indicate how important learning is. Many want to go start businesses and don't do their homework first. I can confidently say that i know most things about my niche and if i hear anything i don't, i get up to speed within 24 hours.

The biggest hindrance is not money but the mind. Decide on what you want to do, focus, learn all you can, work hard. People will end up begging you to take their money. You might have to eat noodles for a few months, trek or take bikes to where you need to go. It will only be temporary

Watch this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7mWk6X5NCI
It is of Dr Ola the air ambulance lady who is now hailed as a success. Even with all her ajebo, she was broke, had to sell her car, take night buses etc to make it.

So if you have the passion to solve a real problem with a well researched workable solution the only barrier left is in the mind, conquer the mind and you can do anything.

jostking:
Wats the name of your tech startup or what the business about

I prefer not to reveal it for now. We have only just started operating and remains to be seen whether we will be successful or not.

nairalanduser:


Sometimes it's difficult not to outsource, I wish I can find a way not to outsource my core. The first stage involves Web development.

I feel your pain. Keep trying hard to find a technical co-founder as this outsourcing may be your greatest undoing.

Great stuff Bro. It's hard to get these books where I stay. Really wish to buy a few of them and read, especially those on start ups. I hope they discuss universally accepted and applyable principles. Read a book sometime ago and most of the ideas were not applicable to the Nigerian Climate

toluxa1:
Great stuff Bro. It's hard to get these books where I stay. Really wish to buy a few of them and read, especially those on start ups. I hope they discuss universally accepted and applyable principles. Read a book sometime ago and most of the ideas were not applicable to the Nigerian Climate

I got most of the books from amazon. I've seen some on konga or jumia, keep looking around, you'll be surprised where you'll find them.

As regards local application, you are right. Some of the stuff doesn't translate to our situation especially as the whole tech thing in Nigeria is quite new. Say for example all the Americans talk about 'early adopters' and how you need to find them. Well in America it easy because people congregate under many different auspices. In Nigeria i've been sweating for months to find so called early adopters for my product, they are really hard to find! So one just has to take a shotgun approach and see what sticks. There are many more examples like this.

The bottom line from the books is to take general principles and adapt it to our own situation. In another few years hopefully the successful pioneers in the Nigerian tech scene will write books for the guys coming along. I know i certainly will if i do become successful.

Nice thread!! Really inspiring...

RothmasPop:
Nice thread!! Really inspiring...

Thanks man, we do what we can

1k001:


I prefer not to reveal it for now. We have only just started operating and remains to be seen whether we will be successful or not.

Lol, just say it and no one will implement it even if it seems like it will happen. My Library has probably over 20 books I bought from ebay, amazon and while in school. I have The Richdad series, Donald Trump, Trump and Robert Kiyosaki-bought this book alone 11k while I was serving, Richard Branson, Joseph Stiglitz Roaring 90's and many more.

Starting a business is not for the light hearted, the bureaucracy involved alone will frustrate you. I remember when I started my escrow service, the moment I announced the service here, another website was launched here too, I went to look at the website and laughed-it was one of those CMS websites stating just a launch date. I just said to myself, this guy will eventually realize what he is getting into when he decides to develop a robust fraud proof website and the logistics involved in creating a company that offers such a sensitive service. To this day, they never launched. As for me, I really thank God as I am gradually getting known and receiving the much needed referrals.

I currently operate out of Lagos but have a drop/inspection office there. I am still very far from my vision but I am approaching it gradually.

Funding

This is the factor many cite as the greatest hindrance. Personally, i've been fortunate to have had a reasonably good paying job. Having a wife and a little girl on one income however meant that in order to fund my start-up the whole family had to make sacrifices. Again i'm thankful for my wonderful wife who saw my passion and bought into my dream. In fact she's now working for us part time ( story for another time).
So we went without luxuries, lived on the necessities, denied ourselves all the good things we know we can afford. All for our end goal of building a great company that creates value for its users and staff.

A start-up is indeed expensive, particularly where we are based. Things cost twice as much and take twice as long. Our office space costs a ridiculous amount. It was necessary however as people wouldn't do any business with us without an office. Forget all that garage story from America. Doesn't work in Nigeria, people too suspicious!

We have a budget, haven't really been able to stick to it due to the unpredictability of the start-up phase, but there's still hope. We use a free cloud accounting service - 'waveapps'. I highly recommend it. I was able to electronically integrate my bank and paypal accounts. I'm in the process of contracting a cloud accountant to look after the books. It's important a business starts as it means to continue, plan and record all your expenditure. Keep good books and budget for and use professional services. We haven't been great at keeping track of all the finances for various reasons but it is something we will be 100% good at once some more things solidify for us.

The advantage of being an African entrepreneur at this time is there are several grant funding options. We've applied for a number of them and are hoping for some success, they include:

Etisalat prize for innovation
Airtel catapult a startup
Tonny Elumelu entrepreneurship programme
YouWin 4
Gist-I
Anisha prize
USAID development innovation ventures
African prize for innovation
Hello tomorrow challenge
Lumia startup promo

Always be on the lookout for these competitions. Google alerts and startup blogs should be your friend as an entrepreneur.

They are also several incubators and accelerators that abound, they are a reasonably cost effective way of covering initial costs. Mark essien however seems to think they're flawed : https://medium.com/mark-essien/startup-incubators-in-africa-and-why-they-don-t-work-e44e8c80d2b0

I don't really have an opinion either way at the moment.

My overall strategy is to bootstrap for as long as possible on my funds or hopefully some grant funding. This is key for us so when it's time to raise some investment cash, we can do so on our terms. You read of founders who slave away for years and only end up with 3% equity at IPO. Methinks that is rather unfair, but hey, that's the world we live in. Cash is king, whoever has plenty of it wins.

On a final note, not having money is a good thing. Makes you very creative which is what you need as a start-up. When this creativity is in your DNA and the cash comes you can explode, before that, it will likely sink you.

blink182:
Lol, just say it and no one will implement it even if it seems like it will happen. My Library has probably over 20 books I bought from ebay, amazon and while in school. I have The Richdad series, Donald Trump, Trump and Robert Kiyosaki-bought this book alone 11k while I was serving, Richard Branson, Joseph Stiglitz Roaring 90's and many more.

Starting a business is not for the light hearted, the bureaucracy involved alone will frustrate you. I remember when I started my escrow service, the moment I announced the service here, another website was launched here too, I went to look at the website and laughed-it was one of those CMS websites stating just a launch date. I just said to myself, this guy will eventually realize what he is getting into when he decides to develop a robust fraud proof website and the logistics involved in creating a company that offers such a sensitive service. To this day, they never launched. As for me, I really thank God as I am gradually getting known and receiving the much needed referrals.

I currently operate out of Lagos but have a drop/inspection office there. I am still very far from my vision but I am approaching it gradually.

Great job on the the business man! You site looks great and extra points for naming yourself after one of my favorite bands from back in the day!

You're absolutely right about business, it's easy on the face of it but hard work when you get in.

I'm not naming my venture yet as i want my diary to be independent of it for now. I'm sure it will be found out somehow in no time.

1k001:


Great job on the the business man! You site looks great and extra points for naming yourself after one of my favorite bands from back in the day!

You're absolutely right about business, it's easy on the face of it but hard work when you get in.

I'm not naming my venture yet as i want my diary to be independent of it for now. I'm sure it will be found out somehow in no time.

Ah ah take it easy my brother, you just expect us to find out like that, how do we link it to you and know it was what you spoke of here?

blink182:
Ah ah take it easy my brother, you just expect us to find out like that, how do we link it to you and know it was what you spoke of here?

All in due course my brother, it is immaterial at the moment

1k001:


All in due course my brother, it is immaterial at the moment

Ok, if you insist.

And i have been searching for guys like this

@op i like the fact that you invest in your learning, it's non-negotiable

so bro, do you think a start-up founder can juggle between multiple startups?, i'm presently in this situation.

how much equity did you give to your co-founders and how much did you retain?

are all of you working full-time on this idea?

are you paying salaries yet?

do your skills complement each other?

are your equity ownerships vested?

I follow paul grahams blog, Ycombinators websites, eric reis, steve blank and peter thiel are awesome

I hope to learn from you

Cheers!

I read peter thiel's book, 0-1, recently...book would make you think hard instead of replicating business models

by the way i feel we need more guys like you with guts to stand up to the,samwerr brothers( rocket internet/ africa internet group)

tooltip:
And i have been searching for guys like this

@op i like the fact that you invest in your learning, it's non-negotiable

so bro, do you think a start-up founder can juggle between multiple startups?, i'm presently in this situation.

how much equity did you give to your co-founders and how much did you retain?

are all of you working full-time on this idea?

are you paying salaries yet?

do your skills complement each other?

are your equity ownerships vested?

I follow paul grahams blog, Ycombinators websites, eric reis, steve blank and peter thiel are awesome

I hope to learn from you

Cheers!

Whoa! that's a lot of questions. Clearly means you've been doing a lot of work and thinking. Awesome!

I'm very far from rocket internet level, just a small ant hoping to strike a bit of luck. Peter Thiel is indeed on another level, 'Zero to one' confirmed a lot of my thoughts and strategy. Let's see how it plays out in real life in Naija.

I'll try to answer your questions as much as i can. Remember one thing though about advice, you are the best person to make decisions as you see all the parts rather than the advisor who doesn't always. Advice for someone like you who loves to learn should help only a little.

- If there's one thing i've learnt, it's focus. If you juggle too many things you'll end up failing at all of them. Pick the idea you're most passionate about and run with it would be my take.

- Equity is divided proportional to contribution, so it's unequal but fair. All the co-founders were my friends for at least 8 years before our venture so it was fairly easy to agree. I read a great article that described a rough formula, will try to find it. Hope i stored it in 'pocket'. Make sure to have the discussion early and that everyone is happy with the agreement.

- I've been working part time on my start-up as i have a full time job. I resigned a few weeks ago and will be working full time on it in a few weeks. Scary!!! Everyone thinks i'm mad. I was able to convince the most important people in my life that i am not so it's all good. My co-founders will still be working part time.

- We have 2 full time staff that are drawing a salary. The rest of us founders get an IOU from the company, reduces pressure on our cash flow. Will start to pay out when we are well past break-even and/ or funded.

- I feel there's nothing i can't learn or do, the main reason i got co-founders was because i didn't have the time to learn to code. If i was 18 i would have learnt to code myself! So my co-founders do the technical side and i handle everything else. Bus dev, strategy, funding etc. I've delegated some sales and operational duties to my staff but that's because i'm not currently in Nigeria.

I hope that was helpful.

I'll tell you the story of Hernan Cortes to finish of. Cortes conquered much of America. The story is told of him arrivng by boat to the new world with a small army. In front of him was the large aztec army. You know what cortes did? He got his army off the boat then proceeded to set it on fire. Guess who won that battle?

Having options make us humans not try hard enough, our sub-conscious always knows there's a way out. When you get the courage to burn your 'boat', then things get real and boy do you fight for your life. That determination to keep going in the face of tremendous opposition is what will get you through this tough start-up life. Yet to be seen if i'll get there, watch this space!

Planning and Strategy

I started out writing a traditional business plan. As i researched and watched multiple videos on founding a business, i came across the book 'business model generator' by Alexander Osterwalder. In it he advocates jettisoning the traditional business plan for a business model canvas that summarizes the important aspects of business. The advantage being that the canvas is a live document you can update as your learn, whereas a traditional plan is often left in a corner to gather dust.

The use of this canvas was further buttressed for me by Steve Blank who defines a start-up as an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. All initial plans are really assumptions, no business plan survives the test of entering a real market, ours certainly didn't. The canvas enables one to learn and update plans as things go along. It appears somewhat brief but make no mistake, it requires the same, if not more rigor as when writing a usual business plan. It's structure prompts one to seek the key paths, activities and contacts to make in order to attain success. We've used this canvas in our planning and have certainly seen many positives. I recommend it unreservedly. Unfortunately in Nigeria the idea that a traditional business plan is dated hasn't quite permeated through so one may have to write one anyway.

It is key as one goes along to set key performance indicators (KPI) to assess how you're doing. It can be quite hard to pick the right ones at the right stage as there are several 'vanity metrics' that can be misleading. Look at this instance from our experience. We promoted 2 blog posts recently via a certain channel. 1 blog post got about 400 views while the other got over 600 views. However the first one was far better for us, reason - it gave us far more conversions in the form of sign-ups. So make sure you define a real goal that moves the needle of progress. Things like number of sign-ups, number of downloads or revenue. Don't look at facebook likes or twitter followers, waste of time! In fact we've a relative competitor who has 4000% more facebook likes than we do and i'm pretty sure we have more revenue and a better path to profit than they do (looking from the outside). Remember that free is not a business model. We charged from day 1 but realized that our value proposition was hard to understand for some so we now do a 30 day trial with support along the way. We set a goal to call our customers weekly to see how they were doing. It's yet to be seen whether the trial is the right move but we're sticking to it for now.

Also media mentions in tech blogs and the like is nothing. It may massage your ego but does virtually nothing for your business. Unless of course your target audience are the readers of those tech blogs. Try instead to get media in your niche and don't talk about how awesome you are, talk about the problem you are solving and the benefits of your product to the user. So say if i had a startup in agriculture i wouldn't go looking for media mention in techpoint.ng and the likes. I'll be looking to write a guest article in 'farming news today' talking about the problem my start-up is solving. I'll expand on more tactics like this when i post on user acquisition. We are actively avoiding any tech media attention at the moment, it will only be a distraction.

We've tried to incorporate SMART goal setting (google it) in our operations. We have defined targets for: number of customer contacts, time to first contact on sign up, Revenue etc. Granted we've not met a lot of them but they're still targets nonetheless. We have a distributed team of founders so we email a lot and try to have a virtual meeting once a week, very hard with time zones involved. Our Nigeria team have a short planning meeting every morning that i try to call in on as much as possible.

Networking and opening doors

I was going to post about something else but i saw an ad for an ICT expo that promoted the opportunity to network so networking it is. I've read a lot about networking and have been to a few events for that sole purpose. So here's what i think. Caveat: I've only been an entrepreneur for less than a year so take my experience with a huge dose of salt.

I find that networking can be quite hit and miss. You never know what you'll get and so could waste your time and effort and not get much out of it. A lot of people say to network for the sake of networking as you never know when something will happen, not sure i agree. My time as an entrepreneur is of the essence so spending it on activities with rather uncertain outcomes doesn't sit well with me.

I find the best events to attend are those in your niche not those general meetings for meeting sake. You can make real contacts in your niche and follow up with them later individually. Follow up is super important, i'm not great at it and continue to work on it, I've started to calendar in times to follow up with people to make sure i do it.

When following up don't do it with the aim of getting things from people, go with the goal to give. When you give freely, people will give to you freely too. Along the same lines don't be overtly focused on networking upwards, you'll be surprised how helping someone who is in no position to help you will turn out to provide a great opportunity for you.

Personally i've gotten the greatest mileage from searching out people on twitter i think will fit into my strategy then striking up a chat with them. I've been able to get a few great leads as a result. I never go with an intent to sell but to learn more about what they do and how i can help them.

Finally to enlarge you network, you need to wear your business on your sleeve. Talk about it all the time everywhere you go. You will be surprised what you'll gain as a result. This can be hard for a lot of people particularly techies who are often introverted and don't speak much.
I know all about it, I'm an introvert myself! If i could get away with it, i'd sit in my house by myself all day long and be fully content. That's not good for business however. I've this changed from being a private person to being rather public ( i don't recognize myself sometimes). If you had told me a few years ago i'd be doing some of the things i'm doing now, i would have bet my life on it that it would never happen. That's life however, you pick a goal and you alter what you need to alter in order to reach that goal.

I creep myself out now, i reach out to random people on the street, facebook, twitter, nairaland, everywhere. It's what you have to do to be a successful entrepreneur. I've walked in to offices off the street demanding to see the CEO confidently while absolutely quaking on the inside. There's no other way, you gotta do it. I read once somewhere that the founder of pinterest would go to every apple store and change the display page on every screen he could to his website. That's the kind of crazy stuff you have to start doing, anything less means your not ready yet.

Starting a business is not for the faint hearted!

Keep at it.

I'm pretty positive i know what your startup is, and what it does (or intends to), but i'll leave you to elaborate, when you feel like it.

Being an entrepreneur is an entirely different beast. There is one ingredient that an entrepreneur MUST possess, ..passion.

If you do not completely believe in what you're doing, don't do it.
If people tell you, it's a crazy idea, well, then embrace the role of the "mad scientist."

As someone who has invested significant amounts of time, energy and cash (sometimes to my detriment) into business, i can tell you, it ain't easy.
Then again, no one said it was going to be.

One of my biggest challenge is managing businesses (with physical locations and employees - some from Nairaland ) in Nigeria while living elsewhere. Nigerians can be a little crazy, to say the least

I currently also have a tech startup in the works, and i've been pushing it's launch forward every month, for some months now.
However, It is all ready to go, so any day now.

Once I get this particular project underway, I'll be shifting my focus back on my local market (U.S).
The Nigerian market is going through a very interesting curve, and is an ideal time to harness it. However, sometimes we focus a little too much on the niche market (Nigeria), and lose sight of the bigger picture.


My advise to you at this stage is not to limit the scalability of your solution to the Nigerian market.
Make it in a manner where you can gradually open it up to the rest of the world without necessarily recreating a different product.

Good luck!

Nice

NaLaugh:
Keep at it.

I'm pretty positive i know what your startup is, and what it does (or intends to), but i'll leave you to elaborate, when you feel like it.

Being an entrepreneur is an entirely different beast. There is one ingredient that an entrepreneur MUST possess, ..passion.

If you do not completely believe in what you're doing, don't do it.
If people tell you, it's a crazy idea, well, then embrace the role of the "mad scientist."

As someone who has invested significant amounts of time, energy and cash (sometimes to my detriment) into business, i can tell you, it ain't easy.
Then again, no one said it was going to be.

One of my biggest challenge is managing businesses (with physical locations and employees - some from Nairaland ) in Nigeria while living elsewhere. Nigerians can be a little crazy, to say the least

I currently also have a tech startup in the works, and i've been pushing it's launch forward every month, for some months now.
However, It is all ready to go, so any day now.

Once I get this particular project underway, I'll be shifting my focus back on my local market (U.S).
The Nigerian market is going through a very interesting curve, and is an ideal time to harness it. However, sometimes we focus a little too much on the niche market (Nigeria), and lose sight of the bigger picture.


My advise to you at this stage is not to limit the scalability of your solution to the Nigerian market.
Make it in a manner where you can gradually open it up to the rest of the world without necessarily recreating a different product.

Good luck!

Yeah it's pretty easy to find what my startup, thanks for not revealing. I'll deny it anyway, I want to keep this independent of it so i can say speak freely.

Nigerians are crazy indeed, i've got a few stories coming up! Running a team in Nigeria remotely is difficult!

Regarding your advise of limiting to a location, we started out broad and being for everyone and everywhere but it's difficult to get any kind of traction. The reason is when you're for everyone and everywhere you're for noone and nowhere. All the start up greats like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel will tell you to look for a niche and own it before you expand. So define a segment of the market and a defined location.

Examples of this in current succeses:
Facebook - Limited to Havard initially then, one university after another
Paypal - Focused on power sellers on ebay
Air bnb - started in san fransisco targetting conference goers, incredibly small niche but now are all over the world

It's counter-intuitive but it works. We have tested this ourselves. When we tried to be everything for everyone we couldn't get any users. Now we've narrowed to a particular location and sub niche and we're seeing results already.

So to all entrepreneurs, resist the urge to be everything for everybody. Start small and do things that don't scale. Read Paul graham here:
http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

Watch this video too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQOC-qy-GDY