tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29090990454847666392024-03-05T00:45:27.743-08:00TechbyGeraldFrom one founder to another...Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-6278869488064022882022-01-01T09:28:00.002-08:002022-01-01T09:28:30.534-08:00"All men must die, but we are not men." โ Daenerys Targaryen<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8VJ5wt2GKVzbQg0rvwD8bIlxsZfDKaeOs02emGoBJJZY0AHsfYAgEwz2GSqHrfzonktajBL43QCX8GzNnF2XkCIMhgqhmda-6xIlNhKbcj22ARNwho-9yleQE84-KmAHDQjAo-mx1Wlw_I-YHulYzjNCPjgjrYRwG0ZCQun83nc3mTUMHMaLukN7i-Q=s500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8VJ5wt2GKVzbQg0rvwD8bIlxsZfDKaeOs02emGoBJJZY0AHsfYAgEwz2GSqHrfzonktajBL43QCX8GzNnF2XkCIMhgqhmda-6xIlNhKbcj22ARNwho-9yleQE84-KmAHDQjAo-mx1Wlw_I-YHulYzjNCPjgjrYRwG0ZCQun83nc3mTUMHMaLukN7i-Q=w640-h358" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"All men must die, but we are not men." โ Daenerys Targaryen</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yep 2020 happened and just like everyone else I got really burnt, badly! my startup <a href="http://Parkit.ng">Parkit.ng</a> had just closed a deal to setup a 100 vehicle detailing centers across Africa with an investment firm based in Lagos and <i>voila!</i> the EndSars aftermath; state wide looting just having recovered from Covid. Entrepreneurship is really not for the faint hearted, the couple of events will go on to buttress my point...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We entered into 2020 really excited and pumped for what the year had for us, we had our goals, strategies, and of course turkey ๐. We were ready! and full of life, we spent the first 2 months trying out new business models, prepping to go full swing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was the 27th day of February 2020, the first "confirmed" covid-19 case in Nigeria was announced, I remember looking at my partners and wondering what that meant for us especially considering all our outlets were in malls and public places, everything we had labored so hard to build was about to become a mess, it wasn't before long before the government directed that all public places (malls, etc.) be closed and eventually the nation wide lock down. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">We were shut down for 3 months, in these few months we had accumulated some debts stemming from staff salary to rentals at various locations, amongst others, it was unbelievable what was happening, absolutely no one saw this coming.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lockdown was eventually eased off and we managed to resume operations in May of the same year, our view was blurry but yet we were determined to follow through till the end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We incurred debts, moral was low, it wasn't the best of times for any of us, we were really tempted to just count our losses and move on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When all hope almost seemed to have been lost, we were reached out to by an institutional investor via facebook, we had a brief meeting and reached an agreement after subsequent meetings. The deal was both a direct investment to the company and location expansion; 100 vehicle detailing centers across Africa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know, you could as well feel the excitement we felt with this new deal, it was a life saver lol, we were literally super excited, we were finally back!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Preparations commenced, location selection, ops and strategy, due diligence, we were ready! Funds for the first location was released and we commenced our expansion, this time to a new city (<i>Abuja</i>).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The expansion to Abuja was going really smoothly, we were enthusiastic about this new city expansion, we were ready and had processes in place to ensure it was seamless.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In October 2020 the End SARS protest erupted, <i>for context sake; End SARS is a decentralized social movement, and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria. For a long time there had been series of abuses recorded against the Nigerian Police Force especially on Young folks, this led to what was now known as the End SARS protest.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It went on for weeks, both young and old, particularly the young took to the streets everyday, protesting against Police brutality, this crippled some business activities in Lagos and across a few other parts of the country. On the 20th of October, the Nigerian government issued a sit at home order in a bid to end the protest, this was flawed by a few youths, soldiers got involved and eventually, allegedly opened fire, causing harm and possibly death to a few young folks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This caused outrage the following day, people took to the streets and eventually hoodlums took advantage of the situation, looting malls, shops, we were not spared, our locations were looted and one eventually set ablaze and burnt to the ground.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I received a call on the 21st of October in the early hours of the morning from the security head at one of the malls where we had an outlet informing me that our outlet had been set ablaze. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why would anyone set a car wash ablaze was the question I kept asking myself, this was the second time this would happen, the first was during the xenophobic attack in 2019, it made no sense to me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our investors got wind of this information, lost confidence in Nigeria, our business model (<i>owning the locations</i>) and eventually backed out after the first location. We were yet again placed in a dilemma, it made absolutely no sense to us, why would this happen I kept asking myself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We managed to complete the setup of our Abuja location, commenced operation by December and I returned to Lagos.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We were back to where we left off. We had to figure out a way to rebuild and get back in business, having gone through these crazy emotional roller coasters we had little or no energy left in us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nothing made sense, depression was looming but I wouldn't allow it have the better part of me. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">With the very last drop of energy left in me I embarked on a <i>begging spree. </i>I literally reached out to every single person I called friend and a few family members.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By the end of January 2021 we had raised enough money to rebuild, and we were back in business fully by February. We could finally breathe for a while, trying to figure out what our next line of action would be, we were still in shock and hadn't fully recovered from the effects of 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fast forward to September that same year we were approached by Fixit45 an autotech platform dedicated to redefining the automotive experience for car and fleet owners, facilitating value-creating interactions across stakeholders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fixit45 saw opportunities for synergy owning to the fact that we had digitized an entire vertical; vehicle care and decided to make an acquisition offer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After series of meetings we reached an agreement and eventually got acquired by Fixit45.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I and my entire team also moved to Fixit45 to continue the awesome work we had started while at Parkit, let's see what the future holds for us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's been an adventure filled journey I must say, the highs and lows makes it interesting, despite all the challenges faced, we kept our heads high and never let go of the vision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All men must die, but we are not men." โ Daenerys Targaryen3v1</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-27081078326411569342020-06-29T09:30:00.000-07:002020-06-29T09:30:34.422-07:00It's Never About an App<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxS_oSyFD3GiSyKexTVQ_mzH8FQ_QF6MujojaDTT4LGQytb7IcjQZDHqqZ1kyBWwknjnls7yydnN1A0nx1cJFhuBTZ2Sfvwauwa9J3eE7XAgm96O8iuN45XcPGvUc4cOEZ3Av3v4oB-8UT/s1632/Apple_App_Store_10th_anniversary_07102018_big.gif.large_2x.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1632" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxS_oSyFD3GiSyKexTVQ_mzH8FQ_QF6MujojaDTT4LGQytb7IcjQZDHqqZ1kyBWwknjnls7yydnN1A0nx1cJFhuBTZ2Sfvwauwa9J3eE7XAgm96O8iuN45XcPGvUc4cOEZ3Av3v4oB-8UT/w640-h360/Apple_App_Store_10th_anniversary_07102018_big.gif.large_2x.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">Often times I get this from friends and other budding startup founders "I'm building an app bla bla bla...", I usually cringe each time I hear that cause it almost seems as though the entire journey of creating an experience, a solution, a disruptor revolves around building an App. </font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">It never has, building a business involves creating processes, structures, building networks and relationships long before the idea of an App is introduced especially in a Nigerian or African context.</font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">An App in my best opinion is an interface (mobile or desktop) introduced to simplify already existing processes and structures, reach new audiences and acquire new users, Big Chief (Victor Asemota) couldn't have explained this any better in a tweet;</font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZuOLyAvlMO6GQugbR7Hs0WtA5U05syNBhedtIPQlKYHgRPmrA5PpRYQqeiJa3uhE9i9hUR7AyeRQ3_qEaApTjXThc6tZYWH0XfsUpa9Qscjunv4zhpQlr42D5zlV6inR-iKeVrFo1MWJ/s1242/IMG_6971.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1242" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZuOLyAvlMO6GQugbR7Hs0WtA5U05syNBhedtIPQlKYHgRPmrA5PpRYQqeiJa3uhE9i9hUR7AyeRQ3_qEaApTjXThc6tZYWH0XfsUpa9Qscjunv4zhpQlr42D5zlV6inR-iKeVrFo1MWJ/w400-h335/IMG_6971.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">He Nailed it! Apps are processes manifested in an Interface, let's make this real, take my company <a href="https://www.parkit.ng" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Parkit</a> for instance; my approach to taking up this endeavor would never have made sense by simply saying I want to create an app for vehicle wash and care services, we had to first of all go through the very tiring experience of designing every single step from procurements, to job execution to standards and quality, training, customer engagement and experience, it goes on and on.</font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">What I've tried to achieve by writing this piece is to remind you of the work it takes to actually build a business and not just take the lazy route of jumping on building an app and hope it takes care of all the loopholes that'll obviously be left unattended to along the way. </font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">Wakanda forever!!!</font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font size="1"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">Image Source: </font><a href="https://www.macobserver.com/" style="text-align: center;">https://www.macobserver.com/</a></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet"><br /></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet"> </font></div></div>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-86883549747839783002020-05-13T05:56:00.000-07:002020-05-13T06:00:40.655-07:00Wefix, iFix now Parkit. What a Journey!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>the journey of life can be unpredictable</i></span></div>
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It's been a long time since I last published an article on my blog, my last published article was in June 2018 and trust me when I say a lot of things have happened since then Boy! Life as we all know it is a never ending journey, it's our responsibility to keep open heart and eyes to recognize opportunities whenever it presents itself and to also know when to wrap it all up and move on to the next big thing!</div>
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I started my entrepreneurial journey in 2012 as a 19 yr old boy with my then startup; <b>Wefix</b> <i>(a facility and property management company in Delta State, Nigeria) </i>which eventually pivoted in 2016 to become <a href="http://ifixng.com/" target="_blank">iFixng.com</a> <i>(an online platform for hiring handy men and artisans) </i>upon moving to Lagos.</div>
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iFix did tremendously well, creating job and learning opportunities for handymen and artisans in Nigeria as well as making hiring artisans easy for users with well over 500 successful transactions <i>(excluding some crazy transactions in-between infused with madness, lol) </i>in 2 years, we managed to "survive" <i>(cause business in Nigeria is crazy as hell) </i>on our own with no external support or funds whatsoever and little margins coming in from transactions. After 2 years of craziness, we had hit rock bottom, this time we either had to raise some substantial amount of money to infuse traction, scale et al or wrap it all up and move to something else.</div>
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Oh well, as you guessed right, we chose to move to the next big thing! something that could survive on "its own" but this time it had to be something still within our passion but also what Nigerians had been craving for a long time and with a very high demand.</div>
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Voila! we finally figured it out, this was the year 2018 and with over 11 million vehicles on the road in Nigeria, coupled with the tireless never ending commute especially in a busy urban city like Lagos, we finally decided to pivot once again to the vehicle care industry; ladies and gentlemen <i>(and all other genders in-between)</i> that's how <b>Parkit</b> (<a href="https://parkit.ng/" target="_blank">Parkit.ng</a>) was born.</div>
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As I'm well aware, we all at some point in time have been dealt with by our <i>very professional mechanics and vehicle technicians</i>, this has been a very major problem that wasn't looking to go away anytime soon, we knew it would be a very long journey to disrupt this entire industry and so we decided to take it in phases. </div>
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We rolled out our pilot service in <b>Parkit; </b>which was a car wash and detailing service like never before, and as predicted from our tireless nights of research and projections we got an overwhelming response from our very first day of operation, it was finally happening, we had done it! changed car wash and detailing service forever, giving people some hope and what to look forward to in the auto care industry, it was a wonderful sight to behold.</div>
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Now barely two years in and with over 9000 vehicles that have been attended to in 3+ physical locations in strategic locations across Lagos, we believe we made the right decision to pivot. Tremendous success is being recorded and we're very grateful we made that decision and at the right </div>
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This entire journey and chapter of my life has taught me to always trust the process and most importantly keep open eye for opportunities and to also know when is the right time to wrap it all up and move on.</div>
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Hope you had a good read, looking forward to writing more in days to come, chao!</div>
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Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-91605452575092465942018-03-06T03:41:00.003-08:002018-03-06T03:41:56.109-08:00Tech Cabals Instead of Tech Eco-Systems?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2u9H9FDWxzPcLlg32yxHidKXt8B80KC0qTZdwCRSvd7kzbuJ_QXzuywwdxCTWIg6rO0Mu0j1oM_1ollw2yGrGEm7w0_jjl8dzD4A104zYEMCugv1su1URJOugzfZ8D-7PcJ_5BXYQ3i0U/s1600/cabal.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2u9H9FDWxzPcLlg32yxHidKXt8B80KC0qTZdwCRSvd7kzbuJ_QXzuywwdxCTWIg6rO0Mu0j1oM_1ollw2yGrGEm7w0_jjl8dzD4A104zYEMCugv1su1URJOugzfZ8D-7PcJ_5BXYQ3i0U/s1600/cabal.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">are we silently growing tech cabals instead of tech eco-systems?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: justify;">I've grown tired of hearing the word "Tech Eco-system" what does it really mean? my friends at </span><a href="http://www.bite.tech/news/what-tech-ecosystem" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: justify;" target="_blank">bite.tech</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: justify;"> helped me understand it better; </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"a</i></span><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> tech ecosystem is an interconnected, interdependent network of various players that combine to create innovative products and services in tech. These players primarily include tech startups; more established tech companies; tech company founders; investors and investment groups; mentors and organisations that provide business support. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">A successful tech ecosystem allows for many smaller companies to bring innovation to market.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> "</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">after reading this it becomes clearer that we're far from having a tech eco-system in Nigeria, though a few people like Mark Essien <i>(boss at <a href="http://hotels.ng/">hotels.ng</a>)</i>, OO Nwoye <i>(the Nigerian)</i> and a few others are endlessly trying to build such environments, our inherent nature to have cabals keeps diminishing the efforts of these great men. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I'll give you a personal account; I attended a "tech party" last December <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(where we were to โฎshake our body like a bungalow</span></i></span></span><i style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">โฎ</span></i><span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">), </span>the entire essence was to connect and mingle with other tech founders both successful and upcoming, just have a good time generally. Awesome concept and I loved this, it was different from every other meetup I had attended and I was eager to be there. On arriving at the venue I saw my bosses <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I'm a very observant human being)</span></i>, all the big boys in tech in Nigeria at the time who were around, clustered together in a a particular area wearing on them a "don't come close to me look" I usually would ignore such look anyways, choosing to be the hero of my time according to boss Asemota I approached one of them, not minding if I die. "Good evening", followed through immediately, he looked at me, drew out his card, and asked that I send him a mail, <i>lol, </i>I was wondering why he was giving me his card, I just wanted to interact for a while and get some views from him, but he looked less interested probably cause I wasn't a "member" of that group...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I'm hoping in years to come the tech community doesn't grow to become an irritating cabal of people, just like we have in the music industry, oil & gas, politics, banking etc...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So far I'm enjoying the freedom of expression and equal opportunities having a tech business gives, 'cause on like some other businesses your customers are on the internet and accessing them is not restricted.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Though things like raising funds for your startup and the likes are gradually being <i>cabalised</i>, 'cause the big boys will always refer top investors who often come to them for referrals to startups and founders in their circles not necessarily the top performing or value-adding ones.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks guys for reading today's post, my blog posts are an honest expression of how I really feel yeah, so don't take me out of context ๐</span></div>
Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-32535162692927314052018-03-02T04:54:00.000-08:002018-03-02T04:54:02.499-08:00Has Mark Zuckerberg Forgotten About Our Satellite?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4NpMh1k1fx5YgeGbXdp8BRdoPmUL03w8nJcbk5TYQPiXWg0ppusZM6RVP3hteVrl11yBG8m6ZoS22Feaq6ADc5jaW9BxO9Xk4pgkLKUvmJsSP8r5-yFn0wWXnGN3D20D3Km3zswTQppqA/s1600/satellite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4NpMh1k1fx5YgeGbXdp8BRdoPmUL03w8nJcbk5TYQPiXWg0ppusZM6RVP3hteVrl11yBG8m6ZoS22Feaq6ADc5jaW9BxO9Xk4pgkLKUvmJsSP8r5-yFn0wWXnGN3D20D3Km3zswTQppqA/s400/satellite.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have an unconditional love for Mark Zuckerberg <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(oh Zuck my man, if you've never heard of him, you may now rest in peace)</span></i>, he's one of our most celebrated <b>Tech Heroes</b> for all his accomplishments and immense contributions to new media and the tech community at large. He's recently taken a philanthropic view with his corporate social responsibility projects at Facebook, Africa included.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He Posted this on his Facebook page on the 5th of October, 2015:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj37vn4x7zYDt7aQJrJ3IWO_mE8jq03mNwHmy-yPGA0JrFvb5MI2gY1eOkqHcOo1_iM50ceU0gz7iNJyKnftdy-NHHapbc7l-1Q-d4sZntNywtRj_tGItytf5_jEQ7-LJAWQ2LS1KoxxClX/s1600/mark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="532" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj37vn4x7zYDt7aQJrJ3IWO_mE8jq03mNwHmy-yPGA0JrFvb5MI2gY1eOkqHcOo1_iM50ceU0gz7iNJyKnftdy-NHHapbc7l-1Q-d4sZntNywtRj_tGItytf5_jEQ7-LJAWQ2LS1KoxxClX/s400/mark.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zuck's Post about Amos-6; Satellite for Africa on the 5th of October</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He promised to launch a satellite called Amos- 6 in collaboration with Eutelsat to help beam Internet connectivity to large parts of Africa (especially sub-saharan Africa) so people living in remote regions can equally have access to the internet (and grandma can finally signup on facebook lol).</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Space X <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(a rocket company owned by the batman of Tech; Elon Musk) </span></i>which was contracted to launch this satellite into space so we can start enjoying <i>"beta Internet"</i>, unfortunately, accidentally destroyed this Satellite during one of their rocket testing procedures that failed, resulting in the rocket exploding with the Satellite attached to it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mark was in Africa at the time <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Nigeria precisely)</span></i> when this incident occurred, heavily disappointed, he posted this: </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisgaKFRuXu29Lb2-EqyMYZK84eUxYXXohnVUZA7gg9VO9bH8S9yrNSSo_LOlBiHL1zWHDAp9F7zzkZKDIwrJeTMiNjYBiuqyNmx_LQoIkBYsHsxU-qDa4gFiS0dyVUUH_OrBHAOOSDij5f/s1600/mark2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="517" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisgaKFRuXu29Lb2-EqyMYZK84eUxYXXohnVUZA7gg9VO9bH8S9yrNSSo_LOlBiHL1zWHDAp9F7zzkZKDIwrJeTMiNjYBiuqyNmx_LQoIkBYsHsxU-qDa4gFiS0dyVUUH_OrBHAOOSDij5f/s400/mark2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zuck's comment on the SpaceX Launch Explosion</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I personally was very sad of this new development, cause I had very high expectations and so did many others, with many dreams and expectations gone like that <i style="font-weight: bold;">KATABOOM! </i>in a single explosion, I was also very disappointed in SpaceX's carelessness, but then again an alternative thought struck me; could this have been a SABOTAGE attempt? after all why should Africa be illuminated and given access to so much Information and connectivity, it's been a pattern which has been on for many centuries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But on another note, I thought to keep my fingers crossed and hope that it was a genuine mistake and not an attempt to frustrate Mark's efforts which would <b><i>hopefully</i></b> be corrected with time and definitely covered by insurance, 'cause Elon Musk won't want to fall my hand like that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But it's been close to two years since the incidence happened and I've not heard anything from Mark Zuckerberg concerning our Satellite, though there are other technologies like Acquila <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(a drone-like machine that can beam internet and remotely controlled)</span></i>, but won't be as effective as the Amos-6.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This Leaves me wondering <b>"HAS MARK ZUCKERBERG FORGOTTEN ABOUT OUR SATELLITE?" </b> I hope for my sake he hasn't and I'll keep waiting and hoping that we'll with time hear a new positive development about it.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8G1GiWaoMzwEjVnwSNL6Bv3I2eZ7zs_V6Tpr-LEkHqcO_KW8-wsseU0UXihLHRd8Ku0JHBcP-hGUHiy-jNrZYqF3NlV-Cry3ZfpaLWiX7awH961zQ0q_F4Z5gA8wkZBpU4XPJ27oW-YmF/s1600/looking+for.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="498" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8G1GiWaoMzwEjVnwSNL6Bv3I2eZ7zs_V6Tpr-LEkHqcO_KW8-wsseU0UXihLHRd8Ku0JHBcP-hGUHiy-jNrZYqF3NlV-Cry3ZfpaLWiX7awH961zQ0q_F4Z5gA8wkZBpU4XPJ27oW-YmF/s320/looking+for.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We'll one day look and see that our Satellite is being deployed</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks all for reading today's blog, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you do see Mark please help ask him what's up with our satellite.</span></div>
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Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-78743282850981149412018-02-27T01:43:00.000-08:002018-02-27T02:54:08.839-08:00Shola of Paystack Shares His Accepted YCombinator Application<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU79_2qt038f_FcDjphdqW4OZnf6JHLT2MF9e7WhP20rEDxXAwSzTqePiGOnQJAxVLv7_9q36fm13QcLrEvtoGW6idZZ88gRYAGefejQD-j3EfTwUApC-d24OmtJdFgwko4NndvNVy_xG5/s1600/shola_akinlade_ezra_olubi_founders_paystack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU79_2qt038f_FcDjphdqW4OZnf6JHLT2MF9e7WhP20rEDxXAwSzTqePiGOnQJAxVLv7_9q36fm13QcLrEvtoGW6idZZ88gRYAGefejQD-j3EfTwUApC-d24OmtJdFgwko4NndvNVy_xG5/s400/shola_akinlade_ezra_olubi_founders_paystack.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shola & Ezra Co-Founders of Paystack.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you play in the tech community, then you'll definitely know Ycombinator <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(for those who don't it's a tech accelerator in the United States)</span></i>, they never accepted any Nigerian tech company until this genius; Shola Akinlade CEO of Paystack <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://paystack.co/" target="_blank">paystack</a> is an online payment processing solution, if you've never heard of them you need help, we also use them over here at <a href="http://ifixng.com/">iFixng.com</a></span></i>) managed to break that jinks which eventually opened Michael Seibel's eyes to see what we've got over here , real genius I must say!.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Shola gave us the privilege to take a look at what his paystack application looked like with commentary and backstory which I'll like to share with you today, hey Shola if you're reading this, thanks a lot. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 25.5pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paystackโs YC Application</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Company name:</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paystack</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Company url, if any:</span></h4>
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<a href="https://www.paystack.co/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.paystack.co/</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We launched with paystack.co, and it was about a year later that I was able to buy the .com domain from the previous owner.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You know the freaky thing? The domain used to belong to a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">different</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Y Combinator company called PayStack, from the Summer 2011 YC batch! Many thanks to former PayStack CEO Sam Vafee for agreeing to sell us the domain! ๐๐ฟ</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have an online demo, whatโs the url?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Please donโt password protect it; just use an obscure url.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gingerbox.com.ng/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.gingerbox.com.ng</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="about:blank" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.jekalo.com,</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="about:blank" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.diylaw.ng</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gingerbox, Jekalo, and DIYLaw were some of our earliest customers. The way DIYLaw came on board was that I went to them to register the company, and they mentioned that they actually needed something like Paystack. That's how Paystack grew in the early days - purely by word of mouth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Describe your company in 50 characters or less.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">APIs and tools to enable merchants accept payments in African Markets</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is your company going to make?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Software and services needed for merchants in Africa to accept online payments from local and international customers. We provide a full stack APIs and weโll securely collect, encrypt, transmit and store customer card information in a highly protected vault and offer continuous anti-fraud and charge back protection services.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To make these happen weโve partnered with Access Bank (the third Largest Bank in Nigeria) and weโve built a PCI Compliant payments infrastructure and APIs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's interesting to see how consistent our vision has remained. The only difference is that Paystack now works just as well for non-technical business owners as it does for developers. We power all scales of businesses, including some of Nigeria's best known brands such as Domino's Pizza, Taxify, Abia State University, Iroko TV, God is Good Motors (GIGM), Hotels.ng, and BusinessDay.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Additionally, our active banking relationships now include Zenith Bank, GT Bank, FCMB, Wema Bank / ALAT, Fidelity Bank, Diamond Bank, UBA, First Bank, and Heritage Bank.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which category best applies to your company?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Financial Services</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is this application in response to a YC </span><a href="http://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RFS</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(List as City A, Country A / City B, Country B.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lagos Nigeria</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">CONTACT</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email address we should contact you at:</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[REDACTED]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Phone number(s):</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[REDACTED]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">FOUNDERS</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hacker News username</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: sholls</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Name</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Shola Akinlade</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: [REDACTED]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Profile updated</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: yes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I applied to YC as a solo founder. Tip: don't do this ๐ Later down this page I'll talk about where my co-founder Ezra came into the picture.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please enter the url of a 1 minute unlisted (not private) YouTube video introducing the founders. (</span><a href="https://www.ycombinator.com/video/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Follow the Video Guidelines</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></h4>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIzhXzixENE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIzhXzixENE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's impossible for me to watch this video and not cringe a little ๐ The first of many, many, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">many</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> pitches!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in person?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">PROGRESS</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How far along are you?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Private Beta. We are piloting with a dozen merchants and we have hundreds of merchants on our waiting list.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If youโve already started working on it, how long have you been working and how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since Nov, 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which of the following best describes your progress?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Private Beta</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How many users do you have?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12 Pilot merchants and up to 400 on the waiting list</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you have revenue?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How much revenue?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">$1,300</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yup, this was literally everything we had made when we applied! Note that $1,000 of this came from a single transaction ๐</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like to point this out when speaking to founders who have overblown assumptions about how much traction they need to have before applying to YC.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is your monthly growth rate?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(in users or revenue or both)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are currently growing our waiting list at 10x, and transaction volume at 15x.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If youโve applied PREVIOUSLY with the same idea, how much progress have you made since the last time you applied? Anything change?</span></h4>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the last application, it was just a prototype, now weโre already running live transactions and weโve released additional libraries.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have already participated or committed to participate in an incubator, โacceleratorโ or โpre-acceleratorโ program, please tell us about it.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">N/a</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">IDEA</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what youโre making?</span></h4>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When i founded my first startup in 2010, we needed a way to accept payments online, there was no solution locally, we had to work around using Avangate BV and creating accounts in the UK. 5 years later, thereโs still no easy way.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 37pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spent the entire 2014 implementing payments and disbursement solutions for Banks and i realized that most of the infrastructure needed to build a full stack payments API already existed, and it just needed someone to do the hardwork of putting it all together and doing all that is necessary. I finished the engagement in Nov. 2014 and immediately created Paystack.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 37pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The demand for Paystack is amazing, we havenโt done any PR or Marketing and weโre growing our waiting list at 10x monthly, just from word of mouth. Iโve personally spoken to over 150 merchants and everyone is excited and waiting. Our pilot merchants need it so much that they started using it without a settlement system, so they did not mind leaving their money with us for over 6 weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatโs new about what youโre making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesnโt exist yet (or they donโt know about it)?</span></h4>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatโs new? In Nigeria.. thereโs still no way to accept recurring payments or one click payments. The incumbents are big coโs owned by banks and are not interested in innovating.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Substitutes, creating US or UK companies so they can use UK or US payment processors and then find ways to send the money back.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In hindsight, the quip about big companies not being "interested in innovating," was a little harsh. Two years later, I have a ton of respect and admiration for the impossible problems that the large payments companies had to solve to make it possible for Paystack to exist today. In too many ways to list, the current generation of fintech companies stand on the shoulders of giants.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have 3 types of competitors: (1) Local Financial Institutions (2) Global Payment cos and (3) Local non-Financial Institutions</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Local FIโs are not able to progress because they mostly buy white label solutions. No incremental progress or problem-solving.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 37pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Global companies like Stripe and Braintree are competitors but it will be difficult for them to meet the needs of the African Merchants. Itโs easy for them to offer Bitcoin or Apple Pay integration but what about Verve Cards (a pan African card scheme), or Mobile Money or other local card schemes?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 37pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Local Non FIโs are the real competition, but we believe that as long as we focus on solving the merchantโs needs we will continue to grow our business.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just donโt get?</span></h4>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, weโre firstly developers, then business owners, and merchants so we can feel the pain from a developer and merchant perspective. every other person right now seems to be more interested in their vested interests.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 47pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To this day I'm fiercely proud of the fact that Paystack continues to be an intensely product-led company. Everyone on the team has some sort of side hustle (which means we feel our customers' pain firsthand) and we're all makers (which means we don't rest until stuff </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">just works</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the way, if you're looking to purchase fine Italian wines, small chops for your event, tailoring services, or luxury packaging, there're multiple members of the Paystack team who can hook you up for a good price.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm not joking even one bit. Seriously, holla: hello@paystack.com</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do or will you make money? How much could you make?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(We realize you canโt know precisely, but give your best estimate.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transaction fees. 1.9% + 50cents</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These days, most payment gateways in Nigeria charge roughly the same rate of 1.5%</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How will you get users? If your idea is the type that faces a chicken-and-egg problem in the sense that it wonโt be attractive to users till it has a lot of users (e.g. a marketplace, a dating site, an ad network), how will you overcome that?</span></h4>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Weโre already getting users by word of mouth. Weโre active in the local developer community, weโll reach out to merchants directly, and weโll signup merchants via integration with existing services (Shopify, eventbrite, woocommerce)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our banking partner has also asked that we onboard thousands of Merchants that are their customers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">EQUITY</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you incorporated, or formed any legal entity (like an LLC) yet?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What kind of entity and in what state or country was the entity formed?</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(e.g. Delaware C Corp)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trading entity created in Lagos, Nigeria</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please describe the breakdown of the equity ownership in percentages among the founders, employees and any other stockholders.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sholaโโโ80% </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Employee Poolโโโ10% </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Advisory Poolโโโ10%</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our cap table looks different today, but this is what it looked like then.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">List any investments your company has received. Include the name of the investor, the amount invested, the premoney valuation / valuation cap, and the type of security sold (convertible notes, safes or stock).</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">None, still funded by founder</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please provide any other relevant information about the structure or formation of the company.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[BLANK]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">LEGAL</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project? If so, please explain.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">None</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Was any of your code written by someone who is not one of your founders? If so, describe how can you legally use it.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Open source is ok of course.)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 37pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Android library written by a contractor, but we have contracts already</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">Is there anything else we should know about your company?</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Pending lawsuits, cofounders who have left, etc.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[BLANK]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">OTHERS</span></span></h3>
<h4 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.464; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -1pt; margin-top: 38pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, please list them. One may be something weโve been waiting for. Often when we fund people itโs to do something they list here and not in the main application.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">none</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered.</span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(The answer need not be related to your project.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[BLANK]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">CURIOUS</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What convinced you to apply to Y Combinator?</span></h4>
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<a href="https://medium.com/@oothenigerian" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">oothenigerian</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Convinced" is putting this lightly. My friend</span><a href="https://medium.com/@oothenigerian" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oo</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> literally sent an email, without my knowledge, to multiple YC partners, insisting that they check out Paystack. I remember opening my email, realizing what I had been copied on, and screaming to myself something like "Oh my God Oo, what have you done?!"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Luckily,</span><a href="https://twitter.com/mwseibel/with_replies" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael Siebel</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (who would go on to become YC CEO), replied and kindly asked me to send over some more information. To this day, I don't think I've ever put more thought into a reply! ๐</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How did you hear about Y Combinator?</span></h4>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 20pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">been on hacker news since 2007</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "roboto"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<hr />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 39pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shortly after I sent the application, I received a reply asking for further information.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 29pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hi Shola,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks for applying! A few questions for you.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 22pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Can you tell us more about the online consumer payments market in Nigeria and the other markets youโre looking at? What % of consumers pay with credit cards, verve money, etc.?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 22pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last year, in Nigeria, about $43B was processed in Card transactions. But only about $0.4B were online transactions. So about 1% of cards were used online (up from 0.2% in 2006). However, E-commerce is experiencing enormous growth (from about US$ 35 million in 2012 to over US$ 550 million as of October 2014).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 22pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The general summary of the consumer payments market is that itโs growing fast due to increased mobile penetration and E-commerce adoption. Same can be said of Kenya (transaction volume doubled between 2010 to 2014) and South Africa (from $31B in 2009 to $57B in 2013). To put things in perspective, online payments is growing in Africa at about 26โ30% annually compared to 9โ16% in North America</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Below are a few stats to answer the last part of the question</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Credit/Debit Split: 3% Credit Card, 97% Debit Cards.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Card Scheme Split: Mastercard/Visa (30%), Verve (65%), Others (5%)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got many of these numbers from KPMG's</span><a href="https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/za/pdf/2016/09/Payment-Developments-in-Africa-2015.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Payment Developments in Africa Volume 1 2015 Report</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Fun fact: I would later go on to hire one of the people who worked on this report.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Can you tell use more about the experience using Stripe and Braintree in Nigeria? What do they and do they not support? Are there issues unique to your markets?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Firstly, Stripe and Braintree do not support Nigeria (or any other African country yet). A few merchants use them, but they need to register their companies in US or UK and then find a way to get the money back to Nigeria.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The unique issues to our markets are</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lots of middle men. The payment ecosystem in US is the Issuer (customerโs bank) , Acquirer ( Merchantโs Bank) and the Payment Gateway (Stripe), in Nigeria itโs the Issuer (customerโs Bank), Issuer Processor (third party service provider for the Customerโs bank), Acquirer (Merchantโs Bank), Acquirerโs Processor (Third Party service provider for the acquirer), Switch (central clearing system), Payment Gateway (Paystack)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fragmented Payment Methods.. Local Card Schemes (Verve, Genesis), International Card Schemes (Mastercard, Visa), Bank Accounts (like ACH), Mobile Money Wallets.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OverregulationโโโThe Countries Regulator has put in different rules like 2-factor Authentication, Transaction Limits, e.t.c</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Small correction: Most US banks also use third party service providers for issuer processing and acquirer processing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Who else is working on your team?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Iโve worked with 4 top advisors to make Paystack happen.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/seunojo/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seun</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and I were classmates at University. He helps with the paperwork required for executing the banking partnerships and regulatory obligations.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/person/oo-nwoye" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oo</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> runs </span><a href="http://callbase.co/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">callbase.co</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, heโs spent a lot of time helping with the product design and overall vision.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[REDACTED]</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/abis-soetan-53307823/?ppe=1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Abis</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a financial / Risk management consultant.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a follow-up, YC forced the question of a co-founder, asking which of my advisors I would ask to join the team full time. After much thought I told them that</span><a href="https://twitter.com/0x" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ezra Olubi</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> would be my co-founder.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please note: I hadn't asked Ezra yet ๐</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Luckily, he said yes ๐</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Can you send us a graph of monthly transaction volume since you launched?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.896; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 22pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have not launched yet, weโve been piloting with a few merchants for 7 weeks. Hereโs a graph of the live transactions weโve done so far.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="187" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/tq7IqXQ0pxuNTsJyBt1EgC7Z9AJoK1v1xNuYXEDtchadTq257RS79Z10_up9Mp_Ma51BXUrdJS55LKWDItbw09h2ns0DFmUGF7qmzjj8jHRi1H6K_slyaH-uOBvAI7X40p0MAXqg" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 39pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "courier new";">Man, I look at this graph and I can't stop laughing ๐ It's almost comical, but it was what we had - a whopping 22 transactions in our first month, and 318 transactions in our second.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "courier new"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, we do many multiples of this in minutes. It's good to look back and see where you've come from.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.012em;">That's all folks from the stables of Shola of Paystack, to view the original post on medium Click </span><a href="https://blog.paystack.com/paystacks-y-combinator-application-81e9a8345d51" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; letter-spacing: -0.012em;" target="_blank">Here</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.012em;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.012em;">Thanks for reading today's blog post</span>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-30654987525967319142018-02-22T01:47:00.000-08:002018-02-22T01:47:04.688-08:00Don't Just Create, Disrupt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAcS1_AsY1BqBNbmAIhgp8vP4DbAIIn39iY_I2y3wZqLZewvt5yvV44pVizuWWX5b5pa-mv5IAPzVwGrj2YifYR1vMf7fc_WOJlQvupdaKmS2RPdv5S2eVFqp89m7asI-fQlj7D__9MLc/s1600/disrupt+biz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="633" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAcS1_AsY1BqBNbmAIhgp8vP4DbAIIn39iY_I2y3wZqLZewvt5yvV44pVizuWWX5b5pa-mv5IAPzVwGrj2YifYR1vMf7fc_WOJlQvupdaKmS2RPdv5S2eVFqp89m7asI-fQlj7D__9MLc/s320/disrupt+biz.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I slept like a baby, thanks to the creative minds of geniuses who created Light, Air Conditioners, a Bed to Sleep on, they all disrupted the way things were done or achieved and I'm very grateful to them, this entire post is dedicated to innovators, founders, creative minds who work tirelessly to ensure things are much more simplified in the world today. Thank You!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuF1qOhGwk1Ncaq4VUyD_eIZ-kW6uVGeWs3bizazbOY1UlQ2jBIRJQCVoO3eBIKBv0UGTH7r0mD0llwQy32T_dXiFWNN7Xm9ezR30Vy13CVC8QLqs55KN9Y2xGMvCnSlJ8IDNhkPJ7fMCX/s1600/disrupt.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuF1qOhGwk1Ncaq4VUyD_eIZ-kW6uVGeWs3bizazbOY1UlQ2jBIRJQCVoO3eBIKBv0UGTH7r0mD0llwQy32T_dXiFWNN7Xm9ezR30Vy13CVC8QLqs55KN9Y2xGMvCnSlJ8IDNhkPJ7fMCX/s320/disrupt.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't Just Create, Disrupt, you'll be loved for it.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Through out my venture to create <a href="http://ifixng.com/">iFixng.com</a> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(if you haven't hired artisans or handymen via my platform and you live in Lagos, you have sinned)</i></span>, I'm always asked one simple question, which is; "Why iFix?, Whats the motivation?", the simple truth remains that; my love for the blue collar sector is what drives me to do what I do, changing the status quo on how handymen and artisans are perceived and engaged, redefining the future of work. This is my motivation, the very reason I wake up every day excited to work with my team at iFixng, it's more than just creating a platform for me, but disrupting the entire blue collar sector.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And this brings me right to you, 'cause like I promised It's my solemn responsibility to guide young founders <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(yeah right, like I'm old, lol)</span></i> on how to really be successful at what they do. Before you create that next solution the world really needs, be sure you're really passionate about it, changing and disrupting the way it's currently done to what the world<b> desperately </b>needs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A point in question would be a few successful founders in Lagos <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">('cause that's where I live)</span></i>, who are thriving at what they do; Jason Njoku of irokotv, Mark Essien of hotels.ng, Jobberman Partners, Tolet.com.ng... these people have managed to change the way business was done before in their various industries and thus have emerged victorious.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To further drive home my point; <b>Don't Just Create, Disrupt</b> the entire ecosystem and you'll definitely emerge a Bill Gates of this generation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank You for Checking out today's blog post, very brief 'cause I had a lot to do today, but straight to the point, and I hope you get the message. See ya!</span>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-18930229506176747872018-02-19T05:32:00.000-08:002018-02-19T05:32:22.114-08:00Just Before you Approach Investors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjT-jEgJIRYckYz6iCyBPc63IqQwqKQsvB7bqSNaAuORUsSq1tH9jkNF7YZd4cvWhemW38-ZqCfNp6AVNnWnag3Ts8btRLXqvPCuxMs-FnLVq9Rnk-kTpzpR2_9Mhq_NgSTaBxski1Pf6/s1600/WhatsApp+Image+2018-02-06+at+3.51.02+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="640" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjT-jEgJIRYckYz6iCyBPc63IqQwqKQsvB7bqSNaAuORUsSq1tH9jkNF7YZd4cvWhemW38-ZqCfNp6AVNnWnag3Ts8btRLXqvPCuxMs-FnLVq9Rnk-kTpzpR2_9Mhq_NgSTaBxski1Pf6/s200/WhatsApp+Image+2018-02-06+at+3.51.02+AM.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's Monday, the hustle and bustle has commenced in the streets of Lagos, Just stepping outside to get gas at the closest filling station to fuel my generator I got stuck in a 30 mins traffic, various thoughts immediately started swarming through my head; could this be startup founders running around seeking investors? <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(lol crazy right? I thought so too).</span></i> Immediately, I knew what I was going to talk about today.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just before you approach Investors, chill and take a few steps back</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So here's the deal, as startup founders we all have peculiar problems we're very passionate about solving, it often starts with an idea and then a prototype or MVP of some sort, which in turn leads to beta testing <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(private and/or public)</span></i> and eventually market roll out. These different phases often require funds especially if you don't have all the necessary skills to achieve this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In most western parts of the world <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(after watching silicon valley series of course, lol)</span></i>, Investors often in the likes of angel investors, etc can seed-fund business that are even just at the "IDEA" phase 'cause as Michael Seibel CEO of Ycombinator told me during one of our conversations; in the United States for instance investors are often scared of missing out on investing in the next "Facebooks" and as such will readily pull out funds to invest in what ever idea seems like the "next big thing".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Nigeria, the tables are turned, and the conditions are different, Investors are scared about investing in wrong businesses that'll swallow up their funds <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(especially foreign investors)</span></i> and as a result are usually very skeptical about investing yet alone at just the idea phase, plus recent happenings in the tech industry in Nigeria about companies shutting down / folding up are not helping.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And that's why I'll advice from my personal experiences, <b>just before you approach Investors;</b> do well to scale your business from just an idea to actually having paying customers. Do whatever it takes, bootstrap as much as you can, crowdfund from friends, family members etc, show that your idea is actually something that people want and you're ready to do whatever it takes to make it succeed, and just like I advised in my previous blog post <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(click <a href="http://www.techbygerald.com/2018/02/most-startups-often-crash-and-burn.html" target="_blank">here</a>)</span></i> identify alternative means of generating revenue that's independent of your online customers (at this time).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then you can approach Investors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank you for taking out time to read today's blog post, I hope it's really helpful, be good and never stop pursuing your dreams, stay consistent and till we meet again I remain Gerald Okonkwo.</span>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-35367441351851116622018-02-14T08:38:00.000-08:002018-02-14T08:38:21.619-08:00If Only All Successful Founders Will Be Like Michael Seibel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjT-jEgJIRYckYz6iCyBPc63IqQwqKQsvB7bqSNaAuORUsSq1tH9jkNF7YZd4cvWhemW38-ZqCfNp6AVNnWnag3Ts8btRLXqvPCuxMs-FnLVq9Rnk-kTpzpR2_9Mhq_NgSTaBxski1Pf6/s1600/WhatsApp+Image+2018-02-06+at+3.51.02+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="640" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjT-jEgJIRYckYz6iCyBPc63IqQwqKQsvB7bqSNaAuORUsSq1tH9jkNF7YZd4cvWhemW38-ZqCfNp6AVNnWnag3Ts8btRLXqvPCuxMs-FnLVq9Rnk-kTpzpR2_9Mhq_NgSTaBxski1Pf6/s200/WhatsApp+Image+2018-02-06+at+3.51.02+AM.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
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I<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> woke up today feeling more loved than ever; with the numerous amount of messages and emails I received, at this point it struck me; it was the "Valentine's Day Celebration. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As curious as I'm always to see Nigerian's reactions during festivities, I logged on to my twitter account <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(@geraldokonkwo_ looking forward to meeting you on twitter ๐)</i></span> to see what's going on with 'Twitter Nigeria' and I stumbled upon this mind blowing tweet <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(look below)</span></i> from Michael Seibel <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(founder of Ycombinator)</i></span>;</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's a tweet from Michael's Seibel founder; of YCombinator</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What struck me more was the part where he said "helping each other is a core value in the tech Startup world". For some reason I was really excited that our 'egbons' <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(meaning elders in Yoruba language)</span></i> in the Tech Industry are really excited about helping younger startup founders succeed, but my excitement was shortly met with a sad realization & reminder that Michael Siebel is in the United States and could be referring to helping startups there <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(don't correct me it's just an assumption)</span></i>. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My mind Immediately went to our very own "successful" <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(cause over here we count raising funds as success)</span></i> founders in Nigeria; I remember personally reaching out to a lot of 'more successful' founders earlier on while trying to figure things out with <a href="http://ifixng.com/">iFixng.com</a> and they all seemed to be reluctant to help; one time I approached a very reputable founder loved from afar by everyone, wanting to find out how he's managed to solve certain challenges I was having at the time, and on meeting him, after greeting and introducing myself and what I do, his immediate response was "my friend is working on something like this already", I was astonished cause he didn't even wait to hear what the question was, again this is just one of many experiences I've had from 'bigger' founders in Nigeria, sent mails, text & Whatsapp messages I never got responses to, it goes on and on, and sadly this is the plight of many other startup founders around this region.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It begins to only seem like the 'successful founders' come and speak at events just for cheap press and never really care about startups or their founders cause it's what happens outside these events that really matters. This is one of the many reasons why I stopped attending startup or tech events.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How I feel when I approach successful founders for help and I'm turned down</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The BIG QUESTION for me is what's the reason behind Successful founders finding it difficult to help other startup founders, is it fear of competition?, pride?, greed?, dues?,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I know there are a couple of exceptions but a large number don't and this has been a question I've been asking myself for a very long time, one of my motivations to start this blog was to help ask or answer many unasked & unanswered questions I hear founders ask during interactions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I really do hope that Michael Seibel's comment today will spark a call to action to create a friendly Nigerian/African Tech Eco-System 'cause as far as I'm concerned we don't have an Eco-system, just a couple of friends and cliques in the Tech Industry who won't help anyone outside their circles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks for reading Today's blog, feel free to follow me on twitter @GeraldOkonkwo_ and don't forget to signup to receive newsletters right in your mail box.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Happy Valentine's Day, I love You All.</span></div>
Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-74885869269267611452018-02-12T08:53:00.000-08:002018-02-12T08:53:47.460-08:00Most Startups often Crash and Burn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I started out this blog post knowing absolutely nothing about what I was going to talk about <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(cause like I said earlier on, I'm still very new to this)</span></i>, but then it hit me; the outrageous number of tech startups springing up these days, one would only wonder if its because it's the "in thing" now or because they actually want to solve genuine problems, and it often looks like they "crash and burn" almost as fast as they are conceived.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most Startups often crash and burn as fast as they are conceived</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A deep look into what's responsible for this while communicating with various tech startup founders over time has revealed that; most founders are often distracted and only interested in creating "an app" or an "online platform" to do "so so so" forgetting the structure and tons of background work and research required to build a business <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(because tech startup or not, its actually a business), </span></i>and just like every other business, there has to be structures in place, a very good delivery channel, a good business model, identification and marketing strategy etc. The app or online platform is only basically a leverage in my own opinion<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (leveraging on the power of technology)</span></i> to access a wider market.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Africa this is even more difficult, though there are many surveys about the behavior of internet users pointing towards a positive pedestal, it's nothing but a hoax. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We still have a very looooooong way to go when it comes to internet usage, the patronage and loyalty of customers and that's why I'll advise in my own unholistic opinion that even though you're starting that tech startup for online customers <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(which of-course you'll get but not enough to make you profitable at this time)</i></span>, ensure to have a diversified means of generating revenue <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(which should be less dependent on your internet users</i></span>) whilst we wait on customers to fully adopt internet/eCommerce patronage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A quick peek into certain tech companies adopting this A + B model will reveal companies such as Jobberman for instance, even though characterized as a tech company, they in addition to this carryout offline recruitment, partnerships and training programs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Irokotv recently deployed kiosks around the city of Lagos to help drive the sales and encourage users to get contents easier; still an offline approach to engage customers <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(cause obviously these kiosks are not on the internet)</span></i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My own startup <a href="http://ifixng.com/">iFixng.com</a>; has an offline division called iFix corporate where we recruit handymen for engineering outfits, facility management companies, corporate firms, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I can go on and on, but these further goes to drive the nail on my point, which is first off; identify the BUSINESS around that TECH STARTUP you have or want to create and then go on to create alternative and diversified means of generating revenue, depending less on internet users till Nigeria and Africa fully adopts internet / eCommerce patronage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank you for reading this post, I hope its educative and mind blowing for you. Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletters to get fresh contents right in your mail box and also leave your much appreciated comments below. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">God be with you till we meet again.</span>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-16187729951986508382018-02-08T06:38:00.000-08:002018-02-08T06:38:17.833-08:00iFixng.com - The Bumpy ride<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ifixng.com/"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="640" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGumvnALjlJsOxDhIfLA7A7yKrY-fgXrS0KaMcImKAmA8sodnju-o2_gA3MRlMRKOsBAnxBbEsfZ2GUT3sBpcQ5Ihd2tzTV9aWk8hQqZWVLGqg8yJT9mfKu-NCKNrZ8A81qIxSnX80GO0Q/s200/WhatsApp+Image+2018-02-06+at+3.51.02+AM.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Awesome being back! so as promised in my previous post folks, I'll be sharing how I started <a href="http://ifixng.com/">iFixng.com</a>; an AWESOME ADVENTURE <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<i>FYI if you haven't read my previous blog post, quit reading this right now and read the previous one first</i>).</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trust me just as Obama suggests, you want to hear (read) this โบ</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I arrived back in Lagos on the 2nd of July 2015, after having lived in Delta State for 9 years </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">(<i>dad was transferred in 2012 and we had to relocate, bla bla bla</i>)</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">; thankfully an older friend who runs one of the best building services / engineering consulting firms here in Lagos had agreed to let me intern <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(+ youth service)</i></span> at his company, my intention then was to gain some more knowledge to help me run <a href="http://wefixng.com/">Wefix</a> more efficiently. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After working for close to a year and being repeatedly frustrated by workmen and artisans who wouldn't be on our designated sites "on time" or diligently handle tasks given to them, plus it was extremely difficult to find a replacement right on the spot, Voila! I had identified a problem which's solution eventually became <a href="http://ifixng.com/">iFixng.com</a>, So I decided to face this head on; I quit my job and began talking to "<b>POTENTIAL INVESTORS"</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dudes I attended all the Tech Events you can ever think of, meeting with people, sending hundreds of emails, trying to communicate my "awesome idea" to them, but none seemed to be interested </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">('cause obviously they've heard over a million ideas and seen the visionaries do nothing or eventually give up on it), </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">but then out of close to 150 emails sent <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(not exaggerating)</span></i>, <b>JASON NJOKU; </b>founder of Iroko Tv & serial Investor sent a follow up mail asking some questions. On receiving his mail, just seeing his name on my inbox list, unleashed tons of butterflies in my stomach, I've never been that excited, we eventually met, seemed to have chemistry on the spot, I liked his person and the fact that he was more interested in the founder and not the idea itself <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(didn't ask me about business model, traction and urghh! go to market strategy whew! founders have a lot of work to do)</i></span>, he gave me an offer on the spot, asked me to think over it and the meeting was over. I remember going home so excited that day and talking to everyone about it, business was on the pathway to a huge success.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And just as we all didn't see Donald Trump's election, I didn't see what was coming next; Jason of Iroko pulled out of the deal for reasons I guess he dimmed fit, I was broken into a million pieces! but on the brighter side I had started significant work on the idea as directed by him prior to us signing the "docs". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Though beaten down, I carried on; with the help of a few very awesome friends especially Reuben, Victor <i style="font-size: small;">(now my co-founders) </i>Sammy and Drae who I was able to "sell" the Vision to, we were able to deliver the idea into a finished product; <a href="http://ifixng.com/">iFixng.com</a> was born. Our efforts attracted the likes of Faster Capital <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(an accelerator in Dubai)</span></i>, Heritage Bank, MI Education <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(a handyman training institute in Australia)</span></i>, etc and that has led us to where we are today; with over 250 handymen signed up on our platform, completed over 200 successful tasks, an office in Victoria Island - Lagos, great partnerships, paying customers...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Friends it's been a very bumpy ride so far I must say, but with <b>GOD </b>on our side we remained consistent, though we still have a looong way to go that's for sure, we ultimately intend to remain consistent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Thanks a lot for reading today's post, I tried as much as possible to summarize our entire story so pardon me if I left some things out, but I hope this is inspiring for you, don't forget to drop your comments below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2909099045484766639.post-1871639624990811662018-02-06T04:17:00.001-08:002018-02-06T04:17:18.600-08:00I'm Gerald Okonkwo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqZU9G-itdNMWRhwYKwM10pdZc0slYV8PZemqH-6cle2L5qqB8occ3JNNgo4Tu3wUSDj4cGLFfuzFVzNhVYpsb1mOs3YkYQbgrX2d4RGM3UmugVPfb36k8tb2OOXEY-7mfMMtQdbbqhir/s1600/WhatsApp+Image+2018-02-06+at+3.51.02+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="640" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqZU9G-itdNMWRhwYKwM10pdZc0slYV8PZemqH-6cle2L5qqB8occ3JNNgo4Tu3wUSDj4cGLFfuzFVzNhVYpsb1mOs3YkYQbgrX2d4RGM3UmugVPfb36k8tb2OOXEY-7mfMMtQdbbqhir/s200/WhatsApp+Image+2018-02-06+at+3.51.02+AM.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So at this point in my life I've decided to start up a Tech-blog - TechbyGerald; to share my </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">IMPOSSIBLE</b><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> experiences so far while starting a tech company in Nigeria (Sub-Saharan Africa) and hopefully readers can learn one or two things from it. O Shoot! I forgot to properly introduce myself - I'm Gerald Okonkwo founder / CHM (Chief Handyman - my own interpretation of CEO) of iFixng.com (an online platform for hiring and engaging the services of handymen and artisans in Nigeria), I'm the last born child of a family of four boys and a dad (my sweet mom is late sadly; but that's not the topic for today) from Anambra state in Nigeria. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> I had my primary school education in Our lady of Apostles private School, Yaba after which I attended the Yaba College of Technology Secondary School for my junior days in secondary school both in Lagos and later proceeded to attend the Cornerstone Int'l School Asaba, Delta State. I attained my Bachelors in Engineering (Computer Engineering) at Madonna University in Nigeria and later went to study a Post graduate Diploma in Project Management at the London Academy Business School.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's me in my Coverall -2017</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My Journey of becoming an Entrepreneur started in 2012 during my Industrial training (IT) program in school I started my very first company - Wefix Maintenance Company (Now Wefix Company Ltd) a maintenance and facility management company and four years later (in 2016) I started my first <b>TECH COMPANY;</b> iFixng.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Entrepreneurship is a very difficult, but yet very simple and interesting venture that has one simple rule - <b>CONSISTENCY</b>, especially in a place like Nigeria where we're saddled with various challenges daily, it's really not Funny trust me, but just be consistent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks Ya'll for reading and stay tuned for my next post where I'll focus more on; how I started <b>iFixng.com</b> and the challenges I had to face. โบ</span>Gerald Okonkwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17564116471901489567noreply@blogger.com7