My own startup dream started around 2000 and 2001 when the startup market in the US was collapsing. The time prior to the collapse was filled with memories of startup ads on TV and on every website you visited. These startups were everywhere, you couldn't get away from them. From adverts of Boo.com on anything you could get your eyes on to CNN advert videos with (high royalty paid) songs by Beatles advertising Nortell Networks. Where are these companies now?
Be it the year 1999 or 2013, it is never sustainable to spend a lot of money as a startup in order to continue to be in, or acquire new business. That is why startups are called "startups" in the first place. They find creative ways to market or build marketing within their products from the start. How many people taught Groupon was a big idea and bought shares in it's IPO. Groupon would have been a really great idea if they didn't spend so much money on sales.
So there are a ton of Nigerian startups mainly e-commerce sites and some content or media sites buying up Billboards in various locations in the big cities, buying TV spots, Youtube pre-roll ads, promoted tweets and handles, expensive Facebook likes and banners on every high traffic site that is offering to sell ad space. These startups are too focused on the short run and the money they are throwing on ads that may or may not perform at times could be used to build a great product that would promote itself for free in 5 years to come. Building a startup is not about short-term hype but building a successful company or product that would last a life-time.
There is only one way to build a successful startup, and it is by building a product that people will keep coming back to and that would be talked about by people there-by growing virally naturally. That's how I got on Facebook and Yahoo in the early days of email in Nigeria, peer pressure. My peers laughed at me because I didn't have an email address and I was mainly on Myspace till my friends pressured me into joining Facebook.
So I boldly predict that you won't be able to find most of the Nigerian startups making noise right now in the next 5 years. By 2018 a lot would have crashed after burning a lot of venture capital and smarter technology focussed startups come in and disrupt there business. Actually, 5 years is a long time but trust me a lot will happen within the time. If you are building a startup, make sure you make technology your biggest advantage, not a money-bag or some noise making bloggers.
To cut a long story short, very soon a highly focused technically talented startup would come along and optimize the whole e-commerce system in Nigeria, and also a hardware focused, great product genuises would come and change the content and data game. Watch this space :)
Be it the year 1999 or 2013, it is never sustainable to spend a lot of money as a startup in order to continue to be in, or acquire new business. That is why startups are called "startups" in the first place. They find creative ways to market or build marketing within their products from the start. How many people taught Groupon was a big idea and bought shares in it's IPO. Groupon would have been a really great idea if they didn't spend so much money on sales.
So there are a ton of Nigerian startups mainly e-commerce sites and some content or media sites buying up Billboards in various locations in the big cities, buying TV spots, Youtube pre-roll ads, promoted tweets and handles, expensive Facebook likes and banners on every high traffic site that is offering to sell ad space. These startups are too focused on the short run and the money they are throwing on ads that may or may not perform at times could be used to build a great product that would promote itself for free in 5 years to come. Building a startup is not about short-term hype but building a successful company or product that would last a life-time.
There is only one way to build a successful startup, and it is by building a product that people will keep coming back to and that would be talked about by people there-by growing virally naturally. That's how I got on Facebook and Yahoo in the early days of email in Nigeria, peer pressure. My peers laughed at me because I didn't have an email address and I was mainly on Myspace till my friends pressured me into joining Facebook.
So I boldly predict that you won't be able to find most of the Nigerian startups making noise right now in the next 5 years. By 2018 a lot would have crashed after burning a lot of venture capital and smarter technology focussed startups come in and disrupt there business. Actually, 5 years is a long time but trust me a lot will happen within the time. If you are building a startup, make sure you make technology your biggest advantage, not a money-bag or some noise making bloggers.
To cut a long story short, very soon a highly focused technically talented startup would come along and optimize the whole e-commerce system in Nigeria, and also a hardware focused, great product genuises would come and change the content and data game. Watch this space :)
