TechQ | Strategy. Growth. Difference @SimplyTechQ

If you’re confused about money, investing and all, read this. Especially if you’re young, and still growing your income, please ignore all the noise, there will always be opportunities in the market and you’re not doomed. You don’t want to jump the gun on a shaky foundation.

Afrosims is Soft to me 🌼 ps > this recordation was def not one take listen to the end for the song 😒 @emitebeats thank you for your service so series or no series? if so, name it.

If you are running paid ads for the first time, just expect that it won't work. That way, you won't cry when it doesn't. Because it MOST likely won't work.

One thing i’ve learnt about fund raising is you should never take money from random people who won’t ensure the business survives. Whoever is going to be on your cap table should be someone who is very well connected and has influence. Truth is such investors come at a cost but on the long run it’s always worth it. “I’ll be doing the negotiations with them from your corner” that alone says a lot.

Tuchel @Officially_Kriz

a month ago

Coupin's co-founders, Obinna and Abisoye are seeking an investment of N18m in exchange for a 3.5% ownership in their company. Coupin is a discount app that connects brands and customers. Bolaji Balogun makes an offer that also made other two Lions to come on board.

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So @nestuge, I don’t think I agree with this idea. “Sales ended” and practically blocking out the payment option itself is just another way of flushing down traffic generated. Better to simply revert it to the normal price and add a small notification somewhere that sales ended and it’s back to normal price… whatever microscopy works 🤷‍♂️. But I don’t think anyone would expect the creator whose offer ends at 11:59 to stay the night just to turn off all the price modifications and timing settings y’all currently have on the backend, either. T for Teinks 🙏

My mum owns a primary and secondary school somewhere in Akeja, Ogun Sate. There is this man, Papilo, a supplier who handles FMCG products in that area. He comes Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Sundays are for my mum and other school owners stocking up for students during break. He is not the only one. They are everywhere like that. One thing I know is that most of these sellers don’t pay him immediately, They pay on the next supply day or after a week. Sometimes it stretches to 3 supplies before payment clears. I've watched him argue back and forth with customers who say no money yet. He still gives them all or little. I've seen this for over 15 years growing up. This is the practice across every informal market in Nigeria. This is Africa’s informal supply chain. Papilo knows all his customers. He knows their children’s names. He argues, negotiates, and finds a middle ground. No App or AI can replicate this. Papilo now runs plenty of small kekes distributed all over Akeja and beyond. In African businesses, relationships aren’t just nice-to-haves. They are part of the infrastructure. And this is where the majority of our builders get it wrong. A techie once went to get bread at a store and stumbles on a sole distributor supplying them wines. He thinks “so this is how these get their stocks” he goes home to google the numbers and sees millions of retailers, no central database, orders on phone call, cash payments, manual records. He sees the classic Manufacturer → Distributor → Wholesaler → Retailer chain and he goes “yes! This is a gap. This is untapped. I can build this on an app”. Actually, he is right. But here is what he missed; The supplier extends credit The wholesaler knows who always pays at each time. The sales rep knows whose child just got admitted into university. The delivery driver knows which shop opens late or earlier None of this can fit in an app database because they are the everyday circumstantial reality of Nigerian business owners. Your app can’t document this. A retailer doesn’t always buy from who is cheaper. She buys from who’s delivered consistently for years. The one who lets her pay next week. The one who picks up the phone immediately there is a problem. See your app can calculate credit just fine. But the distributor knows Mama Olomi missed payment because her shop flooded last week. That context is the business in this part of the world. You will think funding fixes this but marketForce had $42M and still died. Sendy had $27M, Medsaf had $7M. Your investors will push you to the usual playbook; free delivery, discounts, cashback, promotions, etc and growth will look incredible at first but the moment the subsidies disappear, you will start to compete with relationships using economics alone. Then you’d realize your capital didn't buy survival, it brought speed to a broken model. Somebody say Reality! Now let’s look at the ones who didn’t die. They simply mutated. Sabi moved into traceability/export infra. OmniRetail leaned into embedded finance. Sendy’s co-founder built TABB on trade credit data. Rather than say we’re replacing distributors, they became the operating system behind the distributors helping them; 📍 Manage inventory 📍 Collect payment 📍 Access financing 📍 Discover retailers 📍 Forecast demand 📍 Coordinate logistics This is the lesson for anyone building in African informal market. Don’t ask How do i remove the middleman Ask, what valuable job is the middleman doing that technology can make easier? Don’t compete with the market woman, equip her. Build the layer she can’t build herself (credit history, verified supply chains, payment infrastructure, etc). This is because Africa’s distribution problem was never about apps vs humans. It’s about who controls the trust layer. Build that, not the marketplace. @blocstreets

Yewande @LionessAtEase

a month ago

The real reason B2B supply chain startups fail in Africa is because they try to replace human relationship with an app.

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this video dey piss me off even more! do you know what stormwater management looks like when it’s done intentionally? do you think it ends in cleaning gutters and one pumping station? are you joking Mr Commissioner! this thing dey piss me off the more! this video shows the type of infrastructural solution Lagos needs!

Tokunbo Wahab @tokunbo_wahab

11 months ago

While we were busy working on immediate short term, medium term and long term solutions to the recent flash flooding in some parts of Lagos, my attention was drawn to a simplistic suggestion by Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, an idea driven more by political correctness, cheap

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All that matters is we delivered.

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One thing I've observed now that I'm 35+ is that careers are far less linear than we think. People build incredible careers and businesses but what I've also seen is that sometimes things fall apart. Not because they're lazy. Not because they're incompetent. Not because they did anything wrong.

Asue Ighodalo, the founding partner of Banwo & Ighodalo Law firm talks about his work ethic early in his career. He'd work 19 hours a day, his wife would bring his clothes to the office. Sometimes he won't go home for 3 days. He says there's a 10,000 hour rule to be great

@A_Feranmi Pleeaaaseeeeee 😂😂😂😂

Entitlement ya werey gaan 😂😂😂 You go wan fes craze 😂😂😂😂

Eric here again with every bit of our silent thoughts. The month of June is for Men’s mental health, and we are saying thank you to all the men out there making sacrifices to attain fulfillment for their families.

@MichLieben Ads

@A_Feranmi @kokochidozie Sure. Happy to share the video the client sent to me this evening.

As a partner to somebody and parent to somebody, some things should naturally give you joy to do. Looking after your child. Giving your child a bath, changing nappies, feeding them, playing/spending time with them. Driving them to school. You should be happy to cook for your family, you should clean up your home, you live in it with your family. You should be happy to drive your partner to the airport to bid them off and be happy to pick them up. If you have one car, you should be happy to drop them off at work and pick them up - in view of convenience. You should be happy to invest your finances to the family so you can pay bills conveniently and plan your investments together. The list is endless but being marriage simply means doing life together. It is a merger not an adoption or acquisition. You need to do away with that "you're a man" and "you're a woman" nonsense. You're an adult and adulthood comes with personal responsibility. You are somebody's wife/husband and that comes with responsibility. You're somebody's parent and that comes with responsibility. Being a woman is not an excuse to be financially useless in the family. Being a man is not an excuse why you cannot give your baby a bath and change nappies. All of these things should naturally happen with joy. You should be able to do these things individually as a bachelor and spinster, so when you commit to each other, you do them together. Marriage is not rocket science. You are just deliberately evil to your partner and irresponsible to your home.

I honestly think it's common sense to go into another person's space and just want to make their life easier. Do dishes, cook, clean the space, make them feel your warmth, but nah, they'd call it slaving.

𝑨𝒚𝒐 x 𝑮𝒂𝒅𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑯𝒖𝒃 @arrakunrin

2 months ago

Unrelated but this is a reason I’ve stopped talking to someone i was into Every time she came over, we either had to buy food, or I cook. Not once did she go into the kitchen. You’ll stay over for 2-3 days. I’ll leave the house to get the ingredients. I’ll prepare everything,

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@Akpanthankgod_ Happy birthday, Chief 🎉 Big ups 🙏

The important thing to note here is that it is more about friction and function than expenditure. There is a level of comfort you need to be much more functional, and sometimes (not always) that comfort usually requires spending more or moving to a more expensive place that removes friction. Yesterday, as I was driving between Ghana and Togo, I realized how important NOT being afraid of the police or criminals appearing suddenly was to my ability to think and be functional. I could also plan my time better with stable infrastructure. Sometimes you don't need to spend more; you simply have to remove yourself from the source of friction that's preventing the function. That move could even be lateral. I have told many friends to move away from London to other parts of England after seeing them struggle and achieve limited results. When they did, not only did they save money, but their productivity quadrupled. In Accra, I moved around a bit. From East Legon, to Ridge, now in the mountains where I found peace and quiet. This place is cheaper than the other places I had lived, but makes me more functional. I figured the UK and most countries out early enough. When I was in Lagos, I was away from Lagos most weekends and it kept me sane out of the rat race. I saw Late Otunba Balogun doing it every weekend and finally understood why he did and why he lived the way he did for people famously known to be frugal. He was a very functional person. Many people think hustling and living under hard conditions are virtues in themselves, but they are not. Effort without exponential reward is stupidity. If you pay more and can get more, it is a better way to be on the path to getting even more.

Tosin Olugbenga @TosinOlugbenga

2 months ago

I remember this conversation I had with @asemota on the TL sometimes around 2020/2021. And that concept has been working for me. As your financial responsibilities increases, the higher success you also make in a bid to meet up with those financial responsibilities.

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