It's already a know issue of Nigerians inability to become creative. The rise of poverty and lazy "entrepreneurs" is a result of their attitude of sitting down looking for contents to steal, copy or pirate. The question is, how long do you think you can make money that way?

Sometime ago, i setup a project called "Lake Academy". It's an online training portal where people can register and and select a course where they will undergo training from any location as long as they are connected to the internet. It's a huge project, i recruited experts from different countries to prepare the course contents and they agreed to deliver the lectures via special multimedia tools and app which is to be integrated into the website. But there are alot of things involved with running a massive project like this. One of such is obtaining the proper accreditation, there are alot out there that is supposed to give the project some level of credibility like the DETC (Distance Education and Training Council) in the US, plus other bodies here in Nigeria. The primary vision of this project is to in some years time, transform into an online university which Nigerian and Africans will be proud of and benefit from. Also, there is a huge running cost involved with the project and all these i cannot afford. Because i didnt want the project to die, i decided to sell it off.

I placed a sale ad here on Nairaland requesting serious buyers to contact me. I was careful not to include so many details because i know what Nigerians can do. The next day precisely 7am, i received a phone call from someone we all know here as Jarus. he called me and said he his very interested in acquiring the project and we started negotiating an agreeable fee. We couldnt arrive at a good conclusion so he promised to call me again in the evening so we discussed more. I agreed.

True to his word, he called me later in the evening around 5pm and we discussed for over 42minutes on the phone! He asked me ALOT of questions which i happily explained to him. He asked me how the site can be operated, how do i intend to integrate a multimedia app for the training purpose, how will the exams be conducted, etc Before i started explaining, we had an agreed fee which he is going to buy the website. He gave me an additional offer to come to Lagos after he has paid for the website BUT i should continue running the website cos it seems kinda complex and it's something i understand very well since i originated the idea. After spilling my guts, he promised to call me the next day so we can transact. Alas since that day till today, he refused to pick my calls! If he had called me to say "Something came up so am no longer interested" i would have relaxed. But he just avoided my calls for weeks, that i began doubting his professionalism. Professionals dont do that, if you are so busy you cant pick calls, at least you can send text messages.

I am not pointing fingers at anyone but the truth is, Mr jarus was the only person i really spoke to at length and explained A-Z of the project. I held nothing back because of his reputation here on NL and i see him as somebody whom i can trust.

Lo and behold some weeks after my "discussion" with him, www.learnsmart.com.ng was born. The so-called website is totally my concept and idea. And the owner even went as far as copying my statements from the original Lakeacademy.com.ng

Please look closely at the screenshots below, you will notice some content and idea thief at work. The first is from LearnSmart while the second is from my website, LakeAcademy.

Do u av any right concerning the concept? Even if u do, I'll still advice u continue with ur work, competition will surely come sooner or later, just see it as one and keep improving ur work bro...and if u wish to sue them, pls doooo. And next tym don't share ur complete idea wit anyone, no matter how trustworthy he/she might be... Learn not to do dat again
Best of luck

No.

Have you been able to establish that the site was borne after your discussion or how do you know when the other site came into being? It is possible they were existing prior and/or unknown to you. Assuming there are few persons with your kind of concept who also planned to leverage the delivery on the expertise of many professionals across the globe, how do you think each one (site) can pass that message of their superb faculty across to us (the website visitors) without sounding alike? This is because the two statements you circled in red seem not to be plagiarism to me but rather different ways for many people to say the same thing or to pass across same message about their faculties. But if you have copyright ownership proof of your content or idea, you may go ahead nonetheless. Good luck!

Yes, I opened negotiation with you on acquiring your site, just as I spoke with a couple of other webmasters on acquiring their websites. Along the line, I sought the advice of my de facto adviser/consultant who knows better on internet entrepreneurship, Seun Osewa, on the viability of your website. He called my attention to a couple of flaws, and I respect him on such matters (he was my leading adviser when I floated JarusHub last year). Hence, I decided not to go ahead with the transaction.

Please go ahead and sue the owner of learnsmart.com or whatever you call it. I don't know anything about it. I have never visited it. I don't know the owner. If you think he copied your model, please go ahead and sue him. But definitely, you won't see Jarus in court. Because Jarus is not behind it.

How could you share your 'whole' business idea with a person who never paid you a dime?? it's strictly PAY BEFORE SERVICE. ..you would hv given him just a clue and that's all, till he pays...Trust No one especially when it comes to survival. ..

The truth is that Jarus may not be the person behind the theft..There may be another person who went through your website and liked the concept hence decided to try out...may even be a friend you shared your idea with... have you tried reaching the owner of the website?

Btw, were you expecting to be the only person in the business? There must be other competitors too..I will advice you focus on improving your business so that it stands out and rises above that of other competitors..

Goodluck

Though people can not be totally trusted but the Jarus I know wouldn't do such that could soil his reputations. Going through both sites, all I can say is there is nothing so creative in your ideas that any other person can not come up with. BTW, have you confirmed when the other site was birthed, so as to be sure you're not the to be served with a lawsuit.

MarvellousGod: How could you share your 'whole' business idea with a person who never paid you a dime?? it's strictly PAY BEFORE SERVICE. ..you would hv given him just a clue and that's all, till he pays...Trust No one especially when it comes to survival. ..
The truth is that Jarus may not be the person behind the theft..There may be another person who went through your website and liked the concept hence decided to try out...may even be a friend you shared your idea with... have you tried reaching the owner of the website?
Btw, were you expecting to be the only person in the business? There must be other competitors too..I will advice you focus on improving your business so that it stands out and rises above that of other competitors..
Goodluck

In life, we learn everyday. There are some persons who are just too nice and responsible that you wouldn't mind sharing with them. When it comes to business i dont have friends, only clients! I am not trying to accuse Mr Jarus of anything but i just have to be sure since he was the only person i really explained to. And definitely he must have transferred the "explanation" to someone else in his bid to seek advice/counsel like he said earlier. I dont know who else he must have shared it with but i believe the leak must have come from there.

Mr Jarus, my anger with you is that after seeking counsel, you should have notified me that you were no longer interested. It wont take anything from you. The reason is if you had done that, i wont even think or consider that you are behind LearnSmart. Why? Because of your notification that you weren't interested. I believe you are a man of your words and so i will believe that a man who says he is not interested will not go behind my back to implement. Also, since you explained about it to Seun, so another random question is "did Seun discuss it with someone else jokingly?" ......there are alot of questions on my mind.

And if Seun pointed out flaws, you should have called my attention to them and given me some advise like people know you to give. You revoked your interest and also did not advise me on the flaws identified. Everyone on NL see you as a career adviser but you did not prove to me that you are one. Instead you avoided my calls like ebola virus. #JustSaying#

The bitter lesson i have learnt here is to trust no one. No matter how legitimate or responsible the person might appear...TRUST NO ONE! And to anyone out there that has a viable project he wants to share or seek funding, always ask the person to sign a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) before sharing so if anything happens, you can properly seek legal action. That was the mistake i made and such wont happen again.

As for the owner of LearnSmart, i will see how far you will go. Thieves always get caught one day. And as they say, "The more you keep trying to be like someone else, the more you end up being no 2."

Mr Jarus, i hope you are not provoked. I mean no harm, i am just pissed. I respect you and i ALWAYS read your blog. My advise to you is that when you are dealing with someone, always communicate with the person to the end even if you end up changing your mind about what you were discussing with the person, at least courtesy demands you inform the person so the person wont start having thoughts. Am sure you wont like being left to hanging dry just like that also....its frustrating and annoying. Nice job on what you have been doing so far here on Nairaland.

Cheers.

I don't know if the owner of LearnSmart stole your idea or not but I know that NO IDEA IS UNIQUE TO ANYBODY. If you don't execute your ideas, others will and it will be a surprise to you.

Your idea is to create a Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) system. This is what Coursera, Udacity, a whole lot of others do.

oladayo042: I don't know if the owner of LearnSmart stole your idea or not but I know that NO IDEA IS UNIQUE TO ANYBODY. If you don't execute your ideas, others will and it will be a surprise to you.
Your idea is to create a Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) system. This is what Coursera, Udacity, a whole lot of others do.

Trust me, my idea was unique. There are alot of Online Open Course Systems out there but not even the almighty Coursera or even ALISON have what i intended to do. In my case, training will be done as video presentation via LIVE feeds. It's not just you signing up and "reading" the course materials. Here, you sign up and WATCH a live video of a facilitator doing the training live. You can ask questions and get responses. You can also hear questions asked by other class members. I evaluated Cousera, ALISON, etc and decided to do something different. I also gave the contract of developing the special app which is to be integrated into the website to some Indian developers BUT i could not afford their fees.

databoy247:
The bitter lesson i have learnt here is to trust no one. No matter how legitimate or responsible the person might appear...TRUST NO ONE! And to anyone out there that has a viable project he wants to share or seek funding, always ask the person to sign a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) before sharing so if anything happens, you can properly seek legal action. That was the mistake i made and such wont happen again.

I will not advise anyone to do this. No idea is unique to you. If anyone comes to me with an NDA, I will not even listen to the idea at all. NDA means locking me into a contract that prohibits me from ever doing any business that is related to the idea you shared with me.

As for the owner of LearnSmart, i will see how far you will go. Thieves always get caught one day. And as they say, "The more you keep trying to be like someone else, the more you end up being no 2."

I still think you should stop calling them thieves. Your unique idea may not be unique afterall. Focus on ways to develop your idea further and become better in your space. If Jarus can be kind enough to share those flaws with you, correct them (I'm sure the flaws will be about your business model, not your website). If LearnSmart gain enough traction in Nigeria, you may end up being number 2 to them.

The LearnSmart domain name is registered to Nkem Anigbogu of BTXperts located at 5th Floor, Mulliner Towers, Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.

trry

Op how can you carry out such a transaction without legal counsel? You don't want lawyers to eat bah? Now penny wise pound foolish.As for Jarus or whatever dis secret op was sharing to you without payment.Diaris God o!

Hmm! Your idea is still 100% viable. We conducted a research that shows that less than 25% of admission seekers get lucky every year. This is not just about making money but making impact. Nigeria needs you, Africa needs you. Please try angelstartups.com for funds. Get the needed funds and execute the idea excellently such that immitators can only play catchup. Have you considered internet bandwidth before making the lectures 100% video? We wish you all the best.

OmerianConsult: Hmm! Your idea is still 100% viable. We conducted a research that shows that less than 25% of admission seekers get lucky every year. This is not just about making money but making impact. Nigeria needs you, Africa needs you. Please try angelstartups.com for funds. Get the needed funds and execute the idea excellently such that immitators can only play catchup. Have you considered internet bandwidth before making the lectures 100% video? We wish you all the best.

Thanks, i considered bandwidth consumption which makes the whole project expensive. What i was able to work around was Diskspace. No matter the contents, it will consume less space. The technology is very simple. I was already in talks with a US company that has the app i needed on their website (live video and presentation, with a digital room which can contain more than 100 people at a time) - this will be for a fee ofcourse. All they needed to do was to give me a custom script, more like an API which i will in turn give to my developers in India to build a custom plugin which will wrap this API script. This is the plugin i will integrate in the website. So instead of users to be re-directed to a third part application, everything can be done inside the website via the API string of the third part app.

The plan was that as time goes on, when there is enough money, then i can then build my own multimedia app cos it's super expensive. Anyway, thanks for your comments...i guess we should all get back to work.

It is saddening that creativity in Nigeria is next to nothing as piracy and concept theft is the order of the day.

If you patented your idea, you MAY have a case, otherwise; bro save yourself the expenses.

databoy247:
Thanks, i considered bandwidth consumption which makes the whole project expensive. What i was able to work around was Diskspace. No matter the contents, it will consume less space. The technology is very simple. I was already in talks with a US company that has the app i needed on their website (live video and presentation, with a digital room which can contain more than 100 people at a time) - this will be for a fee ofcourse. All they needed to do was to give me a custom script, more like an API which i will in turn give to my developers in India to build a custom plugin which will wrap this API script. This is the plugin i will integrate in the website. So instead of users to be re-directed to a third part application, everything can be done inside the website via the API string of the third part app.

The plan was that as time goes on, when there is enough money, then i can then build my own multimedia app cos it's super expensive. Anyway, thanks for your comments...i guess we should all get back to work.

Bro, with all your responses to each comments so far, I can easily deduce that you are the type that talk too much, and by so doing inadvertently divulge unnecessary information to strangers to your disadvantage. Responding to every comments here with details on how you intend carrying out your business plans, models and implementations, is doing more harm to your already stolen idea or concept like you had alleged.

Life is the greatest teacher after all, the more we live, the more experienced and learned we become.

Wishing you all the very BEST in your entrepreneurial endeavours.

See you at the TOP!

ghettodreamz:
Bro, with all your responses to each comments so far, I can easily deduce that you are the type that talk too much, and by so doing inadvertently divulge unnecessary information to strangers to your disadvantage. Responding to every comments here with details is doing more harm to your already stolen idea or concept like you had alleged.
Life is the greatest teacher after all, the more we live, the more experienced and learned we become.
Wishing you all the very BEST in your entrepreneurial endeavours.
See you at the TOP!

Thanks and lips sealed!!

databoy247:

In life, we learn everyday. There are some persons who are just too nice and responsible that you wouldn't mind sharing with them. When it comes to business i dont have friends, only clients! I am not trying to accuse Mr Jarus of anything but i just have to be sure since he was the only person i really explained to. And definitely he must have transferred the "explanation" to someone else in his bid to seek advice/counsel like he said earlier. I dont know who else he must have shared it with but i believe the leak must have come from there.

Mr Jarus, my anger with you is that after seeking counsel, you should have notified me that you were no longer interested. It wont take anything from you. The reason is if you had done that, i wont even think or consider that you are behind LearnSmart. Why? Because of your notification that you weren't interested. I believe you are a man of your words and so i will believe that a man who says he is not interested will not go behind my back to implement. Also, since you explained about it to Seun, so another random question is "did Seun discuss it with someone else jokingly?" ......there are alot of questions on my mind.

And if Seun pointed out flaws, you should have called my attention to them and given me some advise like people know you to give. You revoked your interest and also did not advise me on the flaws identified. Everyone on NL see you as a career adviser but you did not prove to me that you are one. Instead you avoided my calls like ebola virus. #JustSaying#

The bitter lesson i have learnt here is to trust no one. No matter how legitimate or responsible the person might appear...TRUST NO ONE! And to anyone out there that has a viable project he wants to share or seek funding, always ask the person to sign a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) before sharing so if anything happens, you can properly seek legal action. That was the mistake i made and such wont happen again.

As for the owner of LearnSmart, i will see how far you will go. Thieves always get caught one day. And as they say, "The more you keep trying to be like someone else, the more you end up being no 2."

Mr Jarus, i hope you are not provoked. I mean no harm, i am just pissed. I respect you and i ALWAYS read your blog. My advise to you is that when you are dealing with someone, always communicate with the person to the end even if you end up changing your mind about what you were discussing with the person, at least courtesy demands you inform the person so the person wont start having thoughts. Am sure you wont like being left to hanging dry just like that also....its frustrating and annoying. Nice job on what you have been doing so far here on Nairaland.

Cheers.

My apologies for not formally closing out the transaction, even when I got disinterested.

Seun is the only person I shared the idea with - not idea really, I just sent him link to your website and asked for advice on whether to go ahead to acquire it. He wasn't too disposed to it, and I knew he knows better. The Seun I know will not steal anyone's idea.

Truth is, no idea is unique.

I don't know how to check info on the date of creation of a website, but I won't be surprised if that Learnsmart website actually predated your own.

I don't know anything about Learnsmart, never visited it.

But I'm so surprised you will ever think you have monopoly of ideas. I guess Jumia should sue Konga for copying it, and all these thriving e-commerce sites like Dealdey etc

Jarus:

My apologies for not formally closing out the transaction, even when I got disinterested.

Seun is the only person I shared the idea with - not idea really, I just sent him link to your website and asked for advice on whether to go ahead to acquire it. He wasn't too disposed to it, and I knew he knows better. The Seun I know will not steal anyone's idea.

Truth is, no idea is unique.

I don't know how to check info on the date of creation of a website, but I won't be surprised if that Learnsmart website actually predated your own.

I don't know anything about Learnsmart, never visited it.

But I'm so surprised you will ever think you have monopoly of ideas. I guess Jumia should sue Konga for copying it, and all these thriving e-commerce sites like Dealdey etc

op wants to do apple and samsung

Mr Akin alabi said something about ideas in one of his newsletter.

i might not be able to write exactly what he wrote here but i'll try and explain it.

He said,before you think about an idea someone else have gotten the idea too.

you can only claim it to be yours if you're the first person to come out with it.

Though i maybe wrong,but i'll advice you continue with your project since you didn't disclose every details to the person.

Just has one of the posters above me said,sooner or later there will be competition.

I'll want you to see it that way..

Jarus:
My apologies for not formally closing out the transaction, even when I got disinterested.
Seun is the only person I shared the idea with - not idea really, I just sent him link to your website and asked for advice on whether to go ahead to acquire it. He wasn't too disposed to it, and I knew he knows better. The Seun I know will not steal anyone's idea.
Truth is, no idea is unique.
I don't know how to check info on the date of creation of a website, but I won't be surprised if that Learnsmart website actually predated your own.
I don't know anything about Learnsmart, never visited it.
But I'm so surprised you will ever think you have monopoly of ideas. I guess Jumia should sue Konga for copying it, and all these thriving e-commerce sites like Dealdey etc

Apologies accepted.

Actually, competition is allowed and am not scared of it. Let me buttress my point as to why i was pissed.

Example;
A poor farmer discovers that dried pawpaw seeds after blending with salt is a perfect cure for malaria. But he does not have money to buy plenty of pawpaw nor does he have money for the processing, not to talk about distribution. So he announces that he wants partnership or financial aid. But after going to a particular city screaming so loudly, no one came up. One week later, in the very city he went to seek for partnership, he saw new billboards and adverts of someone selling the same formula he literally begged for funding. What do you expect the poor farmer to do?

Now that isn't competition!! Its an act of pilferage!

@ op. I guess you must have learnt some few lessons from this. Better luck next time and act wisely.

databoy247:

In life, we learn everyday. There are some persons who are just too nice and responsible that you wouldn't mind sharing with them. When it comes to business i dont have friends, only clients! I am not trying to accuse Mr Jarus of anything but i just have to be sure since he was the only person i really explained to. And definitely he must have transferred the "explanation" to someone else in his bid to seek advice/counsel like he said earlier. I dont know who else he must have shared it with but i believe the leak must have come from there.

Mr Jarus, my anger with you is that after seeking counsel, you should have notified me that you were no longer interested. It wont take anything from you. The reason is if you had done that, i wont even think or consider that you are behind LearnSmart. Why? Because of your notification that you weren't interested. I believe you are a man of your words and so i will believe that a man who says he is not interested will not go behind my back to implement. Also, since you explained about it to Seun, so another random question is "did Seun discuss it with someone else jokingly?" ......there are alot of questions on my mind.

And if Seun pointed out flaws, you should have called my attention to them and given me some advise like people know you to give. You revoked your interest and also did not advise me on the flaws identified. Everyone on NL see you as a career adviser but you did not prove to me that you are one. Instead you avoided my calls like ebola virus. #JustSaying#

The bitter lesson i have learnt here is to trust no one. No matter how legitimate or responsible the person might appear...TRUST NO ONE! And to anyone out there that has a viable project he wants to share or seek funding, always ask the person to sign a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) before sharing so if anything happens, you can properly seek legal action. That was the mistake i made and such wont happen again.

As for the owner of LearnSmart, i will see how far you will go. Thieves always get caught one day. And as they say, "The more you keep trying to be like someone else, the more you end up being no 2."

Mr Jarus, i hope you are not provoked. I mean no harm, i am just pissed. I respect you and i ALWAYS read your blog. My advise to you is that when you are dealing with someone, always communicate with the person to the end even if you end up changing your mind about what you were discussing with the person, at least courtesy demands you inform the person so the person wont start having thoughts. Am sure you wont like being left to hanging dry just like that also....its frustrating and annoying. Nice job on what you have been doing so far here on Nairaland.

Cheers.

Nicely said.

My name is Nkem Anigbogu. I am the founder of LearnSmart.com.ng and have followed this thread with interest. At this point, I would like to contribute, for record purposes.

I do not know www.lakeacademy.com.ng (and the owner). In fact, I learnt of it for the first time yesterday and took a look at the site. I also do not know Mr. Jarus neither do I know Mr. Seun except for the purpose of advertising on Nairaland.

I have a mixed background of technology and business but for some years now I have focused mainly on my passion which is capacity building, facilitating courses in areas of service excellence, management, strategy, and technology-driven marketing for companies. This I do through a Lagos-based training outfit - Complete Skills Learning (www.completeskills.com.ng).

LearnSmart was founded in order to fulfill the needs of some of our customers and potential ones who are not able to come to Lagos for training and those who would want to trade off the high interactivity of our classroom training for the convenience and affordability of self-paced online learning.

I was surprised to hear that I stole someone’s idea. I did not. I merely listened to the needs of our customers and potential ones and I am fulfilling them through a learning portal – www.learnsmart.com.ng.

Globally, there are many companies offering online learning services. It is not a new idea. Before building LearnSmart, I looked at various successful e-learning models in Europe and North America, not Nigeria, so if LakeAcademy was existing then, I was not aware. In addition, the sentences highlighted by the LakeAcademy owner on both websites as part of his evidence of ‘idea stealing’ are not even the same. Besides, the critical success factor (CSF) for this business is not a good website or services explanations/sentences on it.

Please let us be careful on the statements we make so as not to unfairly damage other people’s reputation. By implication, I have been called names by the owner of LakeAcademy with a mention of a lawsuit but I am not bothered. Business success is not a function of what the law court says, rather it is a function of knowing what customers’ needs are and effectively fulfilling them. Personally, I prefer to focus on the latter.

he he
Ye ye dey smell
@Datagy..honestly the only part to your idea that's looks unique was live streaming(this alone will not allow any investor to look into your project
Live streaming for Naija at this level
don't know you but I guess you in nigeria and not in the us or uk to understand the use of such platform and how profitable it is
I have been working on a similar project from jenuary till date and I was happy when I saw learnsmart
I did a backgroud check on the owner of learnsmart and I discover the man has been in the training field for over 10 years
I immediately new he built that site with his privouse client in mind
Else he won't charge that high
Mine was a bit more
I had a skill analysis page
A vision analysis page
And a platform for statistical analysis of how viable any chosen course could be
Business wise
You know the funny thing......bloombergs market analysis platform was my exact idea
I wanted the normal local business owner to be able to use some business analytic tool to judge his or her decisions using local data
But bloombergs did just that last month
So forget all this I have a million dollar idea
I would even say an idea that you can't executive 80 percent of it core whatever is not really a good idea
I can categorically tell you that the owner of learnsmart has more ideas than you
The reason(he's been on the field long enough)
No idea is too big lol
I have generated well over 100 ideas this year alone especially in ict, so an idea is not a big deal ....what you need is to refine your idea by cutting the unnecessary becos I guess that was what seun saw
Cut it down and you will see your idea come to live




To my Oga at learnsmart
Sir
I think your prices are on the high side
You could prove me wrong if you have a favourably click to sale ratio sir
Thanks for coming onboard
Was thinking of writing you but hear you
Helping the boys
Thanks again sir

I SMELL SOME LIES HERE!

I won't say all I have observed but there should be more enquiries on who started this business first and the type of courses offered.

It all boils down on the vision and determination of the founders to fight and deliver good services.