₦airaland Forum

Starting a business is a huge undertaking, and one of the biggest early challenges is to secure funding. For those from less advantaged backgrounds, this can be a brutal first hurdle.

And that’s because there’s a horrendous concept in the world of early-stage startups called the ‘friends and family funding round’.

To get the capital needed to kickstart an idea into a real product or service, founders are usually expected to initially fund their business by raising money from people within their immediate network.

Not everyone has a rich banker uncle
Some 75% of founders come from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds, according to a 2019 report from Cornerstone Partners. This means they have access to a wealthy network that they can call on for funds.

Of course, for many people, this is simply not an option – it certainly wasn’t for me.

When I launched my mission-driven tech startup Zero Gravity at the age of 21, I certainly didn’t have anyone in my network who could invest in my idea.

I had to operate for the first nine months with next to no funding. It’s challenging, and a lot of hard work.

Not everyone has a rich banker uncle who can invest £50,000 in their idea. But it’s possible to start and scale a business without friends and family funding. Here’s how.


You can do a lot with a little

It’s possible to start small with whatever funds you’re able to gather up yourself. This could come from any savings you may have; additional income from a part-time job; or, in my case, from the last shreds of my student loan.

In 2018, I finished my degree at the University of Oxford. I’d made the journey there from state schools, and saw first-hand just how high the barriers are for ambitious young people from low opportunity backgrounds to reach top universities and careers. I wanted to change the fact that talent is spread evenly, but opportunity is not. I did so by building innovative technology to unlock the potential of these young people.

After graduating, I moved back to my childhood bedroom in West Yorkshire, where I launched Zero Gravity with the last £200 of my student loan.

I didn’t have a huge sum of money, a fancy office or a big team to get going with initially. But, I had an idea, a clear plan of action, and a relentless drive.

I used some of the £200 to buy a domain name and web hosting. I relied on the skills I’d built in my teenage years when I was obsessed with technology and taught myself to code.

If you equip yourself with the required skills, you can be resourceful and rely on yourself to kickstart an idea, rather than needing to hire others. Now, recent AI developments have made this easier than ever before, by automating time-consuming activities and plugging skills gaps.

I used those self-taught coding skills to build a website and basic version of Zero Gravity’s platform. The money also allowed me to buy subscriptions to a variety of SAAS products to create professional videos, graphics, and marketing materials without paying an external agency.

While professional help would, of course, be better, these products can deliver 80% of the outcome at 20% of the cost – which is exactly what you need to get going.


Be strategically focused

When growing a business from nothing, it’s important to create milestones for the business. You should be relentlessly focused on achieving a few set goals, before moving on to the next stage.

Remember, you can’t change the world overnight. Too many founders overstretch themselves by concentrating on too much at once. Focus on developing the core proposition of your business first.

I focused on building an algorithm which leveraged big data to identify talented students from low opportunity backgrounds while they were still at school. I then built a mentorship platform that connected those students with current undergraduates who mentored them into leading universities.

While lack of resources will feel like a constraint, it will also spur creativity, and make you more innovative and efficient than the competition. Use your leanness to your advantage!


Use the power of storytelling

To generate external investment without relying on friends and family, you need to create awareness of your initial business idea. No one will be interested in your business unless you make them interested.

You should focus on telling the story behind your business, and use social media and PR to drive it.

Firstly, know what your brand is about by having a clear mission, a distinct set of values, and a vision for the future.

To amplify this, you don’t need a paid media budget or marketing team when you’re starting up. Once I had the basic version of the platform set up, I used online software to create a video that explained how it worked. I used this to launch Zero Gravity with a marketing campaign on my own Facebook profile. My friends and family reshared it, and then their networks did. I had over 1,000 user sign ups within the first 24 hours!

The social buzz was spotted by student publication The Tab, who covered the business. From that, The Times wrote about it, which led to investors getting in touch with me through LinkedIn.

Find external investors that are right for you
When raising seed investment, if you have no network, you need to build one. I worked closely with my initial investors to build a network which enabled the company to scale from raising a £425k pre-seed to a £3.5m seed. While creating a buzz on social media and earned media will help with growing a network, you also need to be reaching out to interesting people on LinkedIn.

Also, remember that not all investors are your investors. You need to find people who are right for your brand. Our investors are all social impact investors, many of which are from low opportunity backgrounds themselves.

You need to stand for something and be willing to defend it. Listen to feedback but understand that, at the early stage, not everyone is going to buy into your vision. Focus on your unique mission, whatever that is, and you'll attract the people who are genuinely invested in what you do. That way, they'll support you for the long haul.


The road to success

Despite starting out with just £200, over the past three years I’ve raised £4 million of investment, and Zero Gravity has since mentored over 8,000 students from low opportunity backgrounds into the UK’s top universities.

The platform is now also powering students into their dream careers through commercial partnerships with leading employers such as HSBC, KPMG, and Morgan Stanley.

If you start with no money, network or insider knowledge, you’ll have to defy the odds to succeed. If you solve a problem that you deeply understand and have a unique perspective on, investment and success will follow.



https://startups.co.uk/blog/build-startup-no-family-funding/

Cholls:
My brother price list please

I hope this will be of help?

seunmsg:
Is anybody begging you for support? Tinubu has not said anything but some clowns are all over the place withdrawing a support nobody sought from them. Is this ment or crass idiocy?

Taking a retrospective look at our political history since 1999, I have doubt as to whether there has been any positive influence of the sociopolitical organizations like Afenifere on who emerges our President!

I could recall the days of AD, precisely during 2003 elections, their much talked about support ended up in the loss of the whole SW States to the then opposition PDP except LAGOS who didn't enjoyed any of such support!

Afenifere talks too much these days!

FashAutos:
P

Is the car still available?

tsephanyah:
Fake news. northerners are illiterate and lack strategies

You're obviously living in the past, going by your comment!

texazzpete:
Everyone supporting this nonsense is an slowpoke.



Nonsense. In fact, that sounds uncannily like the 'justification' my muslim colleague put forward for child marriage.

I will challenge you to do a thorough research devoid of primordial thinking on Islamic marriage or better still interrogate a reliable and knowledgeable Islamic cleric, you will realise that it has nothing to do with child marriage.

A selfish Islamic cleric could just put up an argument on Islamic marriage to justify his actions.

yers6:
I swear!!!!!!!! This is the best policy in education sector in recent years. Was still discussing this very crucial issue with woman days ago!!!!

Imagine a scenario whereby some new generation 'sophisticated' parents wants their wards in JSS 1 at the age of 7, 8, 9 or 10 and by the time the kid is 16 or 17, would already be done with university! And then by 19 would be done with nysc and then start working. And for those in majority, may not get a good job at that stage and so, life problems start hitting them with so much frustration which they were not fully prepared or grounded to face and then they resort to drugs, prostitution and other dangerous vices just to keep face or survive!

And there is where the challenge starts. Because they are still teenagers with the enormous mantle of grown adult's headaches, they become so directionless in life especially because most Nigerian men don't intend to settle down maritally or even take life very serious till they are 30 years and above. FACT!

Come to clubs on the island and you would weep for the new generations our so called enlightened and cosmopolitan parents are now raising. You would see young girls of 15, 16 from mostly Christian and Religious higher institutions of learning like Covenant, Babcock (the Babcock lady giving head last year in the viral video comes to mind here), Redeemers, Mountain Top, Caleb, Unilag, Leads, Alkhima, Afe Babalola, etc, flooding some of the most exquisite, expensive and classy night clubs on the island, in Owerri, Benin, PH, Abuja every and every weekend!

Or why do you think new exquisite clubs are opening up every other day in Lagos and those cities mentioned? High rate of slay queens everywhere? Or astronomical numbers of mamalawos on IG? Or the fact that weed, codeine, and other 'get high' drugs are recording the craziest sales ever? Its beyond just the fact there are big boys ready to spend but simply because the young and willing underage girls from the higher institutions of learning abounds massively like the sands in the ocean. You see young girls at age 17, 18, 19 among them already having flapping and seriously sagged breasts**.

And you begin to wonder if they are not young girls from so called prestigious and religious universities where security was very tight, where morals were preached and impacted on all fronts, where their parents spend fortunes on them to be in so called best schools?

If you were one brought up in a strict home and responsible background and happen to see things as they are in those cities mentioned, you would weep bitterly.

Don't get get this submission wrong as this is not to generalise that all underaged kids in universities are bad or irresponsible. Far from it. Still a lot are well raised and doing remarkably well even after graduation. Because age at times doesn't translated to maturity. But the danger lies in having kids who are not raised well to fully absorb the crude shocks of life in the majority!

How can you explain so many 16 years olds in 400 level in universities but are already deeply enmeshed in drug abuse? Or the girls that have committed several abortions that they have lost counts? Or those who have been to 100's of exquisite clubs in and out of the country at age 16/17? Thats why you see so many childish comments on social media posts and forum especially on Nairaland in recent years and you begin to wonder, who are these so called young adults with terribly childish mentality? How can you then explain the highest numbers of young boys and girls committing suicides in recent years when we all know Nigerian rarely commit suicide? By time the damage has been seriously done on those boys and girls, you now see their mother's en masse in churches and other religious gatherings seriously praying and fasting for God to touch the soul of those already destroyed children.

We play and pray too much in this country!

So on point!

This is one of the few sensible and apt submissions I have seen in this forum in recent times. Please keep it coming. With people like you around, I think the hope to see a great Nigeria is not lost after all.

Weldone!

Wow!
I wish the team the very best!
Up Naija!!!

As an elders stateman, one would have expected that OBJ's congratulatory letter to PMB should be in the public domain by now!
I felt "BABA" has been so quiet in the last few days and as one of the few and highly respected Nigerian leaders, many are eagerly awaiting him to lend his voice to the outcome of the just concluded presidential election!

Fellow nairalanders, what is your take on this?
What do you think could have informed his decision not to speak to such a boiling issue?

Please all, let's be civil in our reactions!

Biko!

shakmati:
Op, you are way off point. Buhari will not get Nigeria working again. I forsee violent instability if things continue the way they are presently. Boys in the creek are on standby, ipob is waiting for any excuse, BH has not been defeated, Zamfara is in crisis. Your false integrity is not enough to sustain this country. As it is, Nigeria is in the Emergency Room and we need a man of sound mind to manage her out of ER. Buhari is definitely not that man!

May be you are not totally wrong after all, that Nigeria is in "ER". But do you think such a reckless pronouncement would ever get Nigeria working again?......... You guys fail to acknowledge the fact that it's indeed a systematic way of encouraging looting of our treasury!

It's simply saying to the unrepentant looters that one can actually loot, but do ensure that you're not caught.

It's simply saying that once you are able to invest the looted money in the country, then you are free from any form prosecution!

For me, this is indeed a sad commentary in the history of our dear nation!

We are indeed going no where!

And again can you actually state it clearly how this method will dissuade people from looting our treasury?
Thanks!

akinsdamie:
please what does this man mean by presidential candidates in handcuffs??

He said "with handcuffs" not "in handcuffs"

Please kindly read and process what you have
read for a good understanding and better
response"

Cheers!

kahal29:
Sagay was of the view that the substance of the charge against Chief Justice Onnoghen “is deliberately being abandoned by the SANs and some other lawyers.”

“Why is Nigeria such a Theatre of the Absurd? Today, we are only talking about preliminary objections, interim injunctions, challenge of jurisdiction, wrong procedure, etc., etc.

“Nobody is talking about the substantive issue any longer. That is now lost in the sands of time.


Sagay advised Nigerians not be distracted by what he called a vicious and fraudulent campaign intended to sacrifice the substance and justice of the case on the altar of technicalities, adding that the truth must not be the first casualty in the matter.


http://thenationonlineng.net/sagay-njc-cant-consider-onnoghens-case/

The above line of thoughts of the "writer" caught my attention!

It may not be actually wrong to say that a time will come in this country when it will be pretty hard to get a lawyer to prosecute a decent case internationally, because they are so comfortable with the weaknesses and the loop holes in our constitution!
This obviously encourages the so called "SAN" to put forward issues of technicalities and thereby help most of the criminals escape justice!

Our constitution must be reviewed asap to put this country on the right path!

#Myopinion!

Sagay was of the view that the substance of the charge against Chief Justice Onnoghen “is deliberately being abandoned by the SANs and some other lawyers.”

“Why is Nigeria such a Theatre of the Absurd? Today, we are only talking about preliminary objections, interim injunctions, challenge of jurisdiction, wrong procedure, etc., etc.

“Nobody is talking about the substantive issue any longer. That is now lost in the sands of time.


http://thenationonlineng.net/sagay-njc-cant-consider-onnoghens-case/[/quote]This section of the write up caught my attention!

A time will come, when no Nigerian lawyer will be found worthy of prosecuting a decent case at the international level if some of them continue to thread through this "unprofessional" path, all in the name of making money for themselves!

#Myopinion

Prof Dejo Olowu wrote:


My little contribution is to assist the non-lawyers and independent watchers of current proceedings to distill the issues beyond the muddy waters being thrown up and about to achieve political ends.
By virtue of Nigeria's colonial legal heritage, judicial precedents (decisions of the higher courts made on earlier cases) take a prime position in the determination of new cases on similar or related facts. The courts therefore rely heavily on the settled principles of the law in arriving at their decisions in subsequent cases.
There has been so much hullabaloo about and around the indictment of the eminent occupant of the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), in person of Mr Justice Walter Onnoghen. Understandably, the indictment occurring at a politically volatile period (less than 40 days to a vital presidential election) in Nigeria was bound to generate rowdy and opportunistic responses from legal minds and non-legal minds alike.
However, to help our objective understanding and analysis of the state of the law in Nigeria, recourse must be made to the causa celebre, that epic piece of judicial precedent from which all subsequent extrapolations should be made on the present scenario. That point of reference is NGANJIWA v. FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (2017) LPELR 43391 (Court of Appeal).
The Honourable Justice A.O. Obaseki-Adejumo, Justice of the Court of Appeal (JCA) formulated the following principle in the Ngangiwa Case:
"It must be expressly stated that if a judicial officer commits theft, fraud, murder or manslaughter, arson and the likes,...WHICH ARE CRIMES COMMITTED OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS OFFICIAL FUNCTIONS [emphasis mine], he may be arrested, interrogated and prosecuted accordingly by the State DIRECTLY without recourse to the NJC (National Judicial Commission).
.. These classes of criminal acts are not envisaged and captured by the provisions of PARAGRAPH 21, PART 1 OF THE THIRD SCHEDULE (to the Constitution).
On the other hand, if any Judicial Officer COMMITS A PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF HIS DUTY and is investigated, arrested and.......subsequently prosecuted by security agents without a formal complaint/report to the NJC, it will be a usurpation of the latter's constitutionally guaranteed powers under Section 158 and Paragraph 21 Part 1 of the Third Schedule, thereby inhibiting, and interfering with and...... obstructing the NJC from carrying out its disciplinary control over erring judicial officers as clearly provided by the Constitution.''
The simple question that all honest people of clean conscience must ask the coterie of Onnoghen's Amen corner is: what is the category of Onnoghen's wrongdoing?
Failure to declare his personal fiscal assets as statutorily required is a wrongful act OUTSIDE the performance of his duties as a judicial officer. His wrongful act was and remains a criminal offence for which the apparatus of State must act. The NJC has no role in dealing with that.
However, as I already mentioned, these are highly volatile and flammable times. Every action or omission of the Federal Government of Nigeria headed by Mohammadu Buhari will be turned into a weapon of mudslinging against Buhari’s electoral chances. That is the reason for all the pandemonium that has been unleashed on Nigerians these past few days.
Of course, the high volume of count-me-in SANs supporting the CJN will most likely sway the minds of innocent watchers into believing that there is indeed a vendetta against the CJN. There is none and there can be none.
The same Buhari confirmed Onnoghen as CJN despite all the opposing forces that felt he lacked the moral uprightness and integrity required for that office.
But we cannot be shocked or surprised by the outrage and outbursts of those opposed to the trial of a roguish CJN for his roguish act(s): they need him and his roguish system to perpetuate the distribution of judicial largesse and crooked elevations to the Bench and Bar in Nigeria. That is the way the Nigerian judicial and legal architecture now works in the larger part. Corruption oils the system...for those who run by it!
What more? The same judicial system created and nurtured by Onnoghen is the very one that will handle his indictment. Throw up a knife a thousand times and it will come down resting on its flat side. Why so much chaos when Onnoghen will carry the day in his own judicial system? What will however not go away is the moral albatross that will hang on his neck for the rest of his natural life. He'll remain a tainted CJN regardless of how he ends his career.
And talking about electoral calculations, Buhari does not and will not require an Onnoghen or any court to serve any ulterior purposes after the February 2019 elections. Buhari winning the election fair and square dispenses with the need for a subservient adjudicator. Handing over the presidency of Nigeria to Buhari’s closest challenger will be farewell to the sanity of governance that the Buhari administration has set on a steady path since 2015. Nigerians cannot afford to choose profligacy over thrift, we cannot afford to elect a photo-op president over one whose soul is about how to rescue our commonwealth from entrenched vultures.
The 2019 election is and will be all about the very survivability of the Nigerian nation. We must not hand over the polity to those who will mish-mash our treasury and national resources with their insatiable quest for wealth, debauchery and lascivious lifestyle.

post=74775255:
What a childlish fat kid!....

No wonder Davido calls him his boy...

*singing* Dele na my boy, Dele na my boy!.

See the FAT BOY saying trash about Our Presido!

Cryyyyyyyyy

Hmmmmmmm!

After all, may be Davido actually knows what most people do not about this "boy" !

Always childish in his dispositions.

And this is somebody's role model!

Nawa oo!

With this kind of book, NOI has spoken the minds of some Nigerians, while Kagame obviously set forth the thoughts of another section of Nigerians. Either way, it's crystal clear that the coming general elections will be a battle between those who love corruption and those that do not!
For me, I will go by the saying that "as you lay your bed, so shall you lie on it"

The choice is ours!

stephanie11:
@POLITICSNGR

Below is a statement from the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organization made available to PoliticsNGR;

Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar disputing the assertion by President Muhammadu Buhari that the system in Nigeria allows corruption to thrive because the system is slow in tackling corruption. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar further blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for perceived failure in addressing some instances of ‘corrupt practices’ under his watch.

Let us remind Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that he is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the failed system in tackling corruption that was in place before President Muhammadu Buhari took over in 2015. We know he is aware of this, hence his latest diatribe against President Muhammadu Buhari amounts to nothing but disgusting grandstanding and an attempt to mock the system.

If the system in Nigeria was indeed working, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would not have acquired substantial shares in INTELS in clear conflict of his duties as a Customs Officer whilst in office. Those shares would have belonged to the Nigerian people by now.

If the system in Nigeria was indeed working, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would not have run a monopolistic company called INTELS all these years, ripping off the Nigerian people and the Nigerian State before Muhammadu Buhari came and broke that monopoly.

If the system was working, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would have been prosecuted and jailed for various acts of corruption and abuse of office after he left office as Vice President, some of which are:

(a) For himself and his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, granting themselves licenses to build universities as President and Vice President whilst in office in clear breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers. Those Universities would have been probed, seized and transferred to the Nigeria State and the Nigerian people by now.

(b) Laundering slush funds to the United States of America using phony companies, part of which was used to fund his present American University in Adamawa State through which he is also extorting Nigerians through exorbitant fees. It is public knowledge that this indictment is contained in a US Congressional Report that has led to the prosecution and conviction of his accomplices in the US, which are William Jefferson and Siemens. They were convicted under a system that works, whilst he has been walking free in Nigeria and even aspiring to the highest office in the land. It is also public knowledge that his ban from entering the United States was as a result of these indictments.

(c) His indictment and recommendation for prosecution by the Report of the EFCC over the PTDF scandal whilst he was Vice President.

We have also read with keen interest the case filed against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by some public spirited Nigerians alleging that he never paid his Personal Income Taxes as at when due, yet he wants to ‘get Nigeria working again’. In this regard, we are also challenging Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to publicly display his Personal Income Tax receipts for the 3 years preceding 2018 to show that he did not just run to FIRS in 2018 to pay his backlog of Personal Income Taxes.

For the information of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, President Muhammadu Buhari’s gallant efforts in tackling corruption headlong has led to the conviction of the President’s own party men and ex Governors who served under PDP and for acts they committed whilst in PDP. 703 persons and institutions have been convicted by the EFCC under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari since 2015. The biggest recoveries of stolen public funds in the history of Nigeria are being carried out by President Muhammadu Buhari. These recoveries were made from principally his party men who now wish to lead Nigeria with him. Some of these recoveries/seizures/forfeitures (interim and final) are:

(a) 407 Mansions since 2015.
(b) N794 Billion, over $261 Million Dollars, 1.1 Million Pounds Sterling, 8.1 Million Euros,
(c) 259 Automobiles.
(d) A fully functional hospital, St. Solomon Health Care Centre at 24, Adeniyi Jones Street, Ikeja Lagos e.t.c.

There are so many other instances too numerous to mention. These are a world apart from the few instances of the reluctant fight against corruption that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar claimed happened under his watch as Vice President. During his time, there was a competition for corruption between himself, his boss and public officers.

We also urge the PDP to stop making wild, unsubstantiated allegations of corruption without a modicum of proof. We have no time to respond to any allegation by the PDP without the backing of some kind of document or proof. When we see some scintilla of proof, we shall respond appropriately. And that is how we have treated the recent allegation of acquisition of shares in Etisalat and Keystone Bank by some supposed ‘family members’ of the President. No name was mentioned and no document was shown.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar latest adventure in trying to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in matters of integrity with President Muhammadu Buhari is a political suicide mission from which we thought his handlers would have tried to steer him away. But alas! They have decided to test the waters. Locally and internationally President Muhammadu Buhari stands several miles away from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in matters of integrity. When the President used all his life in public office building a reputation and a name, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar used all his life in public office to build mansions and acquire personal wealth. Now Judgment Day has come when the credentials needed by the Nigerian people for the highest office are not the buildings and wealth but the simple quality of integrity.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar cannot eat his cake and have it.

https://politicsngr.com/system-working-2015-youd-jail-buhari-campaign-replies-atiku/

Haba!

Total Knock out(TKO)

Nbote:
Our judicial system is quite flawed and our lawyers are having a field day exploiting those flaws by delaying court processes and proceedings.. Watch how ZonBs who can't read or understand will rush in to scream blue murder on d National Assembly

The very reason why I will never subscribe to PMB's signing of the Electoral Bill before the general election!
So I was not surprised for some corrupt lawyers backing the overriding of the Bill by the National Assembly!
They are very much aware of its deficiencies. They just want to make money without giving any consideration to the impacts it might have on the outcome of the election!

fahren:
Whatever happens, Buhari cannot escape the journey back to Daura in 2019.

The back to Daura project is a national emergency.

While I respect your opinion, I know so many that will strongly disagree with you on this and perhaps have contrary views.

#1man1vote!

I'm interested, pls add me

Abdul-mojeed - 08052506800

I'm interested pls add me

Abdul-mojeed - 08052506800

I was expecting the NIGERIAN SENATE to as well SUMMON the HARVARD & LSE's MANAGEMENT too! ...........
With the crop of leaders we have in this country called NIGERIA ,..........we are in big time trouble!......May the ALMIGHTY DELIVER US!

Thou shall not throw stones when in a glass house!