₦airaland Forum

Bloomsbury:
One of the most underrated way to launch a software business quickly are CHROME EXTENSIONS.

Chrome extensions are the earliest way to launch a software startup easily without much fund or 0 funds at all. Also they're have low competition and costumers hardly churn.
People hardly uninstall chrome Extensions.

There is something called Micro startup strategy that I think everyone should employ.

The down side of this is, most internet users use mobile (except you are focusing on B2B) and mobile browser rarely use extensions. Several great Chrome extensions with low patronage on product hunt and in the Chrome store.

Your aim isn't to build a Billion dollars startup but to build a profitable startup that you can sell. When you build this little software business and you start seeing revenue, you can then sell it on those platforms people sell side projects...you can sell your one man software business for a minimum of $15,000.

I chanced upon one in early 2021 on Twitter where you can sell your tech startup. Microacquire.com (it became Acquire.com in 2022). I followed its founder Andrew throughout when it started. Startups selling even up to $1 million on the platform.

In addition, learn marketing and sales.
There is a myth among entrepreneurs. That is, build and they will come...that's a big lie.

You need to learn how to advertise your product for people to know it exists. One cool place to achieve this is PRODUCTHUNT and also on LinkedIn and Twitter.

When seeking business partnerships or co-founders in Nigeria, always use NDA.

Never deal with Nigerians without a notorized NDA. It's even the regular proceeding for any business.
Document your agreements

Never do business with anyone without documentation. Even for clients, I insist on web development brief even if you pay me in full the first day we discuss your brand idea.

On a thread on Nairaland las December, I was telling some people that the most important skill a technical founder needs to learn after the technical skills is marketing and sales. You are spot on.

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About Notorized NDAs: Is it just me or most supposed tech lawyers are ignorant of the the true workings of the tech ecosystem? Many would draw up the regular documents used in other industries without understand the tech sector works differently.

Which is why founders have to learn drawing up these documents themselves while getting good lawyers to vet the drawn documents.

Bloomsbury:
I personally would never recommend any founder or entrepreneur to seek investment from Investors in Nigeria.

Those guys rip off founders in terms of equities and term sheet...how can you promise to give a founder 10M naira for 12% equity. Even Y combinator takes 7% for minimum of $150,000 investment.

I remember one of my neighbors telling me " I will give you 50K for 30% share in your company" I laughed till I nearly fainted.

Many Nigerians don't understand anything about venture capital and Startup ecosystem.

They make life hard for Entrepreneurs.

I think this is the main reason most founders/co-founders are technical ones who are friends. You know, you are full-stack and your friend is data science so you guys team up with his other friend who's a product manager and UI/UX person to build based on some agreements.

The founder of Canva, a 34-year-old woman now, spent 7 years before anyone took her idea seriously in 2007 because she wasn't a technical founder then.
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Even when collaborating to co-found with someone across country borders, there's the technicality of enforcing NDAs. I mean, India's copyright and trade laws are different from Nigeria's or Ghana's. These technicalities...

truthCoder:
My strategy is to build up a working and market ready product first before involving investors.

You can deploy most web solutions now with free tier SaaS. It might take you a long while and personal funding but build it and get it ready for the market.

Exactly what I am doing. 4 ideas spread across fintech subsets and PAAS. It's been taking longer and having to stay awake most nights but it's coming up well since I can do the UI/UX and part product development of two myself (content, building and structuring).

Projects at idea stages are usually priced like chicken shit by these hawks.

Man! Even YC which is huge and structured takes 7% as equity for $375k investment and gets right of first refusal in every rasing round. Imagine what less structured ones are taking as equity.

In addition, know that not all businesses need large money. Dont collect 100k usd because it is available when all you need is just 1k usd.

Finally, never discuss your ideas with just anyone. First, they must represent a genuine and verifiable entity and they must have the authorization to have such discussions. Secondly, there must be an NDA that is protecting you.

Thankfully, I took time to learn marketing asides other technical skills. I have NDAs for everything. Not even my lady has access to documents, content and web files I'm working on.

Between September 2022 and July 2022, I got 3 guys and teams who should be a part of it, sent them NDAs but they were dragging their feet about signing it so I pulled back. Ref flag.

tensazangetsu20:
True there's guys that know the CEO of yc one on one. Nepotism works when they want to recommend their friends startups to get funding. A lot of things are rigged lol

Exactly. I've always been inclined towards this after studying the Nigerian tech startup ecosystem.

Many individual investors are asking for outrageous equity.

It's sad that the Startup Law isn't being implemented. It'd have democratised access.
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You know of alternative feasible options?

tensazangetsu20:
A lot of startups in Nigeria were a front for the founders to get recommendations for the uk tech nation visa. Now that that's being cancelled, I wonder what will happen to the startup industry at least in naija.

True enough. There also seems to be a particular circle one needs to break into to get access to these VCs. I mean, asides Y Combinator, other publicised tech startups getting funding announced on TechCabal and the likes seem to come from certain circles like the Lagos Investment Network.

How then do tech founders outside these cliques get funding for their viable startups/digital products?

davien:
I suspect it was all a front.
Andela's early investors were people like Mark Zuckerberg and others who invested in the company to train software engineers from low income countries. After the first few years when the company gained stability, they threw away that model to hiring only experienced devs for contract work, meanwhile there were reports the funds that were meant for teaching and feeding aspiring software engineers was cut after the first year.

Someone mentioned on Twitter a few months that once most Nigeria tech founders get angel investment, by Seed A round, they've all relocated abroad. I think that's what happened to Andela.

Most seemingly tech startups with social welfare structures are barely sustainable. At least ALX isn't pretending and being upfront about payment.

Tataffo:
Shey'n gbo Werey....What have you been accused with on this thread that you are not?

Ignore the foôl. Even on Facebook, he's a religious fanatic. He thinks he's anonymous spreading hatred and doubling down on religious extremism.

You need to scroll through his Facebook timeline to know how extremist he is.

Shekau-lite always diving for and clutching at any seeming reputational straw to justify his dark heart.

Roland nodded in agreement with UGM terrorising the SE being caught and brought to justice by the civilian JTF just like the JTF does to Boko Haram terrorists ravaging the North, but you want to equate it with you justifying and doubling down on killing innocent and harmless young girls over (concocted) WhatsApp messages which said school issues shouldn't be mixed with religion.

You are a terrorist. You self-confessedly live amongst killers since childhood. Live your reality and stop trying to drag everyone into your inhumane cruel abyss of a state of mind.

tensazangetsu20:
Probably wants to work indepth with svgs like creating them from scratch or using them for animations.

There's GIF to SVG converter. Make the animation in GIF which he could have converted to from any video format then to GIF and SVG.

Maybe it's just me focusing on the major which is development and related areas instead of the minors.

Do you think it's profitable to even focus on it as an area of expertise? If you can already design, there are a lot of tools to convert PNG files to SVG.

Adobe and PicsArt have online tools to covert your PNG designs to SVG. That's what designers and developers do mostly.

A001:
I respect religious people, but not their beliefs because the nature of their beliefs affects the whole of humanity.

Keep wailing and making a noise. When you're tired, you'll find something meaningful to better your miserable life.

Online insults are mere noises. Keep at it.

The irony since that's what you do all day whenever Otem or any sort of topic on divinity is mentioned.
It's like trying to have a rational debate with Kemi Olunloyo.

A001:
Why would you believe in another nairalander? It doesn't make sense.

Anyway, you can believe in anyone you want. It's your business. Kokanye (no one cares).

Yet you care enough to constantly insult anyone and demean Africans for choosing to have religious beliefs. Just for that reason of being religious.
Schizophrenia makes you so self-absorbedly lost in your own mentally-created world, you lose touch with the realities around you.

A001:
Otem has said several times in his posts that he wasn't sent to create a religion but was sent by the ancestors of Africans (who they worship ignorantly as God) to reveal the history of the world to Africans to shift their focus away from the gods or any God of religion to themselves, philosophy, and science.

The guy revealed many histories that show the importance of critical thinking, philosophy, and science in developing civilizations.
.

The irony is "being sent by the ancestors", which you believe Otem said he was, is a concept steeped in theism (religion) which you are against.

Claiming to be a messiah sent to save a people or humans in general based on some belief of having being anointed to do so is steeped in theism (religion).

If we juxtapose what you've stated about Otem here with any other religious beliefs, it's no different. The irony of criticising religion but believing Otem's claim to messianicism is lost on you.

You took the bait as I made you recount what you had said in the past. You're schizophrenic.

A001:
.

Like I've said many times, it's still wiser to adopt the local religion than the foreign religions because no country develops by cursing and demonizing their ancestors and cultures like Africans do.

It's a no-brainer.

You've stated a thousand times that OtemAtum is from Kogi State. That makes him local.
So why are you angry that there are so many new converts on this thread who worship Otem and believe in his power to cage all the foreign gods like Yahweh and Allah? You should be happy not you get pissed Otem's name is revered.

Donjazet2:
Cc disstroy izzuo, blueraydick.

Ihordspy is a paid troll in the Tinubu camp and was previously one of the BMCs. He'd say anything to support Tinubu, including denying his own birth parents or lover.

That same guy has questioned the heritages of Yorubas who are against Tinubu.

He's paid to spread hate. He doesn't count.

GREATIGBOMAN:
This type of site's priorities speed and security over anything else.... The backend should be beautiful.

They don't give 2fucks about frontend.


As long as it's safe, fast and secured.

You can have speed, security and good UI/UX.

Bank of England (BOE) https://www.bankofengland.co.uk is faster than CBN cbn.gov.ng, yet BOE website has good UI/UX and I'm sure it's more secure since the CBN website was decently intruded while we've heard none of such about BOE.

Good frontend is what keeps most users long enough to appreciate the work put into the backend (functionalities).

majesticguy:
Why would they care, no be government job. My beef is with the Ogas at the top who veted the website as ok. Is it that they don't know what orderliness looks like? or perhaps they are color blind or something.

You'd be surprised the "ogas" aren't tech-savvy. And when they are shown in their offices, it's on a wide-screen whoch makes the website look a little bit good.

The people who give the stamp of approval are old and out of touch with digital tech realities.

Someone close to me got into the Ministry of Science and Technology. It's tails and tails of how most don't know how to use a computer and the decision-makers know little about the practicality of science and tech. Just textbook smart people.

majesticguy:
For a financial institution as big as this, and considering their position and the amount of monies they make, I expected way better.

Navigating through the links is one heck of an Herculean task. How is it that everything is all on desktop view. Unless this is a bug or something, then it's quite understandable otherwise this is very bad.

Asides the fact that it's unresponsive, the colour scheme is poor too. Very poor.

White and different shades of green are great for any UI (I've done several of such) and would have been very attractive if it was properly utilised.
And the fact that a naira swap countdown timer was out on it means there is a dedicated web developer who should know better but they don't care.

Just #6 million allocated for the website would get all aspects of the frontend functional. All.

For all of the accusations of tribalism on this thread, the first person to use a tribal slur on this thread since this year began is none of the persons usually accused with screenshots and old posts of tribalism.

Ironically, it's from one of the constant accusers. Don't you just love ironies?

Ofe mmanu is as derogatory a slur as any tribal slur; but just because you put a thousand emojis after it doesn't make it less of what it is.

At least the masks and pretence are off. This puts to rest of all that constant playing of the victim's card.

tollyboy5:
Bootstrap still tested and wanted and more popular.

EOD

Bootstrap is king. There's no area of responsitivity it doesn't cover. Plus a full Bootstrap stylesheet is about 156KB. That's lightweight enough.

A001:
ChatGPT is such a powerful tool, and I think any dev or programmer that wants to survive and thrive in the years ahead need to incorporate AI into their operations.

Also, ChatGPT is a great tool for research. But its results need further verification because it sometimes gives false information and frames it as genuine, a concept experts call hallucination.

Check this DigiTech product out on ProductHunt:

https://www.producthunt.com/products/superflow-webflow-plugin-for-revisions#superflow-rewrite-powered-by-chatgpt

https://www.producthunt.com/products/superflow-webflow-plugin-for-revisions

It integrates WebFlow and ChatGPT to do web content copywriting in seconds.

The second is a virtual assistant which can be finetuned by the tech service provider. Gaining traction on the platform.

A001:
Google launches Bard, its answer to ChatGPT, to trusted testers – here is what it looks like.
https://searchengineland.com/google-launches-bard-its-answer-to-chatgpt-to-trusted-testers-here-is-what-it-looks-like-392729

Interesting times ahead in the tech industry. I'm sure some content creators are already working on an article on Microsoft's ChatGPT vs Google's Bard.

I've been on ProductHunt hunting down products and tech startups built around AI. Especially since January 15.

Currently, 4 good startups have been launched on it focused on infusing ChatGPT as customer support and virtual assistant, and even CAAS - Copywriting As A Service.

One of them is even built with Headless WP. That's how fluid it is. I've signed up for the waiting list of some and watching closely. By this weekend, 3 more would launched in the coming soon section.

While others are complaining about it potentially taking their jobs, some smart guys are using ChatGPT as the base tech stack to launch startups. Truly, interesting times ahead on the digital tech front.

seankafor:
states that rarely pays salaries is the ones you want to build for you dams

Not build dams but dams are cheaper options. Just one of the options.

For example, Nigeria has a lot of natural gas, Akwa Ibom topping that list.

Akwa Ibom has been generating 169MW of electricity through the state-owned Ibom Power Company. My LGA of origin has been getting (near-)constant electricity since 2005/2006 that at some point there were no cooking gas or kerosene refilling centers. A neighbouring LGA in Rivers State used to get near-constant electricity from us too.

In March 2021, Akwa Ibom signed a deal with a Moroccan company to improve generation capacity to 768 MW. It currently can be scaled to 1GW of electricity. The plant is fueled from the excess or previously-leaked natural gas in the oil fields not far away.

With the current bill/law which allows states to distribute electricity, what's stopping the state from connecting the populace to its own grid away from the dysfunctional national grid? The electricity wouldn't be free.

Lagos has a similar plan in the works.

Like Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta can do same with natural gas.
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There's Kainji Dam and a few dams in disuse.

So these are practical measures already available if the state governments are serious about enforcing them. Management is what you should mention but it's doable.

seankafor:
anyone that is looking at these politicians is wasting his time .

That's why I don't have time to blame them because blaming them is a waste of time..

I wish a reputable private investor in the league of dangote or Elon musk can tap into our energy sector..

And use the advantage of the corruption in the system to his own advantage..

Looka t dangote.. he has entered into every sector using it all for himself the advantage

Elon musk has brought starlink which is now the talk of the town.. with little or no advert from them

That's the type of thing I like.. if the country is corrupt.. I'll kukum exploit the already corrupt system and use it to my advantage..

We need that big gun to enter our energy sector.. even if na monopoly em wan turn am to.. no wahala

Waiting for gorvenment is like waiting for Christ to come again

It can be done at cheaper rates by not depending fully on gas it supplementing it with gas.

Nigeria is blessed with diverse water ways.

Paraguay produces 100% of its power through hydroelectricity (dams etc) and even sells to other countries; Norway's is almost 100%.

Kainji Dam project is deliberately frustrated. I've been following the electricity deregulation for a few years now. This year, the FG gave states the go-ahead to produce, transmit and distribute power.

Governorship candidates and Governors have largely ignored the issue.

Only Lagos and Akwa Ibom were really preparing and making plans ahead. Others don't care.

Everything is tied to power though. Everything.

Nigeria currently generates her highest revenue from the ICT sector. The potential to generate more from thd sector is stifled by the power issues. Techies and tech firms have to pay exorbitantly for power to stay afloat.

Power also affects the cost of high-speed internet for ISPs. Techies and tech firms need high-speed internet to stay afloat.

India's GDP from ICT alone is almost half of Nigeria's total GDP. Last December, India increased its power production to 410 GW while Nigeria is struggling with 5- 7 GW.

When I researched, because of steady power, the ICT industry is on the rise in India since it powers the sector and makes cheaper internet available due to lowered cost of production by ISPs.
And consequently, clients trust an Indian to complete a gig on time while Tunde or Edidiong can't guarantee that because of power issues. To do so, he has to pay exorbitantly for power and high-speed internet. Amir in India would do so for a cheaper rate - he gets the light and internet cheaper and consistently.

If we fix power, our ICT sector would generate more than 6 times what it does. And that's more money for Nigeria.

These politicians don't get it.

Donjazet2:
See as this life dey. I opened Twitter and this was the very first thing I saw.

Disstroy I know that this issue is being disagreed with because of the messenger, because I am the one saying it and people here feel I have flogged it to death but that doesn't take away from the truth. I keep sounding it, that tinubu and his supporters are going full blown tribal. It is what it is.

This is hundeyin a yoruba guy, highlighting this same problem of narratives.
Please read this carefully.

Cc izzuo, blueraydick.

I do not disagree with you pointing out individual cases of tribal hatred where necessary. I have even corroborated it a number of times. Everyone reading this can confirm this.

What I disagree with is the frequency with which you point it out, even unprovoked, and interrupting free-flowing conversations about life and other aspects of it.

Even when the predominant topic is about nonpolitical issues such as tech, finance, migrations and the likes, with everyone engaging and reading and having intelligent exchanges, boom! You flood the thread with screenshots of tribalism or perceived ones out of the blues.
From virtual camaderie to virtual carnage in one fell swoop.
It's like watching a comedy flick or drama and out of the blues, someone gets beheaded. No lead-up, no build-up, no warning.

It's a sign of weakness to always portray yourself as the hunted. It's a sign of weakness to ALWAYS be on the lookout for prejudice. It's the worst form of identity politics. And the same mentality of people who still blame slavery for all the misgovernance and underdevelopment in Africa.

Calm down.

DontBullshitMe:
Nigeria was already subsidizing his tertiary education. Why should he deserve a student loan again?

That's the problem of majority of Nigerian citizens/voters - excessive entitlement. This country is already doing too much for its citizens
Tertiary education - subsidised
Fuel - subsidised
Healthcare - subsidised
Forex (dollars) - partially subsidised

The irony of DontBullShitMe bullshitting everyone.
For your own safety, I hope you don't repeat this in public, especially in these to tense times.

Whether in politics, career, relationships or life generally, if you always have a victim mentality, your experiences and how you see the world would always be conditioned by it.

Your application or proposal or pitch deck would be turned down, and instead of going back to the drawing board or thinking on how you can improve on it, you'd always shift the blame to exonerate yourself with a siege mentality that the ONLY reason you were turned down is because of your skin colour, tribe, nationality or gender.
You'd never see past your nose.

Keep it up and you'd just exist without enjoying the full human experience of our very finite mortality. You'd live caged - the jailer and prisoner of your own mental penitentiary.

Tataffo:
You forgot twitter too

Tataffo:
Emmanuel chukwuebuka okechukwu try dey rest...

Aha!

"You aren't anonymous - you just haven't been found out yet. Anonymity is an illusion."
Nostradamus 1, you didn't think it'd come out this way, did you?

People seem to always forget this when they engage on this supposedly faceless forum.

No more propaganda of Igbos being attacked all over Lagos with no solid proof or antecedence? Good. Now that the agenda is dead and buried, let it always remain so. No more screenshots of an opportunistic politician who hasn't held office as evidence of a pogrom against Igbos.

Now debate or argue logically like men should. None of that nauseating constant weakling "everyone is always out to get me" victim complex.

Enough. You don't always have to emotionally blackmail through a fix like most women would.
When you cry wolf EVERYTIME, fewer people take your cries seriously.

Donjazet2:
Diss.troy I don't know the color of your problem. I am seriously refraining from going hard with you because I know for a fact it will negatively impact our campaign here on national issues and I genuinely don't want that right now. I truly don't, because you've been very resourceful here.

Secondly, It's funny that someone famed for receipts is yet to produce one to back his claims.

Is it that you can no longer distinguish between NARRATIVES and ACTION.

Look at this your post up there, you said people are falsely accusing others of ethnic cleansing and genocide? Have you really become that illiterate that you cannot see that what people are talking about are "narratives" being peddled??

Go back and read gbadamosi's post, he is warning against the XENOPHOBIC NARRATIVES being peddled by pro tinubu supporters. Hearing tinubu himself, one can hear it from the horses mouth. Tinubu himself has said plainly that he accommodates people that ran away from obi's state. We have heard his wife say in plain terms, "igbo we no dey trust una again". These are the NARRATIVES being attacked.

No one has said tinubu or his supporters are "cleansing" anyone. We're nipping the NARRATIVES in the bud.

Now I'm purposely avoiding you to avoid this being drawn out but your agenda no go gree you rest. I'm overlooking the one's you've already done but you keep fermenting it. Okay oo.

Arrant gibberish again.

Maybe if you focused more on having a predisposition to civil tête-a-tête, you wouldn't always bring up tribalism in every conversation people try to have and double down on it.

You are avoiding me because you have gone through my post history and you have nothing to use against me. Else you'd have spammed this thread with screenshots. You are also avoiding me because you can't accuse me of playing down on your spurious claims because of my tribal affiliation or religion.

You insist we must tale Gbadmosi's claim seriously. But when asked if we should take Buhari's claim of Igbos killing non-indigenes in the SE seriously, you dodged like one escaping a war draft.

Izu (an Igbo living in Lagos) explained Gbadamosi is playing to the gallery. I guess Izu isn't Igbo enough for you since you've questioned his paternity? Blueray explained. Others did. I did civilly but you don't understand civility so you'd get it hot.

I will still campaign for and vote Obi. I have always ladmired and supported him for several years, and my post history proves so. Your newfound love for Obi shouldn't drive you insane.

Imitate Peter Obi - he himself has stayed away from making this election about tribe. He has dissociated himself from tribal presidency. He's said he's not an Igbo president or running as a such a candidate so why are you hellbent on ruining the man's chances by giving tribal colouration to anything and everything?

Call out individual cases of tribalism and I'd support you as always but posting screenshots of a politician with a history of saying anything for votes without facts as proof that Igbos are being targeted is baseline asinine.

Playing tribalism accusations ALWAYS is victim mentaloty. You are in love with the victim mentality. You enjoy reveling in it and being pitied. That's no way a man should live. It's the sort of mentality most women have. Man up!

If yoy started off as a designer (graphic or UI) before going into programming, backend would be boring.

Frontend is very visual. I love user interfaces and experiences. To enjoy it, you have to become fullstack. The backend being necessary to do what you love to see in the frontend.