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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Business / My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything (43089 Views)
My Startup Journey / Problem With My Startup / Nigeria’s Hotels.ng Grabs $1.2M To Expand Listings Across Africa (2) (3) (4)
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Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 6:48pm On May 28, 2015 |
Henry120: To be profitable, you have to understand operational expense from investment expense and understand when your money in bank will finish long before it does, so you can know how to run things. 2 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Jarus(m): 7:05pm On May 28, 2015 |
Hi Mark, Do you mind sharing your turnover figure (or rough approximation) in the last 3 years? Have you broken even? Do you have some entrepreneurship and startup websites/blogs that you can recommend? Currently, I read Entrepreneur.com and Forbes. |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:10pm On May 28, 2015 |
SamjohnnyB: I made this long before hotels.ng, it felt like the money will never finish. Even called my friends that I want to invest in their businesses 12 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:11pm On May 28, 2015 |
dokunbam: PHP 1 Like |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:11pm On May 28, 2015 |
lordhugo: Great ideas! You should come work with us! 3 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:14pm On May 28, 2015 |
Eltneg: It's not easy to source money from local investors. Particularly for things they don't understand well. 5 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:15pm On May 28, 2015 |
einsteine: It happens a few times, we work hard to make sure it does not happen. Never happens if you pre-pay. No, I don't have commercial co-founder. Jason acts as an advisor to the business! 1 Like |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:16pm On May 28, 2015 |
growrich: Nothing is free in this world, my brother.... 2 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:16pm On May 28, 2015 |
krestup: Read Traction by Gabriel Weinberg 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by AZeD1(m): 7:18pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien:Thanks. |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by markessien: 7:21pm On May 28, 2015 |
Manuelcrc: 1. My education 2. Read more 3. Arnold Schwarzenegger 4. Rad more 5. I've always wanted to build 6. When people started hailing me on nairaland 7. I bought an Igwe generator 8. Bouncing back is about waking up and thinking - this is gonna be a good day 9. The time I used to watch TV a lot and go to party and surf news sites all day 10. In 1 year, making hotels.ng bigger. In 5 years, the same. In 10 years, maybe I am chairman of the board 11. My in-built gift of being creative, my travel experience that taught me to be rugged 12. I look for raw intelligence and motivation 13. That I like carpentry a lot 14. Hacker News 15. Wake up, put computer on lap. Continue that. Take computer off lap and sleep 16. Reddit, Hacker News 2 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Nobody: 7:22pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien: Do you mean I, in abuja, can't meet investors? And if I'm looking for investors for my start-up, I should move to lagos? How do I find the investors? What sort of places should I go, meet people/the investors and tell them about my start-up? |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Manuelcrc(m): 7:25pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien: Wow...thanks. Do I have the permission to post it on my blog? |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Nobody: 7:28pm On May 28, 2015 |
AfricanGod2: I'm rephrasing this in case you thought I was joking around. 1) How have you responded to difficult situations in the past? 2) What are your passions; have you needed to forgo them or have they helped propel you to success? ...what is the goal that keeps you ticking? |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by SamjohnnyB(m): 7:35pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien:Cah u pls mentor me to make my own first million too? I will do,anything u teach me 2 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by RedCapChief(m): 7:35pm On May 28, 2015 |
@Seun. . .Thanks for getting Mark Essien here to do this AMA and share with us. I've been hopeful that NL would absorb some of the positives of Reddit. Can we have more like this (i.e more NL generated unique content, more AMAs and all) and can they be aggregated on a sub? I know a few successful entrepreneurs who would love an organized forum to share their stories. |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Nobody: 7:47pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien:social network for professional storytellers, am Tim Chukwunwogor, ur friend on facebook that messaged you hours ago, can we continue from there please? |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by saasala(m): 7:49pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien: What was it you did to make your first million before hotels.ng 2 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Setaje(f): 8:15pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien: OK. I'd do that. Thankyou |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by CashdownNG: 8:34pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien: Thanks mate. however since cashdown Nigeria my startup is still growing can you give me tips on how you got seed investment to become bigger? 1 Like |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by lordhugo(m): 8:39pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien: I do not code. I am not an ardent programmer. But, i can sell sand to a man in the desert. I would gladly be the conductor of that danfo. 6 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by blueblood1(m): 8:53pm On May 28, 2015 |
HI Mark. good job. going thru your site, i cant seem to search for a hotel by location. |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by lordhugo(m): 9:11pm On May 28, 2015 |
Jarus: markessien: Mark is correct. Pretty substantial capex and capex growth has exceeded cash flow growth all the while. Importantly, just as cash flow growth is slowing so too is capex growth (as the rented office isn't generating revenue) and, in the absence of a pick-up in demand, return on investment (ROI) will be hampered. Invest in the value and content not the facade. A little longer at your old office or home would not have hurt. Business development and research is key. 3 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Olucheye(m): 9:34pm On May 28, 2015 |
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Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Adesiji77: 9:53pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien: Great work! Your Twitter handle please... |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Jarus(m): 9:55pm On May 28, 2015 |
lordhugo: Thanks for your comments. But I do disagree with you both. And I think it's because you don't understand the business we're into. We never had office until now. We just floated around. Meeting clients in restaurants, etc. Remember I said it's a career consulting startup. Most of our flagship services were those that can be done without the clients having to see us physically, e.g CV writing, sale of books, etc. Now, when we decided to introduce a new set of services, most notably interview preparation and Career Academy, there was no way we could have done that without an office. For interview prep, it has to be physical. You can't do that by email or over the phone. You need a place to meet your client for that and it doesn't speak well that you meet an interview client in a restaurant. Our career academy also involves physical presence as it is a classroom situation. There is the option of renting halls of hotels etc, but that's actually more expensive than renting an office. Plus, we also got an employee to do the running around and he needs an office to report. Hence, our decision to open an office. And that has cost us close to N1m. Now, our next focus is publicity, massive online and offline publicity but we are lean on finances now. So we're taking it slowly. 11 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by pomsky: 10:06pm On May 28, 2015 |
[size=14pt]........Congrats for the new level. How did you secure the funding and what are the terms? Rgds[/size] |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Nobody: 10:45pm On May 28, 2015 |
markessien:Nice job bro, but please do something about your customer care services..I wanted to book a hotel room for someone in abuja few days ago from Europe and i was disappointed by the poor customer care services i received when i called..In the end i was unable to make the booking with you guys, eventually i resorted to jovago.com which helped me to make the booking in more professional and timely manner. 3 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by lordhugo(m): 10:54pm On May 28, 2015 |
Jarus: Oga Suraj, I now have a clearer picture! Investing in an office space which doubles/houses classrooms/training spaces was relevant to your line of business and actually a case of "killing two birds with one stone". However, allocating such a high percentage of outlay to rent and furnishings was probably not the best step sir. Its percentage ratio should have been smaller, so as to accommodate operating expenses and then grow organically. "Income is opinion but cash is fact." Operating expenses directly reduce the Operating Cash Flow (OCF) of the company. You are right. You need more money. I enjoy your career related pieces by the way. 3 Likes |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by samuelson06(m): 11:30pm On May 28, 2015 |
@ markessien Hello Mark, please tell us, how do you make profit from Hotels . ng? |
Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Olaone1: 12:18am On May 29, 2015 |
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Re: My Startup Hotels.ng Just Raised $1.2m. Ask Me Anything by Clone2020(m): 3:45am On May 29, 2015 |
@ markessien i'm a venture capitalist in the U.S also known as an angel investor. How can I invest in your startup? |
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