If you think you can, you are right. If you think you can't, you are also correct.

Most recruiters would ask prospective employees where they see themselves in 5 years. It is a very common question, and it is important because you most likely laid the foundation for whatever you own today, five years ago.


As a Nigerian worker, you are one of the lucky few who draw a regular salary every month, and more often than not, you feel it is not enough to meet your monthly needs.

If your salary is currently insufficient, imagine what happens if you lose that job tomorrow and nothing is forthcoming. God forbid!
For those who can live comfortably on their salaries and embark on projects, a vast majority will still be struggling to build a three bedroom house in the next five years.


This brings me to the purpose of creating this thread. Do you have the guts to change your mindset from struggling to build a three bedroom house to owning a hotel or any other business you are passionate about in that timeframe?

Can you take the bold step and enjoy benefits offered by the changing face of crowdfunding in Nigeria, by getting thousands to book your hotel even while the concept is still in your mind.

While it may not be possible with other sites, you can achieve this goal with fundscheap



Crowdfunding has raised huge businesses all over the world, including Occulus rift which Facebook paid $2billion for. The previous owner is now among the top 5% richest people in the world. Yes, from financial obscurity, he got to that position because of crowdfunding.


The whole world has consistently harped on the potentials for crowdfunding in Nigeria. A lot of Nigerians have to take advantage.

I'll use this thread to explore the "do you have the guts" campaign of fundscheap and how it wants to raise 5000 hotel owners (or any business you have a passion for) in five years.


To be continued...

http://www.fundscheap.com/project/do-you-have-the-guts/

So, like I said, the campaign says it loud: They want to make 5000 Nigerian workers hotel owners in five years. There is also a provision for those who may be passionate about other businesses. The key substance in there is a quest to get people thinking differently.


For most, if you remain in the realm of thinking you currently find yourself, this is like a tall dream, probably almost impossible, but if you focus your mind on thinking big and doing great things, this is very achievable.


How? Well, the premise or idea of crowdfunding means people will contribute towards your project in exchange for something.

In the case of fundscheap, thousands of people will pay for a timeshare facility in your hotel, even when the concept is still in your head.

This will be a huge launchpad for crowdfunding in Nigeria.


In my next post, I will talk about how innovators worldwide have come to embrace crowdfunding.

What has made crowdfunding so attractive worldwide?

The western experience: In the past, if you wanted to finance a business, you would think of getting support from your family. You could also get loans from banks in a relatively easy process so far your demand is not much.

For those who needed a larger capital outlay, they had to look for venture capitalists or angel investors who would key into their project.

All these worked well for a fair amount of people.

Until crowdfunding came and made it easier for most people.

Lots of businesses today owe their success to capital raised from crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding in Nigeria is still in its infancy, but there is so much potential.

Next, I'll highlight a few companies which have made good success from crowdfunding worldwide.

One product which raised some huge capital from crowdfunding was the Pebble e-paper watch for iphone and android.

The original founder Eric Migicovsky conceptualized a watch which could display messages from iphone android and blackberry and actually raised a little capital from Y Combinator in 2011. It was barely enough to bring his idea to life.

When he went down the road of crowdfunding in 2013 in order to raise $100,000 to bring his vision to life, he received the shock of his life.

Instead of raising $100,000 his product raised over $10m, which allowed the Pebble watch to go into production in 2013.

Pebble began to sell smart watches in July 2013 and sold out WITHIN FIVE DAYS. By December 2014, they had sold their 1,000,000th smart watch.

None of this would have been possible without crowdfunding.


I'll continue with the Pebble story soon.

While trying to cope with all the challenges of sudden growth in business and demand for their smart watches, Pebble continued to innovate and in 2015, they were back to the crowdfunding community with some new products they needed funding for.

Pebble time and pebble time steel were introduced to the crowdfunding community, and sure enough, the community rose up again to support these two brands with a whooping $20.3.

Unfortunately, the numbers just did not add up and citing financial issues, the company refunded this tranche of funding.


The question now is, "is it possible to achieve this type of funding in Nigeria?"

I strongly believe that fundscheap is doing great things to change the face of crowdfunding in Nigeria.

The Pebbles smart watch

More...

Another real life story.

The Ouya game console sought to raise $950,000 via crowdfunding in 2012. What happened? Backers poured in, and they raised $8m in 29 days. Within a short while, they could actually compete in a market dominated by Sony and other big game console manufacturers.

This story and the chronicle of what became of Ouya in the west has helped crowdfunding in Nigeria to observe and find the right formula on the fundscheap platform. Using a community supervision approach, fundscheap seeks to avoid a situation where successful promoters of projects become a victim of their own fundraising success.

The Ouya game console

Following

gr8david:
Following

Great to have you on board. I'll drop today's first post in a little while.

The third successfully funded project which I'll discuss, and crowdfunding in Nigeria should take a cue from is the well known Oculus rift.

So what is special about Oculus rift?

Well firstly, their catch phrase - "Step into the game"

This is a device that makes gaming so real, you actually have sensory perception or touch, sight and hearing everything in the game as if you are right there.

The company Oculus was formed sometime in 2012 and 2 months later, had a crowdfunding campaign for the rift on one of the popular crowdfunding platforms.

They successfully raised $2.5 million and Oculus founders felt they had "arrived".


Imagine their shock in March 2014 when Facebook decided to buy them out at $2 billion


This shows that the common man on the streets can make a huge difference with his $10. Crowdfunding sites in Nigeria must draw inspiration from such to make a difference in the country.

Here is an image of this wonderful device.

The Oculus rift.

In bringing out all these projects which would never have left the design pages if not for the beauty of crowdfunding, this thread hopes to awaken the interest of any Nigerian who wants to create job opportunities for others by bringing his own dreams to life without interfering with his day job.

It also seeks to change the mindset of many - Who says you cannot start building that hotel in the next 12 months, or that your T-shirt design cannot take over the fashion scene in that time?

BELIEVE and achieve!

Starting the process is not difficult, neither is it expensive. The greatest cost, if you regard it as a cost, is the accepting to change your mindset and building discipline and consistency.

So the big question - How can Nigerians benefit from crowdfunding?

While a few Nigerians have benefited from crowdfunding sites based in other countries, most of the funds raised have been for charity. There are precious few Nigerian businesses which have been able to raise funds in such websites.


So what is the solution?


Well, there are crowdfunding sites in Nigeria which seek to service the Nigerian market. The best thing would be to get one which supports crowdfunding for business.

I'll take excerpts from the webpage which seeks to help change the mindset.

"WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS TIME?"



This is the first question found on the site and harps on a common question asked by recruiters during an interview.

In this particular context, the idea is to call your mind to the fact that you have to plan today for what you hope to own in 5 years time because whatever you own today is based on a foundationundly true statement for a vast majority of the people.

I read about the creation of occulus rift by Palmer lucky. His breakthrough is inspiring. Hope to see a Palmer lucky in Nigeria through crowdfunding.

emmaginator:
I read about the creation of occulus rift by Palmer lucky. His breakthrough is inspiring. Hope to see a Palmer lucky in Nigeria through crowdfunding.

Nice. You were on my other threads. Thanks for following.

Take a minute to answer this question honestly.

grabdbull:
I'll take excerpts from the webpage which seeks to help change the mindset.

"WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS TIME?"



This is the first question found on the site and harps on a common question asked by recruiters during an interview.

In this particular context, the idea is to call your mind to the fact that you have to plan today for what you hope to own in 5 years time because whatever you own today is based on a foundationundly true statement for a vast majority of the people.

Sorry,

double post.

As crowdfunding has worked in other countries, it can work in Nigeria. The yields are huge, and anyone can build a huge system for cash inflow from there.

You are actually creating wealth, creating new businesses, creating jobs, contributing to the economy, and as a result, securing your financial freedom one step at a time.