vikyno:
All these story without a picture is a waste of time.

Sorry about that. Here's the Eve 2.

DjDrizz:
Hello all i placed an order for orbra bracelete since 3rd August 2015, I sent some money here to their GTBank Account N6200 to order for my orbra bracelet and i haven't received any response from the team up until now.
orbra.net 08092953364 info@orbra.net
They Dont pick their calls or reply their emails since August 3rd,2015 i wonder if i will be getting my order at all.
I begin to suspect if they are scammers because they refused to even give me a pickup location.
what do i do now?

Are you on twitter sir? Please talk to @Mr_orbra

Nigerian mobile brand, started in Orbra in 2009
officially by Ololade Otayemi (CEO, Orbra) with the
whole hardware / mobile division started in 2011 is
poised to release 4 new devices into the market, the
Orbra Eve 2 smarphone, the Orbra Avalanche
smartphone, the Orbra Inferno 2 Tab and the Orbra
Bracelet.
The Eve 2 is an Android smartphone with a 5.5-inch
high definition (1920×1080 pixel) display shielded by
Corning Gorilla Glass 2. The back snapper is a 14
megapixel Sony camera with Sapphire Crystal lenses
while the front snapper is 5MP.
The battery capacity is 4165mAH, with a new power
saving feature called the OrbraPower+. The
OrbraPower+ is a synchronised system of apps,
internal coding and hardware which is activated
when your phone’s screen goes off. It simply
deactivates all processes on your phone except for
calls and sms for a minimum of 30 minutes and
updates them for 1 minute before turning them off
again. This only happens when your display is off.
This helps keep your CPU cool so your phone is not
unnecessarily hot which aids better processing,
better charging and increased battery life. It runs
Android Lollipop 5.1 and has 3Gb RAM. It also has a
fingerprint scanner at the rear which secures your
device using the most secure passcode known to
man.
The new Eve features a super accurate fingerprint
scanner at the back. so you can have access you
device seamlessly in less than a second. The Orbra
Eve 2 is available for pre-order at 55,000 Naira.
The Orbra Avalanche 2 is it’s lower end smartphone
and will be launched alongside the Orbra Eve 2
The Inferno 2 is a 7-inch display Android tablet. It
packs a 1.7 GHz octa-core Processor and 2GB RAM.
There’s a 14 megapixel rear camera, as well as a 5
megapixel front-facing camera. Orbra says that the
tab has 3D speakers as well. The Inferno 2 is
available for preorder at 49,999 Naira
The bracelet is a stylish wearable device that serves
as a companion to either your smartphone or tablet.
It also provides fitness tracking and related features.
The Inferno 2 is available for preorder at 6,500 Naira
Read more here http://qlick.com.ng/meet-nigerian-mobile-brand-orbra-upcoming-devices/

Nigerian mobile brand, started in Orbra in 2009
officially by Ololade Otayemi (CEO, Orbra) with the
whole hardware / mobile division started in 2011 is
poised to release 4 new devices into the market, the
Orbra Eve 2 smarphone, the Orbra Avalanche
smartphone, the Orbra Inferno 2 Tab and the Orbra
Bracelet.
The Eve 2 is an Android smartphone with a 5.5-inch
high definition (1920×1080 pixel) display shielded by
Corning Gorilla Glass 2. The back snapper is a 14
megapixel Sony camera with Sapphire Crystal lenses
while the front snapper is 5MP.
The battery capacity is 4165mAH, with a new power
saving feature called the OrbraPower+. The
OrbraPower+ is a synchronised system of apps,
internal coding and hardware which is activated
when your phone’s screen goes off. It simply
deactivates all processes on your phone except for
calls and sms for a minimum of 30 minutes and
updates them for 1 minute before turning them off
again. This only happens when your display is off.
This helps keep your CPU cool so your phone is not
unnecessarily hot which aids better processing,
better charging and increased battery life. It runs
Android Lollipop 5.1 and has 3Gb RAM. It also has a
fingerprint scanner at the rear which secures your
device using the most secure passcode known to
man.
The new Eve features a super accurate fingerprint
scanner at the back. so you can have access you
device seamlessly in less than a second. The Orbra
Eve 2 is available for pre-order at 55,000 Naira.
The Orbra Avalanche 2 is it’s lower end smartphone
and will be launched alongside the Orbra Eve 2
The Inferno 2 is a 7-inch display Android tablet. It
packs a 1.7 GHz octa-core Processor and 2GB RAM.
There’s a 14 megapixel rear camera, as well as a 5
megapixel front-facing camera. Orbra says that the
tab has 3D speakers as well. The Inferno 2 is
available for preorder at 49,999 Naira
The bracelet is a stylish wearable device that serves
as a companion to either your smartphone or tablet.
It also provides fitness tracking and related features.
The Inferno 2 is available for preorder at 6,500 Naira
Read more here http://qlick.com.ng/meet-nigerian-mobile-brand-orbra-upcoming-devices/

markessien:
Hello Guys,

I am Mark Essien, the founder of Hotels.ng and Hotels.ng just raised $1.2m in funding from international investors. I started this business on my own two years ago in Calabar, and now we have become a big business. Hopefully, some people will read this and know that it's possible to be innovative, creative and build something from nothing in a few years.

Questions that people have asked me and answers. If you have any other questions, ask below and I will reply.

What's your view on competition? How closely do you follow what Wakanow, Travelstart, etc., are doing relative to hotels.ng?

Competition is necessary for you to have a baseline on which you want to improve from. Otherwise you can have a really crappy product, and you don't know because there is nothing to compare it with.

At the end of 2014, you made the following statement: "We recorded almost no customer complaints in last two months, while booking tens of thousands of people.” So...what's your approach towards customer service? And how has your team (apparently) been able to proactively address issues?

Customer service in my opinion, is about empowering customer service to do the best they can to help people, no matter what it costs.

As an entrepreneur, getting the right staff is usually a challenge. How do you get talented people? What is your recruiting trick for finding great staff?

I do things like this - https://medium.com/mark-essien/hotels-ng-interview-questions-to-screen-for-a-genius-49bb6cb9946a - to find people.

What was your biggest fear on the journey to this point, and how long did you anticipate it will take you to cross this threshold?
My biggest fear was that we would not make enough money in time to be able to survive, in case we did not raise money in time. Luckily, with focus and a bit of luck, we crossed that bridge.

What would you do differently if you were starting over today?
Differently - I would have avoided doing things that are side-experiments and been more focused on the main thing.

How many percent of your company did you have to give up for $1.2million. Do you own controlling shares?
Right now, I own more of the company than if I had no investment, but I had a co-founder.

Who are your senior management team? In every conversation about Hotels I only hear about you the founder, never about the team.
So far we have operated without a 'senior' management team. But that is about changing. Expect some news here.

Did you choose your investors or did they choose you? I am personally working on a service and trying to decide who my investors should be.
We chose each other, just like a marriage

Tell us three business development hacks you used to stay afloat while you raised money..?
1. staying very focused on what would contribute to bottom line and what would not

2. Implementing performance based compensation across board

3. 3. Deferring expenses that were not critical.

What is it about hotels culture that has made you successful and how will you keep it consistent as you scale.
Hotels Culture is one of everyone-do-your-best and always keep thinking. The overall philosophy is that people should not need to be controlled to do their best. The Netflix presentation on this is one of the best I have read, and I hope we one day achieve this.

Do you consider yourself a technology company or a hotel booking service?
We are 100% a technology company.

What inspired you to start Hotels.ng?
I was inspired by wanting to do something in tech in Nigeria, and seeing a big open market

Here's my question before you received funding from spark how many employees did you have?
First of all, it was just me coding the site, then after that I hired a friend called Charles Bassey - and we were working together getting our inventory in calabar. That was before I moved to Lagos.

---
If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I will answer them all!

Me and the team

Well done sir, you are a role model to aspiring technopreneurs. I'd like to know what languages you guys code in if the coding is not outsourced that is. Thanks.