reSee.it - Tweets Saved By @asemota
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
As much as people say that wealth amplifies what is already in you, I think the path to that wealth is what really amplifies either the positive or negative traits. I have a relative who wasn't mean or greedy initially but when he was messed up several times, he became mean.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
He was always ambitious but he didn't sacrifice the happiness of others initially to get whatever he wanted until it was done to him over and over. He also started doing it to others. This transformation was slow and unnoticeable to others and even to himself. I saw it happen.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
He became what others were to him. This is why I don't trust that people will be good when they get money because they always seem to be good. All their inner resentment will be unleashed. I have seen it even in negotiations when people think there is a lot of money coming.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It is the journey that changes people. It isn't the money. It is why those who inherit money are hardly anything like their parents. Unless the parents deliberately shape them to become so. Choose the path that doesn't destroy the good in you. It is how you remain happy.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It was the reason I avoided corporate life. That journey to the top transforms people into the worst form of themselves. Even the most excellent and most intelligent. Especially them.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
The person who knows your abilities best and recommends you first before others is your friend. Nobody recommends who they don't like over others. This is why networking is an essential part of moving ahead in life. The most successful are almost likely to be the most likable.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Arrogance and deceit never get people as far as they think it does. It is also great to be helpful to as many people as possible. People remember what you did for them if they aren't assholes. They will typically pay back in some form and almost always in the same kindness.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Life is long. Don't get carried away with temporary advantage. That ladder can get swept away from under you at any time. Be nice, be courteous, and be friendly. It costs nothing but your ego. Ego is the enemy of great.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
One reason I decided on entrepreneurship instead of paid employment was that I wanted to be the one selecting and not the one grateful to be selected. I hated the job application and employment selection process. I went through it all with Citibank while in school and passed.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
At the final stage, they said they wanted me to complete the MBA before coming back to them. I ended up starting a business while doing the MBA that still exists today and employs a lot of people. The MBA thesis process also made me learn a lot about office politics.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My uncle was the MD of Royal Merchant Bank at the time and I did my study on the Mergers and Acquisitions they had facilitated at the time. It was an interesting field. Meanwhile, people in the bank felt threatened that I was coming in to inherit the MD title 🤣😂😂
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
They had reasons to be worried as something similar eventually happened at both FCMB and Diamond but that was not what I aspired to become. I wanted more. Plus I saw too much from the top to think that Nigerian banking was nothing more than advantage from privileged relationships
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
UBA and Econet made me hate the office politics of selection even more. I always had jobs if I wanted but decided on another path. My uncle called me foolish but still supported me 🤣 He knew the truth. Oceanic Bank was a lesson. He started but didn't have the money for capital.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
The person who paid eventually took over. I wanted to be the person paying. Chief Ibru told me the truth point blank. Go and sell fish. I have been toying with that as the title of a book - Go and sell fish. I want to now really sell the fish. It is why I am obsessed with retail.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Part 2 of this article is hard to finish. It is too long. I will break it up again. https://asemota.medium.com/-8cdfab992492
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I went to India for the first time in 2011 and visited Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra, and New Delhi. The thing I saw which were as common as poverty and livestock were tech training schools. Beneath all that seeming chaos was an organized effort to create jobs that went beyond India.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My first shocker was that a lot of people in my @HarvardHBS course class were running major outsourcing firms by African standards. This was well before anything like Andela was conceived. These guys were easily doing $200m in sales annually but they were seen as small in India.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
One of those guys organized my trip to Jaipur to see the campus they had. 30,000 people living and working in one place for several companies that shared the same resource base. Also all around Jaipur were training schools to feed this campus. It was a sight to behold.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
The model was simple. They set up their companies in markets where there was demand for skills and they aggregated those skills in India to deliver remotely. A lot of these guys had small sales operations in places like Dubai, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. One was even in Oman. I was 🤯
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I even tried to set up a Dubai entity after that. These guys were in set up in Dubai Freezones and Tech parks. It didn't cost much to do that but my biggest headache was back home. A lot of the engineers we hired were those who had gone by themselves to get trained in India.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
We didn't have the level of organization in India from the bottom to the top. It is an entire ecosystem of resources even to the smallest village and their diaspora powered it. My co-founder is Indian and he had a team we could use that he paid for in Bhopal from his salary.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I saw our own Diaspora people looking for opportunities to make money in Africa instead of seeking opportunities where they were to make money with Africans back home. The mindsets were different. I even saw the same thing in Silicon Valley. They empowered India more from there.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It was interesting that even in Nigeria, Techmahindra and Mara Ison had large campuses in Ibadan and Abeokuta running call centers for telcos but we could not build ecosystems around those for BPO. I wanted to do it in Ghana and applied to be a free zone company after that trip.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
The entire Ghana Free Zones Authority board even came to my office which we shared with Grameen at the time. They denied our application on the grounds that we were not yet employing a minimum of 100 Ghanaians. I was livid. They didn't see the vision. They still don't see it.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
This is why what Iyinoluwa is doing with @talentcitylagos is a VERY BIG DEAL! They are located in a free zone and will have all the tax breaks. They are already looking at Abidjan as well. We need many more of these types of institutions around Africa if we are to make it.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
This is why @EdoJobs is my biggest passion today. We are building something very interesting there as well.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Mark Shuttleworth was one of the first angel investors with massive exit in Africa. He funded Fundamo which exited to Visa for $110m in 2011. Fundamo was using his HBD offices in Cape Town. HE IS AFRICAN. I believe Ubuntu is as African as he is but others think otherwise.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
A lot of times things are not as they seem. Many take things at face value. South Africa has been doing a lot in tech before the rest of Africa became aware. My cofounder left us to build a product that many banks in Africa and beyond still use now for over 25 years.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
S1 or Postillion was built in SA before they were acquired by a US company. They were one of the earliest payment switches powering retail payments platforms in the Southern hemisphere and beyond. They were in the same building with a small company called Prism, my partner.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Prism had the largest POS footprint in the Southern hemisphere and they built things on Verifone POS that people can't even begin to think about. Their products are still used in Asia today. They were MTN's first SIM partner before the bigger guys like Gemalto.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Prism was acquired by Net1 which is a company listed on the NASDAQ and is a Unicorn. MTN and Net1 are listed on the NASDAQ but we were all fixated on Jumia because of some weird narrative that some people came to save Africans with software.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Another thing people forget is that South Africa was once a nuclear power. This is why the current xenophobic wave in SA based on ignorance makes me sad. People are fighting over crumbs when Africa is a gourmet feast.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
What is value? It is something people are willing to exchange for something less valuable. You have to provide something more valuable than money to others before they exchange money for it. To be able to do this, you have to understand them and know their values.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I told some European investors once that most Africans don't value time and won't gladly exchange money for it. Time-saving innovations are only valuable to people who use most of their time productively. What then do most Africans value? I think it is remaining alive and loved.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Most Africans love to be loved. Either by their family or outsiders who observe and respect them. Especially their family. If you key into this, they will exchange money for what you can provide which enhances this love. The real reason most Africans love being alive is love.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Love is in many places. A friend’s brother was running an SMS dating service in Nigeria over a decade ago where he was making tens of millions of Naira monthly. Who were the users of this service? The average mechanic, trader, or househelp. It had 500k monthly active users.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Hotels and condom sellers are doing brisk business because many see sex as a manifestation of love. Those people who cheat aren't looking for sex, they are looking for love. A guy or woman who cheats is likely trying to fill a void. “Love” is sometimes not enough from one source.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Yes, it is immoral and that brings me to religion. Many are religious because they crave spiritual love as well. Churches sell the love of God to people. The most successful churches have a structure that takes it up a notch and encourages community. Community is love.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
If you take the abstract concept of love and put it in a product based on the values of people, they will exchange value for it. This is what Afrobeats also does. It sells love for community and love for our roots. It is why Obapluto is playing in the background now. I love Edo❤️
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Finally summoned up the courage to watch the Michael J. Fox movie - STILL. As someone who was diagnosed with neurological issues myself this was both sad and encouraging. He has raised $2B for research because he created awareness. I write now because one day I may not be able to do so anymore. Maybe I should consider doing videos too.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I had to slow down my life as work was killing me. What happened to Michael J. Fox was accelerated by a lack of rest. I can control neuralgia now by just sleeping more, exercising more and being more in control of my life. Stress is very dangerous.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
This is one of the reasons why I had to leave Nigeria. I was advised not to drive myself again in Lagos as my blood pressure shot up regularly. I had panic attacks. In Ghana, I now drive myself and I moved away from the madness to the mountains.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
While very few are getting YC/VC money to execute ideas, there are many still hustling in the streets to build and implement payroll or inventory management for that Supermarket, SME, or factory. Standardization and scale in enterprise have not reached most African streets yet.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It is interesting to find foreign built products thriving at that layer because they’re more stable and have better channel strategies. Many are now making millions just quietly selling cybersecurity and ERP services on our streets. I was stunned to find this out. I started there
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
What we think our local tech is outside is not what it truly is inside. Consumer products are now popular but the successful companies there are few. Enterprise is still massive but extremely fragmented. This in turn affects the merchant tech business as digitization is hard.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
We haven't nailed distribution because we don't know how to build tech channels. I am sure that the next African unicorn will be the one to solve this and cause a digitization explosion. The channels need standardization, training and support to support the customer. Hard work.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Because it is hard work, it is going to be profitable work. If we don't do it ourselves, the Indians will continue to do it and get better. The Silicon Valley hype is sweet but the streets don't care about it.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
That agent model in payments can be applied to everything. It was a channel distribution strategy we built in 2014. We never knew that the market had so much demand for it. This is the same thing for business digitization. The market is MASSIVE but the players are disorganized.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
From pre-sales to after-sales to support. We have small shops that can not scale trying to run things now. They need an incentive to all work under one umbrella. Each time I think I have the answer, I meet an exception. The market is deep.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
These will be my last tweets on this real estate matter in Nigeria for a while. I still see that people don't get it. My late father got a plot in Maitama, Abuja for 30,000 Naira in the 80s because he was a connected federal civil servant and he sold it when it was 45,000 Naira
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
That plot is probably worth hundreds of millions today but at that time, the 15k difference helped him to buy 45 plots at Eyaen near Benin City in Edo State which he lost completely. Everything was gone. He didn't imagine what Abuja could become but I saw it in 1987 and knew.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
We were on a field trip to Bauchi by road and we stopped in Abuja for fuel. There was only one fuel station in all of Abuja in 1987 but I saw the beginnings of organization. I saw Abuja grow rapidly and explode in 1999. I could still afford to buy but I didn't. Calabar too.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My friend bought 5 houses at State Housing in Calabar for 500k Naira. 100k each in 1999. I got 300k for building one website alone. Website prices have dropped but property has appreciated. We make stupid decisions either way on property. My uncle bought a car for 30k in 1989.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I remember him telling me that the 505 Evolution and his Bruce Onobrakpeya original in his living room were the same cost. He invested in art a lot before he started doing property. He still also buys expensive cars but figured out a pattern to sell them quickly to make money.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
At any point in time, decisions we make on investment are a function of the information available to us and what appeals to us. What I have learned about those who do real estate well is that they don't follow trends. They take very calculated risks based on unique information.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Again, DON’T be the mugu in another person’s Ponzi scheme. Do your own research. Any money we have can become multiples we can't believe if we choose to make our decisions based on unique advantages rather than following the herd.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Everyone wants to invest in startups now but I have changed a few thousands to millions already before people knew about startups. I did because I had advantages there and not in real estate prospecting. I can't fight Omoniles and I have only one lawyer who is a gentleman.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Even in startup investments, I lost a lot of money before one deal paid off. I learned from that to now take very calculated risks. I don't rush at every deal because of fear of missing out. My friend Ovie gave me the right formula - “Deals no dey finish.”
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My chances as an investor improve not by the number of deals that I do but on the GOOD deals that work out. I told Ovie “GOOD deals no dey finish” and that is my mantra. I look for the good and not what everyone feels will work out. I invest a lot of time on market analysis.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Good deals are rocket science. Luck is also an important factor. Be nice to people. One of my best deals was brought to me just because I was nice to a young man here on Twitter. People insult him here daily and I shake my head. Have fun being savage.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
In closing, if you keep asking stupidly “how many people had xxx amount then” I’ve given examples. I had 300k from just building a website but spent it on groove. My friend bought houses. Many think they will keep getting money while others invest it. 30k was also a car in 1989.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Investing is good but do your research and focus on where you have an edge over others. That is what Warren Buffet has done for decades.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
What is the advantage of being a Nigerian? Forget all the ego based answers in your head. It is local knowledge and relationships. The Igbo trader figured it out before most did. Local demand for products is massive and they find a way to get and sell it at a good margin.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
The reason imports far outstrip exports is not because of lack of patriotism or exotic tastes, it is pure demand and supply. Where there is a market that can buy it, the trader finds a way to supply it. They do the volumes and become insanely wealthy. They know the local markets.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
We keep talking all of this nonsense about “tech” but the truth is that those who have succeeded in tech stumbled on demand. OPay or Moniepoint didn’t have a grand strategy to go offline from the beginning, the market pulled them into it. Pushed also by regulators for OPay.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
There is no pent up demand for tech in Nigeria. Tech has to find the places where there is real demand and go there to optimize. It is why most of our tech plays are efficiency innovations. I remember going through this over and over with the founders of @riby_hq many years ago.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@riby_hq A lot of what we term as innovations are optimizations. True innovation is zero to one. Optimization is one to n. Because scale also builds upon scale, it is important to find scale and build on top of it. The Igbo trader created distribution where there was none. Zero to one.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@riby_hq The only technological platform that is already at scale in Nigeria was made possible by telcos who also built on the distribution provided by these traders to get to the market. OPay and others also learned to build on them. Unless you are building on others in tech you’ll fail.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@riby_hq There is no zero to one distribution for tech products and app stores are not the answer. I have been speaking with enterprise tech founders recently and they are all realizing the “one chance” nature of our local market. The demand for enterprise tech is outside Nigeria.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@riby_hq It is easy to get fooled by Nigerian numbers but the market for most things that are not basic needs is quite small. We pitched a deal to a friend who runs a bank recently and he laughed at it because he felt the market was small. These founders want to raise $3m. He woke me up.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@riby_hq Most of our seed stage investments will fail if they aren’t built upon a distribution structure to help scale them. This is why telcos remain the natural partners in African tech but there is so much distrust between them and startups because they don’t understand each other.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@riby_hq The telcos don’t need startups they need technology that can bring them efficiency. They can afford to buy it globally at the best price. If you are not that global tech provider as a startup today then, sorry. The same applies to our informal markets. They’ll soon afford better.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@riby_hq Speed and iteration are important because according to Sully, if you are not monsters then you are food.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
When the truth is too painful to accept, it is easier for some to concoct lies and whataboutism in their defense. I remember my grandfather’s first political adventure. He realized that a lot of the members of his party were in a certain cult. He asked his brother why so?
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
His brother answered that those who are going to Hell always want companions. He also told my grandfather not to join any group without telling him. He had joined and regretted it. He loved his brother enough to not let him make the same mistake.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I still can't forget the meeting with Chief Anenih at the Hilton in Abuja in 1999, when he saw his nephew (my late friend) and me at a political caucus meeting we stumbled into at Rockview Hotel. He told us to come see him after. When we got there, he warned us sternly.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
His verbatim words were “Your hands are clean and you want to get them soiled. Our hands are soiled and that is why we are in this” My friend abandoned all hope of politics after that. He died from an illness later. Those words never left me.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I walk freely any anywhere today because my hands were never soiled. I can also choose to live where I like without anyone questioning me. It is because of grace that my grandfather didn't take that wrong turn. He stood his ground. Was framed for murder and beat the case.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Late Barrister Giwa Amu was his solicitor in that case and it was a landmark case in Edo State. We have had senators and SANs in my family but none ever got their hands soiled.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Son: Dad, is it good to be a risk taker? Me: It is better to have a knowledge advantage and be innovative than to take risks without knowing the consequences. Daughter: But I was classified as a risk taker in a game. Me: Games are simulations where you practice a lot first.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Wife: If you know a lot then is it still a risk? Me: I have to learn a lot about skydiving before I jump out of a plane. I know more about my weight than the ropes at a bungee jump so, I won’t risk it. Wife: So, you are risk averse? Me: I try to play to my advantage.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I have been thinking about this conversation all morning. I have taken many risks based on faith alone. In hindsight, it could have gone horribly wrong. Climbing on the back of a tipper into a farm in the jungle was a risk. Moving away from comfort in Nigeria was a risk.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Where did the faith to take those risks come from? Did I see others do it first? I was backed to the wall and had no choice. At least I felt they I didn’t. My ego made me take those risks that paid off. Herbert and Aig took a different path with calculated and known risks.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
They bought and built regulated institutions. I would prefer my kids to be like Herbert and Aig first before being like me. I still take stupid risks like putting all my crypto on FTX. I have learned a lot from that blunder. I hope.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Taleb’s books on randomness and black swans made me see the universe very differently. Crisis and opportunity are more evenly distributed than we think. Yes, it is good to take some risks daily and explore the unexplored. It is also great to use that as a learning mechanism.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Risk taking is about learning. The greatest risk is not to learn anything and to blunder through life.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Very Unpopular Opinion and likely to be stoned for this: Fintech founders MUST have some experience in banking or financial services background first before they are funded. Many fintech neophytes destroy so much value not out of deliberate actions but just pure ignorance.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I am on the advisory board of a friend's company that he runs with his son. The father is an accountant who has run the largest leasing company in West Africa. I see the difference between what they do and others I also chat with. I see it in founder updates as well.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Again, any founder selling to investors in updates has lost the plot and is covering up. Updates are for letting everyone know the reality and not a marketing document. Lack of experience causes this. Bankers in credit/business master presentations because they live and die by it
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
When an ex-banker does updates, you see the difference. They also understand markets better and know precisely where opportunities lie. I give bankers a lot of heat here because as an institution they are useless. As individuals, some really excel.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
When my friend Deji was in banking, he never chased targets, he doubled them. He was a star. When he decided to do something tech-related and niche in investments, he became a millionaire practically overnight. Bankers also know where the bodies are buried and avoid them.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Being an African banker in credit was what made my uncle a great entrepreneur. If I have any regret at all, it is not working from the trenches in banking. I kept seeing it all from the top. They bottom is where the brutal truth is found. Many fintech founders are delusional.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Especially those giving out money to strangers based on some stupid score. NPLs were going to come. I told a founder once that they were giving credit to those the market had rejected and competing with zero-percent interest loans within informal supply chains. He didn't get it.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
In Africa, efficiency is not the problem. Quality is the problem in fintech and financial services. Solve for quality and efficiency will follow. This thread is about Africa. Other places where there is already a foundation have the luxury of building efficiency on it.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I believe that the quality problem has been solved crudely by markets. If you look closely enough, those are where the true local fintech opportunities lie. Many are bleeding money but a few who get it thrive. Why? They built on that quality the market has found.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
We have an aggregation of quality customers problem and NOT a financial inclusion problem. Those you think are excluded need something different. Quality traders and business people in Africa don't struggle because they are supported by communities of other high-quality people.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Bring out this quality and the rest of the market will aspire to it. That is what African banking has been doing. For fintech to win, it must use the same playbook for markets and look out for those who are on an upwardly mobile trajectory. Fintech isn't a saviour platform.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Bankers do business in Africa. Many fintech founders do playing to the gallery. Ignore the noise. Be like bankers today.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I can't believe that we are openly comparing tech to Yahoo and some people are blatantly making a case for fraud because according to them, “it helps more people.” Let me tell you a story again of the damage Yahoo has done to Nigerian tech but we still survived and thrived.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
2002, I had my first cybersecurity gig in Nigeria with Econet and FirstBank. We partnered with a company called Sensepost in South Africa to come and do penetration tests and security assessments. What we uncovered was so important that I decided to go deeper and learn.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I was in America and there was the InfosecWorld security conference in Florida and I decided to attend. This was as far back as 2002 and I didn't realize we had the Yahoo stigma already. I carried my business cards proudly with my Lagos address. I was sharing it with everyone.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I started noticing that people were avoiding me but I thought it was my imagination until I met someone from RSA who was discussing security tokens in the earliest form. He liked my input and asked for my card. I gave it to him, he read it, quickly returned it, and walked away.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It was then that I finally realized that they were all avoiding me. He actually read the address out loud before returning the card. That was the first time I understood what national shame meant because of some miscreants who wanted to collect small $1k here and there.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It was a hard struggle to do anything beyond Nigeria in cybersecurity then because of Yahoo. I realized that I was on a doomed path. It became clearer when Sensepost got 200 more customers in six months globally but I was still struggling with two in Nigeria and begging them.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It was a consulting assignment with the IFC for @ChifeDr and his company Socketworks that made me start believing in the potential of African tech again. I saw someone like us do well in America and come back home to try to do even bigger and succeed. A positive role model. https://t.co/6QqM5D6x7y
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr Socketworks was the first venture-funded startup in sub-Saharan Africa but there was no Techcrunch and @ulonnaya to tell the story to the world. We relied on the IFC to mention it in a press release that didn't go far and wide enough and many didn't hear of him and his work.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya Doing that project made me realize that the services part of tech was also as important as building products. We decided to double down on it and that was where I got my next shocker. We were supposed to do an AML (anti money laundering) project for a telco across Africa.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya It quickly became a regulatory requirement for payment companies and platforms. Compliance was a big deal. So we engaged a potential South African partner once again. They didn't respond to us even when introduced from the highest levels of the telco. I was confused.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya It wasn't until a South African friend explained to me what was happening before I got it. The AML company in SA didn't want to ruin their reputation by working with Nigerians. It took a decade before we finally started working together on telco projects. Yahoo struck again.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya We still persevered. The telco didn't see us as a threat because of our Nigerian origin and we helped them scale their payment products. Being Nigerian with the telco was even an advantage. Everything was well until I saw gaps in telco payments and decided to invest in startups.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya I met this small Kenyan payments company in Dubai during a Mobile Money conference. They presented a product that filled the gap that I saw with card payments for online merchants. I engaged them and wanted them to work with my telco client across Africa. They were hesitant.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya I visited Nairobi several times and found out that they didn't have enough resources to work in an Africa-wide project. A problem I once had that made us fail. I decided to invest $100k in them. We agreed terms but they finally reneged and killed the deal. Why? I was Nigerian.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya The effort I made to get these guys to take money and make money is funny. I decided to spread and invest that money in West African startups. One of them is now the most valuable startup in Africa. The success of Andela, Flutterwave, Paystack, and others redeemed us once again.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya Nigerian tech people struggled to get where we are today despite the stigma of Yahoo Boys. Anyone comparing Yahoo Fraudsters with tech people needs their head examined because all Yahoo has done is drag us back. It should be eliminated and not encouraged.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@ChifeDr @ulonnaya In summary, just don’t put Nigerian tech and Yahoo fraud in the same sentence. Not in the same paragraph and not even in the same statement. It does more damage than you can think. Compare it to something else like politics, please. Abeg 🙏🏿
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My sister-in-law is one of the nicest people ever and because of that a lot of people try to take advantage of her good nature. That is why I am her Voltron. We had a discussion last week about what she observed with most of her Nigerian friends and transactional relationships.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
They forget you when they don't need you and only come to you when they need something. They keep repeating it over and over. They don't have any shame when it comes to asking again even when refused previously. I told her that those aren't friends but users. Very common.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
They are dispersed globally but many Nigerians perfected it because of our struggle and entitlement mentality. I know people here who never send a casual DM without asking for something. Either a repost or something I can do for them. Nothing to benefit me.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
That one-way relationship happens more often when they feel that you have something in abundance that they can benefit from. I once asked a guy who wanted me to repost his tweet if he understood why I have a large audience? It is because I give more than I take. He never got it.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Most follower and influencer relationships even on social media are transactional. That is why many don't waste time monetizing it. It is why I paid Felon when he asked nicely and offered money in return. Seriously though, social media brings out the worst in people.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
This is not a natural platform for friendships and untiring relationships because true friendships are a contest of generosity. The good friends I managed to make here provide me with benefits offline that I can't even begin to recount. Why? Because it is their true nature.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
They are not performing it for an audience. Friendships are deeply personal. I would say that they are much more important than even romantic relationships as true friends can easily be vulnerable with each other. Trust is very key in friendships.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
That is why friendship apps online won't work. Things are too transactional here. Even offline they are also hard as my sister-in-law has discovered. Communities work better not just because of trust, they work because people are more likely to be generous and reciprocate.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I like good things. I love it when they are reasonably priced. As I was doing my last-minute shopping with borrowed money and it hit me that I don't really see any Asians doing the same thing in UK shops, not even in America. They come here to see sights and not to buy things. https://t.co/CzltpMQ9N1
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I am buying the most mundane things like soap that agrees with my children’s skin. My kids have only used glycerin-based soap since birth and react to most others. I have been buying them imported Pears soap for 10 years now. I wondered why we don't consider high-end soap-making. https://t.co/fxUOiCK8FH
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I had the same problem when I was younger and my mum discovered that Imperial Leather soap worked for me. I recently discovered it again here in the UK. I also used it till I entered the secondary school SAPA life. Interestingly, it was manufactured by Cussons in Nigeria then. https://t.co/kZ6EWsMXCE
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Many global brands are leaving Africa and are being replaced by local brands but unlike Asians, we are not thinking of selling things globally. It pains me that I come here to spend and not to make money. I have been trying to turn this around in many ways.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I asked a friend this evening why Nigerians and others only work to save money and spend or send home. Few invest seriously in property and even fewer in establishing businesses based on things or services from home in Africa. These OluOlu Plantain Chips are made in Colombia. https://t.co/wnNWL5TcGh
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
There is a mentality here that came from back home that I don't understand. Many don't realize that they are free now. You can come up with an idea, do a sensible business plan and you can even get a bank to fund it. Many small businesses here are funded by banks, not investors.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
A bank may not fund your Nigerian import business but they can fund sales outlets. That Enish guy setting up all those Nigerian eateries most likely took small business funding. Banks here see the data and they know that it isn't bogus when you make a good case.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Asians don't come here to shop because they are most likely coming here to find buyers. My head got rewired the same way this morning and that is why my cart in the first tweet on this thread is practically empty. I returned everything. The shoes were too big for my wife anyway.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Asians don't shop outside for things that they manufacture back home. I need to learn to make glycerin-based soap in Africa, amongst other things.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
“Transportation is a precise business” - The Transporter, 2002. I never forgot that quote because it is true. Before transportation startups became a thing, my former classmate Ighodalo was doing approximately $200m in revenues in logistics in West Africa and was silent about it
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
He still is very silent about it but he gave me an insight into how important precise logistics is in places that we least expect. Manufacturers live and die by efficient logistics. One of his clients was canning drinks in Ghana and moving them to Nigeria. They had huge volumes.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Manufacturers have to move raw materials to location and finished products out. The Apapa gridlock we saw regularly was a testament to inefficient logistics and it somehow affected the average man on the streets as it made products more expensive.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Togo has the most efficient and the biggest port in West Africa. You don't hear about logistics startups being launched in Togo because they have created a lot of efficiencies thanks to the Chinese. Even the roads in Lome are an extension of the port infrastructure.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Logistics is a services business even though there is a lot of infrastructure involved. It thrives best where the infrastructure already exists. Where it doesn't exist and there are obstacles, it is a different type of business. It becomes very niche then you have small moopolies
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Those monopolies create further inefficiencies as it is not in their interest for things to become more efficient. That is the story of fuel haulage in Nigeria. I had a thoght this morning that our Nigerian fuel crisis was really a logistics crisis. We dont need that much fuel.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
If we had more efficient infrastructure and electricity, the demand for refined petroleum products would be much less. It is because people profit from from this dysfunction that we continue to suffer and it has a direct effect on everything that affects the average Nigerian.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I had a conversation with @EfosaOjomo yesterday and we discussed this problem of infrastructure as it relates to scaling ventures. In places where VC thrives, there is already infrastructure that allows scale to happen. We are trying to do VC in constrained environments.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I have always said that scale builds upon scale and I wrote an article on why we keep building zero-based ventures. We can’t break out of this loop by trying to VC our way out of this. We need much more capital and different types of entrepreneurs. https://guardian.ng/technology/zero-based-ventures/
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My former client and current mentor Mr. John Whitechurch lives in Cornwall. He has built the largest food service business in South West England on a fleet of delivery vans. He doesn't worry about paying police bribes or theft and armed robbery.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
J&R Foods makes logistics work here because there is something to build upon. They can easily be precise. We can't yet. @naval once told me at a Google event that we can't expect fish to thrive in the desert. Over a decade later, I keep seeing what he means.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It takes a lot of restraint for me not to shout to folks here that I DON'T LIVE IN NIGERIA ANYMORE! Not every example is only applicable to Nigeria. I've visited Nigeria only once now in almost 4 years. Most of the Nigerian experiences that I often reference here are from at least 10 years ago.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Africa is MASSIVE!!!! I move between Ghana, Togo, and Benin regularly. Many Nigerians don't even leave Lagos for other states. It makes it difficult to have sensible conversations about concepts that transcend Nigeria and cuts across the continent.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My business partner @kenju254 lives in Kenya, he has been to Accra twice in the last couple of years. He also visits Nigeria. He knows more about Africa than many in Lagos who don't go anywhere. Let us try to broaden our perspective a bit. Just a little bit.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
There are many young Africans starting life who need furniture and appliances at home but can't afford to buy new ones. There's a thriving market for these things. People ship used furniture and products back to Africa in containers. I went to a used product market in Togo once.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
We needed a proper desk for the kids' computer many years ago and I couldn't find any in the supermarkets and someone recommended this market. Nothing prepared me for what I saw. Complete and utter chaos. I found many desks but they were old and needed too much repair.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
What was interesting and that I took note of was that the market was filled with young buyers looking for a bargain. I started wondering how this market could be organized and goods sorted out in grades. I later found out that there was a crude structure for that already.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Some people come to buy better quality products from the market to fix them and display them inside the town. The problem was that these things ended up being ridiculously priced because of our belief that anything imported is superior. I tried to build one with a local carpenter
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
That experience was a disaster. This is why Africa remains a dumping ground for used products. I don't mind if it is recycling in a way but the quality of products in that market was equal to junk. It was a junkyard. Still, a good place to think of recycling. So much to build.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
There is also a market for products people want to upgrade. There is so much yet to be figured out and I believe the answers are in the physical markets already. This is why Jumia is having problems and e-commerce didn't take root. It was impractical and not meeting real needs.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
If you just go on Twitter to find all the things Africans complain about, you will discover tons of startup ideas. The frustration is real and we complain because we feel that we are powerless, but the mind is much more powerful than we imagine. There is a silver lining somewhere
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
My friend Usman and I used to do an exercise in Benin City many years ago to discover product ideas. We ask ourselves what frustrated us more that day? Most of the time it was inconsistent electricity supply. 25 liters of diesel could only last then for 7 hours.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
We started wondering how to make generators more efficient and look at alternative sources of power. My client at the time was The Okomu Oil Palm company. They had a mill that was self-powered from the waste products produced by the same mill. We looked at gas generators.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
What we didn't have then was the capability to execute. We could, however, find those who had built something and help them distribute it. Solar wasn't even on our radar then. Now, I am a co-founder/investor in a company doing solar payments and distribution in Nigeria.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Doing that business has also revealed other problems Nigerians have with credit. The entire system is broken. It has made me start thinking of a different approach to banking. Problems lead to solutions and solutions birth even more solutions. Don't just complain, try to solve.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Each persistent African problem is a major opportunity. It means that people will likely pay to make the problem go away. That is why corruption is also an opportunity. Each place you see corruption is a goldmine of opportunity to offer legitimate and profitable replacements.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Prosperity Paradox written by @EfosaOjomo and others is a good place to start reading and getting your mind in the right space to start doing things. I can't forget my uncle seeing Lagos chaos and calling it money. He became stupidly wealthy by providing solutions to confusion.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
@EfosaOjomo Don't make excuses for yourself, start from somewhere. Even if it is improving yourself and acquiring different skills.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
One thing that annoys me is how half-hearted we are at building products in Africa until someone else takes it seriously and succeeds. Everyone else then starts trying to build a clone and also typically with the same nonchalance. They only want to make money like the first mover
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Each time I post a startup idea, someone claims they or some other person are doing something about it already. You go there and see that they have not done anything serious. We have too many talkers and very few doers.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
This is why I don't listen to people with just ideas. If you are serious, build something. Money is not an excuse anymore as there is enough money around now to fund proven concepts. This is the best time ever to be a serious African entrepreneur and not a lazy dreamer.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
Teenagers cost money. Help them to start making money early to reduce the burden on you. It will also teach them habits that will set them up for life. A Burger King job is cool but how about an internship with Goldman Sachs? How can you equip kids to be desirable interns?
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
It helps to make them start learning marketable skills early. Gaming and watching Youtube alone won't cut it. Break the habit of dependency early. My friend's 23-year-old is helping him run a profitable new venture. I am so proud of the boy and I am learning from them.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
The young man got serious early because it is a habit in his family. His late uncle Wemba was an entrepreneur in school. He set up Archies, a popular ice cream and burger joint while still a student in UNIBEN. His Dad was working at his mother's business while we were kids.
@asemota - Osaretin Victor Asemota
I told my mum once that the seeds of entrepreneurship were sown in me when I worked and sold stuff during school vacations. Entrepreneurship shouldn't start when you can't find a job after school. It should start in school. If we want to build the next founders, start with kids.