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@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.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

1. Are you worried about the ferocity of the political class and how they will offer violent resistance against Peter Obi? Let me help you worry less. Come with me to Anambra just at the turn of the century from 2003. Grab a drink, it’s a long thread.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

2. The dedication you see today is the product of a deliberate and principled life. PO’s confidence is not the bravado of someone who doesn’t understand what they were getting into. It was forged in the fire of stiff resistance of brutal players in Anambra State politics.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

3. Players who thought PO was a pushover. His small voice deceived them. They had already burnt the Anambra State govt house, kidnapped the sitting governor before him, tossing the man unceremoniously in the boot of a car! Never happened anywhere in Nigeria before or since.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

4. So brazen were they. A proper law unto themselves. They forced previous governors to pay them heavily each month. Got so bad that schools couldn’t find money to pay teachers leading to strikes that had lasted 2 years. Few civil servants got paid anything in those dark days.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

5. School buildings crumbled from disuse, became overgrown with tall grass and bred snakes. The godfathers didn’t care. As long as they had access to the statutory allocations, Anambra could burn to the ground. Her people needed their own grit and industry to survive.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

6. The godfathers effectively put the Harvard-educated Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju in their pockets until his forgettable tenure ended. Then they ordained a certain diminutive man as their next figurehead. One Dr Chris Ngige, a firebrand in his own right.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

7. To tame him, they took him to a shrine to swear allegiance under the pain of supernatural death. As God would have it, running against their candidate was a soft spoken 46-yr old Peter Obi. The Anambra State cabals wrote off his idealism as naïveté.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

8. So when PO flooded the state with posters asking, “Is Anambra cursed or are we the cause?”, they laughed him to scorn. With time, as the young PO went into the deepest parts of Anambra asking his poser, the message began to resonate. The people had found a champion.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

9. On election day, Anambra people came out en-masse to vote for Peter Obi who was flying the flag of a little known party called APGA. This was significant. Pay attention. Chukwuemeka Ojukwu (APGA) was on the ballot as president against Obasanjo of PDP same party as Ngige.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

10. Obasanjo (PDP) won against Ojukwu (APGA) in Anambra state! But Peter Obi (APGA) won against Chris Ngige (PDP). Remarkable. Such was PO’s allure even in those days. Anyway, the cabal struck. They did their voodoo and boom Chris Ngige became governor.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

11. They reckoned that Peter Obi would just go back to his banking after they had delivered their masterclass of election black magic. But they underestimated the stubbornness of the young bank chairman who took the matter to court where it worked up the process from 2003 - 2006

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

12. Meanwhile the state was overrun by criminals who had steadily lost all conscience. Upper Iweka in Onitsha was an eyesore that was a breeding ground for the underworld. Children had already dropped out of school in record numbers. But for the boy-boy system of apprenticeship,

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

13. Anambra would have totally gone to the dogs. You remember the governor-kidnap I spoke about, it was Chris Ngige. The man had grown a conscience. The plight of his people broke his heart and he severed the tentacles draining the treasury. He dared the Okija shrine

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

14. upon which he swore to take him. He leaned heavily on the premise that if you did right by the people as a leader they will bestow you with real power and legitimacy. And they did. For the first time in a long time, Ndị Anambra saw some reprieve.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

15. The cabals didn’t plan to walk off into the night. They engineered breathtaking violence in Anambra to hobble the governor, but the man refused to cave. Soon it didn’t matter. The Supreme Court ruled in Peter Obi’s favour. That was how PO became governor after 3 years.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

16. No one gave the humble Peter Obi a chance. Who was he going to convince with that tiny voice? He had no one in his corner. No House member from APGA. The cabal couldn’t believe their luck or so it seemed. Until the young man went to work.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

17. He cut expenses and channels of embezzlement like a frenzied farmer in a field of weeds. No avenue of illicit gains was spared. Bloody hell! This wasn’t in the script. He stopped padded budgets mid-flight and cut them to the bone.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

18. ₦430m for govt house was built completely with about ₦80m. To make matters worse, he was practicing some nonsense he called capital formation i.e. saving 15% of revenue. What the actual hell! Time to act. They activated their stooges in the House, who themselves were

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

19. feeling the pinch. “Get that bonzo out!”, was the order. Sure enough the House convened an impeachment hearing. But even then they had taken some liking to him. Honesty does that to you. In their “mercy”, they told Peter Obi to reverse himself. Leave the padded budgets

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

20. as they were & forget that nonsense about savings. Using his tiny voice, young PO refused. O well, they tried, they assured themselves. The gavel came down. He was impeached. Did PO lay down & die? Of course not. He headed back to court & got his mandate back after 3 months.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

21. There are many more things that read like heart-thumping thriller but let’s leave them here for now. Just know that when he was done, Anambra went from 26th to 1st in education in his first 3 years, had the best rural road network, arrested erosion, became cleanest,

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

22. became safest & many more. The man placed his final signature as governor in 2014 on a handover note containing savings of ₦75b (about ₦290bn today) including other investments. All without borrowing. This is world class stewardship in any jurisdiction on earth. Legendary!

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

23. Peter Obi is a man of principles and effortless integrity. He has a lot of courage. He’s as clean as a whistle. He conquered greed. When he says he will do the right thing, it’s not a joke. It has the force of conviction backed by a lived experience that is extraordinary.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

24. But do you know his ultimate super power? YOU 🫵🏽! YOU will vote for him. YOU will be his critic & praise singer. When deviants rise against his good policies, YOU will deny them agency because YOU have the power.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

CORRECTION: Peter Obi was 41 years old on election day 2003.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

Jack you have done justice but let me add to it. Adebayo Success lives around my house in Adekunle street Oshodi. After Adebayo Success retired, Baba Daniel took over the union in Oshodi, Baba Daniel brought in Mc Oluomo, Talo Skibo, General, Nah Yam & a host of them. https://t.co/m5gWl3AzNg

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

Most of the union today started as street guys collecting ticket money from market women in Oshodi. The leader then is Ajagbe Bornboy with his brother Austin. Then there are diff factions with their territory, we have Lion junction, Dikort, 36 Kiniun, 52 Tambolo & host of others.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

Bornboy is an Igbo man who ruled Oshodi then, & they all reported to Baba Daniel, then Oshodi is very volatile & hot that they snatched phones and neck chains freely. After Bornboy went back to his town to contest for LG Chairman, Talo Skibo took over but his reign didn't last

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

Because he's arrogant & stingy so he was removed. That was how Mc Oluomo took over the leadership of Oshodi NURTW, Mc Oluomo is someone who's cool, generous as he distributed the junction among all the factions so it makes it easy to assume the leadership position easily.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

In the long run, Mc Oluomo became NURTW treasurer, so from treasurer he assumed the leadership position as the interim Chairman Lagos NURTW because election was not held because of crisis between him & Kunle Poly. Mc Oluomo became prominent due to his generosity towards people.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

Mc Oluomo isn't notorious, most of the happenings attributed to him were false. Mc only became popular becos he spent money for musicians who sang his praises, helped many Nollywood actors & he's generous who's not greedy as most of his boys thrive under him so they became loyal.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

When Tinubu became governor in 1999, he disbanded them but NURTW took Lagos state to court and won becos they were a registered trade union. Lagos state has to manage them which is the best way to reduce their vices in society & this works. Tinubu changes a lot about Lagos.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

The narrative that Tinubu brought Agbero to Lagos & empowered them is a blatant lie, small boys & girls who are toddlers & didn't know what Lagos looks like will be giving false narrative but when people like us counter it many in uncouth youth will be insulting us on SM.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

A lot of propaganda, fake news about Tinubu has been sold to the GenZ especially the lies that come from those who came to Lagos a few years ago from East & don't know how Lagos used to be. Many don't know what transports in Lagos are like before during the time of rugged Molue.

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

Lagos NURTW isn't notorious. The real union is in Ibadan during the time of Akinsola Tokyo, to Elewe Omo & now to one of their boys back then Mukaila Auxiliary who headed Oyo pack management now. Tokyo rules like military govt, anytime they want to overthrow him people get killed

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

One time they wanted to overthrow him, he was in his office with one of his female friends, they gained access to his office & he escaped but the female was hacked to death, all the cars in the compound were destroyed. That's how serious it was back then, but they didn't succeed

@Princekunle - Adekunle (MJ)

It was always infighting from Molete to Iwo road it's so bad then so NURTW Hq from Abuja has to suspend Tokyo & forced him out of chairman because he's been ruling for over 20yrs, Elewe Omo took over still the same problem until Ajimobi banned them & normalcy returned to Ibadan.

@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

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

“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/

Zero-based ventures | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News International House of Pancakes (IHOP) is a famous American food chain with outlets all over America. The fascinating thing about them is that their menus, processes, and decor are identical wherever you go in America. guardian.ng

@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

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.

@MikaelCBernard - Mikael C Bernard

It’s still surprising to me that in a country like Nigeria where relationships are largely transactional and hookup culture is well enshrined, we don’t have a localized version of Onlyfans. It shouldn’t be the same thing(explicit content). The content should be an advertising mechanism for real life booking. Nigerian men spend a lot of money on mekwe. If you integrate location(safe hourly hotel options), optional online panana and refund options, you’d build a big business. Here’s a flow: Man pays subscription fee (2k monthly) and does KYC, swipes through content of umuasa that are available for mekwe in his location(no face, just body). Books one and pays. Has to choose one of the safe partner hotels where the mekwe will go down. If he gets there and doesn’t like the person, he gets a refund. If he likes, he can book again and get a discount. Platform takes fees on every transaction. Is it legal? I don’t know. But every big innovation happens on the grey side of the law, as it makes it impossible for big companies to clone it and do the same.

@Dexerto - Dexerto

OnlyFans owner reportedly earned $1.3 million per day in bonuses last year ($338M total)

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

Allow me weigh in a bit on the Tech and "Yahoo" boys conversation lest we risk becoming a generation of reactionary young people with zero will to do the hard things required to solve hard problems. A thread...

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

Having conversations like this on Twitter can be daunting especially when it's one with a lot of grey areas. I'll start off with saying that as a 17year old teenager from Ikorodu, the only thing that prevented me from getting into "Yahoo" was because I couldn't afford a Laptop.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

Not morals, not religion, not convictions. If someone had introduced me to HK then,maybe I would have been on a much different path- One that leads to "Tunde wire" This desperation became deeply rooted In my heart due to the many nights I watched my mother go to bed hungry...

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

Things are a lot more intense now, as mothers are taking loans and plunging themselves into massive debts to buy Laptops for their sons to start doing "Yahoo". This is not hearsay. To them, a worthy sacrifice as it could be their only ticket out of generational poverty.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

To really understand this Yahoo boys scourge, we need to get off our twitter high horses and feel the pulse of the streets. We can't keep complaining about effects without addressing the underlying cause. Dismissing it as just greed or theft lacks depth and is too inconclusive.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

It's a crime no doubt but it's easy to be judgmental about crime when you live in a world privileged enough to be removed from it. The streets has taught me that everyone has different notions of right and wrong, and what level of crime they're willing to participate in.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

I'll use Ikorodu as an example as it is home for me. If you randomly select 20 teenagers between the ages of 14-18 in Ikorodu, I can assure you that 80% are already into internet scam and the remaining 20%, given enough time will eventually give in to peer pressure.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

This is honestly how bad things currently are. The journey of most Yahoo boys doesn't begin in adulthood, we lose most of them within the ages of 14-18. The gap years between finishing secondary school and gaining admission into university is where they're most vulnerable.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

This is where they get recruited into Networks popularly called HK (Hustle Kingdom). Every HK network has a "Mentor" who houses 10-20 boys for months and teaches them his ways of Phishing, Dating scams, wire fraud etc. The mentor empowers them with a Laptop and internet.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

There are thousands of HKs scattered across Lagos, Warri, Benin, Port Harcourt and Ibadan especially. Go to any hotel in Ikorodu at night and see for yourselves what these boys have become. In these groups, the lifestyle of using drugs and flaunting wealth is nurtured.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

The more desperate ones advance into Yahoo plus- a more sinister level where they resort to rituals, sex with blood relations etc. A boy, a laptop and his dreams, reduced to to a desperate life of survival fueled by insatiable greed. This is our collective failure as a society.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

What can we do differently? Two years ago, my mentor Johnson Abbaly called me and said he wanted me to be involved in a project called the" Smartan house" in the slums of Ikorodu. The idea behind this was to create a parallel culture that rivals yahoo boy culture. Our own HK.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

The experiment was to find some of the smartest teenagers in Ikorodu living in extreme poverty between the ages of 14-18, then find some more teenagers already involved in internet scam and bring them together in the smartan house for 8 weeks. We called it the Smartan Crucible.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

In those 8 weeks they learnt these skills under the guidance and mentorship of Johnson Abbaly. We seperated it into 3 prongs and created a world class curriculum to introduce them to the world of tech and mindfulness. A foreign concept to most of them at the beginning. https://t.co/6dQtStjuId

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

The Smartan project was successful. We realized that best way to steer the hearts of young ones away from internet scam was to create an enabling environment where they could be influenced by their own peers just like HK but this time grounded in a quest for building real skill

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

The number one reason why there's an alarming proliferation of Yahoo boys with no end in sight isn't just because of greed or poverty, it's the lack of deliberate mentorship and guidance. These young people have fire in their hearts and a strong will to suceed against all odds.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

This zeal can be chanelled differently. The real consequence of internet scam culture is not just how it ruins our reputation on a global stage, it's that we're losing the battle for the minds of the future work force of our country in thousands, to a crude system like HK.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

You can't tell young people to have great dreams and aspirations when their experience of the world and the opportunities therein is confined to the limitations of their environment. Their only perception of success is one egbon adugbo that bought Benz from doing "Yahoo"

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

One of the teenagers from the Smartan project traveled to South Africa two days ago on a full ride scholarship to the African leadership academy. Many of them have now gained important tech skills and are seeking internship opportunities.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

The founder of Future Africa Iyinouluwa Aboyeji recently visited them at the smartan house in Ikorodu, he was so impressed by their brilliance that he gave them a job to work on a proposal and they delivered with excellent precision. This is how much they got paid for it: https://t.co/kK0qlm2yPp

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

The model is simple 1. Go to public schools, go to the streets, find 50 yahoo boys between the ages 14-18 2. Bring them into the smartan house for 8 weeks 3. Assign them to a mentor who can devote 2 hours weekly for 2 years to guide them on their new skill path with stipends.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

Of the 50 boys we taught chess during the oshodi underbridge project, at leat 30 of them had been involved in internet scam at some in their lives but failed. There's a clear pipeline from failed Yahoo boys to becoming an Area boy even.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

One of those underbridge boys is Ayomide, he was a former Yahoo boy as well He recently spoke at the Babcock University Uniited nations model conference. A product of the smartan house who now writes code and knows he has so much more to offer the world. https://t.co/uTXhkzQNc9

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

Trevor said in his book- Crime suceeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn't do: Crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for young kids who need support and a lifting hand.Crime gets involved in community. Crime doesn't discriminate.

@Tunde_OD - Tunde Onakoya

We're starting a new cohort of smartans in September, this time we're bringing in 50 yahoo boys into the crucible. You will see their progress in real time. We need mentors and we need funding. You can donate here: Lightfield House 0058931737 Access bank. We can scale this.

@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 🙏🏿

@APompliano - Pomp 🌪

Regulators & entrepreneurs have to learn to work together. America is the leader of the financial world. We must embrace bitcoin & stablecoins to cement our position. Enjoyed talking with @MelissaLeeCNBC & @ScottWapnerCNBC on @SquawkCNBC this morning. https://t.co/ldPY48jbwi

@APompliano - Pomp 🌪

There are many ways to handle disagreements, but historically yelling & screaming at each other is not productive. The beauty of America is that entrepreneurs & regulators can go into a court of law and lay out their arguments. Our judicial system then makes decisions.

@APompliano - Pomp 🌪

In the meantime, entrepreneurs who are not engaged in the regulatory process must continue to stay focused on building products & services that people want. Bitcoin has been one of the most valuable technology innovations of the last decade & stablecoins are as popular as Visa.

@APompliano - Pomp 🌪

The private market has the ability to use our time and money to build the future world that we all want to live in. Your job as an entrepreneur is to find problems in the world and solve them. Don't get distracted by the noise. Compete, don't complain.

@APompliano - Pomp 🌪

Lastly, the free market is the ultimate referee. Hundreds of millions of people entrust trillions of dollars of economic value in these technologies, products, and services. Politicians, regulators & corporate executives rotate over time, but the citizens remain forever.

@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.

@huntercdurham - Hunter Durham | Impact Industry

Here's the timeline towards bankruptcy: HINT: Don't do this. Give your lessons time to simmer. Mar. 2019: Quit job at Facebook May: Joined largest client Sep: Got fired Oct 2019: Went down Warren Buffet rabbit hole. The idea of Impact Industry was born. Jan 2020: Found search funder community (should joined Twitter) Feb 2020: put together documents to buy a business. Mar. 2020: COVID happens E-commerce blows up. April: Start taking on new client's full time at Impact Industry marketing. May 2020: Have second child August: landed first 5-figure client. October: Go under contract to buy first company. 2020: Impact Industry Marketing: $250K Rev. Feb 2021: Close $1.2M deal for e-commerce furniture store. 10% down 10% Seller Finance. 6.5% interest. Agency at $35K MRR. Mar 2021: Freeze in Texas, main foam chemical supplier looses power. Massive foam shortage in industry. Lead times go from 14-16 weeks to 28-32 weeks. Apr. 2021: Everything going as planned. Aug 2021: Cracks start to appear in E-commerce business we bought, things are softening google traffic down. September: Agency hits $60K MRR. October: Go under contract for $2.6M on two furniture delivery businesses. End of 2021: E-com closes at $1.2M Agency closes at $562,000 Jan. 2022: Bring on a biz partner, this was the beginning of the end for me. February 2022: Transaction closes for $2.6M, 10% down, 0 seller finance. Now there are three businesses and I'm trying to spend time in each. March 2022: Biz partner gets really sick, loses control over his life, but still tries to work. April 2022: Lose $750K account. May 2022: Demote General Manager. June 2022: Accounts receivables balloon from $150K to $600K. Should have died here as we didn't have enough working capital. July: Heavy customer concentration is starting to form. went from 10% to 50% of the business as we grew the account. Didn't support with enough additional sales. August 2022: Shipping business needs full attention but we now have a floundering ecommerce website, the agency is still humming but starting to see cracks. Interest rates rapidly rising. September: Land a public company as client after working on them for a year. Mid 5-figure monthly contract. Nov. 2022: Biz partner no longer can work, given up a lot to him. Have to pivot and put someone else in place. End of 2022: Agency: $775K (Covered losses and expenses) Ecommerce: $775K (Huge Loss) Delivery Company: $5.7M (Serviced over $300K in debt) January 2023: Interest rates continue to rise, servicing about $40K a month now soon to be $45K by summer. February 2023: Major cracks are starting to form in all businesses. I don't have enough time to fill them and resources are getting constrained as i've had to personal supply working capital into shipping biz. March 2023: Things feel stable at shipping business for once but Ecommerce is getting into a cash crunch as overall demand as slowed. Churned a couple of clients on agency. June 2023: -Lost our largest client at the agency -Largest shipping customer owes us $400K and contemplating bankruptcy. -Ecommerce sales almost non existent. July 2023: We reach an agreement with shipping customer and get paid a large amount. -Agency loses all revenue and employees -E-commerce continuing to suffer. Third child born. August 2023: Mitchell Gold Bob Williams shuts down. Owes us $400K, Other businesses cease to exist at this point. September 2023: Working with bank to liquidate. Have a little over $2M in personally guaranteed loans.

@huntercdurham - Hunter Durham | Impact Industry

I'm going through some difficult times right now, trying to be as transparent as possible, and hopefully that can help others. If you are too, feel free to DM me.

@huntercdurham - Hunter Durham | Impact Industry

I’ve got dozens of messages from people in worst situations than mine. Business is hard. Anyone who tells you it’s easy… Has an incentive.

@CharletteDesire - Charlette Desire 🚀

@darlingtinho highlighted some of the challenges we face as innovators in Africa during #Indaba2023. My thoughts In comments 👇🏾 #Africa #Innovators #Ecosystem #Challenges #africantalent https://t.co/XFAKDkbzQK

@CharletteDesire - Charlette Desire 🚀

The third point he made is often overlooked because, as the saying goes, "Nobody asks you to build a startup, not your family, not your friends, not the system, not the government, so don't expect anything from them."

@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

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

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

The Rich Man — Part 1 This is a long-ass post that has been in my drafts for over 20 months. This was not meant to be a tribute. It was an introspective post about great men who had affected my life over the years. One of… asemota.medium.com

@FinPlanKaluAja1 - Kalu Aja

Living in POP ghettos with generators and bad roads You have no parks or libraries in your GRA. Your life goal is to squirrel your kids to school abroad and then preach to the great unwashed back home to be patient and defend their tribe. Any child born in the 1980s has never experienced 24/7 power supply in 🇳🇬 , that child can be born in any of the 774 LGA and this statement will be true. Giant at 63 still importing PMS, tufia. Yet your individual Twitter page is filled with prayers and genuflections to mortals to get money for summer What a waste.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

stop trying to beat djokovic at tennis. the first fundamental problem traders run up against is that there's no beginners' market. you gotta compete for good prices with the best in the market. this is a problem. there are a lot of people better at markets than you.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

if you approach trading in a gung-ho manner, it's basically like playing in a tennis competition with djokovic. and that's not going to go well. cos he's very good at playing tennis and you're bad at it. (sorry to break it to)

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

what do i mean about "competing for prices with the best in the market?" well... to make money trading you need to buying things that are too cheap and selling things that are too expensive. you need your side of the trade to be good and the other side of the trade to be bad.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

at least on average, anyway. do that enough, manage your risk sensibly, and everything else will look after itself over time.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

it turns out it's not hard to find people who are prepared to trade at the wrong prices. there are plenty of terrible traders about (you know this if you are reading this on twitter.)

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

the problem is that it is hard to get the opportunity to trade with those people. you're competing for those opportunities with the best in the market. and they're smarter and faster than you.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

imagine an asset is offered at $90 but you think it's worth $100 - someone is willing to sell it at a $10 discount, you think. maybe you can buy it at a $10 then? but what is obvious to you is obvious to others too...

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

if you are right, other traders will think this is cheap too, and they aren't going to leave that opportunity lying around. it's going to get bought quick and the opportunity will disappear. so you'll likely miss the good trade

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

now, imagine that the same asset worth $100 is offered at $101 (something like this would be the normal situation) it's offered at $101 (slightly rich) - but you think it's worth $90. you think it's cheap. now you're wrong. that $91 offer isn't likely to go anywhere quick.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

it's likely to sit there for you to take that $101 offer is uncompetitive so you take the bad trade. it's not a terrible price, but it's not a good price either. take a bunch of trades like this, and small losses along with fees are going to guarantee you a slow noisy death.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

financial markets are extremely competitive. there's no beginners market. you're trading in that market in competition with best trader in the world. she's going to take all the good prices and leave you with the rubbish ones.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

as a beginner and new entrant into the market, you can't go gung-ho into competing with the best at their own game. you need a better plan than that. and it needs to be a realistic plan, based around what you can compete in TODAY.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

you might have lofty goals for the future... but right now, you only have a certain level of skills, experience and tools you need a plan to take advantage of what you have NOW, not what you wish you had.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

every day as traders, we must ask "how can i give myself the best chance of making money TODAY, given where I am TODAY?" (that's the question to ask first, above all else) https://x.com/therobotjames/status/1670348853978226689?s=20

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

realistically, this requires: > competing as little as you possibly can > maximally exploiting any small advantages you might have. as a new tech startup, you wouldn't just jump into the market and try to compete with microsoft.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

you'd try to carve out your own niche that they weren't interested in. and it would be something USEFUL that people wanted to pay you for.... ... but also something that's AWKWARD and uncompetitive. something that didn't scale well, perhaps.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

like most business endeavors it really comes down to "doing useful things that suck" > "doing useful things..." (that people want and will pay for) > "that suck" (otherwise you'd have loads of competition)

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

trading is like plumbing. you want to be doing useful things that other people don't want to do. you don't want to be trying to out-smart and out-gun other traders in a highly competitive zero sum game. you can't win like that.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

so don't just consume a bunch of economic data and news and expect you'll figure out macro scenarios better than the market. that ain't gonna happen. you're trying to beat djokovic at macro tennis.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

and don't try to model companies' financial projections better than the mass of analysts and pod hedge fund types trying to do the same. that ain't gonna happen either. you're trying to beat djokovic at excel tennis.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

and don't stare at the order book or jupyter notebooks, trying to beat the kwants and supercoders at high frequency order book games. you have no chance. you're trying to beat djokovic at hft tennis over dial-up.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

and definitely don't try to predict directional moves using chart patterns or elliot waves or something. that's never gonna happen. that's like trying to beat djokovic at tennis but you brought a dildo instead of a racket and you're retarded.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

rather, you want to be looking to do *useful things people value in as uncompetitive an arena as you can*. this typically involves: 1. taking on (and managing) risk others are keen to avoid 2. trading against price-insensitive participants in constrained or stressed markets

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

what does that mean in the real world? i've shared a fair bit about it here - going through a bunch of examples https://x.com/therobotjames/status/1638292311435034624?s=20

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

How to make money trading, as a random d!ckhead. Trading requires us to buy things cheaper than they should be / sell things richer than they should be. But how could I, some random guy from New Zealand who trades in his underpants, know what things should be worth?

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

and i explained a bunch of systematic crypto trades i used to do here https://x.com/therobotjames/status/1692282030342775224?s=20

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

and i teach a course with my friend kris here, which has tons of examples of real systematic trading strategies based around these concepts. https://robotwealth.com

Home - Robot Wealth Quant Trading Bootcamps We run quant trading Bootcamps – open to the public – several times a year. In Bootcamp, you will learn a simple, high-probability, quantitative approach to trading that can work for you, the non-professional trader. You will focus on simple strategies based on economically-sensible, quantifiable market edges that a part-time trader can ... Read more robotwealth.com

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

it takes a bit of humility to play these games (you can only eat what you're fed) and it takes discipline and commitment to prioritizing doing your best to make money TODAY over other considerations.

@therobotjames - Robot James 🤖🏖

but there are simple things you can do which will give you a good chance of actually making money if you stay on the straight and narrow.

@Prolotario1 - Ariel

The Hired & High Pookies On The Job: People need to calm down with all this rhetoric that I am uploading all this info because I am looking for somebody to play Hop-Scotch or Double-Dutch with. Your reading comprehension should not be based on whether or not you trust someone. You have enough material at your disposal to come to a firm conclusion to decide if I am pulling your leg or not. This should have zero to do with emotional investment into a digital interface you have never met in your life. I am cutting through the fog of confusion by offering you objective viewpoints on topics you consider Red Lines due to propaganda. I am not here to promote, sell, or advertise anything to steer you towards areas that puts you in a compromising position. But I guarantee you will be uncomfortable because I couldn't care less if you are offended by anything posted. Why? Because this my corner. And my products are facts, truth, and logic. And I tell it by the pound. You dig? And my branding is based. Nothing is half baked. This is stove top cooking. Packaged & Delivered for your consumption. And I will hold it down just like Nino Brown in "New Jack City" did. Because "The Carter" didn't burn down over here. And business is booming. You can call it psyop. You can call it controlled opp. You can call it a schill. One thing you can not do is pretend you didn't come looking for the plug. Because you pressed the follow button. Something I didn't request or ask you to do. Because before I had any followers I was posting on this block before anyone noticed I had the shop open for business right underneath your nose. Before you became a dedicated customer by rolling up a dollar bill to snort all these facts up your nostrils like it's Blue Magic on a Sunday. And this is the diluted form. Imagine what version you are not getting? And you passing out with Grade-C G-Packs. Clientele is not looking to well for those who was selling baking soda to the fiends looking for a reliable dealer who was getting high on his own supplies and was no longer focused on ensuring the customers had Grade-A content to consume. Yet they wonder why my corner has the customers that used to rely on their products to get by. Now at 200k users I can buy their corner for less than half of what it's worth and expand my territory on a block they used to own until they fell by the wayside and decided that their personal needs came before their clients during business hours. I say that to say this. Please be mindful of how you treat info vs the persona behind it. How you view the world as opposed to how I explain it has nothing to do with whether you trust me or not. It's just business. Treat all social media accounts this way. That way you will not feel betrayed because they posted something that made you uncomfortable. Deuces ✌️

@ekavingo - Ernest

The business environment is rough and p unfavorable, I think it is the worst now than it has ever been. Business big, small new old and established are either closing or moving to other countries. The government needs to seriously work on this. Business need to thrive not die.

@ekavingo - Ernest

@reSeeIt save this thread

@_spiriituaL - 🦉 🧘🏽‍♂️spirituaL🧘🏽‍♂️

2 years ago, I was having a brief talk with my mentor. And he said the following. Cbn: As you attain wealth, you should have another friend who is wealthy... And that friend should have another friend who is also wealthy. The 3 or 4 of you should focus and invest in building trust among each other. If the 3 or 4 of you can build trust, then you guys can own, build, and buy anything you want in Nigeria... As long as you guys can work and incorporate together. Me: 🙂... You need wealth to grow larger in wealth. Cbn: Wealth attracts wealth and you can't build it alone. This my name that is everywhere today, i carried on from where my father left and applied this same method I am teaching you today. My father taught me. Me: How did you start... who and who did you start with? Cbn: The people you mostly see around me today were the people I started with (Mention names). A brought his 7m, C brought his 7m, and I brought mine. That money was a lot of money then. And we all started something together. We all loved the hospitality business, so we started from there till we got here today. Me: Lagos? Cbn: Abuja. Me: I never thought of it this way. Cbn: That is why i am talking to you... Because i need you to stop this “on my own” mentality. Trees have branches and when it is time for you to pluck from it, you pluck from every branch. That is how life should work. Before you build wealth, connect yourself to wealth. Penetrate people who know people, and at every point, make the government your friend. Me: The road that leads to financial stability seems like an unending journey. Cbn: (🤣) Just ride along with “Selfless” people and the journey will be very easy. Now you should understand why I said you can't do it on your own. You need people to grow and at the same time, people (Think of big brands and companies) need you so that they can grow. And that is how the money circulates. Me: You attract what you are. Cbn: Thank God you understand.

@wandyvirus - Ayọ̀wándé Adálémọ 🇳🇬

I have seen takes like this in response to my tweet. 1. I don't need you to understand my tweet. I made that tweet to address another tweet that says the govt is responsible for the failure of a 6 month old start-up. And it comes from the "govt is bad" (translated APC is bad) zombies. 2. NURTW is NOT illegal. There's nothing illegal about their dues and fees. They are part of organised labour and collect rent from their union members.They have a structure around them across Nigeria not just Lagos. In that sector, you WILL negotiate. I am unapologetic about it and i know that none of you "yabacon" offsprings will get it. If you see me as doing PR for Union members you call agbèrò, then you just made my point. You lots should keep your heads in Silicon Valley asses. 3. My industry is high tech, not transportation. In my Industry vandalism and sabotage is the order of the day. "Iron condem" will cut your buried fiber, and try to cut your Telecom towers and poles in collusion with "guards" and sometimes security agencies. They will steal your manhole and expose your ducts to not just the elements but also pollution. That open manhole immediately becomes the next ṣálángá.if I organise street urchins and pay them to protect my infrastructure from Oṣòdì to Ìkòròdú, from TBS to Abúlé Ẹ̀gbá, to give me heads up if there's a digging around my buried cables and to patrol my infrastructure at night when most vandalism happens and you call it bribery as a business model, I don't know what adjective to use for your extraordinary stupi.dity. 4. Finally wait for "ease of doing business" and all the plentiful English you all like to bandy around; or step into the ring and build infrastructure that is perversive and that catalyzes "doing business easily", significantly improves security and fosters law enforcement response and digital economy such that the next generation of enterprise will not need to go through what we went through. Pontificate and dance for VC money. Shout P&L like it is the magic wand for attracting investors. It is fine your call, your world. In MY world, it is COLLABORATION-AS-A-BUSINESS. It is structured and accountable. I forgot you didn't read what I really wrote you are just going Bunkers because it is coming from an @officialABAT ardent supporter, it is also a slap on the face of the Yabacon army. Stick with your silicone valley rhetoric, while I am building and at once working with govt to improve conditions for startups. I have been here longer than you. I will be here a while. Take my tweet as a lesson or keep your head buried in the sand of absolute stupi.dity and pretentiousness . I did not come in peace.

@DataRepublican - DataRepublican (small r)

🚨 Let’s break this down. 🚨 🔷 @elonmusk has openly said he fears for his life. 🔷 Tesla owners are getting firebombed. 🔷 DOGE employees are receiving death threats. 🔷 Large X influencers are getting SWATted—with setups designed to make police shoot them. 🔷 @MikeBenzCyber and I are featured on a website with a Molotov cocktail as the cursor. 🔷 Tech people who join DOGE take massive pay cuts and security risks. These aren’t theories. These are facts. So ask yourself: What do any of us get out of this? The answer is simple: Nothing—except the chance to fight for the future. If we were in this for money or comfort, we’d be somewhere else. Instead, we’re here, because the U.S. government is on an unsustainable trajectory, and this is our one shot at changing it. You don’t take these risks unless you believe in what you’re doing. And we do.