Lessons from maiden Startup Europe Week in Nigeria

JOINING other 50 countries for this year’s Startup Europe Week (SEW18), entrepreneurs across all sectors came together in Lagos to brainstorm on challenges peculiar to startups in Nigeria, while charting courses to being successful.

Co-organised in Nigeria with Infomart Books and Media, Startup Europe Week, a series of independently organised conferences in over 50 countries and 400 cities, was set to help startups get access to information that can help their businesses, thus panel sessions was held to discuss how to set up business, how to efficiently and effectively grow startups, among others.

Startup Europe Week is the largest multi-event of its kind for startups in Europe and the third edition will be held March 5 – 9, 2018. Promoted by the European Commission, Startup Europe Week aims to showcase the support available to entrepreneurs on a city and regional level as regional diversity and local policy making is considered a big role in shaping European startups, from helping entrepreneurs to incorporate a company, to providing grants or taxes breaks.

In 2018, SEW now has 50+ countries involved and has expanded beyond Europe to include Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, hence, its maiden edition in Nigeria. Considering the statistics that 80 per cent startups in the country do not survive three years, panelists at the maiden edition of SEW18, while using their success stories as a guide, took young entrepreneurs on ways to scale through the tough business climate of the country.

At the panel section on strategies to growing and scaling startups sustainably, participants were eager to know how to attract investments in their business having been told that successful businesses run on partnership. Giving his experience, one of the panelists explained that when seeing the investor, an entrepreneur should tell their story; talk about the successes of the business, the strategies. “Give information about your company to the right people,” he said.

Here are some lessons from the sections:

 

Partnership:

To go far and record good success in business, giving out parts of the business to partners can not be overemphasized. This, however, is not quite welcomed in our business clime as most business owners want to own the business exclusively to themselves, which of course retards the level of growth the business would have recorded if done otherwise.

One of the panelists, Soji Ogundoyin, Partner of S&T Media, explained that instead of struggling to hold on to 100 per cent of the company, giving a bit to others who believe in the company will yield amazing success.

“You must be smart on how you scale. Don’t always think you can do it all by yourself. Find partners to help you scale, then you will be more successful. Instead of being the chairman, bring in people. Let them believe they own a part of the company; every successful startup has done that from Apple to Facebook. Give shares away to good people!” he said.

He explained that “having sold out your belief on the prospects of the company to investors, they would want to partner with a business that would make money,” adding that “this ‘de-risks’ the owner, because its not all about your money any longer but others’ too. Also, these new partners have their sphere of influence and connection; they will help you acquire more clients too.”

 

Being Conservative

When investments come in and some success is being recorded, how conservative the business owner is would determine if the business is here to stay or fizzles out after a short while.  Laolu Samuel-Biyi of Sure-Remit therefore advised on ‘having the big picture in mind’. “Anybody that does business in Nigeria knows how difficult it is to make money,’ he said. “Therefore, when money comes into the business, every kobo spent must be accounted.”

For Ogundoyin, a successful entrepreneur is the one that is shrewd with money. He recounted that both himself and his partner, scaled through the first few years of their business because they were very conservative in spending. “We don’t spend money anyhow, even when we made major breakthrough, we still behave like we were startups. Every dime is accounted for, every naira is noted,” he said.

Samuel-Biyi advised that when money comes in from partners and investors, the money needs to be carefully handled and used for the business strictly.

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Hardwork and persistence

“Persistence is how you make it in the country,” Ogundoyin said, while recounting that for a year during his early days in business, they had just a client despite spending money and being in 10 locations across the country.

“We did not allow ourselves to be discouraged because we invested everything we had into the business. We told ourselves there was no exit plan, therefore we had to make it work. I called all my contacts and prospective customers every day. Even when they were not picking up, I kept calling. When some eventually picked and said they were busy; I still kept calling,” he said.

He explained that while making projections which would help in motivating one to strive for more, it must be realistic and achievable. “We tell ourselves to always exceed our goals.”