“I conceived of the idea for Hotels.ng in early 2012. I started working on it then (it was called hotels.com.ng), made a beta, and then went out trying to raise money. I knew next to nothing about raising money. One of the first investors I approached was Rocket Internet. I sent them a plan with…”
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Nice one Mark & Thanks for sharing. Not a bad idea to go back and review assumptions - would be scared to do it myself!!
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Thanks for sharing @mark.
Like the conversational style, makes for clarity.
From the post, it seems the business plan was very simple and straight to the point.
@mark did they ever respond?
Of course they responded. With Jovago. #conspiracytheory
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LOL.
Same thing I thought. Now, how do prevent things like this from happening?
Thank you for sharing this valuable content. It will go a long way in helping many Startups to set for the right direction.
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Lol but why would you want to prevent it from happening? Whether Mark emailed them or not, the hotels space would have gotten competition sooner or later.
Better to have loved and lost, than to not have loved at all (or something something like that.)
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Just thinking, is there a point approaching people who might just end up taking the findings you’ve done and set up shop for themselves
I believe there is,and it is in the ‘might.’ In an alternate universe, Rocket Internet says ‘great idea, Mark!’ and implements the idea with him at the helm of it all. In this one, they didn’t bite and Hotels.ng flourished anyway.
Basically it was a risk worth taking. Also: in the end, execution is always the differentiating factor, not the idea itself.
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Very interesting article. Lots to learn from it.
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Thanks for sharing @markessien. Very informative.
Mark is a brilliant guy. His modest style of sharing insight inspires me
Mark’s findings surrounding the business case of Hotel ecommerce in 2012 were mostly empirical, which he clearly alluded to, which is also the basis of this retro analysis; confirming if they were on point or how far off the mark he was - pun un-intended.
As you can see in his revenue classification, and how wrongly he insinuated. So its not like Rocket dissed wrought ‘gold’ in that 2012 pitch, they however missed the finer print in that pitch that suggested Mark was going to be a competitor.
I believe Jovago was already in the works by 2012.
You are correct. It was already in the works.
Morale of the story : Do not send a pitch to Rocket if you know you aren’t going to be, much strong, a competition…
Clap for yourself !!! 
I believe Mark did the right thing, its better you try and fail than you never even tried. Two things could have happened for a purpose driven person like Mark, Rocket buys the Idea and seats with him to build a great company, or they ignore him (do jovago.com) and Mark still goes ahead and continue to dream and build Hotels.ng. I like people who dare to dream rather than, out of fear never move an inch. So I would say Morale of this all is, always dream even if people around you dont believe in it, you should just go ahead.
Boss, I think you’ve gone above and beyond the scope of the discourse and turned it into a motivational something.
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Maybe Motivational to you, its my personal opinion. I dont believe people should be afraid of putting out things. I meet young entrepreneurs everyday and the question I always get is how do I protect my dream? For me its not about protecting, because the more you hide it and never get it out the more you never really know what could have happened. If you see that as motivational, then very good you are motivated.
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