Mark Essien, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Sim Shagaya, Jason Njoku.... What's do you think is the advantage?

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C’mon, enough time already to be positive and helpful to the OP. Not trying to attack you Shalvah, but you seem to be over over-emphasizing.

Regards

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Lol. Not like I am lying down on my bed just thinking and doing nothing,I am seriously working too. I personally like to improve and therefore study the successful. Thought I saw a pattern,but like @akindolu said, it’s always dangerous drawing patterns. Thanks for the great tips.

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Awesome advice, But I really was thinking not in line of why are they successful. of course hardwork, CV, being good, and the rest. What I was really trying to know was if their experiences in the tech/startup scene over there is an added advantage. by experiences I mean, their network of professionals, the organisational structure they were worked with and the rest.

I think SV superstars still study guys ahead of them(like Jobs, Schmidt), learn and tailor their efforts from lessons learnt. Not so bad to do that here in the Nigerian tech scene.

I will take this advice here and then ask them in person :smile:
Thanks for the tips though.

@xolubi, I am just waiting for @Theboss or @Tola to come around for you. but really, if you don’t have an answer or any helpful, respectful response to a question. Just Move on. :expressionless:

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Dude, xolubi was just reiterating what I said, so I an not “coming” for him. Unfortunately, when he is not correcting my grammar or spellings, he is one of the very few that helps translates my Agbero lingo to plain english for folks like you to understand…

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Narcissism “everywhere”… all he did was ask a question.

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Sorry I am just seeing this. This is actually an interesting question.

First let me start with a disclaimer. There are many paths to success. Anyone who tells you there is just one path is really deceiving you.

I think being involved in tech overseas just shows you have passion for tech and so wherever you are you will try to build things. You could have thrown me in Iceland and given how passionate I am about technology and its social impact, I will probably have started a company.

That said, I think one useful thing that one should glean from this is work experience matters for building successful technology companies. I see a lot of young people come straight out of the University and go into a string of failed ventures because they don’t understand how important work experience is.

One of the most transformational experience of my whole life was going to University of Waterloo. University of Waterloo was unique because of it co-operative education program. Essentially every other term, you had to go get some work experience for four months or eight months. I did some work at the United Nations and learned how big bureacracies work. I also did some work for a really successful company that did messaging apps for teenage girls (it was on the iPod). It was called Textnow. I worked for a few VC’s in SV as an analyst and did a dozen other odd jobs. These jobs helped me understand what a good working environment was, what I loved versus did not love doing, what I was good at, and most importantly built my network. A lot of the friends I made were from work or people I had to work with as a result of my job.

My only regret as an entrepreneur is that I didn’t get enough work experience at a top 100 technology company (like Google, Microsoft etc) before starting a company. I feel like I would have learnt a lot more if I had.

In any case, the lesson is - go work for a great company so you know what the one you build should feel like.

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Not at all. I think so too myself and it bothers me. :confounded:

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This thread is why there will be war in Mars, in 5 years of human landing.

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I’m jealous. I really wanted to go to UWaterloo. Alas. And I agree about work experience is crucial. There are things you learn at a company that the streets (especially in Africa) can not teach you. And these things are overlooked but they separate you from being a meh entrepreneur to a great one. One of those is company culture. I worked for MTN and Wipro Infotech for awhile before starting my own company and that was my biggest takeaway. These 2 are really different companies but the thing that has enabled them to stay in business for long and scale across continents is their culture. Nothing else.

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Thanks for this … :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

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These guys have one thing in common… raising capital in the millions of dollars range… totally different from success [but thats topic for another day].
The simple answer is: Investors only give money to people they trust, and people trust people they know.
The complex answer is: These guys were out there and have networks of people that they either went to school with that are working in top companies or they got rich kids as classmates that can vouch for them. Going to school abroad and returning has an advantage after all… To raise capital, you need to have a strong network or you build one. most Africa base and raised entrepreneurs have networks but their networks are not financial strong.

PS: you can make it without raising millions of dollars in capital… focus on value created and not money raised

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Great points Manbenanje! Didn’t raise money for Andela from anyone I went to school with though but networks are a great point. That said networks of people you have worked with before much stronger than networks of beer buddies. One will likely bring investors who will add value, the other a lot of pain and strife.

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Thanks for the answers. Work experience, Value Creation, and Networks :raised_hands:

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Iyin,
ofcourse the key message I was passing across is networking is the source to raising capital. as usual I was rushing to post it and get back to work and on mobile :wink:

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