His name is David Obasiolu, and it all started with one tweet.
@markessien you're a lucky man making hotels.ng when I was only 16. I would have made that in 2 days and pushed you out of business lol.
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 12, 2016
…and a reply from Mark Essien, founder & CEO of Hotels.ng
Why not start now, you could be done by weekend https://t.co/SZhWgseEeV
— Mark Essien (@markessien) April 13, 2016
I like that Mark did not get hostile, as is the default reaction from most people when their hard work gets…trivialised.
I saw the tweets, laughed at the exchange and didn’t think much of it afterwards. Imagine my surprise when I learnt David spent the next few days building a hotel-booking platform named Afrivac.
@markessien challenge accepted, I'll start right now. watch out for my tweet on Sunday!
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 13, 2016
He registered the domain on April 14, a day after the exchange…
I had to check, incase there was any foul play going on here…
…and by Saturday, April 16, he was done!
@markessien it's still Friday on my end, so I guess it was a 2 day patch job with no sleep. one can say https://t.co/PTBYwS8UST will pu…;)
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 16, 2016
Afrivac Beta – will soon be available for hotels, rentals and tour companies. https://t.co/4pfqgpYLNb
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 16, 2016
While it appears that he based his UI design on the ever-popular bootstrap template (unconfirmed), it’s hard not to admire his spirit. And admire his spirit, Mark did.
Mark Essien was impressed and offered him a job at Hotels.ng
@Obazzy_Dave Very nice. Come and work for us!
— Mark Essien (@markessien) April 16, 2016
…but David turned it down. He wants to “compete”.
@markessien thanks for offer, but I just want to compete π
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 16, 2016
He’s already started contacting investors…
@TonyOElumelu what will it take to get rolling a smart and intuitive travel/hospitality platform focused within Africa today!
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 16, 2016
@TonyOElumelu https://t.co/xNTd928pjM is what I came up with in the last 2 days.
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 16, 2016
@EghosaO Can I get your take on https://t.co/xNTd928pjM? I feel there's a clear shot at the travel and hospitality market right now!
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 17, 2016
@EghosaO permit the flaws on https://t.co/xNTd928pjM, I just came up with it 2 days ago after mark challenged me and I'm still working on it
— David Obasiolu (@PantherXFR) April 17, 2016