It’s obvious that other part of the country are been left out of the moving train. Every one wants to launch and run his/her startup in Lagos. Why!
Dear entrepreneurs
There are so much opportunities in the North. The East. And Mostly in the South.
The West is overdue for delivery.
Even the startup events are only held in Lagos, startups in Lagos is over populated… Try other palaces.
Hey Man just because Lagos gets most of the media hype, doesn’t mean other startups aren’t kicking ass in other parts of Naija. Back to the question [quote=“bedy, post:1, topic:8654”]
Every one wants to launch and run his/her startup in Lagos. Why!
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I will quote Jason on this
If you look at any report around data usage in Nigeria, it’s quickly
apparent that Lagos is the gateway to build services. Abuja and PH are
somehow relevant, but not really. Lagos always comes first, second and
third for attempting to solve problems at scale. The internet usage is
here. The population is here. The talent is here. The community is here.
For the zero to one, it’s more than enough for you to validate your
product and reason for being.
I agree with that, but even while they expand their businesses it still takes more time to go in to other parts of the country. They rather get five offices in Lagos.
For me. I see possibilities in Bornu. And I’ll strive towards it.
I do remember Jason’s opinion on this, though I’d argue that tech software startups can be exempt from this Lagos-centricity:
In terms of going out and looking for money, deals and getting customers, I suppose Lagos can give one a lot of traction. On the flip side, though, it might be easier to concentrate your efforts on capturing the eyes/wallets of the entire student population of a small town.
For instance, if you want to be the next Uber or Paga, Lagos will be extremely hard to capture, but you might become indispensable if you work on capturing one of the smaller cities.
It was onces said that. “If your business has not be known in the Lagos market.but known in other cities, then you’re not well known”.
I think it’s mainly because all other startups are so focused on Lagos
Lagos is the major commercial city in Nigeria with a diverse economy. It’s urban population is one quarter of Nigerias total urban population and if you take disposable income it has at least a 30-40% share of those with money to spend. Other than that Lagos is a shthole that should be avoided if possible. Software happens to give one that possibility. You don’t need to be in Lagos for most internet businessess. Indeed you don’t even need to be in Nigeria. The Oracle’s, IBMs havd bigger ops in Nairobi and Johannesburg where urban life has a semblance of Western comfort and not Lagos jungle capitalism.
…because that’s where the money is?
And who says you can’t start something from wherever you are? You’d get a lot of attraction when you begin to build something everyone loves, and is talking about. In the end. In the end, you’d get noticed by the big guns even in lagos.
I’ve said before:
Will also add that most times, Lagos is the place where these problems are more visible.
I knew of @mukoshy’s first hosting company (the one that later grew to become Gigalayer) when he was still in Sokoto. That was more than 5 years ago. Although the man is in Lagos today sha.
I think this question answered itself. No state in Nigeria beats Lagos’ network effect. Very frankly, I don’t like Lagos as a city, but I can’t help it.
There’s a strong link between university research and tech startups. There is also a strong link between quieter places as a location for most great universities. Its instructive that even though Bezos spent years working on Wall Street he chose Seattle as the place to birth Amazon. It’s also the case that Boston with Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Umass, is ground zero for research and minus it’s horrible weather may have been to tech what San Francisco, San Jose and Stanford and it’s temperate weather eventually became.
E.g. I recently saw a post about an on demand cab startup in port Harcourt, and its not known in Lagos yet…
But if it were in Lagos heaven knows that’s even people in Kogi will get to know about it.
The point is
Entrepreneurs in Lagos should most times look out for young and energetic youths in other States to launch a startup or partner with them in other for the business to expand(advice).
No one has said anything about the events. Can’t our Jason ,mark and co can’t just host some event’s to encourage people from other palaces that there’s opportunities in the country that they need to hack in to. Why didn’t the paystack CEO take those Ycombinator folks to other parts to meet new faces and get some experiences with them…
Just Lagos!!
I’m in Lagos sha, but just advocating for them brother’s
A couple of friends and I are looking forward to hold a tech meetup in delta state - Delta TechMeetUp - should we wait before a major tech goon think about the idea and jump in? not necessarily. We just have to do what we can and watch what happens at the end of the day.
Because to put it simply, Lagos is the perfect testing ground. If it works in Lagos, it more than likely to work anywhere else in Nigeria because the people there come from diverse backgrounds.
Besides almost every successful business in Nigeria has an office or has the HQ there which provides an awesome network you can key into.
I would love to see startups that would come out from other regions but the truth is Lagos is where it happens because it provides that enabling environment and until other regions do the same, it’s going to always be Lagos.
I live here in PH. Imagine you have a co-working space and say 2 successful startups are there, get ready for community boys to give you hell… Something that would clearly not happen in Lagos.
lol @daviruz, i can imagine you are indirectly making reference to dem Obia akpor, Rumola folks(just saying) btw what happened to Focus hub haven’t heard from/of them for a while. Last time i stopped by, was told they were renovating or stuff.
My brother you are in the spirit. You know what I mean.
Dunno about Focus Hub
I’ve lived in pH almost all my life man… I didn’t find something like that.
Except you just move in there.
Man… Do something there. It’s gone’ explore
What part of Ph…cus I trust ph guys to come for their matching ground and revenue…