Think demand. Not solutions

Someone said until you stop thinking about building an app like Instagram or some fancy idea, you’ve not started thinking right.

The person when on to suggest you must think locally.

It was a stunning revelation finding one of the most searched things in 2018 in Nigeria is “how to tie gele”

What the…

Startup ideas need to be built around demand, searches and market validated items.

Larry page or Sergei Brin (one of them said it. I’m too lazy to google that now) said he doesn’t invest or buy a company that doesn’t have the toothbrush addiction. You use a tooth brush once or twice everyday…except you lack basic hygiene. That’s the level of engagement he wants to see before buying or investing in your company. A product or service that has daily usage. Most companies have other metrics rather than DAU (daily active users) but you get the point right? Yea you should. Moving on…

That is why I’m still big on building a solution for the Nigerian wedding and auto industries.

Nigerian weddings are big for no reason. After my wedding, we calculated and came to the staggering discovery that 1.4 million went into it.

1.6m if you add miscellaneous.

I’ve toyed with the idea of wedding Hero for a well over two years. Last year, I secured a domain and threw together a demo. The response was amazing. But my focus was on Verilearn. So the domain expired and I did nothing with the massive traffic I amassed.

I’ll relaunch wedding Hero just because I know my 1.4m I spent on my wedding is small. The usual budget for a Nigerian wedding is from 2m and above. No wonder everyone is searching for how to tie gele on google.

Nigerians are weird. Five years ago, everyone and their mothers were fashion designers. Today, everyone and their grand mothers are makeup artists. This is Nigeria.

Wedding Hero will address the majors; help you determine tour budget, help you raise funds, help you cut cost in services like printing, renting and accessing service providers like DJs, MCs, decorators and cake designers. Then, help sort out irreplaceable major headaches like arranging transportation, booking hotels to other complex things like catering (cos 80% of wedding guests are there for be food). This is always a headache. Wedding Hero will also attend to more pressing matters like event planning and helping you develop a payment plan so you don’t feel pressure when it’s close to your wedding.

The calmest thing in all of these is that I’m a developer and it will take me about two nights to throw this together. When people say you need to find a job and gather some form of experience before starting a company, I oppose them and say you need to learn to code before starting a company. It will save you valuable time running after developers and of course, save you the cash you’ll pay developers who might end up delaying your project and you’ll lose hope at the end. Coding is key. Helps you get off the ground with an MVP and you can implement changes as they come without calling any developer. Now that you know, Verilearnacademy.com trains you on coding. No pun intended. You should check.

Cars are a thing in Nigeria. It’s a statement of status. It’s not a luxury. It’s a statement. That’s why when people hammer, the first thing they do is to buy a car. That’s why I will sell cars. Or no, that came out wrong. That’s why I will build a marketplace for cars.

For all of my concepts, ideas and thoughts shared openly here, investments are welcome. Collaboration is welcome. Competition is welcome also. But I’ll take the luxury of warning you ahead — I’ll crush competitors as easily as I squeeze dry bread. Pun intended. But you get the gist.

All “good things” (read: stories without clear moral lessons) have to come to an end.

This is rather abrupt.

Key takeaway: look more offline than online. A smart guy once said “build the solution before writing the code” do not invert the process.

The end.