By Wale Oguntokun
It was all, series of dissemination, of highly valued nuggets, garnered from over 30 years of international entrepreneurial experience in Europe, USA, Asia
Speaking to the start-up attendees at the event, Tunde advised them, not to make themselves indispensable because it will never make them to grow. “Making yourself indispensable, is the beginning of your becoming irrelevant because, you will never grow. You should rather, develop and show value because, then, you tend to be respected and grow”, he explained.
Tunde stressed that, innovation is not only about building an app, but it is about doing something in a new and simplified way. “You don’t necessarily have to complicate things, to innovate. Simplifying things, is the key, in the process of innovating”, he emphasised.
On business relationships, Tunde advised the start-ups to build sustainable relationships because, over time, your contacts will be useful to them. He drew this conclusion, from the experience he had with relating well with someone when he was working in Europe, whom, he was able to bring over to Nigeria to work on an important project for Intercontinental Bank, when he was working there in Nigeria. ” Cherish relationships with a passion because, they are the ones that make you successful; your family, your staff, your clients, etc”, he opined.
Below are 10, out of the numerous nuggets that Tunde passed on, to the start-ups at the event:
(i) Pay attention to details. It speaks to everything about you as a start-up.
(ii) Maintain quality standards, beyond what your competitors can offer.
(iii) Be passionate about customer experience.
(iv) You have to take the tough decisions, when necessary – know when to shut down the business, when necessary, etc. You have to know when to reinvent yourself.
(v) Impossible is somebody else’s idea of what possible. It is better to say, ‘let’s figure it out’. Then, you can think things through.
(vi) Develop the right processes for your start-up, as this enables you to ease your operations and deliver on your promises to your clients.
(vii) On getting funding for your start-up, you have to be authentic and have integrity, as well as pay attention to details. Those are some of the important qualities that your potential investors are looking for, in you.
(viii) On unfavourable government policies, you need to understand the environment in which you find yourself and know who to meet and when to influence the policies, to suit your long-term needs.
(ix) Protect your intellectual properties, (IP), and take it one step ahead of every other person. Have non-disclosure clauses, in all the agreements and contracts that you sign, in order to protect you.
(x) Collaborate because, you don’t know it all and you can’t do it all. It is better to have 10% of a billion, than to have 100% of one!!!
Rack Centre is Africa’s Edge Data Centre, with track record of global recognition for excellence, heterogeneous ecosystem of leading cloud platforms, with over 30 major local carriers and ISPs connected.
Francisca Iloezuma, Product Manager, Domains and Support Services, Upperlink, made a presentation at the event, to promote the products of Upperlink to the attendee start-ups. Upperlink is one of the sponsors of the 19th edition of CFA’s Startups Hangout. Other sponsors include Rack Centre, Remita, Swift Networks, Zinox, VoguePay, .ng (NiRA), AskAnExpert and GoDo.ng.
Giving the vote of thanks, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr, CFA, the Convener of the CFA’s Startups Hangout, thanked the speaker, Tunde Coker, for finding time to attend the hangout, out of his busty schedule and the brilliant delivery of his experiences to the attendees start-up attendees. He also thanked the attendee start-ups for gracing the occasion with their presence and praised their zeal to learn from those who have successfully passed through the path that they are now passing through. CFA, also, thanked the sponsors of the event for their continuous support.
CFA’s Startups Hangout is a forum where start-ups gather from time to time, to learn from seasoned, successful entrepreneurs and corporate executives, with a view to learning how to grow their businesses, as well as networking and synergising with one another, in order to deepen the sustenance of their ventures, while adding value to the economy in general.
The 20th edition of CFA’s Startups Hangout, also, promises to be exciting, educative and enlightening to the attendee start-ups. Watch out for announcements on it here