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| Nigerian startup |
I’ve always been fascinated by FourSquare. It is like a Phoenix that keeps on rising from the ashes of defeat.
There was the debacle of splitting the core app, which eventually morphed into a new app — Swarm, humiliation of a very public down round, then employees leaving in droves, etc. Contrast that with the latest wins like the huge Uber deal
which allows Uber to tap into its location data (a similar service is
being offered to other big name brands like Apple, Twitter, Microsoft
and more). It’s even gotten a bounce from the recent Pokemon craze.
In short, it’s been a remarkable rollercoaster ride for FourSquare;
swinging from hot startup, to dead-man walking status and back to cool
again.
Compare
FourSquare’s resurgence to the fate that befalls many-a-product that
Google releases. Once they’re struggling for traction, Google simply kills them off.
In a lot of cases, this is not because no one loves or makes use of
those products. Instead it’s because engagement is not at a scale that’s
deemed ‘successful’ or makes commercial sense, for a company of
Google’s magnitude. In summary, if Google had a division or product that
behaved like FourSquare, it would be dead.
So how can one relate the
above to Nigeria? What lessons are available here for us? Is it that
Geolocation data wins eventually? Or focused technical leadership of
co-founder Dennis Cowley is the master key? Or if you’re going to have
mixed fortunes like FourSquare, you better not have Google as a parent
company? Sorry to disappoint you, but there’s no direct correlation that
we can draw on. Given that
Nigeria is definitely not America or Europe, the environments are so
different, that one should be wary of comparable narratives. So the
first thing to take away here is — Choose your narratives carefully.
But the real lesson is more nuanced. It’s simply that we need time for our startups to thrive.
FourSquare had time. Yes, they had loads of cash to get them there
($100m in funding till date), but the passage of time allowed them the
headroom to refine their vision, develop the technological backbone they
needed and find a sustainable business model. However, this is Nigeria
and most startups have limited access to funding opportunities.
So here’s the thing I am
going to tell you…something no one else will. Maybe there’s another way
for us to approach how we build our startups, which actively takes time
into consideration. Unlike FourSquare, we don’t have the luxury of
buckets and buckets of cash to spend, to buy us that time, even
though we need it. Why does time even matter?
This is because we have structural problems which pose unique
challenges to every business (including startups). For instance how do
you;
• Sell in a country where average income is less than $2 a day
• Work with our deep infrastructural decay which affects areas like logistics, electricity, etc in a way that’s scalable
• Bridge the skill gaps that appears to plague the country because of our deplorable education system
• Poor rule of law on one end, regulatory capture by incumbents on the other
(Note: any of the above can be said to be solvable problems and indeed technology can and will be used to leapfrog solutions)
Now
I’m conscious that we’ve made commendable progress in several areas in
the startup scene. For instance, eCommerce is now a thing. It’s grown so
much, we now have a small army of experts.
Similar progress has been made in payments, logistics etc. It’s also
led to a proliferation of startups in the latest ‘hot’ space. But rather
than attempt to say what startups should be working on (like here and here), I believe we should use time as a lens to frame our approach in below 2 ways;
Nigeria Edition: Choose Long Term Goals Carefully
All over the world (including
Nigeria), entrepreneurs are advised to choose projects that they’re
passionate about solving and/or have some level of domain expertise.
Totally makes sense, right?
However, if you look at
Nigerian specific factors (e.g those listed above), then it’s reasonable
to deduce that you would require more time to hit a homerun. Then
surely, it makes a lot of sense to put this into consideration, before
deciding on what project to embark on, in the first place.
For instance, if you knew you
would be working on that project for 10 years (Nigeria) instead of 6
years (U.S), would you do it? Yes, your goal can be pragmatic (for
instance $100m is not available to you), but not an excuse to not be
audacious in reach.
Why is this even important? Robert Fritz from his book, ‘The path of Least Resistance’ has this to say;
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.”
Of course, an
additional benefit of picking a project you’re passionate about is that,
like wine, you get better, over time. If we go back to FourSquare
example, Dennis Crowley pretty much spent his whole life solving this one problem he was passionate about — how to find his friends. He co-founded Dodgeball and sold it off to Google (who unsurprisingly killed it), before co-founding FourSquare. They’re both location based startups.
An example closer to home might be said to be Ezra, who previously co-founded Eyowo and is now a co-founder of PayStack, both payment startups.
Picking your goals has a
ripple effect on key decisions like what co-founders to recruit, funding
requirements, etc, but to do so without looking at time scale, is a
costly oversight.
Motivation and Incentives
I believe we have this wrong
in 3 ways; internally (how our startups are run), externally (how we
find users/customers) and as a tech ecosystem. They impact on time in the following ways;
Internally
We have a weird way of
working in Nigeria (which is not limited to startups). It’s a mixture of
deep hierarchies, lack of meritocracy, intolerance of divergent views,
viewing negative feedback as personal attacks, etc which results in a
dysfunctional work environment.
The good news is that
startups can choose to be better than the average Nigerian business. To
do this, we have to be deliberate in creating a culture where great work
is possible. We need to learn how to motivate people who are by nature autonomous (developers, designers, digital marketers etc).
Daniel Pink in his book ‘Drive’ succinctly explains;
“Autonomous people working toward mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do so in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more. The most deeply motivated people not to mention those who are most productive and satisfied — hitch their desires to a cause larger than themselves.”
There are so many
perks (free meals, drycleaning, sleek offices etc), we can emulate from
western startups. But I believe one of the best, is providing a sane
workplace. Let’s motivate our people to be their best selves, in that
way, we stand a better chance of carving a great team that can actually
make great products. Products that people will pay for.
This is a crucial point worth noting, because notwithstanding any
external funding received, revenue from customers extends your runway.
It gives you more time. And it all starts from motivating your people.
Externally
While it’s good to cater for
the Nigerian reality, the way we incentivise our users can be better.
Our time horizon appears to be heavily tilted towards short term impact.
An obvious example is cash on delivery (COD) in eCommerce space, which
in a lot of people’s opinion (including mine), has had an overall
adverse effect. The point is we should be super wary of unintended
consequences. Don’t win the battle and lose the war. If you so desire,
there’s a good book by Alfie Kohn ‘Punished by Rewards’ which does a great job detailing while we should be careful with incentives. I especially like below from him;
“when we are working for a reward, we do exactly what is necessary to get it, and no more”
Incentives may
encourage activity, but there’s a risk that it impacts negatively on
quality, commitment and engagement. Collectively, there are too many
shortcut incentives thrown around in the name of ‘growth hacks’, which
ends up affecting ‘the market’. In short, it affects us all. Instead we
should be taking a long term view of what it takes for our customers to
love our services.
Tech Ecosystem
We have to do a better job in
highlighting the stories of makers in our ecosystem. A great example of
where this is been done right is TechPoint’s Expert section which throws the spotlight on folks like Eduofon Japhet and Saudat Salami, but there are loads of others and we should consciously celebrate them. For instance, Henry Nnalue who’s a co-founder of Klipboard is doing a great job changing how schools are organised, with his Edtech startup.
Conversely, founders should
also realise that it’s possible to do 5 star work (delight your
users/customers) and not be featured in tech press or applauded by
peers. This shouldn’t be your overriding motivation. There’s pride in
delivering quality work irrespective of external validation. If one
takes time into consideration and realises there’s still a lot to do, it
might help put things into perspective.
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