Not at all common. The vast majority of founders are honest and straightforward , but what OO is talking about isn't hearsay.
There are actually three main variations of this behaviour.
1. Free rider problem. This is mainly due to the flood of inexperienced investors/small angels. Actually more the fault of the investors than the founders.
I actually had a long conversation on whatsapp after Jason published that thread because Jason is someone I know. And I can vouch for his integrity anywhere....even Antarctica.
So I reached out to understand exactly what he meant. My interpretation is as follows. #Thread
1. On Focus
Many of the start ups that have grown exponentially in America would have not done so if targeted solely for the African Market because of the limited amount of disposable income.
Therefore I understood the "focus" point to mean that one may have to convince American investors around a strategy of "wide" as well as deep.
Basically set up the space to talk about the three main categories of advice I see asked about in my dms....which I can never really reply because the answers would really depend on the person's circumstances
But before I started addressing them I decided to talk about my own career journey especially recently when I started interviewing high net worth entrepreneurs ($100m+) in Nigeria and abroad
I was kind of disappointed by what I learned. Because I wanted a blueprint and what I heard where really stories that highlighted luck, trends & coincidences rather than skill.
Of course there was hardwork involved , in most, only a few more hrs than a regular person puts it.
Households’ choices about whether to make their own food or to buy it premade are shaped not only by the upfront cost of those things.
They also depend on what economists call “shadow costs”.
The true cost of an at-home meal involves not just the outlay for the ingredients, but the time spent on shopping and preparation. In an era of low female labour-force participation, shadow costs were low.
From newspapers to magazines to TV shows and movies; an image of what the world should supposedly be like is implanted into the subconscious mind of the viewer.
Over 90% of the stories we hear, are told by men. No wonder the world is so unequal.
Finance is actually as diverse as medicine in terms of specialities. Just like a physician is unlikely to be able to do a surgeons job. Your account officer in UBA is unlikely to be able to run a private equity fund.
Some specialise in VC, some PE, some sovereign debt, some project finance, some banking operations, others banking supervision, some trade finance.
Even not all PE people can understand VC transactions.
So asking someone that does microlending to lead a billion dollar, loan syndication with multiple institutions cannot work.