Thread by @Hejeoma

In a conversation with an Indian entrepreneur;

#Thread
1. Your country Nigeria is similar to ours in so many ways. The rich are so rich, while the poor only know abject poverty. The middle class are just very little. Your country has high level corruption just like my country

2. We have so many ethnic groups & religions, same as you do. Our country has a huge population problem (we are over 1bn), Nigeria has the biggest population in Africa. We have so many problems the same way your country Nigeria has many problems. Are you aware problems are good?

3. I mean coming from a country with problems is a good thing. You want to know how/why I say it? With problems come solutions, be a problem solver. Think solutions & put your solution out there, people will pay for it. I am sure you have heard of the Indian caste system, the

4. System is such that if you are born into the lower caste, there's only very little you can acheive. If your dad is a cobbler, the chances of you being more than a cobbler are slim. The child of doctor has a 95% success rate but it has started changing. In the past 8-10 years

5 we started having a new set of young millionaires between the ages of 25-35 who aren't from the upper caste system. One would wonder what changed; most of these young millionaires just had an opportunity to attend college/university & today have become very rich simply by

6. becoming problem solvers. The world is evolving, the strong/rich countries were those with military might & oil but today might & wealth is now determined by those who control technology/Internet. A country of over 1bn people, imagine 3k people besieging a bank branch

7. For transactions! It would be a mess! Then steps in the young generation of problem solvers; like Bipin who owns mobikwik or the owners of paytm etc. Millions of Indians run their day to day financial transactions without ever touching cash! Imagine close of work & our huge

8. Workforce enter the streets all at once to commute, the country will be on standstill due to gridlock! In comes young problem solvers like the dudes behind 'Ola' or the token/card system our metro services run on. So many young Indians run multiple jobs and do not have time

9. to do simple things like go to a market or mall, young folks behind groffers & bigbasket have made it easy to order & have groceries/food stuffs delivered to your doorstep. I do not know where gas is refilled, I simply bring my phone out & at the push of a few buttons a full

10. Cylinder is delivered at my doorstep. I travel a lot for business, all my trips & hotel accommodation are booked on a single app. I get back home & my apartment is dirty, I go on another app & a house cleaner arrives within minutes. I want to change apartments? Easy! All

11. I need do is go on another app and see house listing, pick one & book for inspection. I don't have to go to some high end shop/mall to buy a perfume that the price will be so expensive because of rent/taxes & cost of transportation. I simply go to another app & find same

12. Perfume at a cheaper rate. We are over 1bn people, housing should be a problem right? Easy! We now have cooperatives pooling funds to build what we call societies; some societies are high rise (as high as 20 floors) have as much as 1k apartments (some 3, 2 or 1 room). All

13. These apartments are owned by different landlords. We all can't own land, build & occupy or rent as it would cause chaos so apartment buildings to the rescue. When my friends & I first started our business in 2011, we started with less than $200k in one city. Today

14. Our company is valued at over $800m and we are in over 18 cities. Our trick? Find a problem , create a solution & leverage on your huge numbers to market it. We service at least 1m people monthly. If we take just 20 rupees from a single client (we take more) how much do you

15. think we make yearly? Think! When other people see problems see an avenue to bring solutions; that's how the new set of millionaires are being born.