Thread by @ShoutsAndMiras

I’m at an Lagos Young Professionals Innovation Club event on investing in start-ups to support my friend @AffiSupaStar who is moderating the panel. Live tweets to follow as the event gets underway! Grab your 🍿 and stay tuned...

Whoops, forgot to tag them... I think the handle is @lypicng. The panelists are all in their seats and the mic works! First things first, a vote of thanks to everyone who came to the event.

The panelists are:
Razaq Ahmed from @cowrywise
Tomi Otudeko from @ItannaAfrica
Dayo Koleowo from @microtraction
Yvonne Johnson from Indicina

Q for Razaq: beyond the deck, what work goes into fundraising and building relationships with people who you want to invest?

A: you can’t tell what impact an investor will have on your company from the first or even second conversation- you have to get to know each other.

It’s important for the entrepreneur to do diligence on the investor! You need to know who you are going into business with.

Q for Tomi: what sets a successful entrepreneur apart from one who flounders?

A: as an entrepreneur, you need to be able to listen & to explain your model very clearly. It’s also important to know what you don’t know! Be dogged, but in a respectful way.

Q for Dayo: how do you invest in pre-seed companies? What do you look for?

A: pre-seed investing is difficult. We DO need to see an MVP, even at the early stage. @microtraction wants to see 1) your one line pitch, 2) your traction, and 3) your team.

Some red flags for early stage investors include:
- Many years of work with little traction or growth
- A tech entrepreneur without a technical person on their team

#investinginstartups

It’s super important to be able to communicate your idea clearly and concisely: to investors, to cofounders, to customers.

Q for Yvonne: how do you build a founding team?

A: when you’re an investor, the founding team is important. You ask yourself “can this team pull it off?” When you’re on the other side of the table, you still need to ask yourself this question!!

The founding team needs to have passion for what the company wants to build and should have some related skills. Understand what drives them is important too - you want to be able to motivate them to do their best for you.

Q for Yvonne: what foundation our work experience do you need to be able to stay a company?

A: working in a big company gives you an idea of what things look like at scale. Your business will be small but if you need an appreciation for what systems are required to get big.

Interaction with different functions of a company also really helps, because when you’re running a startup you’re doing everything from payroll to HR to janitorial services. A little exposure to those areas can help in the early stages when staffing is lean.

Q for Dayo: how do we enlarge the investment ecosystem?

A: there’s a death of quality startups. People are trying to build stuff but many are not investable. When many people are trying to provide the same solution for the same problem, they need to focus on what sets them apart

It’s also important for founders to understand how their equity and ownership works.

Same Q to Tomi

A: in addition to building the company, founders need to learn a lot of other things outside of the core business itself. It’s harder for people straight out of school to start and run a large successful business than it is for people with some work experience.

Working first can give you more skills, a deeper network, and can also make you more credible to investors.

Q from Audience to Dayo: can you keep applying for investment if you’ve been rejected before?

A: yes, but it’s important to take the feedback, understand why you didn’t get funding the first time, and make changes or progress. The best founders are executers: they get sh*t done.

A final recap!