Friday, July 5, 2019, the first cohort of the Founder Institute Lagos, took another round of its sessions, at the premises of GoDoHub, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.
This is the fourth session of the Founders class and it appears to be getting tougher, with serious assignments and experimentation, involving real-life variables.
During the third session, about a week ago, facts and figures were thrown on the table, about the prospects of the market and it resonated again at this fourth session.
Prior to the mentors’ session, three valuable nuggets were rolled out for the Founders consumption. They are, as follows:
- Paying attention to details, as every variables count
- Bringing up their A-game regarding their level of focus
- Carrying out comprehensive market research
For this fourth session, mentors present included, Ife Olatunji, Co-Founder of Metamorph, Charles Emembolu, CEO, Cresatage Ltd., Atul Kshetry, Managing Director, Hoesch Pipe Mills, (Nig), Ltd and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-Founder, Future.Africa.
A number of Founders pitched their ideas to the mentors, who rated them accordingly and there was a standout Founder, from the pitch session that appeared to have delighted the mentors.
It should be noted that, the pitching segments from the third and fourth Founder Institute, Lagos First cohort, are preparatory classes, to the actual pitch session coming soon.
Ife Olatunji took on the stage, as the first mentor to address the Founders. With his growth hacking and revenue automation experience, he spoke on the concept of revenue and its model.
“The strength of your revenue model is traction and your revenue model is working, when you are able to generate traction, which is the measure of monetizable value and the metrics that governs other start-up metrics”, he stressed
Some of the other salient points, that Ife noted, include:
- Passion is not enough to create a start-up You need to search and validate business models, (how you create, deliver and capture value)
- Value creation, is the core of start-up creation, not passion
- Making money does not mean investors would get interested in you. Is there a sustainable competitive advantage to the way you make money?
Charles Emembolu, was the second mentor to speak. With his experience as a serial entrepreneur, he discussed the concept around unique selling proposition.
“Identify what you can do that, no one else can do better, in terms of location and the scale, in your location”, explained Charles.
He also mentioned various sources of funding that lead start-up to a pre-revenue stage.
Atul Kshetry, the third mentor to speak, acknowledged the two previous discussions on revenue, but with a twist, by pointing out that, barter is a revenue model that entrepreneurs hardly use.
“One type of barter is, sweat equity, which involves you, giving your shares of future earnings, to somebody, giving you a service”, Atul opined.
Iyinoluwa rounded up the mentors’ session, by listing the requirements in building up revenue models for businesses. These requirements include:
- Understanding who you are creating value for
- Knowing that, your market is a pyramid structure, with the bulk of value, on top
- Capturing value for sustainability
At the end of the class, the Founders learnt new twists, to creating revenue models for their businesses and how to make them sustainable.
As expected, the Founders understood what they had bargained for and they are bracing themselves up, for the more daunting tasks ahead.
Luckily they have mentors and directors, available to run them through.
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