HubbonNG: Our Very First Crowdfunding Campaign

Hello Everyone, 

Lol.

I really appreciate the love and support that you all showed me when I completely laid the company's challenges bare here a couple of days ago and for those that have stuck wtih us from Day 1.

We also have had successes and we feel that you can even join us on our journey and play a strong role in building Nigeria's top courier/delivery company.

1. We have had a revenue of close to N500,000 this year alone. Might not seem like a lot. But ask a corper how much he has made in 8 months and then you will understand the progress we are making. We are still a long way away from the goal. But we are much further along in the journey that when we started in 2017.

2. We have completed over 200 deliveries for individuals and businesses over the past 8 months. We have a paying customer base of 25 businesses. And at some point in the year, we did some letter deliveries for a government agency. Trust me, I felt like I was a contractor already. Lol.

3. We have begun to get collaboration requests from Enterprise service companies that want to leverage on our customer base to offer them services ranging from printing and publishing services, enterprise credit facilities as well as animation and graphic design services. This is a potential revenue stream we never planned for which we look to exploit over the next couple of months.

4. We have truly been blessed by God as He has given us support at critical points of our development process through opening doors for us through various means. Mentorship, Training and funding from the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The Next Economy Programme supported by the Enspire Incubator where we have had in-depth business support services, office space and wifi in MAITAMA all for FREE!. I honestly never hexperredit. 

And finally qualifying for the Y-combinator Startup School where the HubbonNG.com team would be mentored by business leaders from all over the world and if we are lucky we could get some money. That's great to hear right.

I understand that starting a business is perhaps one of the toughest things to do, more so in Nigeria where some "successful business owners" would tell Youth on social media that it's "because of God" when we ask to know how they were able to build large companies in Nigeria. No tangible response. We are religious in Nigeria, we understand that the God factor is important definitely, but what did they have to do, what pitfalls do we avoid etc. etc. Many of these answers still remain largely unanswered.

I have been told success is a journey. And it is said that a journey of a thousand miles first begins with a step. HubbonNG is officially a year old and I feel that through careful curating my experiences in "starting and running a business in Nigeria" in a book would be essential for people looking to launch their very first company. 

By this time next week, my book "Clueless to CEO" would be live to be purchased through various e-book platforms and I would be willing to print and sell hard-cover copies based on demand from people like you. The book sales would be accompanied with merchandize sales where we would sell items from T-shirts, mugs, notebooks, pens, Lanyards, Flash Drives and other nifty gift items as part of our crowdfunding campaign where we would be looking to raise over 10 million naira to buy delivery infrastructure (bikes, tricycles, trucks) for our company because we have largely been reliant on outsourcing these services to other companies and it presents its own unique challenges.

All our successes have been achieved by a team of 2. Uche Ozoemena and I, who were high school classmates. Amazing right?

We can't begin this process without informing you so that we know what you think and we will begin with this small task for you.

WHICH OF THESE BOOK COVER DESIGNS would most likely persuade you to buy the book for yourself, your spouse, your kids, a sibling or even a PARENT that would benefit from reading the 12 Factors that I consider to be vital in launching your first company.

1.  

2. 

3. 

4.

Did you know you could  pre-order the e-copy for N3,000 or the hard cover copy for N7,500.  We can only print the hard cover when there is volume so we envisage that if you order a hard cover book you would have to wait for 30 days till we build enough volume for print!

Engage me and let's talk. Head to the comment section straight away!

Or contact me privately on WhatsApp (07015766545) for more information.

Dont forget that if you need any deliveries done. Book on HubbonNG.com

Best regards,

Ejieji Muna

(No tags).

Why am I not getting funding for my Startup Business?

Good morning Everyone,

You're welcome to another episode of Funding Friday!

If you have been in this startup game for as long as I have you would know that cash is the lifeblood of ensuring that you keep your idea alive whilst you work to build your customer base. 

Funding is the bane of why many ideas in Nigeria and even all around the world either don't come to fruition or don't exist for too long before they fail. 

I mean,

CASH IS KING

People tend to believe in the fairy tale that once you have found a built a product or a service that customers would usually follow suit. This is what it seems on the outside.

On the inside, the startup founder, or in our case, the startup team usually have to build our first prototype and understand how customers react to that product and continuously iterate the product to suit the needs and expectations of our customers. This continuous iteration process often requires money to continuously refine the product and the distribution mechanism.

Seems like a lot of grammar,

I pretty much mean, a startup requires money to reach product-market fit.

In Nigeria, it is much safer to work for a while, learn how processes work in a company, save up before launching your own business. It gives you enough room to bootstrap without living from hand to mouth and of course, you understand that the possibility of that business failing is much higher than it being successful so you have enough leeway to handle that eventuality.

For an Entrepreneur like me, I can't begin to iterate how many applications I have made to raise seed funding for HubbonNG so that we have substantial capital that would sustain us until our product is ready to officially launch and attack the Nigerian market aggressively.

Let me just iterate just a few applications that I have made over time

1. YouWin Grant (Local)

2. Growth and Employability Grant (Local)

3. Tony Elumelu Foundation Grant (Local)

4. Joan Agha Foundation Startup Grant (Local)

5. Mastercard Zambezi Prize (International)

6. CodeLaunch (International)

7. Facebook Accelerator (Local)

8. Young Entrepreneur Unilever Award (International)

9. Reginald Mengi's "Dream to Greatness" Grant (International)

10. Anzisha Prize (International)

11. Seedstars (International)

This list doesn't even reach 25% of all the applications that I made only in the month of June this year.

HOW TO FUNDERS PICK COMPANIES THAT THEY INVEST IN?

We both know grant applications aren't an exact science and when I was discussing with a friend a couple days ago and I informed him that these applications aren't an exact science. The funders would have to sieve through your application through these phases.

1. Completed applications. 

Incomplete ones are automatically thrown out.

2. Fit for purpose.

 Funders generally have particular businesses they fund (IOT, Healthcare) while some are sector agnostic. The ones that don't fit their mission are also automatically thrown out.

3. Market readiness.

This is where most of us get thrown out. We are either too early along our traction model that 

the funders don't consider our application to have enough impact that their fund would be able to gain an exponential effect. 

"Funders want to put their money on sure bets"

When you apply for a particular funding opportunity. Ask yourself, would the funder smile like in the picture above?

4. Your Team

Often times, as you continuously put in applications to funders you would see a pattern. Even when you are applying for a grant, they are interested in understanding you or your team that would be executing this fund and your capacity to actually build the company and create the impact that you must have sold to them as "larger than life". Often times, this is where the importance of building world class teams because vital. This is where most times, working for reputable companies before you eventually launch your startup works for you. Couple weeks ago, I met Onyeka Akumah, CEO of FarmCrowdy and his resume alone, working for companies like Travelbeta, Jumia, Konga, British Council as well as having run a startup that failed has made him any ideal candidate for any funder both on the local level and the international level. 

This is the reason that Uche and I, despite running our startup, take out substantial time to access learning material and build our portfolio's in order to build our skill set and credibility for funders. Your idea might be crazy good, but if the funders do not think you have enough about you to give you money, they won't. Simple as that.

5. Impact

If your application is airtight up this point, you have done well. Right now, the funders would then have to go on a whim and determine which businesses address a bigger pain point.

Compare these 4 Companies and choose which you would put your money on,

1. FarmCrowdy : https://www.farmcrowdy.com/

They empower farmers by finding well meaning Nigerians who would invest in their farms and the returns from the harvest would be split between the farmers, the sponsors and the company. They are ending poverty, one farmer at a time.

2. Snapchat:  https://www.snapchat.com/

They enable communication through pictures. Enabling you change the way people view you as well as move around through their snap maps. The pictures and texts disappear too. Everyone should jump on it because its fun.

3. Whatsapp: https://www.whatsapp.com/

Simple. Secure. Reliable messaging.

With WhatsApp, you'll get fast, simple, secure messaging and calling for free available on phones all over the world. (data charges may apply).

4. HubbonNG: https://hubbonng.com/

Effective and Reliable Shipping.

HubbonNG works with you to find a reliable delivery partner that would help you get your parcels wherever you want. We are investing in young people to make it simpler for people to ship parcels. Empowering the Youth, one rider at a time.

Let me give you a good way to measure and assess this.

Take it as some sort of guideline. Nothing you do not already know.

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Let me give my own assessment since it's my article. You can give your own assessments in the comment section below

1. Farmcrowdy gets my money first. Because food is essential to everyone and if they are ensuring food security, they are already touching many lives. (Physiological needs)

2. HubbonNG, not because I work in the company, but because mobility is central to enabling people and goods to move around. (which comes in both part 1 and 2). I mean if farmcrowdy makes the food. HubbonNG brings it to your doorstep!

3. Whatsapp comes quick third because they ensure that people can communicate easily (Love and Belonging). They aren't possible on basic cellphones so its a sort of a luxury.

4. Snapchat comes far fourth, because it comes with esteem, I want to communicate and take custom and funny pictures. I don't need to worry that the person could blackmail me because the messages would disappear. LOL

You might be thinking, I might just be hyping HubbonNG.com

But think about it

You can get anything delivered to your customer, friend, family member within Abuja by booking a delivery on https://hubbonng.com/.

Become a regular customer and get access to great opportunities. Click here Sign Up on HubbonNG today!

Best regards,

Ejieji Muna

(Co-founder, HubbonNG)

How many times should an Entrepreneur apply for funding?

This question is a tough cookie, but like the squirrel in the picture above let's analyse the situation.

BACKDROP

Assuming you are in my position where you are looking to raise additional funding or you either haven't raised funding at all, there this question we ask ourselves.  How do we raise funding and which channels should we attempt to raise money from. 

Let's take a minute to remember the cold glass of "Tequila Sunrise" I had at Jabi Boat Club to celebrate the seed funding HubbonNG had raised a couple of weeks ago.

Whilst enjoying the cool "ocean" breeze (yes we know it's a lake, just allow it).

Honestly speaking, I need to buy an Iphone to sell my market. I can be a part-time photographer.

QUICK ANSWER

Apply for funding as many times as you can to raise as much as you need to scale your business. But know this!, don't become a "FundingPreneur". 

If you don't have paying customers, you are not running a business. It's advisable to raise funding as a startup to ensure that you can run the business optimally to break even. You can always raise additional funding to scale operations. Simple!

There is a school of thought that says that you can never raise enough money. 

Raise as much as you possibly can!

Unto more important things!

Here are 5 different ways you can raise funding.

1. Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping means starting you launch your business personally with your own funds. This occurs usually when you're the ideator. You need to start work first before you can attract team members as well as follow on funding from different channels.

This is really why I feel people should have savings. You can't build a business when you are hungry. It's a no-brainer. The easiest way is to work for a company for a bit, gain experience, and then save money for the final EXIT.

Or as you work for someone, start working on your dream as a side-hustle till that glorious EXIT. 

Or you can be like me that was doing an internship (NYSC for Nigerians) and  use your "stipend" (allawee) to fund your startup expenses.

You need to start making moves on your business before anyone else can have confidence in what you're doing and put money in.

2. Family and friends

I am not really a fan from raising money from family. I think I won't mind friends. 

My parents agreed to fund my business for an "undisclosed" fee since January, till now I haven't seen alert.

This life!

For investors, they feel more confident that if you have bootstrapped your business to a certain level and then raised funding from family and friends. This helps them understand that the people closest to you believe in your dream and are ready to bet on it. This is how they can bet on you too.

3. Grants

Otherwise known as "AWOOF". If you're not a Nigerian just ask your Nigerian friend for an explanation, you should have one.

I know the feeling!

Just look at how awoof money has changed my life. CEO of Life!

 Grants are most definitely the hardest things to qualify for. But I am sure PrepClass can give us tips on raising funding from grants. 

The good part about raising grants for your business is that they are "NSA" (no strings attached). Well not exactly, they would most likely monitor your company to ensure that you're not using the money to buy land and Toyota Camry.

In fact,  I am starting a go fund me page. Don't you think this car is befitting for a CEO like me?

4. Incubators and Accelerators

These are also viable options. Also very tough to get into their cohorts as spaces on their programs are highly competitive.

ie. Your startup needs to be solving a real problem and perhaps have high potential for growth. I know Ventures Platform would require an "MVP" (Minimum Viable Product) for your startup to qualify into one of their cohorts.

Incubators as the name implies, help you to build your idea into a working business (MVP). Some incubators fund their startups, some don't. They literally take you through classes and attach you to advisors that help you grow your startup/ Some incubators are also linked to accelerators to lead you unto the next stage of funding.

I was going to name an incubator program, but they have refused to pay me for shoutout. No market from me.

Sorry for yourself!

Accelerators also as the name implies help you to scale your business through more trainings and equity-funding. 

Most accelerators I know fund your startup for equity in your startup (they have a share of your company). There might be accelerators that don't take equity but as usual I don't know everything.

This obviously means that you ought to have a business that they can "accelerate". 

There are a lot of accelerator programs. I am going to name 5 platforms that can help accelerate your business with good funding.

a. Ventures Platform 

PS: I am tagging them because I am planning to get into their cohort, I just want to make sure that we are a certain way ahead in this our business before applying so that when they fund us we can use the money to buy land. Obviously I am joking. Or am I?

b. YCombinator

c. Google LaunchPad accelerator

d. Spark Accelerator

e. MEST ( I think they're a mix of an incubator and an accelerator). 

Do your Research!

5. Angel/VC Funding

This is possibly where you can raise additional funding for early stage funding. You should have already raised from all of the aforementioned platforms before going for this. 

Although nothing is written in gold, any funding you see, collect. Well not caterigocally speaking, always ensure that the terms and conditions and the equity sharing suit your ideals for the business. You should ensure that the investors, asides their money, are also bringing additional expertise to the team!. But that's my opinion. Experienced Entrepreneurs can shed more light on that!

Just like some incubators and accelerators, angel and VC (Venture Capital Firms) also fund startups that have shown traction and growth to further scale their operations. On average, they could fund much higher than accelerators and the funding comes based on their analysis of the worth of your money and its capacity to grow. It is negotiation-based. You would do well to call on a lawyer to help you take a look at the terms and conditions.

This usually a long-winding process. I remember when  Iyinoluwa Aboyeji shared his angel/vc round of fundraising for FlutterWave at Ventures Park. It is no joke!.

If you stay in Abuja and you need a space to work from. You should come here, their spaces are really conducive!

 I even have my own personal experience with Angel Investors, I am still in that lull period, yet to determine if they are still interested in funding HubbonNG or not.

I cannot come and die. My Co-founder and I have decided to put in everything we've got and we are definitely okay with the odds of our startup being successful. We are putting in the work!

I wish you all the best of luck as you raise funding for you startup.

Best regards,

Ejieji Muna

(HubbonNG)

How to Pitch to Investors, Customers and Team Members

Whether you are a kid, a college student, an employee or a CEO of a company, there is one thing we all have in common. What's that?

We all pitch ideas.

1. A kid tries to convince his parents why they should let him play with his friends instead of doing his homework.

2. A college student presents his project in front of his lecturers and classmates in order to convince them of his research and why his ideas are relevant based on research.

3. An employee might be charged with the task for creating an ad campaign for the company and he would have to pitch his ideas to his supervisor or to the CEO directly. He would need to convince the CEO beyond all reasonable doubt, that the ad campaign would work, with numbers to explain the customer acquisition strategy embedded in the campaign.

4. And the all important one, The CEO pitching to investors for equity funding or grants for the businesses.


Makes sense yeah?

Moving on....


As Entrepreneurs that plan to build successful business we must understand that we pitch to 3 classes of peoples and the approach to each of them is inherently different.

1. PITCH TO INVESTORS

We all know that in any business, that "Cash is King". A business must endeavor to be "liquid" to run its operations. Startup business need funding to stay afloat, that is why it is important to know how to approach investors.

From my little experience pitching to investors and listening to experienced African Entrepreneurs like Iyinoluwa Aboyeji  and Strive Masiyiwa .

They argue that Investor Pitching it's more of an art that it is a science. Strive Masiyiwa in the Entrepreneur Town Hall Series in Abuja , said that up till today whenever he sources for funding, his team pitches to nothing less that 100 investors and throughout this course of his career as an Entrepreneur, he has had to raise funding more times that he can count. His advice to startup Entrepreneur is to take time out to analyse how other people pitch and figure out what Investors typically ask for.

See me at the townhall, See how I plan to smile at my bank account when I eventually become like Strive Masiyiwa.


In my own little experience, having pitched to investors twice, there are 5 things I noticed.

A. Your idea must be concise.

You don't want to confuse the investors.  Make it as simple as possible.


B. Strong brand story

The investors want to know why this business is so important to you. If it is important for you, It would be important for them. It is a strong indicator that you wouldn't get their money and invest it in landed property.


C. Your Team

This is vital for Startups. The team working on your business almost always has to be topnotch especially to raise funds on international competitions, the strength of your team and their abilities gives the investors confidence that they are backing the right people for the job.


D. Understanding of the Market

You must have a in-depth of your market and be able to iterate clearly how you plan to access the market with a plan that shows the least possible resistance as well as the highest possible growth within your niche.

E. Confidence

From my experience and from watching a lot of "pitching" videos, the people that often win might not have the greatest ideas but they had the confidence as well as a good grasp of story telling that reeled the investors in. This is the most important bit, in my opinion, because it is only developed through experience. It is said, "Practice makes perfect". I am not saying you have to attend a 100 pitches to learn how to pitch properly.You can watch pitching competitions and leverage on the experiences of the "pitchers" to be a great "pitcher" yourself

2. PITCH TO TEAM MEMBERS

As an Entrepreneur, it is really vital that you build the best possible team starting out. Here are tips that would help you reel in the best of talents to your side of the court.

a. Great Talents would go where they see value.

They must believe that you have already come a "substantial" way yourself before they get involved.

b. They must feel that the company has that capacity to grow

Hardly anyone doesn't want a 6-figure cheque. They might start out with you in your garage, but they don't want to be in that same garage with you 6 years after. The strength of your brand story and your personal character is what your initial team members count on to work with you. They count on your strong brand story and your personal character to assess if that idea or startup company would grow exponentially with their support.

c. Renumeration

Dispel that myth that you are the all and all of your business. No one would leave a "possibly" higher paying gig to collect a stipend from you whilst you give yourself a chunk of a salary budget because you are "THE CEO".

 "If you're not lucky, soon enough you would be taking on all the roles, because all your staff would've left." 

You need to be ready to relinquish shares and treat and pay everyone equitably for their efforts towards the growth of the company. This is the way to grow a great business. Don't take my word for it, after all, I just launched my Startup Company this year. But know this!. There's a reason why most Nigerian albeit African Businesses don't outlive their CEO's and there is a reason why International Companies have lasted over decades. The reason is because there's that component that we are all in this together. Pay your team well and give them shares in the company. Your gain is their gain!

3. PITCH TO CUSTOMERS

I left this last because it is evidently the most important pitch you would ever have to make and most probably the most frequent. As a Startup the most important part of remaining in business is customer acquisition (in less technical terms, you need to get customers to remain in business)

It is a "No brainer" right?

There are three stages of customer acquistion

a. Awareness (Lead Generation)

Your customers must first of all know that your business exists. They might need your service or product, but if they never see it, they would never buy. Simple!. You must create distribution strategies that ensure that people know about your business, especially your target market (customers).

b. Interest (Lead Nurture)

You need to study your target customers, know their spending culture, their geographical location etc so that you can create a product or service that would suit them. You should be able to create a value propostion that the customers would relate with and grow their interest in whatever it is you're selling. 

In simple words, your strategy must create a compelling effect on the customer for them to want to know more about your product and probably make the purchase.

3. Purchase (Sales)

Your customers after displaying interest in your product must also be able to readily access your product or service and purchasing it at the "stipulated cost" because of the perceived value which they must place higher than the cost.

"There is a reason why people pay higher for Mercedes than they do Toyota. They feel they get something extra even though they are both cars, even though, the Mercedes can't fly and go on water."

I would add another stage,

Why? Just because I feel like it!

4. Returning Purchase (Loyalty)

People can purchase your product/service the first time and realize either that your product/service is not worth the amount they spent on it or there is a better alternative in the market. The most important KPI (Key Performance Indicator) of Growth is returning customers. How many people pay the first time and continuously keep paying for your service or product. That is indeed what they call, "Customer Loyalty".

PS: As an Entrepreneur you need to always take time to relax your nerves. Anytime you visit Abuja, Nigeria you should drop by Jabi Boat Club. 

Address: Nera Hotel, Alex Ekwueme Way (Before Jabi Lake Park)

I can't kill myself, after a day's work on Friday, I went to spend time with a "friend" and I got the idea for this post while I was half way through my "Tequila Sunrise".

I hope you understand,

Best regards,

Ejieji Muna

(HubbonNG)