Posted on April 30, 2009 - by Justin Hartman
My thoughts on BarCamp Nigeria
On Saturday I was fortunate enough to attend BarCamp Nigeria 2009 in Lagos. Despite various concerns about going to Nigeria (more on that in another blog post) I must say I had a fantastic time and met some amazing people along the way.
Loy Okezie from Startups Nigeria has a really nice summary of the events that transpired over here and there’s another in depth look by Possicon over here as well so I won’t rehash what’s already been said.
What I will say is that this room, filled with about 80 Nigerians, was a true eye-opener for me. They all have university qualifications, all have an online startup (mostly ecommerce focused) and are all extremely well educated and experienced in the online space.
The big question in my mind has been that if a country like Nigeria is filled with such talented individuals in the largest Internet penetrated country in Africa (currently more than 10 million users) then why hasn’t Nigeria produced any world-class Internet startups yet?
This seemed to be a general question and a reason why the event took place in the first place and while there were a lot of theories flying around such as poor connectivity, electricity problems, Government support and regulations, etc., I was left with a strong sense of what’s been lacking – a community.
Up until BarCamp Nigeria most of these 80 people had never met in real-life before. Some have interacted online but for the most part each one has been left to his own devices and they’re all trying to grow their businesses with very little help along the way.
This is the core difference to say South Africa where we do have a pretty strong online community and while it’s often incestuous, contrived and filled with so-called rockstars this community does help drive products online. I can testify to this with my experiences with Afrigator – without the community we’d be nowhere.
South Africa’s online community, or early-adopters, may well be small in the greater scheme of world markets but it all has to start somewhere and in Nigeria’s case this hasn’t really begun yet. I could see that after BarCamp the guys were hungry for more and so they should be. The more they meet, interact, share ideas and create partnerships along the way the more we’ll see online innovation thriving out of Nigeria.
In addition to my observation I also had to do a presentation and to be honest I didn’t really feel qualified to do so. I am the first to admit I don’t know much about Nigeria so I decided to share my experiences of running an online startup in South Africa, shared some of our most detailed social media trends and finally launched our latest baby Gator – Gatorpeeps.
Have a look at the presentation below and let me know what your thoughts are!
26 Comments
I'd love to hear yours!
I am a seasoned entrepreneur and currently the CEO of 
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
New blog post: My thoughts on BarCamp Nigeria http://tinyurl.com/ddojek
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
RT @justinhartman: New blog post: My thoughts on BarCamp Nigeria http://tinyurl.com/ddojek
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
RT @justinhartman New blog post: My thoughts on BarCamp Nigeria http://tinyurl.com/ddojek
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
(Via @justinhartman) New blog post: My thoughts on BarCamp Nigeria http://tinyurl.com/ddojek
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
Thanks for the feedback Justin!
All the best!
http://khalilaleker.wordpress.com
http://www.startupafrica.com
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
Hi Justin,
You’re very right!
I must say that you’ve spoken like a doctor who has just diagnosed a patient of an ailment.
True, there are lots of tech talents in Nigeria, but without a tech community, they can hardly get anywhere.
My hope is that BarCamp Nigeria and of course Startups Nigeria would help build that community we’ve been waiting for.
Cheers, Loy
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
@Khalil no problem, let me know if you want any other info but I’m sure Loy’s and Possicon’s summaries will give you the full picture!
@Loy thanks for your cool comment. I really believe that what you’re doing with Startups Nigeria is extremely valuable in helping to connect the community in ways that I don’t think even you can understand. We have a couple of these sites here http://www.startupafrica.com & http://www.bandwidthblog.com are some of them helping connect Africa with African’s and long may it continue.
From speaking to delegates at BarCamp it seems that everyone is keen to make meetups more of a regular occurrence so I hope that this is the beginning of really good things to come!
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
LOL!!!
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
@Colin I knew you’d enjoy that
Visit My Website
April 30, 2009
Permalink
@Justin – “I really believe that what you’re doing with Startups Nigeria is extremely valuable in helping to connect the community in ways that I don’t think even you can understand.”
Thanks for this:)
Visit My Website
May 1, 2009
Permalink
Good to read: JUSTIN HARTMANMy thoughts on BarCamp Nigeria http://is.gd/vNr3
Visit My Website
May 1, 2009
Permalink
@Justin
Firstly, I appreciate your coming to Barcamp Nigeria.
Indeed you have diagnosed and see what the problems we face are. The opportunity provided by Barcamp has been very helpful!
With your Afrigator story, I saw a lot of people at the event fired up to get something up. I believe before the end of the year, we will share a success story.
Like you said, the community is really lacking in Nigeria. With the commitment from everyone side things will improve overtime.
Thank again Justin!
Visit My Website
May 3, 2009
Permalink
Hi Justin,
It was a pleasure having you speak as one of the keynote speakers of Barcamp Nigeria 2009,Nice one.
How is SA?how you doing?you made an impact with your thoughts, thanks and keep it up.
Visit My Website
May 4, 2009
Permalink
Attending BarCamp Nigeria 2009 was an honour for me. Meeting so many gurus under one roof was an icing on the cake. Too many of them for me to list here. I post a round-up of the event on my personal blog, later today.
Visit My Website
May 4, 2009
Permalink
BarCamp Nigeria 2009: Overview, Photos & Videos…
25th April 2009 was the day and Tom Associates Training Centre in Lagos Nigeria was the venue. Geeks, web entrepreneurs, and other like-minded people in the IT industry gathered to deliberate on Web 2.0, dot-com startups, web marketing strategies, mob…
Visit My Website
May 7, 2009
Permalink
Slight correction:
In slide 9, you stated that “VC doesn’t exist in SA”.
I’m currently working at a tech-focused VC (under-the-radar start-up with plenty of funding) and I can tell you there are a number of capital providers looking for good investment ideas and good jockeys.
There’s even an SA Venture Capital & Private Equity association (www.savca.co.za) and if you look at the members list (http://tinyurl.com/savcalist) you’ll notice number of VC entities playing in this space.
You mentioned Hasso Platner, who I believe specifically allocated EUR25m to ZA for a fund. They received +-100 business plans and were interested in about 5 IIRC at that time.
InVenFin have been around for a while now. Cape Biotech focus on biotechnology, but do VC work.
For innovative projects, there’s National Research Foundation funding, the DST’s Innovation Fund, the DTI’s SPII and various other government support projects.
Mark Shuttleworth’s HBD runs a VC fund.
There are more, too, but I think my point is made.
Visit My Website
May 7, 2009
Permalink
Hi Andrew – thanks for your comment.
The problem with Slide 9 is that you’re taking it out of context. Sure Venture Capital exists however it certainly doesn’t exist if you’re trying to start an online product.
That’s my experience of it anyway. VC in this country is not focused online and I’ve spent countless hours with VC people in SA who simply aren’t interested in online.
In addition, if your online product doesn’t have a global strategy then you’re simply wasting your time trying the VC route here.
One Angel investor I know was investing in SA/African focused online properties but has subsequently stopped. The bottom-line, there simply isn’t a good enough return for VC to justify online startups in South Africa.
I would certainly like to see how many of the VC firms above have invested in online startups here. I think we’d be hard pressed to find any.
I’d like to be proven wrong but my experience tells me otherwise.
Visit My Website
May 7, 2009
Permalink
@Andrew your comments are worthy and noted. Thanks
@Justin – yes I would like you to be proven wrong!
We need to expose these VCs and Angel Investors in SA – people just do not know about it.
Visit My Website
May 7, 2009
Permalink
@Justin: Appreciate that it may be “out of context” but I was forwarded the link from someone else who had read and interpreted it the same way I did. This was why he suggested I take a look.
Saying “VC doesn’t exist for online start-ups that only have SA market potential” is also not true. I know directly of one and suspect I’d be able to find others by making a few calls.
You have however honed in on the problem: not offering sufficient returns.
If you can show an online start-up that can demonstrate sufficient return potential (70%-80% p.a. compounded on early stage start-ups, assuming you manage to achieve roughly 1 in 3 success rate), then one ought to be able to find money.
I agree that there is not nearly as much money as there should be, nor is the attitude of most South Africans as risk-preferring as it should be and for these reasons I’ll be making part of my mission communicating to people how best to develop and fund ideas in ZA, be it via VC’s such as our fund or any other ways.
I’d love for you to be able to attend the next BarCamp Nigeria and tell the guys that there are least 5 different people in ZA that are willing to fund innovative tech ideas, be they online or otherwise, and “these are their key parameters”.
Visit My Website
May 7, 2009
Permalink
@Justin: Just as a matter of interest, how many different ideas have you pitched to the various VC’s in ZA?
How did you eliminate the possibilities that it was the idea or alternatively the management team presented to the VC’s?
I say this simply because if it were either of the above two possibilities, you could take a different idea and a different proposed team in and might have some success.
Visit My Website
May 7, 2009
Permalink
Hi Andrew
Yes I can see how the statement in the presentation was received and it’s unfortunate at the same time. What I did say to the guys in Nigeria was that while traditional VC was difficult to come by there certainly is investment available but mostly through Media companies.
We’re an example of that through the Naspers group, Blueworld another (also Naspers) and not to mention Zoopy through Vodacom.
I also know a number of online startups who managed to get traditional VC but again not from SA but rather abroad. Bid or Buy is one off the top of my head.
In addition, Vinny Lingham, someone I know very well is probably the biggest success-story in terms of raising VC and while he managed to get the VC from a South African owned VC firm it is an exception to say the least.
I think that in a way you and I are actually agreeing on the same thing. We both agree VC exists but SA VC for online startups is an exception not a norm due to the ROI for venture capitalists.
When you compare the state of VC to say the US (not such a good thing to do) you can see that their market looks for opportunities that don’t directly relate to revenue. In this market you have to show the compounded return and even then it’s not an easy sell.
When we were trying to raise money I spoke to a number of VC directly and even sat in a round-table discussion with some top VC firms with Vinny Lingham as well.
Everyone agreed that unless we had a global strategy we wouldn’t make it and I strongly disagreed with this logic. I am of the belief that Africa/SA is one of the most lucrative markets right now and will continue to grow yet this was a sentiment not shared by many.
I think what Khalil had to say is very pertinent. Most South African’s have no idea where to go to try and raise VC. It may exist but is not readily available and I have long been a pundit of trying to help change this.
I’ve run 6 different startups all self-funded and I wish I had known where to go to.
I’d love to sit down with you and chat more about this. It is something I feel passionate about and if we can promote this together I’d love for that to happen. In the end I want other entrepreneurs not to have to struggle to get their ideas into a highly competitive market.
Visit My Website
May 8, 2009
Permalink
We need to change this culture in South Africa/Africa. Entrepreneurship must be encouraged on all levels, but most importantly with regards to funding/finance. That’s the first thing African Entrepreneurs think of… it’s in us…Finance!
I am happy to include http://www.startupafrica.com in an initiative to create awareness with regards to VCs/Angels Investors etc. Just give us a call or email.
Cheers, Justin and Andrew…
Visit My Website
May 8, 2009
Permalink
My perception, with my little experience, is that funding/finance is on top of every African Entrepreneur’s “worry list”
That is the first thing they think of, hence less stimulation of brilliant ideas…?
Again, it’s my 2 cents worth.
I will gladly help create awareness of SA/African VCs via http://www.startupafrica.com – A dedicated page/section at least.
Just drop me an email. Nice talking to you Justin and Andrew.
Visit My Website
May 9, 2009
Permalink
@Justin: Great! We have very similar objectives and when things settle down a bit from the high bandwidth workload mode I am currently in and which will continue for the next 3 or 4 weeks, then I’ll make contact again.
Related to this, I saw the following hit my inbox (and noted the Afrigator mention, now that I have a mental connection to it!):
–snip–
“How to Raise Capital for Digital Start-ups” Vinny Lingham
We all know about Mark Shuttleworth, but dig deeper and you’ll find a stunning list of South African digital successes, like Mxit, FireID, Psitek, Clickatell, as well as a whole host of newcomers like Afrigator, SpringLeap and Blueworld. It’s clear that there are loads of ideas coming through. What’s not clear is how to overcome the biggest stumbling block to seeing those ideas realised: raising cash! On Friday 29th of May, Silicon Valley-based South African entrepreneur, Vinny Lingham, will present his story of getting to 1 million subscribers to his successful online venture Yola.com. On the way, Vinny was successful in raising multiple rounds of funding, and will share some of his inside secrets.
Venue: 3rd floor, 24.com building, Foreshore, CT (directions here)
Date: Friday, 29th May 2009
Time: 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Cost to attend: S’free, but you’re welcome to burn to disk and hand in your world-dominating new media start-up idea upon arrival.
Book your seat: email Bev to book: bev (at) worldwidecreative (dot) co (dot) za
–snip–
Visit My Website
May 9, 2009
Permalink
@Andrew and @Justin – great reading your views and I feel your passion and drive for Entrepreneurship and more…
I am open to initiatives to create awareness of VCs and Angel Investors in SA and Africa.
Via http://www.startupafrica.com ofcourse…
Keep well
Visit My Website
May 12, 2009
Permalink
Though a Nigerian, i could not make the meeting. but then there’s the opportunity for the different dots to connect.
one by one and in our community we would build world class start ups.
thanks for your diagnosis Justin.
Cheers