Tonjé Bakang, CEO of Afrostream TV, took to his blog on Medium to talk about his entrepreneurial journey and why he had to shut down the Video-On-Demand service.
Though there is no message to this effect on the website, he starts his 17 minute long post (written in French but the post will automatically translate in English if using Chrome) with this message:
Dear subscribers, partners, entrepreneurs and friends,
On September 13, 2017, two years almost to the day after the launch of the Afrostream video-on-demand service , we stop the marketing of subscriptions. The service closes definitively in France, the United Kingdom Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and in 24 African countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Togo. Thanks to the thousands of subscribers who have trusted us and the hundreds of thousands of fans who have followed us on social networks.
This is the end of a great entrepreneurial adventure begun in November 2013, almost four years ago. The closing of a company is always a shock for an entrepreneur but it is also an experience and lessons that will be a precious capital for other projects as well as a reserve of knowledge and best practices that I will be delighted to share with other entrepreneurs.
Tonjé’s post takes us through how he came up with the idea for Afrostream, how the company was fortunate to be selected by Y Combinator, and how he was able to raise a total of about $ 4,000,000 to develop Afrostream for 2 years.
He also talked about the huge expenditure involved in the media business and how the company ran out of cash.
He goes on…..
“On the road again and again
Between April and August 2017, I began discussions with more than 10 potential buyers, I moved to Los Angeles, Miami and New York to convince them to move quickly because I know that our cash flow would not allow us to pass the ” summer. Even though they are passionate about Afrostream, the team, now eight, need their salary at the end of the month. With the expiration of certain broadcasting rights and without marketing the amount of revenue related to monthly subscriptions drops quickly.
End of August, I can not afford to pay any wages … It’s time to hang up the gloves.
The closure of the service
I would have liked to take my project higher, farther but it does not work forever as expected. So I accuse the blow, I paused … To restart better!
As the discussions with the American buyers were unsuccessful, I decided to suspend the activities of the French subsidiary, Afrostream Studio France, and to market the offer in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and in 24 countries African.”
The Afrostream brand and the developed technology remain the property of the American company Afrostream Inc, the parent company of the French subsidiary, a sale is still conceivable for some time.
He ends by giving thanks to “Afrostream subscribers, my team, our investors, our partners, my family and my friends.”
Though he didn’t say when he would be back but we know he would be back bigger and stronger.
Well done and Good luck from us at Innovation Village!
