Who ever thought that could happen in Lagos?
I woke up to read Sheriff Shittu ‘s post. I can relate. My news app failed. I became depressed afterwards.
125k+ downloads globally with 2 months.free download on the Apple Newsstand.I couldn’t monetize it. There was no Silicon Africa to turn to for advice. Okezie of Techloy was the only one who spoke the language of Tech in those days. My co-founder [Ivy League graduate] gave a wrong roadmap to destruction. Even Linda Ikeji , was asking me what an “app” was…lol
I had no one to turn to on the day i shut down the ipad app.Except my Lagos Art community. They rose up and got me back on the road. Azu Nwagbogu and Wunika Mukan , they sorted me out.
The Lagos Art Community was my safety net.
They introduced me to Robin Hammond. Half of the time in my first 10 weeks of working with Robin, we were discussing about the missing links between the app and monetization. Only God knows how much I pissed him off those weeks with my constant ranting while holding a fried chicken lap and can beer on both hands as we hopped around.
We did kick ass work called “LAGOS , NO BE SMALL T’ING ” http://www.robinhammond.co.uk/
That 10 weeks [on a $300/day wage], gave me clarity. I saw Nigeria in another way, I had never seen it. I could see the dots but still i could not connect it.
National Geographic Magazine saw the work “LAGOS, NO BE SMALL T’ING “, at Arles, France and they funded the biggest photo adventure ever about Lagos. 22 weeks of non-stop photography to understand Lagos.
The world needed to understand Lagos. Through my eyes, I was to show the world Lagos for it to be understood, yet NatGeo funded my own understanding of Lagos..
Today, where people see Chaos in Lagos, I see the patterns in the chaos. It’s organised Chaos.
It’s crazy to think back, it’s the relationships I earned on those experiences with the area boys in Lagos Island and traders that formed Balogunmarket.ng.They showed me the patterns. I was humble enough to see things from their own perspectives.
In a few weeks, I will release a new product that understands Lagos and largely Africa. I hope I am right this time.
The government has no safety net for anybody but we the people are our own safety net.
I started chatting with Sheriff Shittu only recently. My brother, kudos to the courage for writing this post. You are on the path to awesomeness. There is a miracle in Showroom.ng . I have always fancied it. You have the best support network in Silicon Africa group
Embrace the support!
Showroom.ng will rise again…with a greater story.
Author
Olayinka Oluwakuse is the CEO of Buyoverchat Technologies Limited and Founder, Balogunmarket.ng.
