I could start from now till forever to talk about the amazing and knowledgeable lessons acquired while attending the Startup Sunday lecture series but my story would not be complete if i don’t first express my sincere appreciation to Bereni and Sharon Dinma Fiberesima for coming into my life and making an impact in a short time. Thank you Mr Bereni for talking to me about the Startup Sunday idea back in February. I am so glad that it has become a great initiative of Netopps Limited with awesome goals.
My first attendance at SS was the third lecture since its launch in July. So far I have commenced work with my partners on our agricultural startup idea that has been on stealth mode for more than a year, because i was consumed with the fear and risk of starting a business in this region. All I learnt from Paul Graham’s lectures alone made me understand the fact that although startups are all-consuming, “you have to dedicate all your time to make it scale”, you can only learn by doing, you have got to live in the future and focus on what your users want. In as much as you need to do business with passion, making profit is essential to sustaining your business and keeping your passion going.
I learnt how to raise money for any startup, how to find phenomenal co-founders who can compliment you in every step of the journey. It was quite interesting learning to build trust with investors to attract the necessary investments. One cannot equally set aside the mentoring session on branding, Logo Design and choosing a name and also taking into cognizance the fact that your marketing slogan should be your message and identity.
One aspect of founding a startup that most startup founders battle with is hiring and organizational culture. For startup founders – always work with people as much as you can, and hire the best. Know your employees totally (from their working style to how they would want to be recognized). Give employees feedback at every job delivery (improvement and lags). Look out for quality, originality and creativity in job deliveries by employees.
I remember all i got from the lecture on building your product, talking to users and growing. Learning and leveraging on the experiences of the speakers and panelists on startup series has been very instrumental in motivating me to successfully run and scale my startup ideas. Not forgetting the grand opportunities for networking I was exposed to.
Startup Sunday is a must-attend for every young entrepreneur in Port Harcourt and environs. A lot of businesses have failed due to inadequate training and information; some entrepreneurs have along the line, lost their sense of direction. Startup Sunday is a platform where one can get all the knowledge you want to launch and grow your startup at no cost.
Watch out for me… #Somethingbiggeriscoming… #Stoppingatnothing
See you at lecture 13.
Article written by: Sharon Georgewill
