Just me. Jason Njoku.

I am Jason Chukwuma Njoku, Founder of iROKO. Arguably one of the most awesome internet companies in Africa. As a professional (and certified) geek I read Chemistry at the University of Manchester, in 2005, I embarked on my journey of becoming a modern day Capitalist. These are my opinions. I own them and make no excuses for having them. I am also an angel investor having 11 Nigerian companies in my little portfolio. Jason [at] Spark [dot] ng is my email address

[jasonnjoku]

How can we get our local rich men to start paying attention to tech investments?

Our Big Chief Victor Osaretin Asemota’s comments ignited a spirited debate on Radar recently. 

We should leave them be. Anyone who requires 'convincing' will only cause you problems in the long run. When they are ready. They will come. 

In 2011 I sat with Jim Ovia, the founder of Zenith Bank, one of the largest Nigerian banks. A billionaire I guess. Somehow, we had piqued his PE firms’ interest. So I sat there in his VI office (which is larger than an entire floor at Iroko today), patiently waiting for him to give me a few minutes.

I then explained what we were trying to do. At the time, it was simply to digitise Nollywood. He asked me about my other 'products and services'. I didn't really understand the question. He told me it couldn't just be entertainment. He then began to explain to me my idea was too small. Lacking ambition.

I told him Hollywood is a $30b/year business. From just entertainment

See, I didn't need to be there. Tiger had given me a $3m term sheet and I was trying to wrangle a competing bid from his PE firm and to help drive a better valuation (which worked). But I sat there and accepted his logic. He is a big man of Nigeria. So everything he said was right, right? After some minutes of schooling me, he let me leave. No matter. I still respect his institution. Zenith Bank has been the primary Nigeria bank of Iroko for over 5 years. 

Last summer I sat with a Southern Africa telecoms billionaire. We had a great chat in his beautiful home. He was interested in strategic relations with Iroko. He was technical, had strategic data assets, had oodles of capital but just didn't seem to grasp what little we were attempting to do. Over 2 hours, I couldn't really connect my vision with him. What we had seemed too small. Had taken too long.

I don't think it was that they both didn't understand, I think I just couldn't explain it well enough to them in the time required. They had original interest, otherwise I wouldn’t have been in the room, but felt better placed to do it themselves or pass. 

Econet has gone on to deploy $428m in data assets (buying Neotel) and probably $100m+ more in massive content (EPL and NBA) deals since that conversation. 

Iroko has never ever solicited investors. Ever. But we speak to them all. At least 50+ over the years. I believe initial understanding is the most difficult hurdle to overcome. If someone doesn't understand your business, they can't get excited or understand you. I can tell within 5 mins now if someone doesn't understand Nollywood. Once I pick that up, I guide the conversation into information gathering for my benefit. I know an investor, they are not.

Canal+ understood our business. Their #1 PayTV channel in French speaking Africa is NollywoodTV (Iroko supplied 90% of the content on that channel). The first meeting was a dinner with the CEO at their private restaurant. Very French, we talked about nothing specific. Just wanted to meet me. They respected my understanding of content so from the outset, respected Iroko.

They understood subscription. They understood that to get 100k+ paid content subscribers in Africa (or any emerging market) usually costs $100m+. We were on our way to that on a fraction of that. We appeared capital efficient (HiTV cost $150m+ over its 3 year lifespan).

They understood that Iroko gets Nollywood and Product so they invested. The major discussion was about terms. Not whether they were going to invest or not. I am happy Jacques sits on our board today. He helps the other investors understand paid content in Africa.

I don't understand ecommerce. I don't understand the logic and economics of shipping physical goods. So I doubt you will see me investing in those types of business. I understand marketplaces, I understand market places and lead generation. Hotels / ToLet / OgaVenue is basically the same business at core. Speaking to Andrew, within 5mins, I knew the business, I had seen it before. I knew Mark knew it better than I would, ever. So even though I sourced the deal, I stepped back to let Mark lead it. Hotels has more equity in OgaVenue than Spark. For this business, Mark and his organisation is a better investor. The benefits are bearing fruit already.

In summary. Let them be. The money will come. It will just take time. Iroko investors made a (x30) 3,000% exit. Other stories need to be told to demonstrate the value creation. As a consumer internet investor, your ambition is (x10) 1,000% so your appetite has to embrace the risk associated with that.

These grand old men of Africa I doubt will ever understand until it’s patently obvious and / or too late. When they do, they need to have educated themselves. They're not children. That education and enthusiasm for new things will lead them to invest in the young. Until then. Let them be.

I believe we need to move beyond the rhetoric that we ‘believe in the young’ and just give them more to experiment. We need 1,000 2-3 person teams with N2-5m just experimenting. I hope 90% fail. Because the 10% left behind will build out our community. It’s small today. Tomorrow it has to be bigger. We need to get building. 

[jasonnjoku]

ToLet. I thought they wanted to quit.

A few friends started Estatenode in a 6sqm space in 2012. 

Fast forward 2015. 

Fikayo called and said that they wanted to speak to me. They called. These guys never call me. This didn’t sound good. I think unless it’s something specific (which they are usually doing for me) I have never spoken to any of the ToLet guys over the phone. It also sounded urgent. I was suspicious. I told them we should just whatsapp. They preferred to see me in person. Within a few hours all four were sitting in a conference room at Iroko. This was late 2015. I knew things had been rough. I hadn’t even really seen them all year and they were 10 mins from my house. They looked a little sheepish. They looked like they wanted to quit. I wouldn’t blame them. Iroko had gone through a terrible period with 50% downsizings and cash burn only recently getting under control. I knew that the other Nigerian internet companies were quietly downsizing. So here we were. The end of the road. Poof goes another $250k

Sulaiman spoke up in a meandering non specific way his legal background encourages him to. I was direct and blunt. Get to the point. What did they want? Is anything wrong?

Fikayo smiled. In summary, it had been a tough year. They were at the stage where they needed to speak to investors. They needed some funding. They felt our shareholdings were too high. Could we roll back 9%, so when they raised they still could have meaningful share. 

Was that it? Done. 

The conversation lasted all of 5 mins. 

They were surprised that I agreed so quickly. I wasn’t. I thought they were there to quit. But they weren’t. So we were coming from different places. Fikayo, Seyi, Dapo and Sulaiman had survived the withering marketing spending blitz presence of 2-3 venture backed startups over the last 3 years. They definitely weren’t household names. In fact no one knew or cared about them in the tech community. There was a recent startup competition where they didn’t even make it onto the list. Whenever I spoke about my admiration, people thought I was blowing smoke. That Jason talks too much anyway. Always promoting something. Fucking liar. 

I respected them. When I spoke to the real estate competition, they respected them too. They didn’t understand how they were able to get inventory online in the mainland. Everyone had focused on the sales market. The letting market was high frequency, high volume. They all didn’t quite understand how they could bring so many properties online without spending millions. No marketing budget? Whaaaaaaat. (in a faux Yanky accent). 

But here they were. Looking into the future. A greater future. 

They have stories to tell. This is the one I remember when they presented us with a $1.2m term sheet a few months later. Then the time they burned down a floor when we co inhabited what became the Iroko building. But that’s all part of the lore. Congrats. If anyone deserved it. 4 years of hard graft, these guys did. 

[jasonnjoku]

Mrs Njoku. Reaching for the SKY

So, Mrs Njoku has quietly been busy. It’s not all about social media and red carpets to have a long lasting impact on the world of Nollywood. Sometimes, creating content at budget for the masses is an invaluable task too. Pomp and pageantry aside, I am super excited to share in the joy that the little studio she wanted to start is now taking its wings. On 29th September, ROK Studios (with a little help from Iroko no doubt) are launching a channel on SKY in the UK. SKY is the largest PayTV operator in the Europe and is currently in 10m households alone in the UK. Just to put into context DStv/GOtv has 10.4m subscribers across the whole of Africa. This is really, really a big deal. When she attempted the series Festac Town whilst 5 months pregnant back in 2013, I knew she had stamina. She pushed herself beyond tears to get that done. At the time, Nollywood didn’t take TV series too seriously. Definitely didn’t invest in it. Fast forward a few years and ROK studios creates some of the top tier series content in Nollywood. From Husbands of Lagos to Cougars to Losing Control. These are loved and well known brands that have travelled the world and delighted viewers in many languages. She just wrapped up a 26-episode new series called Single Ladies which I am sure is going to go down a treat. 

London is my ‘hometown’ and I grew up with SKY. So it’s like an awesome little home coming for me. Even though it’s not about me. She has created and coordinated so much content and I definitely feel this will be a boon for Nollywood at large,that I just wanted to take the opportunity to salute. So there you go. Salute.  

[jasonnjoku]

Zuck and The Rise of the Bots...

I missed Zuck. Pissed. 

Mark met him. Nigeria met him. This is a great thing. Anything to shine a little spotlight onto the beleaguered and demoralised tech community is a good thing. Anything to make the corporates reconsider their ambivalence to young tech entrepreneurs. It’s not only Wizkid and OC who deserves applause. 

All the hype aside, I want to look beyond Zuck’s visit. He challenged us to build. I want to shine the spotlight on where the future of engineering in Nigeria lays. Bringing people in to the 18m community of Facebook goes without saying. I am interested in what they do there. I believe in The Rise of the Planet of the Bots. We are the most mobilised country in the world. But there is a paradigm happening which I fear we are on the cusp of missing. 

Anyone who knows me knows I rarely make or take phone calls. A couple of years ago, because of my rapid travels and the fact I have over a dozen different sims for countries I frequent (US, UK, France, SA, Kenya and Ghana), I just stopped bothering with the actual phone numbers and used Whatsapp to communicate. Anywhere I am in the world. As long as I have Whatsapp / Messenger and Slack I can run Iroko. I don’t even respond to emails internally in Iroko and the entire company runs off Slack. 

In 5 years’ time in Nigeria 

1. 100% of smartphone users will use messaging platforms. (messenger / Whatsapp / BBM) 

2. 100% of business users will use messaging platforms in some way to connect with customers (as above, but include Slack / HipChat etc.) 

3. In-time messaging platforms will become the internet and will be more efficient at delivering information and services 

4. Most Telcos in Nigeria offer social media-only packages (to some internet users) Facebook + Messenger + Whatsapp = 'the internet' 

5. Real value will be created when the above happens. Starting with Messenger / Slack / Whatsapp but with the view to be platform agnostic over time. 

At the beginning of the app store and OS revolution, which rewrote the landscape of computing forever, developers needed to make a choice. Do they develop for iOS or Android? Messenger is open today. Slack is open and funding companies built on their platform / OS. 

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg opened the messenger platform to developers to create bots. I happened across Fowotade Babajide a young 23-year old Yaba-based developer who created NairaBot. (formerly known as FXbot) He created v1.0 in a couple of nights whilst working a full time gig. I am obsessed with FX (as many are today) and I begged him to be part of his beta testing group. He let me in. We actually met in Mark’s office in Yaba last week, Thursday. We shared the same vision for messaging as an OS. He just had the mad skills to actually go and build and get it approved by Facebook. Funding? He did it for less than N100k. There is less of a linear business model here and it definitely violates a fundamental rule of revenue at Spark. But this is a swing into a distant future. A future we need to get busy building today. We are the most mobilised. So let’s embrace this bot paradigm and build solutions for Nigerians who embraced the OS and will most likely never use a desktop. Introducing Jihdeh’s Nairabot. A primitive but awesome way to get daily FX price updates. All in messenger. There are 18m people on Facebook in Nigeria. The future. 

We are working out how we can work together. So no deals to announce here. But this fills me with pride and enthusiasm for our future. Jihdeh is building the future Mark talked about. I am happy he gave me the chance to participate in his journey he quietly started. 

He even let me create him a mascot bot. 

[jasonnjoku]

5 Years a Coward.

The first time I had the opportunity to speak to Chude of Red Media at length was at the Oxford Africa Business conference in May. It was a very pleasant conversation. At least, I thought. 

Literally 20 mins later, he called me and mine cowards in front of 100+ people. That’s hyperbole. He didn’t call me personally a coward per se. He railed against all those men (and women) of means in Lagos who live in their gilded cages. Flaunting their prosperity, who speed past the problems of the masses. In a country where someone’s monthly salary is the same as an expensive meal on the Island. That those of means had a moral responsibility to do something about it. The fact that the minimum wage is N20k/month or so and most civil servants still go unpaid, is deplorable. 

At my Oxford talk, I was speaking alongside Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw. He has been responsible for breaking dozens of stories about political corruption and organised crime in Ghana. See, I thought I was fearless. He dons a mask for fear of assassination. He is a frontline activist. A real hero. In our talk, I didn’t make jest of his efforts but I definitely didn’t give him the respect he deserved. For that, I am sorry. 

See, I have been a capitalist. My first and foremost ambition was getting that money right. Getting those millions. For my wife and two children. It was easier for me to ignore all the problems around me. I am pretty good at narrowing my focus, and focus on growing my pie. So I did just that. More riches, more riches. 

When you have children, you start to shift your perspective, you become more aware of the world he/she is destined to grow up in. Having my son is amazing. But he’s a straight up bruiser, so I know he will be good. Having my daughter is something very different. She turns one tomorrow. She is so fragile. I feel this constant urge to protect her. Why? Because she seems so fragile. Her name Nwakaego literally translated to [A child is worth more than money]. Having both makes me truly believe that. 

Genesis of cowardice. 

That happens to be Mrs Njoku’s mother’s name. More importantly, it happened to be her younger sister’s name. Nwakaego Remmy was the closest person in the world to Mrs Njoku. They were best friends. When they were growing up, they looked like twins. They moved as such. They did everything together. Mrs Njoku’s moral compass was driven very much by the constant fear of not letting her sister down. She sought her approval when we first met. She was literally her everything. 

I remember the last time I saw Nwakaego. We were at my wife’s mother’s place in Festac. She was about to set off to the north to serve her country. To serve Nigeria. The entire family were all worried. There were increasing reports about terrorism and this thing called Boko Haram. They wanted to try and work the NYSC system to have her serve in Lagos. It wasn’t that complicated, money to bend the system your way. Nwakaego refused. She believed in Nigeria. She believed in NYSC. She believed in serving those in far flung places. She believed God would protect her. 4th November 2011, she was gunned down outside a church whilst handing out rhapsodies of realities flyers in Maiduguri. We buried her in her NYSC uniform. At no point did any officer of our great country come to offer commiseration. To offer answers. To fill us with confidence that the perpetrators will be brought to justice. From my recollection, 1,000 people died in those few days in November 2011. When we lost Nwakaego, our lives changed. It almost destroyed my wife. Thousands of people’s lives changed forever. No one cared. Nigeria went on. To the next celebrity scandal I hear you say. To the next Afrobeat tune. 

So it cemented in the Njoku household. If Lagos doesn’t love you, Nigeria simply eats her young. So we disengaged. Narrowed our focus on making that paper. 

Until we had a daughter. And it became increasingly important that she grow up in a secure, fair and just society. We could always choose a city to live in. Ship them out so they can be far from the melee. But we plan to be in Nigeria in the long term. Forever, if she allows us. So we need to abandon our cowardice and get building a better Nigeria. Brick by brick.

Because Chude was right. If you are of means in Lagos and Nigeria, and you are not busy trying to solve the plight of those around you. You form the crux of the problem. We are all cowards. And Nigeria doesn’t need cowards. She needs believers. The PDP won’t save us. The APC won’t save. God won’t save. We need to save ourselves. If not for ourselves. For our children.

Capitalism x Activism. 

RIP Nwakaego Eucharia Remmy

[jasonnjoku]

Andrew and the Future of our ecosystem

There was me minding my own business. 9th July. 1am on a Saturday morning.  

Mrs Njoku was fast asleep, no noise from the kids, the world was at peace. I finally had time to wade through hundreds of unread Spark emails. I happened across an email from Andrew. Firstly, it was the best intro email I have ever read before. Except I actually didn’t read this email. I starred it, a month earlier and forgot about it. Then he sent me the June Update. 

78 words and straight to the point. Thereafter he shared his company’s revenue metrics. I didn’t believe them. I have seen all things grand or small. I had someone recently tell me they were scaling up from $0 to $98m in revenue in 12 months. But these numbers were too good to be true. So I clicked on the link and went to the site. OgaVenue.com, looked pretty straight forward. Then I tried Livechat. 98% of Livechat I have tried outside of 7am - 7pm in Nigeria is usually inactive. But here, past 1am on a Saturday morning, someone answered. This can’t be right. Iroko has a 45-person 24/7 customer support team and we usually answer immediately. How can a dinky little startup I had never heard of offer 24/7 customer support. I threw in a fake name. Chidi, or something like that, and chatted / booked to see a venue the next morning in Gbagada. I never got the phone call. A chink in their armour. 

But I was hooked. I needed to see this Andrew fella. 

Immediately, I reached out to Mark (Hotels.ng) and Fikayo (ToLet.com.ng) to see if they had anything competing and to get their feedback / background check on Andrew. Mark came back immediately. He saw the immediate benefits of taking a leadership role in supporting Andrew. To be frank, I literally have zero time these days and traditionally don’t spend too much time on these things, so I was more than happy to step back and let Mark lead this one. 

Five days later, I arranged to meet Andrew at his office. He wanted to come to mine. I insisted I come to his. I don’t believe you can ever grasp the essence of a startup until you sit down and have a chat in their place of business (unless it’s their mother’s house, of course). The problem. His location. Berger. Never been to Berger. Sounded far. It wasn’t but we kept on getting lost. Took almost an hour to locate. He told me the roads are bad. He can come to the Iroko office instead. I refused. He told me my car couldn’t drive inside. Meh. I’m sure ol’ RR will manage. I’m sure this would embarrass the hell outta Andrew. But see the path to their apartment below. RR could’ve made that trip. No problem.

I walked over the planks to get to their office. A small team of smart, young, enthusiastic Nigerians met me. They had been quietly working out of Berger since moving to Lagos from UniBen. Why Berger? Because it was inexpensive. 

I sat with them for a couple of hours. Just walking through their challenges, the amount of missed opportunities, the issues with supply and demand imbalance, their sales circle, getting a sense of their story, how they came to be, why they were winning vs the immense competition and how Spark could help them grow. They had ready answers. For such youth, they had all the right logic. 

I received the email from Andrew 9th July. I met him 13th July. We had a deal negotiated 14th July. The rest was some mild due diligence, my travel delaying the paperwork. OgaVenue was given the highest valuation of any seed round in Spark’s short history. He deserves it. He was more advanced than any we had funded at this stage. He was crazy profitable. 

Andrew, with the help of Mark, could x10 his business and not touch the $45k (N17.5m). His unit economics are absurd. In a very positive way. He defines the philosophy of Spark 2.0. No paid marketing, product x market focused (his title is CEO / Chief Product Evangelist), Lagos first (85% of bookings), linear revenue model, super scrappy and capital efficient and long term focused. I love how he and his small team suffered for over a year whilst OgaVenue wasn’t working. Ploughing the profits from his poultry farm (yes chickens were the real seed investors in this story) to keep experimenting, keep paying bills and ensuring the lights were on. He had earned his stripes. 

Nigeria needs her young to take our future into their own hands. Fuck the politicians who are always waxing lyrical about supporting the young whilst sprinkling Naira crumbs to the masses. Nigeria needs jobs. Something needs to create those jobs. We need local champions, local leaders who are solving local problems to help reignite job creation in these perilous climes. As I mentioned before in my Spark 2.0 manifesto. I have a bias against foreign educated founders. No, I’m not a xenophobe. We don’t need just 10 successful internet companies. We need 1,000. 1,000 at some stage of building a better Nigeria. The only way we can build our ecosystem and industry is when we have thousands of startups building in parallel. We have to somehow encourage and accelerate that. Because today, an ecosystem we don’t have. We need to make fertile the ground so everyone is given a chance. Not just those who can speak grammar. 

I am a capitalist. That I have always made clear. But right now, Nigeria needs activism x capitalism. So following Oo’s lead, I am dedicating myself to building this here internet ecosystem in anyway I can. And it definitely can’t be an individual effort. We need 1,000 startups started. 

1. By supporting local startups when we spend at Iroko. 

2. By tireless evangelizing to corporates in Nigeria about supporting our local champions. 

3. By building funding syndications where others feel more comfortable investing alongside Spark. 

Activism activated. 

Email me at jason [at] spark [dot] ng if you have something interesting. Let’s build together.

[jasonnjoku]

Spark 2.0

In 2013, at the inception of Spark, I wrote the below manifesto. 

We are not a fund and we are not an incubator; we are a company that builds companies. We focus on Lagos, Nigeria as the gateway to Africa. We focus on well defined and scalable revenue models. We are a collection of internet people. We are Spark. 

Shortly thereafter, we deployed $2m in a bunch of companies. We lost some. We won some. The value of our current portfolio is definitely worth more than the capital invested so for that I think we are definitely in a good place moving forward. But the terrain was significantly more challenging than I ever imagined. More challenging than any of the individual entrepreneurs thought possible. Myself included. The lack of follow-on funding would have killed product-only led businesses. The challenges around monetization would have destroyed the dreams of weaker men or women. But those who were able to bridge through the valley of death are building real companies based on real values. 

In that period $600m+ of capital has gone into ecommerce-related ventures in Nigeria. And even the first ‘unicorn’ of Africa had a pretty terrible year in 2015. 

It’s unfortunate that my friends at Konga are seeing equally traumatic times. This genuinely makes me sad. But considering the turmoil post-election, and the fact we are very much in a recession, I am surprised people are surprised by their numbers. But that’s another post. I think it’s a mere question of communication and understanding. Anything consumer-related is brutally difficult and expensive. And that’s in the real world. Throw on the newness of the internet and you have an education problem. The market has grown for internet in Nigeria. But look what people are actually doing on it. Entertainment. Music. Gossip. Social Media. The MNOs have built the internet to be all about frivolous things. That’s a shame, that natural evolution has yet to really enable large, non-entertainment brands to be built. Jobs people think internet first. It’s way more efficient. But after speaking with Mark and Fikayo recently, when it comes to hotel booking or renting an apartment in Lagos, people still ask for an agent’s number. They are building long term value by improving efficiency of offline activities. But they are all facing an uphill battle. The wind is definitely not on their backs. 

To the Spark 2.0 manifesto.  

1. We still focus on Lagos first

If you look at any report around data usage in Nigeria, it’s quickly apparent that Lagos is the gateway to build services. Abuja and PH are somehow relevant, but not really. Lagos always comes first, second and third for attempting to solve problems at scale. The internet usage is here. The population is here. The talent is here. The community is here. For the zero to one, it’s more than enough for you to validate your product and reason for being. Spark is about getting people from zero to one. This requires A LOT of experimentation. 

2. We still focus on linear revenue models

SV can build product-first because they have abundant capital to encourage and enable that. In Lagos, one still needs to think of paying one’s bills. Startups need customers, not capital. Customers. They need to be lean at first and focus on understanding their base unit economics. On creating REAL value. My #1 issue with startups are when they believe ‘aggressive marketing’ can solve their problems. I always, always, always recommend zero marketing until they have a certified product market fit. And in this market, that usually takes 2-3 years. We stopped all paid marketing at iROKO 11 months ago, and we are still growing subscribers and getting creative about optimising the funnel, not just filling it. That decision was borne out of necessity, but was a deeply concerning and unpopular one. I anticipate zero marketing for the next 18 months. We are targeted DAU/MAU ratio of 30% before we crank on that thing again. Marketing budgets make folks fat, lazy and stupid. Get your money up, costs down and prepare for the long haul. Because those ‘interested investors’ will waste years of your life before they actually go ahead to fund anything. 

3. Local champions. 

I have a bias against foreign-educated entrepreneurs. You heard that right. I now have a bias against myself. But I am tough, totally reckless and had nothing to lose. If you are not prepared to spend the next 10 years toiling over your oft-called stupid startup, then you have no business pretending to found one. I have seen too many daddy funded wantrepreneurs who play at being a founder, whilst maintaining a lifestyle even I would envy. I believe Lagos founders need to be forged in fire. You need to be ready to snatch the souls of your competition. It’s literally do or die. For every foreign educated founder  - Mark there are x1,000 local founders like Fikayo. People who just have an innate understanding of Lagos and her problems. Who would / could build real value for people. I feel the next wave of internet startups will be local folks building things really peculiar to Lagos. The obvious western startups have been attempted. Most failed or had to be mutated to Lagos. The next wave who will emerge in these brutal climes will be scary tough, resilient and more street smart than the returnees who defined the last wave. 

4. Capital efficiency. 

The manifesto hasn’t really changed that much. It’s still the same as before. The one thing I know is that a lot can be achieved with less capital. Originally, we funded companies up to $250k. I am still interested in being first money in, but with enough experience, I feel most companies can reach the same level with $20-50k. So that is where the focus will be. $20-50k first money in to support the first phase of experimentation. Also $20k is the new $50k as the Naira has devalued from N165 to N380-400. So now is the time to deploy capital efficiently. I would prefer to invest in more experimentation, than not. 

5. No batches. 

This time we will be more opportunistic. When deals appear, we lock them down and hunt for new ones. Great companies are being built in all climates. These hardcore founders are toiling away breaking rocks and bleeding the stone to demonstrate that the 'consumer internet market is shit’ is just noise of the weak. 

6. Embracing failure. 

We made a ton of mistakes at Spark. Nothing fatal. But at the minimum, we learned from them, mistakes which I believe others will join in making as they try to deploy capital locally. The person I was in January 2013 is completely different from who I am today (father of 2 just to name #1 milestone - that puts everything into perspective). Oh how time flies. Nigeria was a different place also. The Africa rising story is now dead. Many ‘interested investors’ have come and gone. Many millions in losses and lessons learned have been institutionalised across the Nigerian tech space. We are in recessionary times, no doubt. Things are hard for the entire country. I was super negative for the last 18 months. Everything collapsing. Nigeria is shit. Nigerian business class is a bunch of delinquent indebtors and had optimised the best business model ever. Get an outsized loan. Default. Do big bwoys. Nigeria is shit. Then I realised that now was the best time to be active. I feel more alive than I ever have been. 

iROKO is doing just fine. We are on track to grow 100% y-o-y. Hotels is doing just fine. YTD revenue is up 123%. ToLet are pretty much breaking all their prior revenue records qtr-o-qtr. So all the Doomsday scenarios are overblown. Lagos will still be the largest internet market in Africa. Amazing, real value built companies will be created here, and after a little time off from doing deals, Spark is back in the game. We actually completed our second deal this year. 

Last week, Spark funded a 23 year old.  A truly amazing 23 year old who I believe captures the true essence of Spark 2.0 and whose journey I am excited to join.  

[jasonnjoku]

Why do people want to be their own BOSS?

There was a great debate on Techcabal’s Radar 

I wrote a long response which deserves an actual post. So here it is. 

Come on folks. Let’s not be too naive or emotional. Let’s look at reality. The cold, harsh reality.

The almighty Silicon Valley has shown us the way...

i) SV is not the paradise one makes it out to be. It’s ruthless and folks get screwed all the time.

Facebook Snapchat Twitter Netflix PayPal Good Technology

What do they all have in common? Founding team member was forced and / or screwed out of the company. Do you honestly think in the age of the unicorn most SV employees aren't sitting under layers of preferences shares and ratchets? Please. Google it. The information is there if you wish to see it. Look for the downside protection language. Employees as exposed as they are here.

Nigerian internet companies are too fragile so we gats to huzzle

ii) Risk capital in Nigeria is materially different than the Western world. I have probably had 10+ different employees fired for **stealing from me**. Not for bad work nor even incompetence, but straight up theft. Like inflating supplier deals or taking kick backs from producers or just stealing stuff. This is rarely something you have to factor in the West. Ever. If you did? They would be in jail. In Nigeria? Nothing happens.

All asset classes in emerging markets and especially Nigeria operate at a value discount. Why? Nigeria is pretty lawless when you are used to actual law abiding things. There is a reason why 100% of the Venture Capital raised in Nigerian internet startups are **NOT allowed** to come directly into Nigeria. Peek under the hood and you will see most of the hallowed startups are domiciled in Mauritius or Singapore. No one is a fool. But hey. You still will probably end up being screwed. 

Monkey dey work. Baboon dey chop

iii) I have spoken to pretty much most startup founders in Nigeria. It is a nightmare. You cannot even begin to understand the true emotional horrors of building a startup. 90% fail. You lose so much in the eyes of your peers in a place like Nigeria. For the victor to not share the spoils is ridiculous. I can see how Bezos, Zuckerberg et al are handing their equity back to employees. They’re not. They earned it.

That’s the beautiful thing about capitalism. When it’s your turn, you can do as you please.

Nigerian employers are *&%£

iv). There is a social contract between employer and employee.

In Nigeria this is broken. It’s very common for most SMEs to basically not pay their staff. Big companies and the actual government don't pay their workers. This is wrong. And for all intents and purposes, illegal. But it’s standard fare in these parts. I believe most of the tech ecosystem in Nigeria has avoided that fate. One thing I know. Most, even if they are forced to have mass layoffs, try to make their people whole. With a little safe on the top.

v.) No one owes anyone anything. If you want salvation? Go to church. Being angry doesn't adjust your bank balance. Go ahead. See. Have you seen it?

If you want to build awesome things and grow wealth, then do that. But you will be unhappy. It will take 10+ years if you are one of the <1%. Whereas if you want to be happy, I would strongly suggest you don't. Find something where you can embrace a work life balance. But 100% of the stress and sacrifice you have to make in order to be CEO goes towards your happy family life.

vi.) A good founder-CEO leads a team to greatness. A bad founder-CEO leads a team off a cliff or into a cul-de-sac. Or never leaves the comforts of his/her dreams and bedroom. But the biggest challenge is finding a market. That isn't easy in any way, shape of form.

> What it takes for technology companies to succeed: fierce, often unpleasant, founders able to make hard choices and place. 

vii). When I started iROKO, I gave up 50% for an initial investment of £500. Granted, I did all the work and Bastian funded significantly more than that in the end. Sweat vs Cash. I believe he is happy with his investment. I am happy that I had someone willing to give me £500 when I literally didn't have it. You know what? Cast around. Most people are busy solving their financial problems to free up some of their hard earned [after tax] money to invest (most likely lose).

No-one in London or NY offices have side hustles. That's a uniquely Nigerian thing. Now that may be because of terrible employers. But it can't be everyone.

viii). @akindolu welcome to the Founders’ club. Last time we saw eachother, I told you quite literally that you haven't suffered enough. That you are still early. Go and build a company in SV? It’s easier than Lagos. Or perhaps not. 

I know you are a young ambitious person. I have no doubt you will lead us into a brighter future of labour and startup culture in Nigeria.  I am so pumped to see Revova do well. As you know I have always given you the time whenever you asked. And obviously tried to be helpful where I can't.

ix). I personally know and saw Mark Essien, Fikayo Ogundipe and Lanre Akinlagun go through brutal emotional anguish just to keep their heads above water. Just to survive this startup thing. Layoffs. Rejection after rejection from 'interested investors', family doubt, personal doubt. Everything. But no. Screw all of us and our efforts.

When you quote people building companies, if you plan to be in Lagos or Africa, find others from within the actual lands you wish to change. Sam Altman. Patrick Collison. In Nigeria, there are no lessons to be learned from them other than product purity. Anything to do with market? Forget it. They probably still think Africa is a country.

We use Stripe at irokotv. We have a transaction volume of $3.5m+ through their systems. My black Nigerian Harvard educated product manager tried to go to their SF office to have a chat, spend some time, explain some of our challenges. He literally didn't get past the receptionist. They gave him a branded mug and sent him on his way. But maybe things have changed. Big boys like E and his new startup flutterwave get Stripe CEO-loving.

x). Things you experience in Lagos, you will experience nowhere else in the modern world. The people and cultural challenges are just fucking taxing. It’s a horrible horrible place to do business. Totally terrible. I speak for not just myself, but for most of my startup CEOs who attend my little impromptu support groups. Yes we meet a few times a year to support each other through this bullshit we call an ‘internet market’ in Lagos. And we are supposed to be the fortunate ones.

Finally, as my Chairman Victor Asemota once wrote, Lagos does not love you - look outside. The climes have changed and it’s brutal. Survival first and foremost. Because no-one really wins when we all fail.

Anyway. Why are folks not building big, interesting startups?

Minus everything I said above, I still believe in Lagos and Nigeria. I have money. If you have something that makes sense. Send me an email at jason [at] spark [dot] ng

[jasonnjoku]

Durex and 1,000 Small Decisions

I have been a capitalist for 12 years now. For 6 years, I was failing miserably at everything I touched. Then I wasn’t. When I look back, there is a belief I have formed. Strategy is vital. Tactical is everything else. 

Strategy = Tomorrow’s problems. 

Tactical = Tonight’s problems. 

I don’t believe in game changing strategic moves. I don’t believe that there is one decision you make which fundamentally certifies your success. I believe in iteration in inch by inch tactical hits and misses. I believe in luck. I believe in a thousand small decisions. When I think of all we have done over the last 5 years at iROKO, there were never any game changing moments. Aside from the first funding event, which led to more funding events. Yet from building an actual product and business perspective, it was very much a thousand small tactical decisions. From the hiring wins, to saying Goodbye. We have ebbed and flowed with the machinations of those decisions. Strategy is for leadership. Tacticians are the other 98% of the organisation. 

The one thing I do realise is that everything requires patience and timing. And that’s where leadership is important. We are basically cheerleaders. If you lack the stomach for either, then you will most likely fail. That some real stupid / ill advised decisions made in 2013 ended up being the core of our entire operating philosophy today. The difference? Timing. That total failure in product development can lead to the gathering of a truly stellar engineering organisation. Collectively, many small decisions can have a massive impact. Cumulatively, they form the very essence of the company. They are the company. The reason you fail. The reason you succeed. A company I know exited and lost about $20m in Internet investments over the last year because it didn’t hit their internal revenue / subscription figures. They didn’t have the stomach for timing.

A lesson from Durex One*

We have been playing around with payments for years at iROKO. Then the economic crisis hit. We decided to not adjust our pricing to reflect that. It made sense for us to absorb the costs and benefit from the global nature of iROKO (98% of revenue is in dollars) than try to improve the P&L in Nigeria. A few months ago, I noticed whilst out shopping for groceries this thing called Durex1. It was behind the counter (hence it came to my attention). They were selling 1 Durex condom for N150. To the left were the regular 3 condom packs priced at N400. It literally made zero sense to me. Would someone really just buy one condom? What’s the point? N150 or N400, is it that much of a difference? This is Oduduwa Crescent Ikeja GRA, so it’s not like folks are poor around here. Literally rents are N5m/year and 5 bedroom homes are N250m+. Yet it’s Durex1 which is selling (the image below.) You can see that it was. 

So we tried something at iROKO. We fast tracked sms billing / implementation. iROKOtv N100/week for unlimited access. In the first 30 days, we basically doubled Nigeria subs. Literally doubled. That’s 100% subs growth within a month. Granted the bank / card options is N3000 per year (N250/mth) paid upfront. That’s still pretty remarkable. And that’s only available through Android. A small decision. A big impact. We still need to solve significantly larger issues in Nigeria, like how does one actually build a business on N100/week. Which we will no doubt over time attempt to answer. But thank you Durex. Thank you for helping me understand Nigeria. Even though I have been here ruddy 6 years. Nigeria is a very peculiar place. Very peculiar. And lessons on how to build a business are all around us. We just need to be open to find experience in the strangest of places. Right now I am just happy folks are actually using iROKOtv more than we have ever experienced. They were obviously waiting to pay. But needed the ‘right’ price to convert. 

* This article is written with the express permission of Mrs Njoku. As a married man I have no business knowing how much condoms should cost.

[jasonnjoku]

Mobile First.

I am currently in NY pushing product. We are releasing a number of irokotv-related updates across all of our different platforms. 

It was July last year when we massively de-emphasised irokotv.com, loving a little hyperbole, I called it ‘the death of a .com’ . It was so effective that one of my investors was getting calls wondering whether everything was well over at iROKO, or had we finally failed? Jokes aside, we really needed to focus. We had just started building our product and engineering organisation. We had just started the march to deliver a new architecture v3. We were always obsessed with where the subscribers and money were at that moment. At the time, North America and Western Europe. We had to make the switch to mobile first. In order to build that mobile first reality, we needed to discontinue thinking about desktop subscribers. So we did. Hard and fast. At the time I wrote

Are we ready for this reality? Absolutely not. All our existing competencies, infrastructure and team are desktop in nature. So it’s all about resetting and relearning new perspectives. 

We had the wrong product. V2, which we launched at the time, was wrong. But that’s fine. We treated it as a sandbox. So we migrated to a new one. To pay for all these new engineers and product managers, we needed to save money, so I distorted the company and reinvested everything we had in product. So we stopped customer acquisition / marketing. Anything paid related. We just pulled the plug. We had a growth team / organisation which was massively affected by that. We said goodbye to a lot of decent, hard working folks. 

In June 2015 vs June 2016

* In Nigeria 73.3% new paid subscribers came from mobile Android. (N100/week vs N3000/year for web)

* 72% of global Android downloads came from Nigeria vs 39% in June 2015

* monthly 4.5k download vs 23.3k downloads. That’s a 500% increase. 

* Customer acquisition budget? Since September 2015 $0.00

* We are slowly but surely achieving product and market fit. Not from one or two bold decisive actions. But via a thousand small product and engineering iterations. 

In terms of paid subscribers, Nigeria will be our largest money by year’s end, if she keeps on going at this rate. 

[jasonnjoku]

Failure

Given a ten percent chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time. But you’re still going to be wrong nine times out of ten. 

In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs. This long-tailed distribution of returns is why it’s important to be bold. Big winners pay for so many experiments. - Jeff Bezos 

Amazon letter to shareholders. I suggest everyone should read it alongside ‘the everything store’. 

In Africa, failure is a peculiar thing. It essentially somehow manages to not exist. We don’t celebrate it. We don’t pour scorn on it. We do worse. We barely acknowledge it. We quietly find ways to bury it. We dress her up for her to appear successful. But exist it does. I am a big fan of embracing my failures. Where possible, publicly. My ambition (and something that terrifies my wife) is to retain the ability to be bold and put everything on black when the moment arises. I would love in 5 years (when I am 40) or 15 years (when I am 50) to be able to literally bet the house on something bold, something dastardly, something which literally has a 100 times payoff or utter failure. I like those odds. 

I remember when I started iroko. Everyone thought I was an idiot. That’s fine, it wasn’t a bad conclusion. I was x10 failure in startup hits. When we started making investments in Nigeria back in 2012, that seemed stupid. We were way too early. Pretty stupid. I agree. Consumer internet in Nigeria is so early it’s pretty scary today. Breaking rocks and bleeding stones for every Naira of revenue is the least fun thing to do. The vast majority of startups we funded with Spark actually had sub-optimal outcomes. They are near dead, dead or non-active. I publicly embraced that. People reached out to me and told me it was not the right thing to do. Fuck it. I don’t celebrate the wins. I don’t dwell on the losses. But embrace the failure, I must do. It’s part of my being. Amongst all the failure of Kuluya, in that cluster came Hotels / Tolet / Drinks. We put no more than $300k in any of the three surviving startups. I think (can’t even remember) Kuluya (our very first investment) received a similar amount. And it failed. Does that make me a failure? Yes. Does that make the team a failure? Yes. But 90% of those are still working at iroko or in our universe. Because business failure doesn’t mean personal failure. They are very very different things. If you mix that up and embrace the view that personal failure and business failure are one, you are doomed. Doomed, doomed, doomed to never get past that and build something great in the first place. That threat of failure will terrify you.

Kuluya came up in a recent discussion topic on TechCabal’s Radar. As expected, it was overwhelmingly negative. Mocking me. How wrong was I? The Hubris of me for writing this article [have some fucking respect for Nollywood], wanting to crush my competition in gaming, managing a business from TechCrunch etc etc. I reread that article I wrote. I like the old me. Very vicious. Very aggressive. I miss him. Age, marriage and kids have mellowed me. I still stand by everything I said. But this time I am less than bothered about the ecosystem at large. I care deeply about individual entrepreneurs and those toiling in obscurity to try and build amazing. Aside from Spark, I quietly support a lot of local startups. BUYNAIJA? Been doing that since 2010 when I landed on these shores. But the wider tech community? I care nothing of. It’s just too negative and navel gazing for me to bother even getting emotional about it anymore. 

On failure. It’s really important that one remains able to make those mistakes and keep it moving. Otherwise as people we remain arguing about yesterday. And my belief is that this is the sad state of the ‘tech community’ in Nigeria. Everything descends into a base argument which yields zero tangible output. I have relegated it to tribe, sports, politics and religions, as things to avoid getting into a debate about with a Nigerian. 

[jasonnjoku]

Honest money

Money is an interesting thing. What’s most interesting is people’s perception of it. Most people I know think my wife and I have millions of dollars sitting in a bank vault room somewhere. We wake up, count the stacks by the bed stand or check our bank accounts and argue over how to spend our gains. Firstly, we have never ever ever had an argument about money. In our household, it has never been that important. When I first met my wife, she had a better car than I did and because my little Jeep (which I borrowed from an uncle) was always breaking down, she actually let me use her car. No shaking. No ego (well a little). She has been here from the early days. So we know ourselves. November 2010. My Jeep hated me (above).

So folks think we are rich. 

Unfortunately the reality is far from that. Far far far from it. What we have is equity in iROKO. But cash? Less so. The equity we hope grows and will be valuable someday soon, for school fees and such. In the interim, we both have a salary. One which is at the behest of my board and if I want to increase it, I need to kick some ass, create a narrative around said-ass-kicking, build a presentation and try and convince them I deserve it. That doesn’t sound like something rich folk do. I am the founding employee. There are actually 2 other people at iROKO who earn the same amount as I do. And because of tax regime issues in pure cash terms, I don’t even earn the most at iROKO today. As I mentioned, we don’t get hung up too much in cash issues. We believe in equity.

Why am I writing this... 

I actually think it’s really annoying that folks think I have money. There is very very little upside. But I think there is a theme which needs to die in Nigerian ‘startupland’. 

‘fake it until you make it’

It’s easy to appear and mislead people to think you are rich. Really easy. I was surprised how duplicitous most people are about such things. Especially around regular, hard working people. Because your father appears to have money, doesn’t mean you do. Having assets and having actual cash are very different things. Having things, material things, isn’t having money. It’s having things. And things can be borrowed on mortgage. And we all know most things are on a mortgage. 

I am frequently in Accra, where I am now. Someone was telling me I spend too much on hotel bills. I should just buy an apartment. Nothing too expensive. Just $250-300k. The way he casually mentioned it. Just. It’s a tad annoying. I definitely don’t have that kind of money sitting around. But as I tried to explained to him that, he thought I was being modest. Being humble. Playing things down. We all know that’s not my suit. I don’t really do modest. 

Then it dawned on me. 

What I realised in Nigeria and Africa at large is usually the company money and the person appears (and is usually) the same thing. So if I spend millions at iROKO as my day job, it [obviously] means many of those millions are in a bank vault somewhere. That makes sense, right? 

That’s wrong. And in the West, it’s obviously wrong. 

Back in 2012, Forbes mentioned I was worth $30m. That has become the bane of my life. Maddening enough, I wasn’t even earning that much money then. Probably something like $60k/year (post raising $13m). Mary and I had saved up hard for our wedding (no rich parents to kick in) and we didn’t have enough for our dream honeymoon to the Seychelles. In August. At $1.5k/night. Forget it. Come 2022, we plan to renewal our vowels there instead. 

So. I had raised $13m at that point but couldn’t really afford to pay for the entire wedding of our dreams. So we compromised. On everything. Honeymoon, location, like everything. Yet that same month, Forbes said I was worth $30m. It still was a glorious day. We spent what we could just about afford. We invited people who cared about us (sorta) and just enjoyed the day. It was about us, after all. Most of the weddings I have been to post ours have been grander and bigger affairs than my little one in Festac Town. 

Why am I telling you all this? Why should you even care? Because I value being honest about entrepreneurship and its pursuits as my civic duty. My contribution to the world. Anyone who has spent any time around me knows these stories as they always invariably come up. And you will never ever hear me talk about how much money I have personally. That’s not my style. Because I am a salary earner (granted a relatively good one). And I don’t really have money like that. 

Only downside to people thinking you are rich and not having cash at hand. You want a lawyer? The price goes up x10. I want to negotiate a deal. Price goes up x10. I claim lack of funds. No one wants to listen. I think most of what I write here is pretty negative as a whole. That’s my nature; I naturally oscillate between extreme optimism and pessimism. But at the very minimum, I am honest with myself. Always. The moment I stop that is the moment I stop being me. 

Dapo; one of the ToLet founders asked me last week how I deal with negative press / things people say about me. It’s easy. I don’t read too much into or believe most of the positive things people say about me. I just focus on what I know to be true. And that’s where I keep the circle small and primarily made up of people pre-iROKO. So positive vs negative. Who cares? My wife, kids and friends love me. So one has to keep it moving. 

I am in the mood to be honest about the state of startups in our grand land. Hopefully it will make us all better people. Keep us clean. Separate the tourists and wannabes from those of us who crank things out for a brighter economic future. Nigeria needs this moment of clarity. She is going into tougher economic climes and wishful thinking or suggestion of imaginary success are not what is needed. Realpolitik is needed. 

realpolitikreɪˈɑːlpɒlɪˌtiːk/

noun

a system of politics or principles based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations.

On a final note. 4 years later. My shares are worth considerably less than Forbes mentioned all those years ago. Still working hard to get to those numbers but I am simply not there. It’s important I realise that and the world does too. 

[jasonnjoku]

Founders cut their own salaries

Cut it. All of it. All your lifestyle. Everything you love in this world which costs money. To the bone. Cut everything. Cut it to the bone. When you’ve chipped it, then you know it’s deep enough. Then you can get to work. Because it’s all downhill from here. 

This is the advice I give would-be startup founders. If you hope to stay in a degree of comfort whilst starting your new venture. Woe unto you. If I could, I would short you all the way down. Unless you are genuinely a Wunderkid, you are going to have to experience pain. The most social and unacceptable form of pain (esp amongst Nigerians) is financial pain. We glorify faking it until we make it so everyone appears like they have money.  Everyone has shiny shoes. This is the worst form of BS smoke and mirrors which really messes up young entrepreneurs in our grand nation. Especially those without father funds to live that lifestyle. 

Startups don’t die, they commit suicide. And the founders are usually holding the hammer. 

So it’s easier to impose these Draconian restrictions on yourself than it is to have them forced upon you by dire circumstance.

Founders cut their own salaries

I remember in 2013 when Mark, Fikayo (and co founders) realised their businesses required more time than their cash at hand allowed, I remember my simple advice to them. It was pretty straight forward. Get cashflow positive. I didn’t sit with them and carry out an ops review or anything like that. It’s not my style. Christ, I have my own problems. I prefer intense bursts of dialogue, usually in person, as I hate phone calls / Skype all that jazz. Anyway. 6, 7 maybe 9 months later, I checked back in to see if they were still alive. They were. They had adjusted their team sizes, cut their own salaries and focused on holding onto the cash they had, and bleeding the rocks that is consumer internet in Nigeria, to get more. They survived. I didn’t need to lecture them to embrace their pain. They just went ahead and did it. They cut their own salaries. Gutted their own expenses. Whatever needed sacrifice in their own personal lives was taken to the altar. The survival of their startup far outweighed any immediate need to keep their shoes shiny. And that’s why they are still in the game. It was so easy for them to quit. No one really knew who they were back then (unlike now) so it would’ve been more honest in Nigeria to kick the startup under the failure rug and found some corporate gig so they could afford dem shiny shoes. 

*disclaimer*. I dislike shiny shoes. I think less of people who wear them. Throw in some tassels. It all feels a little unnecessary. Highly unnecessary. Since when did one need to see their reflection in their footwear?

[jasonnjoku]

3,000% ROI

*Nov 2010. My home office when I moved back from London to Lagos

Early this year, during our recent fund raise we cleaned up our cap table. What does cleaning up one’s cap table actually mean? 

The original angel investors of iROKO were able to sell their entire stake (secondary shares) to existing investors in order for them to see some liquidity (after 5 years as investors in iROKO) and for us to have a much more simplified investor group. 

In January 2011, I was just getting my head around this whole ‘living in Nigeria and not getting screwed by marketers’ thing. On 13th January, I met a young lady called Mary who became the most important person in the world to me. I worked 18hours a day and was totally obsessed with winning, that I barely slept nor left the house. Bastian managed to convince a couple of his old bosses to invest alongside him in this little Nigerian movie thing he was doing. They didn’t invest in me (they met me for the first time in 2013 I think), they didn’t invest in iROKO, per se. They invested in Bastian. They knew him. Believed in him and saw him putting in his own money to make this thing work, so followed along. 

$80k for 10% of iROKO. That’s an $800k valuation. At the time it was crazy for a less than one year old company, which had generated $200, $1k and $6k in the previous 3 months. I was a terrible negotiator then, so was pretty desperate. I actually offered an old university friend of mine 35% for about $50k. Thank God Bastian did the negotiation and was a less generous than I. In the end? He passed. 

Earlier this year, after 5.2 years, the same investors sold their entire stake for which they paid $80k for in 2011. For $2.4m. $2,400,000.00. With Naira at N300, that’s N720m. Thats a x30 ROI. 3,000%. It took 5 years. 

As the deal closed, I emailed them to thank them for believing in a 10/10 failed working class lad from South East London. They believed in me. Very few would’ve then. I am and will always be forever thankful. Obi is thankful. Kaego is thankful. Mary is thankful. 

As for now, the Njokus sold nothing. Not one single share. We could’ve asked. But we believe in the future. We believe that iROKO is at the cusp of reaching the potential I have always dreamed about. 5 years in, I still feel fortunate for the opportunity my angels and subsequent investors have placed in me. For one, I will, and have never, taken that for granted. 

Create your luck, seize your good fortune and embrace risk: they’ll get used to you.

[jasonnjoku]

iROKO and Canal+ = iroko+

So after a few crazy weeks of work cranking the iROKO and Canal+ teams, we have given birth to something delightful. Something we hope is valuable to the 250m residents of French Speaking Africa (FSA). Welcome iroko+ 

* Above, FSA countries

Today we go live across all countries in French Speaking Africa.There will almost 1,800 hrs of French dubbed Nollywood, Telenovelas and African series. And even better, we are going to make it free until 1st June 2016. So viewers across FSA can enjoy all this content at their leisure whilst we gather data on their content preferences and viewing habits. We are really about educating, evangelising and embracing a new audience for paid video content in Africa. We believe in localisation, so the entire app will be fully translated into French (text/audio visual) to truly bring it to life for the FSA market. We believe in bringing viewers to content they’ll love, this is the first realisation of that and we (at iROKO) are so excited about breaking the language barrier in FSA. 

I’ve long been chomping at the bit to explore FSA. It’s been on my radar as an audience and target market to bring content to, but other aspects of the business have precluded me from truly diving into this market. Until now. This launch goes far beyond exploration; it’s a considerable expansion for us, and a real test of the new iROKO / Canal+O partnership. So here’s to a new chapter in iROKO. Time to change up. 

[jasonnjoku]

Not another raise!

This is how I have felt for the last 5 years since founding iROKO. If you are a TWD fan, you can no doubt understand this moment. It’s the point of utter helplessness. It is the moment one of the most popular characters is mauled to death in one of the most brutal on screen deaths I have ever witnessed. To me, it’s when failure and obituaries manifest into flesh eating zombie Twitter trolls. But that is no more. 

Today, iROKO closed a $19m content and capital from existing investors and France’s Vivendi/Canal+ Groupe. Albeit in this case it was more than another round. This time it was very different. We have our first strategic investor, someone with an expressed interest in acquiring the entire company, were we to reach the potentials ahead of us, yet at the same time flexible enough to enable me to build the NASDAQ-listed company I have always dreamed of. Irrespective of the future, Vivendi/Canal Overseas are not just any type of strategic. They have been in French speaking Africa for over 20 years and have a long view on how Africa is to emerge and arise from its current macro predicament. So many international investors have taken flight as the bullish Africa Rising story reversed to our current situation today. They are weak. Frontier markets require steel. Without the stomach for Africa. You can’t create and capture the value for Africa. Only those who are really here for the long term can see beyond today’s narrative and into the future where 1 billion people become connected, communicate and entertained in new exciting ways. 

Escape velocity. 

I believe now is also an important point for iROKO. After the aggressive cost saving judo performed over the last few months, we are now touching distance from cash flow positivity. In as much as we have the capital to invest to our heart’s content, it’s important to me personally that we have the discipline to reach cash flow positivity first. This is a truly remarkable milestone. From experience, it’s really really easy to spend money when you have it. So we won’t. 2014 YoY 2015 revenue growth was 100%+. In simple terms, we doubled our revenue. My ambition in 2016 is to basically double it again. We are within touching distance of that. We have a truly integrated company. From content financing and production, to content curation and aggregation. To distribution across all platforms and all geographies. The moat we have created around iROKO is incomparable in Nigerian content history. We are no longer a startup. We are defining the future of Nollywood. We hope for the better. Looking forward to 2020, I know the world will change. I am aware that the elephants have entered the field. In this case, we are retreating to our core. Focusing on the things only iROKO can do in Nigeria, in Nollywood, at scale, then extending that and bringing content our viewers globally love closer to them. Over the next few months, you will see what that actually means. What localisation really means. How we view the world and Africa not as a market to be ceased and exploited, but as an opportunity to unify the culture of her largest population and economy; Nigeria and bring it to her brothers and sisters in Africa and then the world. Her aspirations. Her fears. Her short comings. Her spiritual intensity. Her comedy. Her hypebole. Her families. Her reality. Our reality. 

Impose ta chance, serre ton bonheur et va vers ton risque. A te regarder, ils s’habitueront - René Char

Create your luck, seize your good fortune and embrace risk: they’ll get used to you. 

[jasonnjoku]

Android in Africa

Yesterday and today ‘Netflix in Nigeria’ has trended on Twitter. It was picked up by every blog / newspaper as something amazing (which it most certainly is). Free launch PR of the like I haven’t seen for a consumer internet product in Nigeria. Dreamy, even. So jealous. 

I thought I would take a quick peek at the data. Retweets aside, you know that’s important too. Firstly. Take the data with a pinch of salt. I believe this will change over time. Radically. And compared to Netflix, we perform incredibly well for Nigerians of a certain income bracket. 

Today.

- iOS downloads in Nigeria - Netflix #1

- Android downloads in Nigeria - Netflix #126

- Android downloads in Nigeria -  irokotv (beta) #207

So it’s not like our new Android product is setting the world on fire. But it’s beta and will (like Netflix improve). And it was only released on Monday. So nothing for nothing. 

As I mentioned yesterday, we are focused on Nollywood, download and Android in Africa. We started that process 6 months ago. We are super early on this journey. The data shows it all. Africa = Android. Nigeria = Android. On Android in Africa, I think we are going to be okay. As I mentioned before, iOS is largely confined to the 0.5%. We are building our product to embrace the fragilities of the Android platform, yet also amplify its idiosyncrasies which are impossible or foreign to iOS as a platform. 

Nollywood in Africa is surprisingly doing just fine, inasmuch as the data is a little old. Is it that young Twitter users don’t watch Nollywood? Perhaps so. But they are definitely in the minority. 

Yesterday we released. 

It’s not Jessica Jones. But with 90% subscriber rating and...

Anyway. It is well. Back to the crank.

My favourite song at the moment is Connect by Phyno. Some lyrics to digest. 

------- the poorly translated version --------

Hnnn! Icho my money, wete colat, wete colat

The boy nachi ma owete alert, nwete alert

You're not even messing with my connect, with my connect

Years ago I'll never forget, never forget

[Chorus]

"Them say I no go go far

"Ha si na m di local

Ha si emena emena emena

The boy local

Ewelo! nwa no qualm 

Asim gi how far

Emena nkuja oh

I'll be your supernova

------- the english version --------

if you want ma money bring colat(eral) bring colat(eral) 

before you will get alert, get alert 

you´re not even messing with my connect, with my connect 

years ago, i´ll never forget never forget 

 (chorus) 

Them say i no go go far 

them say am local 

them say no do no do no do 

the boy local 

no problem all is good 

i ask you how far 

dont fear i be your supernova