Startup hustle is real hustle - Part 1
A story about the romanticized startup world
Hello there and welcome to my first post on the Lagos Boy Startup Chronicles, firstly I would like to do a brief introduction about myself and my startup journey. My journey into tech started as me trying to learn computer programming so I can build stuff I thought was cool, overtime I started learning how to code myself and later started seeking out real work experience.
Fortunately for me, I got an opportunity to work at an Embedded Systems startup in Lagos as a junior developer, the founder was someone I admired back then on Facebook because he is a tech genius. Luckily for me, we attended the same church and we were also in the same service unit (it’s like Ushering but for Tech people), I introduced myself and over time he got to mentor me and gave me my very first shot at working in a tech company.
This event went on to inspire other things in my life that I won't be talking about in this newsletter so that it won't be too long, why did I name this post "Startup hustle is real hustle" one may ask.
It's because over time I feel the Tech and Startup ecosystem has been romanticized to an extent that people coming into the system think it's all roses and diamonds and lots of money flying in the air. Thanks to inspirational movies like The Social Network, Silicon Valley and other body of work that has further instilled this imagination into people's mind.
But sorry to burst your bubble fam, all those things are mere Hollywood glitters in real life it's way harder. It's like selling pure water but on a pro max level, because according to statistics 1 out of every 100 startups succeed and a lot of founders either don't realize this or they realize it late. However, this is not to say there are no successful startups who had gone on to make it big.
Now let's break down the pure water ideology: alright, my name is Dammie and I want to start a pure water selling business, here are some of the things I need to consider -
- The first thing I need is funds to buy pure water from a wholesaler, a bucket I can use to carry it on my head, time to hawk, how much I want to sell one pure water, and the best spot where I can be assured I will make sales (like traffic).
- To a startup this is like finding investment from an investor or using your own money/savings, buying a bucket might be synonymous with building your technical infrastructure (are you buying a new bucket or do you have something you can use at home/can you build the software yourself or do you need money to hire developers). Time to hawk is basically the amount of time you invest in building your startup, whether it's time to build the product or market it to potential customers.
- Now how much would I sell one pure water? This is where a lot of people miss it, see ehn pure water sellers are smart but you see us startup people we take for granted simple business principles. This one mistake has made a lot of well-funded startups sink to the ground because there was no plan on how the business was going to generate money and because they have investor money they would rather continue to survive on that. Knowing how much to sell your pure water can be likened to having a business model, and every potential successful business needs one.
NB: I would like to stop this part 1 here, so as not to make this post too long. If you’d like to read Part 2 please check your email or check my latest Substack post. And if you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter, please do, so you can start enjoying premium content.