The next Silicon Valley is Lagos, Nigeria. You would probably never in a million years think the same as you tour (or just pass by) one of the poorest, dirtiest slums in the world. But a great industry growing out of this seemingly dead-end blight is a creative, ambitious fleet of budding entrepreneurs.
“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” - Robert Arnott
I had the opportunity to visit with some of these trailblazers last year at the annual Techie Entrepreneurial Nigerian Talent (TENT) conference. Their innovation and determination impressed me so much that I immediately lay down 1 million Nigerian Naira for my favorite top three start-ups...that is, once my call finally went through to my colleague and their mentor, Gbenga Sense, Founder and President of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria. The industrious young Lagos adults I selected to invest with are developing technologies for medical diagnosis in rural areas, age verification based on voice, and collision avoidance for motor vehicles. They do their work in between regular power outages, massive daily gridlock, and figuring out how to pay their next smartphone bills.
“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.” - John Maynard Keynes
In addition to the funding, we meet via Skype a few times a month so they can share ideas and strategies with each other, and get an American businessman’s perspective as well. I am grateful for what I have gained from their “sky-is-the-limit” attitudes and technological ingenuity. I intend to apply their entrepreneurial spirit to my own business.
The world has great things to gain from the industrialism burgeoning in Lagos. I hope that more Westerners envision the same prosperity and invest with me.
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” - Peter Drucker
