# The Truth About Raising Money: It's Not What You Think

An episode of [Unscripted with Raygan](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1729903319), 17 Dec 2025, 1 h 06 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/b38f1ed0/podcast/play/112754956/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-11-17%2F414540906-44100-2-e7cab8cfc91ca.mp3

What actually makes a business investor-ready, and why do most founders get it wrong?In this episode of Unscripted with Raygan, we sit down with Nnamdi of Intellectual Plug to break down what investors are truly looking for, beyond pitch decks and buzzwords. This is a practical, no-fluff conversation for founders who want to stop guessing and start building businesses that can attract serious capital. We talk about the gap between having an idea and being fundable, the most common mistakes founders make when seeking investment, why numbers matter more than passion, and how to structure your business model so it actually makes sense to investors.If you’re building towards 2026, thinking about grants, crowdfunding, pre-seed funding, or external capital, this episode gives you clarity on:How investors think1. When (and when not) to seek funding2. How to value your business correctly3. What makes a business investible, not just interestingThis conversation is for founders who want to build with intention, structure, and long-term sustainability.CONNECT WITH INTELLECTUAL PLUG:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theintellectualplug/?hl=enLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-intellectual-plug/🎥 New episodes every Wednesday📌 Subscribe for honest conversations with builders across business, tech, and creativity.#UnscriptedWithRaygan #Entrepreneurship #StartupFunding #Investors #BuildingInAfrica #Business2026Support the Show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rayganofficialCONNECT WITH RAYGAN:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rayganofficialTwitter - https://twitter.com/rayganofficialLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/reaganmarfo/Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@rayganofficial?_t=ZM-8tHBftDyYdx&_r=1🎵 Music in this video is from Epidemic Sound: Sign up: https://share.epidemicsound.com/gu55sw📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more inspiring interviews!

## Transcript

[0:00] What do you think is the gap between having the idea and then
[0:03] being able to get access to funding?
[0:04] Frankly, it's investment readiness.
[0:07] What is the work that you have done?
[0:09] I like to describe it as sweat equity.
[0:10] Have you validated this idea? That kind of work?
[0:13] It's boring, it's tiring, but it is most important as that's how
[0:18] you validate an idea before you even start looking for money.
[0:21] There are two angles to a proper business plan.
[0:24] There is the English speaking side of things that describes
[0:28] the idea and then there is the numbers speaking side of things.
[0:32] Founders think that raising funds is a metric for success,
[0:36] right? But in reality, when you raise
[0:39] money, that's even the beginning of your problems.
[0:41] The investors are looking for founders who are risk takers or
[0:44] still very intentional. Before you go for a grant, check
[0:48] out three things. Firstly, my advice for those who
[0:52] are starting off new you have an idea.
[0:55] You have no business with debt whatsoever.
[0:57] You want to ensure that your business has the cash flow.
[1:00] I do believe a great pitch can make up for weak numbers so.
[1:04] Make sure you can answer these three questions before you start
[1:06] going for investment. The first one.
[1:08] Is Namdi You're welcome transcripted?
[1:10] Thank you, Ray. Nice to be here.
[1:12] Yeah, I'm, I'm so happy that you said yes to us.
[1:14] I know the notice was very short.
[1:16] You are the second Nigerian guest on this podcast.
[1:19] Hopefully, next day we'll do more, but thank you.
[1:21] Thank you so much for coming. I want us to get right.
[1:23] Thank you for yeah, sure. Into this, but before that, how
[1:26] are you doing? Like genuinely.
[1:27] I'm very, very well. Are you sure?
[1:29] Splendid. Yes.
[1:30] How has 2025 will be the years coming to an end?
[1:32] How was a great year? Funnier enough without sounding
[1:35] cliche. It's literally been my best
[1:37] year. Oh wow.
[1:39] Personally and in terms of work in terms of for the company as
[1:43] well too experienced new levels of growth, right, It's been
[1:47] amazing. I'm fine.
[1:48] Beautiful, beautiful for someone that'll be watching this
[1:51] conversation for the next one hour.
[1:53] Who is Namdi? And then turned out to your
[1:55] business, the intellectual plot, right?
[1:58] What do you guys do? What was the problem you guys
[2:00] were trying to solve? When I heard about you guys for
[2:01] the first time, the name was very intriguing.
[2:03] I'm like intellectual plot. What are they doing?
[2:06] So can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
[2:08] OK, so Namdi's namdi. It's the next answer, but my
[2:14] name is Namdiwachku. I am an economist.
[2:17] By background, I studied economics, but by professional
[2:20] I've gotten into business development, startup support,
[2:24] mentorship, advisory and general business development experts.
[2:29] If you like to put it in one phrase, what do we do at the
[2:33] Intellectual blog? I'd like to use another phrase
[2:36] to describe it, investment readiness for start up founders.
[2:39] I know that in the course of our conversations we'll go deeper
[2:42] into that. But Simply put, business owners,
[2:46] founders, it's not strange to hear people say entrepreneurs
[2:53] say I'm looking for funding, I'm looking to raise funding, I'm
[2:56] looking for investors. Investors on the other hand, so
[3:00] that's one hand. Investors, on the other hand
[3:03] have money but are looking for ways to make more money.
[3:06] And so they are saying where can I put this?
[3:08] Where's the fertile ground? I can put this, you know, like
[3:10] to generate more money. However, they are being very
[3:13] careful. They want to ensure that they
[3:16] don't just throw money into what the Bible would call us on
[3:19] fertile grounds. Yeah.
[3:21] So we help investors ensure that they're throwing their money
[3:25] into fertile grounds. And we help startups ensure that
[3:28] whenever they do reach out to investors, they are seen,
[3:31] perceived and are truly fertile grounds for that investment they
[3:35] are looking. For So you're helping two people
[3:37] here. Yes, the startup founders and
[3:40] then they investors. What what made you start this?
[3:43] Because I know you're running this with your wife.
[3:44] If I'm correct, somewhere around 2019, yes.
[3:47] What's what was the reason why did you start this?
[3:50] Ray, this is unscripted. So I'll give you, you know,
[3:53] there are, there are, there are smart ways to answer that and it
[3:56] will sound very nice, but the truth is I started out, you
[4:01] know, as a side hustle writing business plans.
[4:04] It's something I learnt on my own.
[4:07] But anybody who is in the space knows that there are two angles
[4:12] to a proper business plan. There is the English speaking
[4:16] side of things that describes the idea, the market, the
[4:20] advantages, the core strength or the unique selling point of
[4:24] whatever that business may be. And then there is the, I like to
[4:28] call that the narrative. And then there is the numbers
[4:31] speaking side of things, you know where you now have to, OK,
[4:34] I'm going into business, what are the numbers saying is 1 + 1
[4:37] equal to 2 and is 2 -, 1 equal to 1?
[4:41] So when I started out, I was the narrative guy.
[4:44] I could write business plans really solidly very well, but I
[4:48] had a skill missing. I noticed that the quality of
[4:52] our business plans was missing proper financial analysis and
[4:57] that skill was missing. It kept being missing until I
[5:04] found Zenab. That's probably story for
[5:07] another minute or you know coming further down our
[5:10] conversation. But when I did find Zenab, then
[5:13] I had what I could call a full scope or full service end to end
[5:19] business development service that was worth the missing link
[5:23] was, you know, And so we started out as a side hustle, but slowly
[5:28] began to see how our services was genuinely making a change.
[5:34] We slowly began to see how a business owner who had probably
[5:39] applied for grants or for business funding 2 three times
[5:45] before they met us, you know, could now access this grant to
[5:49] access this loan after working with us.
[5:51] So yeah, that that that's literally how or why it started
[5:57] basically to we started first and foremost as a result of a
[6:01] missing skill in my own skill sense, yes.
[6:04] And then when we started working together and seeing the kind of
[6:08] effect or impact that our work hard on start up founders and
[6:12] seeing people access funding from our work, then it now blew
[6:16] up into a proper full-fledged service.
[6:19] I love that. Let's let's take a business
[6:21] corner, right? A lot of people have business
[6:23] ideas, great ideas, yes. And a couple of weeks ago, I was
[6:26] talking to one guy and I was talking about how in this
[6:28] particular, everybody wants to be an entrepreneur.
[6:31] Everybody has an idea, every single person.
[6:33] I'm sure if we go around, everybody has an idea.
[6:35] But the most times when you start with that idea, the
[6:38] difficult thing now becomes the funding, which you mentioned at
[6:40] the beginning, right, mostly. One of the difficult one, one of
[6:43] the. Difficult things.
[6:44] What do you think is the gab between having the idea and then
[6:47] being able to get access to funding to maybe secure their
[6:50] business? I don't want to use the word
[6:52] cliche so many times, but frankly, it's investment
[6:58] readiness. What do I mean by that?
[7:01] Everybody has ideas. In fact, fun fact, I have a
[7:07] religious background, right? So I believe that ideas are God
[7:11] seeds scattered on earth and it can germinate anywhere.
[7:16] So if you don't work with your idea or if you don't walk on
[7:19] your idea, you'll probably germinate somewhere else.
[7:22] That being said, the difference between an idea and when people
[7:27] now start looking for funding is genuinely how ready are you for
[7:32] this investment? So what is the work that you
[7:35] have done? I like to describe it as sweat
[7:37] equity. So have you validated this idea,
[7:40] right? You're starting up a business or
[7:42] you want to start up a business, You have an idea to target, say
[7:46] maybe you want to start a parachute company in a rural
[7:51] parachute or helicopter service, right, in a rural part of
[7:54] Nigeria. Have you gone there to identify
[7:58] and see, first and foremost, does anybody have a helicopter
[8:01] service where you're going to do that?
[8:03] Secondly, is there any helipad around that place where those
[8:06] helicopters will land? Thirdly, what are people living
[8:10] currently doing there? Right?
[8:12] There is nothing new on that. The sun before cars came out, we
[8:16] were using bicycles. Before bicycles, we were
[8:19] walking. Before walking, we were
[8:20] crawling. So humans would always have a
[8:22] way to either solve a problem or deal with that problem, right?
[8:26] So how or what are people already doing?
[8:30] So you need to execute certain type of work.
[8:34] Furthermore, you want to find out who's going to use this
[8:36] helicopter service, who are my customers, right?
[8:39] What are they currently doing and how would I offer this
[8:43] helicopter service in such a way that they will leave what they
[8:45] are currently doing and adopt my helicopter service.
[8:49] That kind of work, it's boring, it's tiring, but it is most
[8:54] important as that's how you validate an idea before you even
[8:58] start looking for money. So that's the business certain
[9:02] itself as investment really attend usually use yes.
[9:05] Oh, I see. Validating a problem, validating
[9:09] your customers, testing the market, starting small and then
[9:15] trying to grow. So all all of this exists
[9:18] between having an idea and trying to raise funding even for
[9:22] that idea. Like it's not only established
[9:26] businesses that are qualified or pre qualified to raise funds.
[9:32] You have people who have good ideas or solid ideas who also
[9:35] raise funds. But the difference between Mr.
[9:38] A, who has an idea and raise funds, and Mr. B, who also has
[9:41] multiple ideas but has never raised funds, is the amount of
[9:44] work done on that idea. Right.
[9:47] You understand very quickly, somebody says I want to offer
[9:53] customer service, I want to offer customer support, right?
[9:57] You can just stay in your house January to December, month in,
[10:01] month out and keep saying I want to offer customer service.
[10:04] Or you can start and find out who do you want to offer
[10:07] customer service or customer supports to.
[10:10] Do you want to work online? Do you want to offer it to
[10:13] hospitality businesses? Do you want to offer it to
[10:15] schools? What kind of customers do you
[10:19] want? Why would you even offer
[10:21] customer support services? Who are you offering it to?
[10:24] Who or what kind of solutions do the people you are trying to
[10:28] offer this service to, what are they currently doing and how
[10:31] would you be different? Now look at these two scenarios
[10:35] and tell me who do you think would approach an investor for
[10:38] funding and who would then get that funding?
[10:41] The first person who keeps on saying I want to offer customer
[10:44] service and the second person who has, you know, identified
[10:47] the amount of work that needs to be done and also put in some
[10:50] work before then approaching the investor sweat equity.
[10:55] Right, right. For, I mean you've worked with a
[10:58] couple of people from 2019 to now.
[11:01] Yeah, looking at the businesses you've worked with so far, OK.
[11:04] What is there a common part in you are seeing in how they are
[11:07] approaching funding? So like from the business side
[11:10] of things, maybe they are looking for funding, they are
[11:11] moving to invested. Is there a common part in the
[11:14] mistakes they are doing? In the mistakes that they are
[11:16] making, Yeah. Or.
[11:20] What kind of mistakes have you seen?
[11:22] I, I, I think the second, the latter is better.
[11:25] What kind of mistakes are you saying beginning to assume or
[11:29] think that there's there's AI don't want to say general, but
[11:36] there's a popular mindset that raising money from investors is
[11:40] as good as hammering. I don't know if you understand
[11:46] the phrase hammer. It's more or less I don't know
[11:48] whether it's an African or a Nigerian or a W African thing.
[11:51] But when you say person don't hammer right.
[11:53] So founders think that raising funds is arriving.
[11:58] Is it metric for success? Right.
[12:01] Like once they raise the money that is it.
[12:03] That is it, like you've succeeded.
[12:05] But in reality, when you raise money, that's even the beginning
[12:08] of your problem, because investors want to see that you
[12:11] can scale, you can grow, and that you grow so fast to the
[12:15] point that you have to raise more money and your valuation is
[12:18] increasing so that their own investment has also grown beyond
[12:22] just an ordinary investment. But that general mindset of
[12:27] raising money and that that's like you've succeeded or you've
[12:31] become rich, you've hit it big, you've won the lottery by
[12:34] raising money. That's a very wrong mindset.
[12:37] In fact, if anything, it's the farthest away from the truth,
[12:40] especially for startups that succeed or that want to succeed.
[12:46] Wow, I've, I've never thought about that particular thing
[12:51] because most times when I think of, oh, Charlie, we need
[12:54] investor, we need to invest. I'm like the moment we're able
[12:56] to raise like $1,000,000, that is it.
[12:59] But then yesterday I was having a conversation with a friend and
[13:02] I think he we are running a business together and one of the
[13:05] things we are struggling right now is bringing investors on
[13:07] board because just like you said, the women's, they give you
[13:09] the money that's on your problem stuff because they're looking at
[13:11] scaling what are you trying to do and everything.
[13:14] It's more like they are now more.
[13:16] On you, the light is on you, the light is on you.
[13:19] Wow, interesting. Now from the founders, sorry,
[13:22] investment perspective, OK, what are they looking for?
[13:25] A business comes, OK, we want money.
[13:28] They've done everything you've mentioned.
[13:29] Like you. You spoke about their
[13:31] investment. Ready.
[13:32] Yeah. What is the investor looking
[13:34] for? Before they say, OK, I'm going
[13:35] to give you this 100,000 U.S. dollars, I'm going to give you
[13:37] this. That's a very, very good
[13:38] question and I would answer because some people watch this
[13:43] and wonder, OK, but you've not invested.
[13:45] So how do you know? I've worked from two sides, I've
[13:48] been humble to work from two sides.
[13:50] The first side is founders who are looking to raise funds that
[13:52] come to us to help them make investment ready.
[13:55] And then the second set of people are investors, which
[13:58] could be institutional or private that call us and they're
[14:00] like, oh, I'm about to make this investment come and help me
[14:04] review these numbers or come and sitting on me so that we
[14:06] interview these start-ups, you know, or sitting on me through
[14:09] the journey while I make this investment.
[14:12] From the investor side of things, after they've seen that
[14:15] this business is truly investment ready.
[14:17] There's what is known as due diligence.
[14:20] So you've said that, you know, you started this business five
[14:24] years ago and you have 5000 customers and you have 5000 more
[14:28] on a wait list and you're charging $100 per product and
[14:32] you're making 50,000 sales, You know, from the 5000 customers.
[14:35] Everything is amazing. It looks great.
[14:37] You are investment ready, at least on paper.
[14:40] Yeah. Can investor really go back and
[14:43] check and see that everything you've said is as it's way or is
[14:48] did you say 50,000 when you meant 5000, right.
[14:51] So due diligence, that's the very first step, just to confirm
[14:55] that all A's are A's and that all I's are dotted and all C's
[14:58] are crossed. The second part, which investors
[15:01] like to check and, and I think it's a vanity matrix.
[15:06] So you can describe it as a vanity matrix, but it's also
[15:08] very important, right? What's the personality of the
[15:11] founder I'm trying to invest in? You know, a person could be
[15:17] selling 1000 bottles of Coke as a founder or as a salesman,
[15:22] right? And that's OK, that's
[15:24] successful. But then you go and meet an
[15:26] investor who is expecting you to sell 100,000 bottles.
[15:31] And if you're selling 1000 bottles and you're comfortable
[15:33] for you to now start selling 100,000 bottles, you would need
[15:36] to do everything that is uncomfortable, everything that's
[15:39] unconventional, you know, expand your network, meet more people,
[15:43] think strategically, think of the book.
[15:46] So investors are looking for people who are self starters,
[15:50] you know, founders who are self status founders, who are risk
[15:53] takers, but still very intentional.
[15:58] So it's one thing to be a risk taker is another thing to be
[16:01] intentional. Be careful about the kind of
[16:03] risk that you're taking. And then you can sum it up as
[16:09] purposeful, intentional founders, right, that have
[16:13] likeable good characters. And then a team.
[16:17] What, what's, what's the strength of the team?
[16:19] What's the synergy, you know, behind the, the team for the
[16:23] intellectual plug, For example, a lot of people know Zena Banai,
[16:27] right, because we are like the faces.
[16:28] But there's a whole lot. There's a strong team behind.
[16:31] There's customer service, there are financial modellers, there
[16:34] are graphic designers, you know, all in the background.
[16:37] So how does your team work together?
[16:39] What's your team strength like? These are some of the things
[16:42] that I know investors. How, how important is money in
[16:49] that aspect? So let's say the business is
[16:51] coming to be invested. Yeah, we, we spoke about numbers
[16:53] at the beginning that you say you have 50,000, do you really
[16:56] have 50,000? But how is important is OK,
[16:58] maybe in the last year we've been able to make this and this
[17:01] is the profit, this is this, how important is that?
[17:06] I've never done this before. I don't know at what point you
[17:08] call someone, Charlie. You just call anybody, OK?
[17:11] So I did say, Charlie, the numbers are very, very
[17:15] important. The numbers are very important
[17:17] and they're important for two reasons.
[17:19] Firstly, if it's a brand new business altogether, you haven't
[17:22] done anything. The numbers are important
[17:24] because these are what you're saying you're going to do, OK?
[17:27] If it's an old business who's trying to raise funds, numbers
[17:29] are important because irrespective of what you've come
[17:32] to me to say you want to do, what have you done, your numbers
[17:35] will show. So while it is not the only
[17:39] thing, it, it probably is 51% of of the deal.
[17:44] If the narrative is 50 supposed to be 50% and numbers 50%, I
[17:48] would say numbers are 51. It's just slightly more
[17:51] important. It's actually very, very, you
[17:54] know, important that you ensure that your numbers make sense
[17:56] whether you're starting out or you're expanding.
[17:59] If you're starting out, it's a point of reference.
[18:02] If you're expanding, it's proof of your performance.
[18:05] Right. OK, so if you're if you're now
[18:07] starting out and I want this to be maybe a bit practical for
[18:10] someone watching who wants to maybe OK, I have an idea and I
[18:12] want to do this right. If I'm now starting up, I have
[18:15] the idea most of the numbers are going to be what's the word that
[18:19] he assumed or maybe predicting and put it that way or
[18:22] projecting. How how do they go about it?
[18:26] How? Like how do they approach it?
[18:28] I only figure what I'm saying. How do they approach it?
[18:30] The easiest way to approach it is to come to the intellectual
[18:32] field. A practical way to approach it
[18:36] is you. You have to.
[18:38] There are scenarios. That's one of the reasons why I
[18:41] think we've been able to stay relevant.
[18:43] We don't just build you a model or build you a pitch deck and
[18:47] throw you into investors. We like to work with what we
[18:49] call scenario analysis because it's life.
[18:52] You know things will go bad, things could go better.
[18:56] A practical way is to build your assumptions with scenarios.
[19:00] So look at it from base case, which is market entry.
[19:04] Then think about what if things are worse than my base case?
[19:08] That's your worst case entry. Then what about if things are
[19:10] better than my base case? That's your best case entry
[19:14] system. So I would say think about
[19:18] things, not just in a mechanical, straight linear
[19:23] manner. Try to think about it
[19:25] multipurpose, look at it from, you know, different lenses.
[19:28] If things are good, what if things are better?
[19:30] What if things remain the way that they are?
[19:33] That's one way. Another way is to be very
[19:36] realistic with your assumptions. So I'll, I'll tell you what I
[19:40] mean. I assume somebody's building a
[19:41] fintech app, right? And they are going to get paid
[19:48] or their revenue streams are from subscribers.
[19:50] And I see this happen a lot when you just do the maths for them.
[19:53] People just freak out and then they tell you, oh, we're going
[19:57] to make or we're going to have a million subscribers in the first
[20:00] year. It sounds OK, it sounds logical,
[20:04] it makes sense. But then when you now start
[20:06] breaking it down, that's six. That's 500,000 subscribers in
[20:09] six months, 250 in three months, 80,000 in.
[20:13] A month 80,000 plus that's about 20,000 a week 3000 subscribers
[20:18] every day it's not very easy to achieve 3000 that means 3000 new
[20:23] people today 3000 new people tomorrow you know how realistic
[20:27] is that while it can happen if there are organic events you
[20:30] know that happen and people sign up or the marketing budget.
[20:33] If you have the marketing budget like Temo, for example right
[20:37] that was just in everybody's faces that would make sense but
[20:42] normally, without any crazy marketing budgets to expect that
[20:46] you're going to have 3000 sign ups every day is a lot.
[20:50] So you want to ensure that your assumptions are as realistic as
[20:52] possible as opposed to just, you know, train or blotting out
[20:57] figures in the air. And finally, for those who have
[20:59] maybe like accounting backgrounds or finance
[21:01] knowledge, right, there's some of the things that you're
[21:03] supposed to do, which is like one of them is called valuation.
[21:07] To know the value of the company value, ascertain A monetary
[21:10] value of what this company is valued or correctly what is
[21:14] worth at. You can have people who have
[21:17] just ideas. And while it's, excuse me,
[21:22] possible in very rare instances, but with just ideas, no sweat
[21:25] equity. You can't just come up and just
[21:28] say I have a $50 million valuation just like that.
[21:31] Like you've not even done anything.
[21:33] You've not acquired customers. There's no sweat equity.
[21:36] You know, people just tell you, oh, I, I want to raise
[21:39] $2,000,000 at 5%, you know, $2,000,000 at 5%.
[21:45] What you're simply telling me is that your company is valued at
[21:48] $40 million and you haven't even started.
[21:50] Sometimes when you now do the maths for them and they see the
[21:52] meaning of what they're saying, they're like, no, no, no, no,
[21:55] that's too high. You know, so you want to be as
[21:58] realistic as possible with your assumptions.
[22:01] You want to be create as many scenarios as possible so that
[22:05] you show an investor they are not just thinking in a linear
[22:08] format. Realistic, multiple scenarios,
[22:13] those are the way to go. On the topic of valuation, so if
[22:17] a business just started, yes, do you now want to start?
[22:21] They cannot determine the valuation at the beginning, yes.
[22:24] OK, so they put out always rushed to say they should go and
[22:27] sleep. They should do what they should
[22:29] go and sleep. Well, yes, that's what people
[22:32] say, but there is there. So there are as many methods of
[22:35] valuation as there are experts. But for me personally, I like to
[22:39] always advise and say that people who want to subscribe to
[22:44] valuation in the early stage or the early age, there's a method
[22:48] called the DCF method, the discounted cash flow.
[22:51] If I start explaining DCF, we'll have a full master class here,
[22:54] but it's like it's free. We'll take it.
[22:59] It's one of the best methods, you know, for early stage
[23:02] startups. DCF discounted cash flow.
[23:04] And what is simply saying is, oh, hello, Mr. Investor.
[23:08] As I today I have nothing. This is how I intend to make
[23:11] money. I intend to make money via ABC.
[23:14] And if I look at ABC, I'm going to make say 100 naira or 100 CDs
[23:21] in the first year. Across five years, I'm going to
[23:24] make 20,000 CDs via this, via this, via this via this.
[23:28] However, that 20,000 CDs I'm going to make is in the future
[23:32] as at today that I'm talking to you that 20,000 CDs is valued at
[23:35] 2000 is valued at 3000. That's a a popular method of
[23:42] valuation the DCF. And so I advise early stage
[23:44] start-ups. In fact, even those who are
[23:46] revenue and you know I like if you were to come to the
[23:49] intellectual club, while there is asset based, there is
[23:52] liquidity based, ratio based methods that those ones leave
[23:57] you open for due diligence or questioning why did you use
[24:02] that? I'm not sure I agree with that.
[24:04] But when you use DCF and you do it appropriately, your
[24:06] assumptions are correct. It's the best method of
[24:09] ascertaining the value of an early stage company, even if it
[24:13] is just an idea. Thank you so much for that,
[24:16] this. I was having a conversation with
[24:17] a friend yesterday. This seems very, very
[24:20] interesting. But we're talking about Grant.
[24:21] Grant, Yeah, crowdfunding and precede, right?
[24:25] And I was asking me what will be ideal for the business we are
[24:29] trying to run. And I know this depends on the
[24:32] business you are trying to run and which one you advise.
[24:34] But looking at these three grants, crowdfunding,
[24:37] crowdfunding and precede and loan, let's add loan.
[24:40] So that's the 4th 1. OK, so crowd grants, debt,
[24:44] crowdfunding and precede. So this for, and he was like, he
[24:49] wants, he wants to raise money for the company.
[24:52] So let me, let me just give you an example of let me give you,
[24:54] let me describe the business. So think of Airbnb, but for
[24:58] spaces. So you know how Airbnb makes
[25:01] hotels or apartments or rooms available to you, But this time
[25:06] around for studio spaces, gardens, event spaces and all
[25:10] that, right? That's the business model.
[25:12] So now he's asking what would be ideal to raise money now for
[25:16] this business? Has he done the business before
[25:19] or is it just purely an idea restarted?
[25:21] So he's made money from the business, He's made money from
[25:24] the business. That's a very good one all.
[25:25] Right. So it's running.
[25:26] So now these four things, which one would you advise and what
[25:29] would be the difference was like, OK, this is advantageous,
[25:31] this, this, this, this. This yeah, the very first one I
[25:35] would advise him to go for is proceed and I'll say proceed
[25:40] because it's equity based more times than not in the start up
[25:44] ecosystem we use what is known safe, it's called safe, right, a
[25:50] simple agreement for future executive.
[25:53] Yeah. So I will tell him or I would
[25:55] advise and say go for that simply because you've tried the
[25:58] business, it's working, it's revenue generating.
[26:00] So anybody who you're going to and you're saying I want you to
[26:03] buy an equity or I want you to buy part of my equity, it makes
[26:07] sense to them because they've seen that you generated money
[26:09] from there. Of course, there it's a whole
[26:10] lot more than that. It's deeper than that.
[26:13] But then, you know, that's my, my first take on that.
[26:18] With grants, it's a little trickier.
[26:22] Grants are generally seen as free money.
[26:24] Generally for me who spent, you know, I spent two years as as
[26:31] part of the time when I was in the ecosystem pushing just one
[26:34] grant story for another day. We got the grants, but we even
[26:40] lost the grants due to having the same amount of money in a in
[26:44] in a sister account for my bosses at the time.
[26:48] Which leads me to what I'm saying.
[26:49] Grants are free money, but the criteria attached to the grant
[26:54] or by puts or designed by the grant maker is what now gets it
[26:59] tricky. Do you qualify for this grant?
[27:01] But I like to tell people that before you go for a grant, check
[27:05] out three things. Firstly, the amount of money
[27:08] that you know the grant is issued at.
[27:10] The more the higher the amount of money that the grant gives,
[27:14] the more the due diligence and the eyes and the, the, the
[27:18] different conditions and criteria you would have to pass
[27:22] before you access it. So one, check out the amount 2.
[27:26] You know, I want to see what are the conditions for the grant
[27:28] maker. The grant maker has put a
[27:30] condition, you know, oh, this grant is only accessible to
[27:33] people in Mozambique, Nigeria and Ghana or Algeria, Egypt and
[27:37] South Africa. So check and ensure that you
[27:40] meet the criteria. Some will tell you, oh, you need
[27:42] to have projects in southeastern Nigeria.
[27:44] Some will tell you need to have a project maybe just in the Cape
[27:48] Coast in Ghana. So make sure that all the
[27:50] different criterias you fit into it before you start applying for
[27:56] a grant, right? And then finally, you want to
[27:59] ensure that there is some such of alignment.
[28:03] You're not going to go to a Ty Dunguma.
[28:07] There's a Ty Dunguma Foundation which is popular in Nigeria,
[28:10] right, for Health Affairs. You're not going to take an
[28:14] educational project to Ty Dunguma Foundation.
[28:17] They won't answer you. You're not going to take a
[28:21] building, a real estate building, for example, a real
[28:24] estate startup to a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
[28:28] They are more or less focused on health, right?
[28:31] You're not going to now take a river blindness project to Tony
[28:35] Lumelu Foundation, who is focused on small businesses.
[28:39] So you want to ensure that there is an alignment when it comes to
[28:42] grants. Check that there's an alignment,
[28:44] check the amount of money you're applying for and check that you
[28:47] really qualify, you know, for the, for the conditions or
[28:51] criteria that have been preset by the grant maker.
[28:54] We've looked at equity, we've looked at grants.
[28:56] We said crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is simple.
[28:58] It means you're telling everybody I need help with this
[29:01] project. There are two ways to it.
[29:03] Is it that you're telling them you're going to make money back,
[29:06] which means you have to ensure that you're straightforward.
[29:10] I'll give you the two instances or you're asking them for help.
[29:14] You know, donation, crowdfunding very cost.
[29:18] All this GoFundMe, right? That's donation.
[29:21] Then you also have crowdfunding, say Piggy vest, you know, maybe
[29:26] an agricultural farm, it requires $1 million and so they
[29:31] open it up to 1,000,000 people to contribute, 1,000,000 to
[29:34] contribute $1.00 each, and then you've been able to raise
[29:37] 1,000,000. However, either ways, you want
[29:39] to ensure that if you're crowdfunding, you can meet your
[29:44] obligation, whether it is return on investment in this in the
[29:48] second instance, right? Or carrying out what you're
[29:55] raising that money for in the first instance.
[29:57] So if it is you're not returning, there is no form of
[30:00] there are no form of investment and it's just like a donation or
[30:03] contribution. You still want to ensure that,
[30:06] you know, you, you use the money to do what it is that you raise
[30:12] that money for. There's a guy in Iraq, it's
[30:14] Bruce. He's popular on Instagram.
[30:15] I won't say why, but he's very funny.
[30:18] And you know, despite being in Iraq, he used a fundraising
[30:26] platform to raise, I think it was $2,000,000 for a dog
[30:31] shelter, You know, stray dogs, random stray dogs in Iraq that
[30:34] are on the streets that are victims of war.
[30:37] Yes. But despite raising that money,
[30:39] right, he was answerable to people all over the world,
[30:43] Nigeria, Africa, you know, in Africa, in Asia, everybody,
[30:47] Europe, America has a lot of followers who are Americans, you
[30:50] know, who contributed for him. So you want to ensure that if
[30:53] you're going to raise money via Crowdsource sourcing or
[30:56] crowdfunding, you meet the obligation or the expectations
[31:00] of the crowd who you are you are raising that money for.
[31:03] Imagine if that is Bruce Guy collected that money but did not
[31:06] build the dog shelter in Iraq. He he would have, you know, lost
[31:10] good faith. And then the final one is
[31:13] crowdfunding debt. Debt.
[31:15] Debt. Debt, Debt is very simple.
[31:17] Do not go near debt except you know how to pay back like your
[31:20] business has to have the cash flow.
[31:23] I like to advise, in fact, my advice for those who are
[31:26] starting off new, you have an idea.
[31:29] You have no business with debt whatsoever.
[31:32] Taking a loan, you want to ensure that your business has
[31:35] the cash flow or every month we make say 2 million C DS, right?
[31:42] We've been doing that for the last two years.
[31:45] If you're now going to take a loan of 30 days, 1,000,000 CDs,
[31:50] it makes sense because history or your historical show that
[31:55] you've been raising this amount of money and that you can pay it
[31:57] back. Where you've been making 2
[31:59] million CDs monthly and then things go bad and all of a
[32:03] sudden you just want to go and collect a 30 million CD loan
[32:07] like something is off. How do you intend to pay back?
[32:10] You know, so whether you're starting out or you're
[32:13] expanding, before you go for loans, ensure that you have a
[32:16] history that shows that you can pay back.
[32:21] Thank you. This was a good session.
[32:23] I'll send this part to the person.
[32:24] No problem. Now let's pick once again
[32:28] business bonus. My question, the question I want
[32:30] to ask is every business investable?
[32:32] But then I want to take it from the side of, let's say a
[32:34] business owner comes to you, OK, and they have a business idea or
[32:38] they are running a business, they want to move to investors.
[32:41] And the business itself is not investable in the sense that
[32:45] even though they are making money, it's not something
[32:47] investors would like to have. You had this, of course.
[32:51] So how do you approach that? It's the result of it when when
[32:54] you come to us, you don't come to us to raise money.
[32:56] In fact, if anything, you find out that we tell you we do not
[33:00] do investor connection. So don't come to us and think
[33:02] that you finish working with us and we'll connect you to Tony
[33:04] Alumeli. No.
[33:06] Have I ever story for another day, There is almost no
[33:11] investor, you know in the Nigerian ecosystem that I have
[33:15] not defended numbers with. There's no investor, there's
[33:20] almost no investor name not say there's no, there's almost no
[33:23] investor. But would I now pick up the
[33:24] phone and start telling you I can connect you to ATB?
[33:28] No. And it's simply because of this,
[33:31] right? It's because of the fact that
[33:33] you can come to us to get your investment ready.
[33:35] And by the time that we're done, we show you that the business
[33:38] model with which you're trying to go in will not work.
[33:41] It's not, it's not, it's not friendly, it's not investment
[33:45] ready. I will give you a very quick
[33:48] instance without calling names. I had the clients who wanted to
[33:51] bring in energy drinks into Nigeria.
[33:54] All right. And the popular energy drinks in
[33:57] the ecosystem right now, powerhouse, Monster, Red Bull, I
[34:00] think there's another one or so, but best use these three names.
[34:03] If you're going to bring in an energy drink into Nigeria and
[34:06] your average price is even if it is 30% higher than these three
[34:13] products, you've already failed. Yeah.
[34:16] Why? These three products have market
[34:18] share, they have brand representation and they are
[34:22] mature in the ecosystem. So I'm not just going to leave a
[34:25] monster powerhouse and Red Bull and come to, you know, somebody
[34:29] else when your prices are even higher.
[34:32] So as painful as it was for that client, by the time he was done
[34:36] right, he was supposed to manufacture in Dubai.
[34:40] In fact, that's the good thing about it.
[34:41] He was supposed to, he had, he had deals almost signed
[34:44] everything ready to work from Dubai.
[34:46] And then they're, they're sending down 10,000 cartoons
[34:48] every week via logistics and all whatnot.
[34:51] When he did the numbers and ran the numbers and it showed that,
[34:55] you know, this would not work. Very few people do what he did
[34:59] anyways. Some we'll just leave it like
[35:01] that and go. But he came back again and then
[35:03] he's like, I really want to crack this thing, how will it
[35:06] work? So we started a new plan all
[35:07] together called the Whole. Long story short, he's currently
[35:09] producing in Nigeria. Numbers are a whole lot better,
[35:13] right? And there were so many factors
[35:15] that were affecting him then when he was producing or when he
[35:19] was supposed to produce outside, he was supposed to produce in
[35:22] Dubai, right? You'll be paying forex, foreign
[35:25] currency and the volatility. And then he was also supposed to
[35:29] keep paying back commissions to them for every carton that's the
[35:34] mail. So when there are certain
[35:35] instances that it's not feasible, right, Not everybody
[35:40] comes back and looks at it the second time to get the the magic
[35:44] key. However, I'm trying to say that
[35:46] there are many instances or there are certain instances
[35:48] where you want to do a business and the business model you are
[35:51] adopting is not profitable. Will tell you.
[35:55] Let's, let's bring the word, you just use business model, right?
[35:58] What are the key things that we need to look at?
[36:00] Definitely every business and the model will go away.
[36:03] It's not, it's not the same to us, am I correct?
[36:06] So if you pick a business model, what do you need to look at?
[36:11] There are general ways to assign it right.
[36:13] There are general, there are general ways to look at it.
[36:15] First and foremost, is it AB2B service?
[36:18] What I mean by that, is it a business to business service or
[36:21] is it a business to business business?
[36:24] Because when I say service, it could either be product or
[36:27] service or a combination of both.
[36:30] And if it's business to business, how frequent, right?
[36:33] Is it business to customers? How frequent is one thing for
[36:38] you to sell something is another thing for you to have built a
[36:41] business model that allows for return customers?
[36:46] I'll give you an example. The man who is selling a man
[36:51] could go to Lagos right on the study his elder brother or his
[36:56] elder cousin, or go from a rural community in Ghana and go to
[37:02] Accra and understudy his brother, right and come and see
[37:05] that his brother is a millionaire, maybe even a
[37:07] billionaire from selling car batteries.
[37:10] Then he takes, he learns the business and then he goes back.
[37:14] But he goes back and realizes and he's now selling car
[37:17] batteries in a village where 95% of the inhabitants have
[37:22] bicycles. Do you think you'll make money
[37:27] with the same business model that he learnt in the town?
[37:30] Put on a quote that made someone else a billionaire, right.
[37:34] So in looking at the business model, you want to see how does
[37:38] he work in the locality or in the environment where you're
[37:41] supposed to play it? What is the potential of having
[37:46] returned customers, right. And then of course, there are
[37:51] certain businesses that are high tickets, so that means that the
[37:56] prices are very, very high. And that's OK.
[37:58] Or the revenue they make is very high, but the cost of sale is
[38:01] also high. So for example, imagine selling
[38:07] shoes, Gucci shoes at maybe $2000, but it cost you $1950 to
[38:13] make the shoes. So while your revenue is
[38:15] extremely high, you know, just from 1 shoe you sell, you make
[38:18] revenue that covers everywhere, but then your profit margins are
[38:21] extremely low. So you want to ensure that there
[38:25] there are return customers. You want to ensure that the
[38:28] business works in the locality where you are.
[38:30] You also want to ensure that the numbers make sense.
[38:34] You know that the business metrics make sense.
[38:38] Thank you for that. Now let's talk about pitching
[38:39] and storytelling, OK? I think that's one thing.
[38:42] I saw you LinkedIn, you did a session for storytelling for
[38:45] investors. Yes.
[38:46] I don't think I was prepared to see that because why is
[38:49] storytelling so important as it comes to pitching or moving to
[38:53] investigation? The world has moved on to a
[38:55] point where storytelling effects everything in life, everything.
[38:59] And maybe you can ascribe that reason to the fact that we now
[39:05] have a digital universe. You know, I don't call it the
[39:10] metaverse, but we have like the digital side of things where
[39:13] everybody has, you know, digital persona on social media and with
[39:18] the whole noise, with the whole noise available, you know, right
[39:24] now, social media experts say if you're unable to catch people's
[39:27] attention within the 1st 5 seconds, you've lost them.
[39:30] The easiest way to keep attention is 2 stories.
[39:34] People want relatable, understandable stories.
[39:39] So I would give you 2 examples, right?
[39:45] Imagine someone pitching and then they tell you, oh, we have
[39:51] the we built a platform that connects riders to users in 2
[39:56] minutes. That's amazing, that's fine,
[39:59] that's great. And then another person comes
[40:01] and tells you the story of Amaka, who prior to using their
[40:06] solution was poor. Things were bad and hard for
[40:10] them. However, Amaka now met someone
[40:13] who introduced them to their solution.
[40:16] And by using their solution, Amaka has gone from earning $10
[40:19] a day. To $2000 a day.
[40:21] I haven't even really said anything in the last 30 seconds.
[40:24] But just by putting or turning it into a story, having a main
[40:28] character I making the problem relatable and showing how that
[40:34] main character went from problem to solution gets everybody's
[40:39] attention, right? That's one way I had somebody
[40:46] talk about the health tech. It was so amazing when I heard
[40:49] you. I was a judge in that instance.
[40:50] And then he's like in 2013, I had an accident and I was taken
[40:55] to the hospital. Forget the fact that my wife was
[40:59] there. I would have, I died and woke up
[41:03] in 4 minutes. And then he goes on to now tell
[41:06] you that according to UNESCO, UNESCO, no.
[41:10] Which one is 1 for health? Sorry, not UNESCO.
[41:12] UNESCO is education. According to the World Health
[41:15] Organization that the the ratio, expected ratio of doctors to
[41:23] patients is supposed to be 1 to I think he said he was 1 to 200,
[41:29] but in places like Nigeria, it's 1 to 16,000.
[41:33] Exactly. No, I'm not even telling you
[41:34] this story perfectly. Imagine somebody telling you
[41:36] this in just under a minute. So he tells you how he was about
[41:39] to die and say for his wife who knew the doctor.
[41:43] Yeah, he, the wife and the doctor went to primary school
[41:45] together, right. And so she interceded on his
[41:48] behalf. Then he goes on and tells you
[41:50] what the World Health Organization recommends and then
[41:52] goes on and tells you what is on ground.
[41:54] By the time you put these 4 pillars together, you already
[41:57] understand or validate why his solution comes into play.
[42:01] The world has gone beyond just telling me to buy Fanta.
[42:07] If you're unable to make me see reasons as to why that Fanta
[42:10] would change my life or why that Fanta would make me a better
[42:14] person, you've lost me. And the easiest way to tell me
[42:17] how that Fanta would change my life?
[42:20] It's true. Stories.
[42:21] So stories have become the cornerstone of business.
[42:26] Stories have become the cornerstone of contents.
[42:29] Stories have become the cornerstone of literally
[42:33] everything that we do in our life.
[42:35] You know, So stories tell or stories make your essence or
[42:42] your petition or your narrative 100 times better.
[42:48] So when it comes to creating pitch decks, yes.
[42:51] And for so business owners, what do you advise?
[42:53] What would be the best approach to go?
[42:55] Did they just put in? Oh, OK, this is the business,
[42:59] the problem, the solution. This this, this the.
[43:01] Oh no, it's all there's. So there's a lay down way.
[43:03] First thing special, I have to put down that.
[43:04] There is nobody anywhere who has said that this is the only way
[43:08] to put a pitch deck down. In fact, if you do that, I'm
[43:12] sure everybody would beat their head out.
[43:14] However, there are laid down ways or generally agreed ways,
[43:19] right? You start with the problem, then
[43:22] you go to the status quo and show how that problem is
[43:24] affecting people. Then you go to solution.
[43:26] Of course, then things like market slide, how it works,
[43:29] business model and so on and so forth onto your team and you end
[43:33] up with your ask. But it is best that you
[43:37] integrate stories into even your problem statement.
[43:44] So you would hear people say things like there's a startup
[43:49] right that does delivery from end to end.
[43:51] Maybe I shouldn't even call her name, she's in Lagos, she's very
[43:53] popular. When you open up their pitch
[43:56] deck, right you the first thing you see is, oh, meet Tolani, a
[44:00] 54 year old business owner who has a business diseases but is
[44:04] unable to deliver her goods to her end users due to fragmented
[44:10] logistics industry dishonesty of riders on trained service
[44:15] providers. So rather than just opening that
[44:17] pitch deck and seeing problems in the logistic ecosystem
[44:21] includes on fragmented industry on trained riders.
[44:24] When I see that, it doesn't make sense.
[44:27] But when I now see Lola de Autolani, right, who is a
[44:31] business owner and see the things that she's going through
[44:35] or I, I see relatable issues that she's going through because
[44:39] of fragmented, because of untrained, then it becomes
[44:43] easier to understand, to relate, to identify with.
[44:48] Do you believe a great great pitch can make up for weak
[44:51] numbers? I know we spoke about numbers
[44:52] anyhow, but I want to take on it.
[44:54] So do you believe a great pitch can make up for weak numbers or
[44:57] the numbers always win? I don't know that the great
[45:01] pitch can make up for good numbers, but I do know that the
[45:05] great pitch will get you to Phase 2, right.
[45:09] So while the investor eventually do due diligence and find out
[45:14] that these numbers are not as very as good, the a great pitch
[45:19] will get you to a second meeting with that investor.
[45:22] And who knows why you may not get the numbers or you may not
[45:25] get the money for the numbers because of the numbers you had.
[45:28] You probably get something else or you would have gained a new
[45:31] contact or gained a new friend or ally.
[45:34] So that is to say that while it will not make up for bad
[45:39] numbers, it's still very, very important.
[45:41] The great pitch is very important and it has the tricks
[45:44] to do. I like how you answer this
[45:45] question. Now I want us to take your case
[45:48] studies. You're not going to use names,
[45:50] OK? Or maybe one business you've
[45:51] helped in the last few years. So what the problem was how you
[45:55] guys help them, not maybe some of their pain for the solution
[45:58] you give them. But no, no names, no numbers.
[46:00] For that it's easier. OK, no names, but by the time I
[46:05] finish, everybody will most likely know who it is.
[46:07] This one went to Techstars. In fact, that's how you know you
[46:12] met. Went to Techstars.
[46:16] Techstars qualified for the final round of pitching, right?
[46:20] And then she believed that if I'm going to be on a global
[46:24] stage like this that has the opportunity and the eyes and
[46:28] ears of multiple investors, I should put my best foot forward.
[46:31] So help me. So of course we reworked her
[46:34] pitch, we reworked her numbers and then there was advisory.
[46:38] So it was more or less hand holding through the process.
[46:42] But I must put this out there. She was already very strong.
[46:45] She was already in an accelerator.
[46:46] To be accepted into textiles is no mean feat, but so I'm here
[46:52] already. However, I want to put my best
[46:53] foot forward, you know, help me out.
[46:57] We've also had instances of people who I'll give you a
[47:04] second one. This one now is even my friend.
[47:06] He wanted to open up the Co working space in Abuja.
[47:11] I'm not sure anybody has what he has.
[47:13] He has a Co working space, A lounge, a mini golf course and a
[47:18] cafe all in one space with private offices, right.
[47:21] He wanted to open this up and and he wasn't first and
[47:25] foremost, he didn't know how much he needed to spend.
[47:28] He didn't know if he was even worth it.
[47:29] He didn't know when he would make his money back.
[47:32] So, you know, he bosses and then he says, I would like to work
[47:35] with you before. So of course, the first thing we
[47:37] help him with his desk desktop research, you know, to even
[47:40] desktop and field research to identify and say what do you
[47:43] need to do? What is currently obtainable?
[47:46] You know, if you were to open this, how would you make money?
[47:51] Then the next step would be to lay.
[47:52] We now laid out his revenue streams as well as his possible
[47:56] expenditure. This is what you need to spend.
[47:57] This is what you need to make money on.
[47:58] This is what you need to spend money on in order to make money,
[48:01] right? And then test these numbers.
[48:04] So you run these numbers and then see what they look like.
[48:07] And it wasn't just enough to do that.
[48:09] And I think we now did was more or less competitor analysis.
[48:13] So we now helped him visit, of course, not openly, a very good
[48:20] friend of mine likes to call it mystery shopping.
[48:22] So we now secretly visited, you know, similar businesses that
[48:27] were doing what he was doing, finding out what are their key
[48:29] strengths, What are their weaknesses?
[48:31] What are the mistakes that they're making?
[48:33] They're making this mistake here.
[48:34] Don't make it in yours. They're doing this thing well
[48:36] here. Maybe you can also integrate it
[48:38] here. And then the result of the
[48:39] mystery shopping literally I think is part of the things that
[48:42] are keeping him in business to you today because he has a
[48:46] little bit of what everybody has and then majority of what nobody
[48:50] has. Yeah.
[48:52] Well, interesting now such as in this business, Yes, when he
[48:58] started and now have you seen a change or a mindset shifting how
[49:02] people approach? Have I seen a change?
[49:05] Of course you've seen a change. Like generally how people are
[49:08] thinking about business, you know, raising money, investment
[49:12] and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[49:14] OK, OK, now I get. I get what?
[49:16] You're asking. I get what you're asking.
[49:17] Have you? Have you?
[49:18] Seen a lot yes, there, there, there has been a change when,
[49:21] when I started out, you know, in the early days and yes, it's
[49:24] been 6 years at the intellectual block since 2019, but it's been
[49:28] 11 years for me as an individual.
[49:33] You know, I, I started this out in 2014 then officially.
[49:38] So through this time, yes, I've seen change.
[49:43] You know, people have gone from or free money to realizing that
[49:50] investment is not actually free money.
[49:53] People have gone from, you know, times when in one year you could
[49:59] hear 678 deals that were, you know, not of $50 million and
[50:05] startups just raising money simply because, you know, they
[50:08] could or they had the right connections.
[50:10] That's no longer obtainable. So I've seen people's mindset go
[50:13] from free money to realising that weight investor money is a
[50:16] real deal. I've seen people's mindset go
[50:19] from money is generally available to more.
[50:22] It's actually not as easy as we thought.
[50:25] I've seen people's mindset go from, it's not just a business
[50:28] plan I can do it to myself to really appreciating the, you
[50:32] know, end to end service of business development or
[50:36] investment readiness as a service, right.
[50:38] So yeah, we've we've seen lots of change.
[50:40] Talking about investment, I think one of the problems or one
[50:44] of the scary things before usually think of, OK, this
[50:46] investor gives us money. I think we spoke about it a
[50:49] couple of minutes ago and then now there's more light on you,
[50:52] right? Yes, maybe they might control
[50:54] one or two things, they might have a scene, all that.
[50:56] So that's fear of, OK, I'm taking the money to help the
[51:00] business, but then now it's like giving someone the power to
[51:03] control that business, all the advice business owners to do so
[51:06] that at least even though there's investments coming in,
[51:08] there's an extra person coming in on the board, There's no
[51:11] issue at the end of the day. And things are still being
[51:14] around because I know investors definitely they care about their
[51:17] money because they are putting it there because they want to
[51:18] see good thing that. Yeah.
[51:20] So what advice would you give to Business 1?
[51:23] That's a very good question. And I, I'm, I'm thinking like
[51:26] this, I'm trying to remember the name of the post, but I've
[51:28] answered this question on Instagram in one of our posts.
[51:32] And my advice would be ensure that I think it's three things
[51:36] they wouldn't teach you in Business School or something
[51:38] like that. You know, and I was trying to
[51:39] talk about, well, everybody's going for investment,
[51:41] investment, investment, but make sure you can answer these three
[51:43] questions before or make sure you know these three things
[51:47] before you, you start going for investment.
[51:49] First one is valuation. And valuation, it's tricky
[51:53] evaluation in terms of the fact that you can value something at
[51:55] 500. You've done it via all the
[51:57] methods Namdi told you to use and everything is working
[51:59] perfectly. It's 500 million CDs or it's 5
[52:02] million CDs, for example. First of all, come and tell you
[52:05] that does not see this thing being valued at more than
[52:08] 8,800,000 CDs. You valued it as 6X more, right?
[52:13] So valuation is relative. That's the first thing that you
[52:17] have to understand. Valuation is relative.
[52:21] The next thing, which you also want to be very careful about.
[52:23] So what what you want to be careful about in terms of
[52:26] valuation being relative is if an invest, if you're sure and
[52:30] setting of your valuation and an investor does not share the same
[52:36] sentiments with you, there is no harm in letting that investor go
[52:42] simply because they don't share the same and you're setting.
[52:45] It's not. This is not guesstimation or
[52:48] taking a chance. You've done your numbers well,
[52:51] you've done your work well, you you're probably even post
[52:53] revenue. That means you're making money.
[52:55] You've done your valuation. This valuation is 2 million CDs,
[52:58] for example, or 20 million naira, for example.
[53:01] And then an investor comes and he's telling you that he's not
[53:03] going to work with you, except you value this at 100,000 CDs.
[53:06] If you know your worth, if you've done your work, you will
[53:09] know that you and I investor have no business together.
[53:12] Like you know, to meet my friends, go to wherever I don't
[53:17] need you, but you would only be shaky if you haven't done your
[53:22] work, right. The second thing you want to do
[53:24] is ensure that your vision and their vision aligns right.
[53:29] There's a very annoying case. Even as I'm thinking about it
[53:32] now I'm, I'm I'm so angry. I think it's called grass
[53:35] fields. It went very popular party party
[53:38] in Ghana was even the person who brought it to my my notice two
[53:42] young entrepreneurs, Senegal, I think 1 was Senegal, one was
[53:47] from Nigeria or something like that.
[53:49] They built a fashion brand in the US or in the UK.
[53:52] An investor guy just came you know who drinks them into giving
[53:55] I think 51%. Long story cut short, yes, over
[53:59] a period of two years. He literally threw them out.
[54:01] He sees the social media. He took all forms of revenue.
[54:04] They literally became employees in their own company.
[54:06] It's so annoying every time I read about. 51%.
[54:09] He took more than that safe like 51% means that they even had
[54:13] they eventually fired them. They literally let's go like
[54:17] they came on social media and were crying.
[54:19] You know, this guy has taken our company for us or something like
[54:22] that. Nothing anybody could do.
[54:24] By the time people checked they had signed agreements and all
[54:26] what not. So you want to ensure that the
[54:30] vision of the investor aligns with yours, right?
[54:36] They used to do a lot of and that was where their problems
[54:39] started off from. They used to do a lot of
[54:42] indigenous pieces, you know, and so they had manufacturing
[54:46] happening a lot in Africa and then they would ship it all over
[54:49] and sell there. When this guy came, he was
[54:52] looking for ways to reduce the cost.
[54:55] So I think he told them they are now going to start producing in
[54:57] Asia, which lost the essence. You know, you can, you can get
[55:01] cheaper labor in Asia maybe, but what happens to the fabric that
[55:04] they were using? What happens to their raw
[55:06] materials that they were sourcing directly from here, you
[55:09] know, in Africa? So you want to ensure that your
[55:12] vision is the same so that you don't just take money and an
[55:15] investor is now telling you something that used to impact
[55:17] 10,000 people. And I'll be like, no, let's just
[55:19] leave it at 500. You know, let's start pushing
[55:22] profit. That that's another thing you
[55:25] want to check. And then finally, you want to
[55:27] see what's their long term goal? It's almost the same thing in
[55:29] terms of machine, but what's their long term goal?
[55:32] You know, an investor who is looking to just make money or
[55:34] cash out, which most investors are looking for in the first
[55:38] place in the first instance and may not necessarily be the best
[55:42] investor for a project that is impact based, right?
[55:47] But if you don't do your due diligence in the in the
[55:50] beginning, he has money, you have a problem, you just take
[55:53] it. He will turn that impact based
[55:55] venture, he or she will turn that impact based venture into a
[55:59] profit, you know, making machine as opposed to impact, which was
[56:04] why you even went to them in the first place.
[56:06] So ensure that your thoughts, your vision align and that you
[56:11] are all on the same page before you now start.
[56:15] And finally, please do your research.
[56:17] It's so heartbreaking. I won't call names, but it's so
[56:20] heartbreaking. You build something solid,
[56:22] everything is OK, everything is fine.
[56:24] Then maybe proceed. You raise money from funny
[56:27] people, right? And then you go to seed.
[56:30] I've seen this happen before. And then the institution you're
[56:33] trying to raise from at seed level carries out due diligence
[56:37] only to find out that somebody with shady background, somebody
[56:39] who has laundered money is there, is in there to carry out
[56:46] your due diligence as much as the investors carry out this.
[56:49] Oh, that story is so sad. Yeah.
[56:52] Anyways, thank you. What's your biggest lesson
[56:54] running the intellectual plot in the last six years?
[56:59] Formulent. 1% of 100% of 10 is 10, but 1% of 1,000,000, for
[57:08] example, it's 10,000. What I mean by that is you
[57:16] achieve more with more people. When I started, I used to be the
[57:20] guy that writes business plans and just that guy, but with a
[57:25] solid team, you know, behind me right now, my Co founder, which
[57:30] is one of them, and then very solid team behind that.
[57:33] The financial modelling team, the customer support team,
[57:36] graphics team and so on and so forth.
[57:39] I have simply learned that alone, there's only so much you
[57:42] can do. When you have the right people
[57:45] with the right mindsets as part of your team.
[57:49] There is no limit to what you can achieve.
[57:54] How do you measure your own success?
[57:56] Success as a consultant and strategy.
[58:00] That's, that's really tricky. That's really, really, really,
[58:02] really tricky. I don't know that there's any
[58:04] right answer to that. So I'll just blot out things
[58:07] that come to my head by having, you know, customers keep coming.
[58:12] As long as customers are coming requesting for our services, it
[58:15] means that we're doing something right.
[58:17] Oh, another way that we we know that we're doing something right
[58:20] is by the percentage of people who come back.
[58:23] Right, OK. So when we build your financial
[58:26] model for an example and you go to speak to an investor, you
[58:30] very quickly, it's not even that anything is wrong.
[58:33] You want to raise 1,000,001 million CDs.
[58:35] The investor says to you, I don't have 1,000,000 C DS, I
[58:38] have 200,000 CDs. Go and rework your numbers and
[58:41] come back to me. Your first instance will be to
[58:45] come back to us who helps you build the model.
[58:48] So the percentage people will not come back to you if you if
[58:51] you don't treat them right or if you don't treat them
[58:53] respectfully, right. So the percentage of clients who
[58:56] come back to us when they need to is another metrics for
[59:01] support. I used to use this one before,
[59:03] but I've stopped it. You know, the level of
[59:05] engagement on our posts on social media, Uncle Mark
[59:09] Zuckerberg and his team, I don't know what they're doing, You
[59:11] know, on Facebook and all what not.
[59:12] Today you have 100 likes. Tomorrow you're having 10 likes.
[59:15] So I removed that vanity matrix. But these are just some of the
[59:19] ways that that. Was funny.
[59:23] OK what's a long term vision? I mean, you guys are doing
[59:25] amazing. Yeah, the intellectual, but
[59:28] maybe let's say next 5. Years at this point.
[59:30] You call me crazy and that's OK By Yeah, actually, you're
[59:34] correct. It's actually the next five
[59:35] years. I've held this vision now for
[59:37] the last two years. Now I want to be a part of the
[59:45] story for the next 100 Minicons that come out of Africa.
[59:51] Yes. Crazy.
[59:52] I want to be a part of the story of the next 100 unicorns that
[59:56] come out of Africa. Then the second part of it is
[59:58] that I found out about two days ago, You know, actually I've
[1:00:03] been, I've been on this, this thing now, but then I started
[1:00:06] adding numbers to it. That the capacity building
[1:00:11] industry in Nigeria makes up about 10% of our yearly budgets,
[1:00:16] which at 1 trillion naira, that's over, you know, I think
[1:00:21] about $2 billion every year, $2 billion every year in terms of
[1:00:30] no, it's actually about 30% of the budgets, yes, which makes up
[1:00:34] about 3 billion, which is about 2,000,002 billion dollars every
[1:00:38] year. That goes into capacity
[1:00:41] building, training, human development, skill upscaling and
[1:00:44] what not. So my vision is to capture 5% of
[1:00:49] that market, you know, starting from 2030 every year, every
[1:00:53] year, yes, in capacity building. You you, you seem like someone
[1:00:58] that's planned. I like that.
[1:01:00] Yeah, you can. I like that.
[1:01:02] Wow, this has been an insightful session.
[1:01:05] But we have final serving questions.
[1:01:07] OK, These ones are, they're not tailored to the conversation.
[1:01:11] They're more like, OK, rapid fire kind of thing.
[1:01:14] All right, what's a lesson life hard to teach you the hard way?
[1:01:17] What's a lesson life hard to teach me the hard way?
[1:01:20] You are not power mic, no need to go into the the details of
[1:01:25] it, but I've learnt to respect boundaries, I've learnt to
[1:01:30] respect people's skills, I've learnt that I can't do it alone.
[1:01:33] Like I said, now my team is made-up of myself and about two
[1:01:40] other intelligent guys and about 7 very strong, intelligent,
[1:01:47] supportive women who keep the company going.
[1:01:52] So I've had to learn that I'm not power my and I can't do it
[1:01:55] alone. You need very good team members
[1:01:57] who share your vision to succeed.
[1:02:00] What's a skill everyone should learn but most people don't?
[1:02:03] Communication, communication, interpersonal communication.
[1:02:09] I learnt, I've learnt to improve my communication skills, you
[1:02:15] know, simply by communicating with more people.
[1:02:18] And then when things are clearly stated, there's understanding as
[1:02:21] opposed to assumption. When there's understanding,
[1:02:24] there's less chaos. Communication.
[1:02:26] Everybody should learn to communicate better and more
[1:02:28] professionally. If you could time travel, but
[1:02:31] only once, where or when would you go?
[1:02:34] It could be a place, it could be a time.
[1:02:37] That's a good one. Our time travel back to when I
[1:02:41] learned how to swim. Probably seven years.
[1:02:44] Ago I don't know how to. Swim.
[1:02:45] That felt like bliss, you know, trusting that's final.
[1:02:50] You, you learn, you learn your thoughts, your thoughts, you
[1:02:52] know, you watch videos and then you get into the water and you
[1:02:56] have to just trust. For me, I learnt on my back,
[1:03:00] right? So for those who know how to see
[1:03:02] me, you have to literally sort of trust and just let the water
[1:03:04] carry you That that was a very defining moment for me.
[1:03:08] You know, just learn to trust life.
[1:03:11] It's not always going to drown you.
[1:03:13] I will not trust what I do. Yeah, if you were indeed what
[1:03:16] you do now, what would you be doing?
[1:03:18] Most likely working in the bank. I like structure.
[1:03:21] The bank is a very structured place.
[1:03:23] Most likely working in the bank. If you could send one message to
[1:03:25] the entire world. ODB stay true to self
[1:03:28] consistently, naturally. What's consistent Nature works.
[1:03:34] Consistency is even a law of nature.
[1:03:37] What do I mean by that? There is summer, there is
[1:03:40] spring, there is autumn, there is winter.
[1:03:42] It will keep going like that. I don't think I called it in the
[1:03:46] accordance, but there are Four Seasons.
[1:03:48] And nature is consistent for those who believe in God.
[1:03:52] God is consistent. So stay true to self consistent.
[1:03:57] It's easy to become another person.
[1:04:00] If you could have dinner with your younger self, what would
[1:04:03] you tell him if? You could have dinner with your
[1:04:06] younger self. What would you tell him?
[1:04:09] Worry less. I used to be very anxious.
[1:04:11] Probably. Still, I'm more less than I used
[1:04:15] to be. As I grow older, I learned that,
[1:04:17] you know there's only so much you can control, and anxiety
[1:04:20] doesn't exactly solve the things you can't control.
[1:04:23] Or worry less if you could. Invent one thing to make your
[1:04:29] life easier for you. How would you be?
[1:04:33] I hate hold up. So it's probably be like the
[1:04:36] ability to a a disappearing capsule.
[1:04:40] Just enter it, appear wherever I want to appear.
[1:04:44] I like committing, I like travelling, but I hate traffic.
[1:04:46] Like what's the when I'm the one driving, just kill me already.
[1:04:52] Yeah. So a disappearing capsule,
[1:04:54] that's what it's. Interesting.
[1:04:56] OK, please look at that camera. Find out where it's for any
[1:04:59] business one night, the one that wants to start a business.
[1:05:01] OK, business is a bed of roses. You can either complain that
[1:05:09] roses have thorns, or you can be grateful that thorns, you know,
[1:05:12] have roses. So if you're going to go into
[1:05:14] the business, be sure that you're going be hopeful you're
[1:05:17] going to succeed, but expect whatever comes with it.
[1:05:20] You know, it's, it's a world of two tales.
[1:05:22] All right. Thank you so much.
[1:05:23] Thank you SO. Much.
[1:05:24] For Nigerians, a lot. Is that is that a cheap
[1:05:28] question? It's part of the interview.
[1:05:29] If you don't see that right answer, we'll delete the
[1:05:31] episode. Thank you.

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