Just F*%king Survive.
A young consumer internet founder blocked me recently. What’s your #1 piece of advice for startups in Nigeria? Without missing a beat it was simple. Just F*%king Survive. That’s it. Impossible for me to go deeper than that in my brief encounters. But whatever you are doing. Just f*%king survive.
Hershel was one of the all time most popular characters in The Walking Dead (TWD). While on a scouting mission inside the prison (S3E1), Hershel gets bitten in the leg by a walker (zombie) they had all dismissed as “dead.” Rick instantly hacks off the limb with a hatchet. Rick didn’t have days or even minutes to make a decision. He had to do it in an instant. Hack off his leg or allow it to be infected and die anyway. So as a leader, he did what he essentially had to do. He took a leg. After watching the scene above, I spent 2015–today walking around and talking internally at IROKO about how if needed, IROKO will and must be ready to ‘take a leg’.
Everyone who reads my posts knows I love me some The Walking Dead (TWD) imagery. When we announced our last big transaction two years ago, survival was the theme. I used it many years ago when I announced that it’s snowing in Lagos.
I reread that article over the weekend.
So most internet startups are essentially like the posse of survivors from the show The Walking Dead (TWD). This legendary show I have watched religiously over 2015, as it epitomises for me most closely the actual reality of birthing a startup in Nigeria. Where everyday is literally about survival. Where money isn’t one of many things. It’s the only thing. Making it, saving it or raising it. A brutal nightmare of bad vs worst choices and no real solutions in sight.
To reiterate
At a startup, cash is either an important thing or the only thing that matters — Peter Thiel — Zero to One.
Because of this survival-first mentality, I basically run IROKO on cashflow.
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