“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
Last year, we decided to experiment with “organized early stage investing” in African technology companies. Our belief was that entrepreneurs across Africa could change the world and solve seemingly impossible problems with the right financial and technical support, driven by the right amount of grit and skill.
At VP this is our ethos and our single most important driving force.
In entrepreneurship failure is usually a more likely outcome than success and in markets like ours that lack requisite support systems and infrastructure the odds of success are even worse. So why invest money in early stage companies as opposed to real estate, government bonds or stocks of mature companies?
The answer lies in this quote from Jeff Bezos the visionary founder of Amazon; “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” — and we sure took that bet.
On setting out, we knew we would be wrong sometimes, we would make mistakes, might lose money here and there and maybe even get scorned by harsh critics. But perhaps with a little bit of luck and hard work a few of our bets might just pay off and deliver significant value not just to customers who need these amazing solutions, but also to investors. Whats more, even when companies fail, the lessons learnt can be priceless and instrumental to future advancement as experimentation is key to human progress.
It was clear to us then as it is now that we were playing a long term game and many months later we remain committed to finding the next set of technology companies that would solve Africa’s problems and create economic prosperity across the continent.
In our first cohort we funded and supported 7 companies and through the past many weeks we have been super focused on helping these startups grow their numbers, validate hypothesis, achieve product market fit and find a repeatable business model. It’s been an exhilarating ride with highs, lows, tense and happy moments — but in all we remain resolute on supporting visionary founders.
We have seen some of our companies tackle hard problems and consistently grow 5x MoM in the face of seemingly difficult situations. We have seen our founders find their true north and push past the default. They have made and learnt from mistakes but have also had lot of wins and this has strengthened our resolve.
At VP we actively find, support and fund founders who are resolute, creative, independent thinkers, hungry go-getters with a deep rooted desire to win.
Our startups are solving problems across various sectors; education, logistics, finance, et al. Some of these companies are now seeking further investment to grow and expand their impact and reach.
On the 27th of this month of January, we would be hosting a demo day where some of these companies would be pitching to investors. If you are excited about investing in early stage African companies and would love to join us on this journey, please send us an email at demoday(at)venturesplatform.com and ask about attending demo day.
